Posted on 08/11/2009 10:28:38 AM PDT by steve-b
Is it the echo effect of the Internet or are there more paranoid, delusional Americans than there used to be?
Certainly, the USA is not the only country with an abundant crop of crackpots and conspiracy theorists. Just look at the Arab world where vast numbers of people are convinced the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Zionists and the CIA and not a few are also certain the Holocaust is a hoax. And it is not a phenomenon limited by race or ideology. Two cases in point: 1) The many African Americans who believe crack cocaine and AIDS were whipped up in government laboratories to kill black people and 2) the folks on the left who subscribed to the scenario that the Bush administration masterminded 9/11 to justify martial law and a war for oil.
Right now, however, the most active and vocal fruitcakes are self-styled "conservatives" who concoct a new scary fantasy every week to prove that Barack Obama is the greatest threat to America since the Red Menace.
During the presidential campaign, the scare stories started on a comparatively mild level -- Obama had a messiah complex; Obama was the most liberal senator -- and quickly escalated -- Obama was a secret radical with terrorist buddies; Obama was plotting with ACORN to steal the election. The biggest lie from that period was that Obama was really a Muslim; an untruth that many Americans still will not let go.
Since he moved into the White House, the paranoia has grown and ever more fearful tales have circulated through the right-wing blogosphere, talk radio and cable TV. Now, a serious percentage of Americans express genuine horror that their country is being stolen from them. They have been told Obama and the Democrats are going to take away their health care and euthanize their grannies. They attend tea-bagger rallies where participants hold aloft pictures of Obama morphed into Adolph Hitler. They click onto web sites that suggest Jesus Christ, himself, used thinly coded language to send a message across the centuries that someone with a name that, in Hebrew, sounds very much like Barack Obama would be Satan incarnate.
And now there are the Birthers. These tortured souls are consumed with the fairytale that Obama was not born in the United States and is, therefore, not eligible to hold the highest office in the land. Despite assurances from state officials in Hawaii, despite newspaper notices of Obama's birth in Honolulu, despite the fact Obama has traveled on a U.S. passport for many years, despite pleas by reputable conservatives -- and even less-reputable ones, such as Ann Coulter, for heaven's sake -- to just let the issue go, the Birthers will not relent. They demand that the president come up with further proof of his place of birth. When the White House declines to engage in such a ridiculous discussion, the Birthers read that as clear proof Obama has something to hide.
No, Obama is not hiding anything, he simply has far better things to do with his time than to offer additional evidence to people inclined to disbelieve anything he says. It is not his job to cater to folks with such a slim purchase on reality. The only problem is that there seems to be so many of them. Polls show that about half of Republicans and half the people living in the South either do not think Obama is an American or are not sure. Most, I hope, are just being intellectually lazy with their answers to pollsters. But all a person need do is read some of the online discussions on this topic to realize there is a dedicated minority of Americans who cannot conceive of this son of a Kenyan rising to power in America without the aid of dark forces intent on destroying our way of life.
The Birthers have strung together tangents of loopy logic and complete fabrications to form fragile conspiracy theories that cannot stand up to hard facts or rational thinking. Yet, they persevere. The community of like-minded paranoiacs on the Internet helps sustain them. And, more shamefully, they are goaded on by talk radio bloviators, FOX News commentators and even a number of Republican members of Congress who play along with this delusion in order to garner favor among frightened voters.
I suppose as long as there is a human race there will be people who buy into nutty conspiracy theories to explain discomforting changes in their world. And I guess we have to live with the reality that paranoia and misinformation have found a permanent loudspeaker in our new age of instant communication. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't condemn those who exploit paranoia to further their own careers, whether those careers are in the media (we're talking about you, Lou Dobbs) or in politics (Republican Party strategists, are you listening?). Their cynical encouragement of dangerous libels can have serious consequences. If large numbers of citizens are led to believe the president of the United States is illegitimate, subversive or downright evil, is it not likely there might be a Timothy McVeigh or a John Wilkes Booth among them who might take it upon himself to rid the country of such a grave threat?
Yes, there was rampant paranoia on the left during the Bush years. (I had one lefty friend who was taking bets that Dick Cheney would never give up power and an excuse would be found to cancel the 2008 election.) But the really loony stuff was confined to the fringe. The difference, now, is that the fringe is getting disturbingly close to the center of conservative power and invigorating debates between rational citizens of competing beliefs are being drowned out by the shrieks of a frightened and angry mob.
Whoopi Goldberg called BS on the moon landing while on her show the View.
I suppose the people at the passport office are crackpots too when they ask to see my real birth certificate!
This jerk should stick to scribbling unfunny cartoons.
Can you pick a more far left scumbag than Horsey. You should be quite worried when you agree with the Michael Moore of cartoonists.
I suppose those same crackpots at the passport office asked Obama for his birth certificate when he applied for his US Passport.
Obama was the most liberal senator = Proven
Obama was a secret radical with terrorist buddies = Proven
Obama was plotting with ACORN to steal the election = Proven
Obama was really a Muslim = Truth is pending
The anti-birthers are spending hours, days, weeks and even months arguing there is no validity to our claims regarding Obammie’s questionable birth.
I say: Let ‘em have at it.
The more they holler and scream... the more they protest.... they just end calling more attention to this issue they wish would just go away.
I saw Mad Cow Maddow last night with Mrs Boxer on PMSNBC. They were positively foaming at the mouth!
It was hilarious!
In one sense, whether he’s a NBC or not is pretty much irrelevant.
There are certainly more than enough indisputably NBC Americans around who are in every sense of the word anti-American.
If true, that means that a small group of "kooks" could do to Obama what a small group of kooks (and the entire media) took six years to do to Bush. That would say something about Obama right there, wouldnt it? It would say support for him was broad but not deep, and people needed only the flimsiest reason to say "I don't trust him". Is that somehow better for him that the idea that the protests are from a broad based coalition of concerned Americans, not a nest of nuts?
Good grief! Whoever reads the Seattle Post -Intelligencer?
Rather than lump the birth certificate issue in with all these other looney conspiracies, lets talk about the issue at hand. The long form Birth Certificate is being asked for. Why is this such a big issue?
He has a US passport?
He must have a US Passport as he has travelled overseas as president and prior to becoming president.
So you don’t really know? What country issued his passport?
While I am not a birther, I absolutely believe Obama is the biggest threat to the survivability of the American ideal in our history. There has never been a president who has tried to change the scope of America as has Obama. Not even Roosevelt who I doubt believed all the leftist claptrap he foisted on the country. The difference between Roosevelt and Obama is that Obama believes all the leftist claptrap.
Well, let’s see. He travelled overseas and must have had an Official US Passport in order to enter the nations that he has visited.
Steve-b, you forgot to add the barf alert.
As for bloviators, BOR is against finding out the truth about the long form birth certificate.
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