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From John Birchers to Birthers - The right's paranoid political style has gone mainstream
WSJ ^ | 10/20/09 | Thomas "don't call me Barney" Frank

Posted on 10/20/2009 7:57:50 PM PDT by pissant

Next month will mark the 45th anniversary of the publication by Harper's Magazine of Richard Hofstadter's famous essay, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," a work that seems to grow more relevant by the day.

I was not always a fan. When I first read it two decades ago, I thought Hofstadter was being needlessly insulting by equating political views with mental illness—despite his insistence that he wasn't using the word that way. Besides, I thought, who really cared about the strange notions that occurred to members of marginal groups like the John Birch Society? Joe McCarthy's day was long over, and even in the age of high Reaganism, I thought, the type of person Hofstadter described was merely handing out flyers on street corners.

As the historian himself admitted, "in America it has been the preferred style only of minority movements." Why bother with it, then?

How times have changed! Hofstadter's beloved liberal consensus has been in the grave for decades now. Today it would appear that his mistake was underestimating the seductive power of the paranoid style.

The essential element of this mindset, Hofstadter explained, was its predilection for conspiracy theory—for understanding history as a theater in which sinister figures control the flow of events from behind the scenes, nudging us constantly and secretly in the direction of communism.

Back in Hofstadter's day this sort of thinking at least had something supremely rational going for it: The existence of the Soviet Union and its desire to bring the West to its knees.

But take that away and the theories become something far more remarkable. Consider, by contrast, the widespread belief that President Barack Obama's birth certificate was forged. What could have been his parents' motives for committing such a bizarre deed, or his home state's motive for colluding

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: birthcertificate; birthcertifigate; birthers; certifigate; conspiracytheory; larrysinclairslover; obama
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To: pissant

Thank you for the link.


41 posted on 10/20/2009 8:48:56 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayhi hageshem `al-ha'aretz; 'arba`im yom ve'arba`im laylah.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
Cautious reply.... I understand your issue but I disagree with the Blue Lodge analogy. The more one studies communism in the United States, the more one becomes aware of the astounding number of American and European Jewish people involved in that movement. It is a stunning percentage and that fact alone has created an environment where antisemitic attitudes have developed. I can't explain it and I certainly don't paint all Jewish people to be communists (I know, in fact, not all are) but if one is serious about fighting the Left, one needs to look in the usual places for evidence. As for me, I'll stand side by side with you in fighting the Left.
42 posted on 10/20/2009 8:50:16 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

When charlie sheen announced himself a truther, and wanted a meeting with the prez, then I knew it was taken as a joke. He didn’t get the meeting...or um it wasn’t publicized if he did.


43 posted on 10/20/2009 8:50:24 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8 (I am Jim Thompson............................Please pray for our troops....)
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To: pissant

Someone at the WSJ needs to read the parts on Hofstadter in the extemely well documented and researched Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg. Imagine the now-Fox owned newspaper of business writing this tripe. No wonder IBD is doing so well.


44 posted on 10/20/2009 8:50:49 PM PDT by AmericanVictory (Should we be more like them or they more like we used to be?)
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To: pissant
Thomas "don't call me Barney" Frank

LOL!

45 posted on 10/20/2009 8:54:16 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (President Obama got the Nobel Prize and my ass is still sitting in Afghanistan. Its not fair. - G.I.)
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To: Stepan12

How about if we just fight the goll darn Communists and forget the name calling!


46 posted on 10/20/2009 8:54:18 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: 1rudeboy

Think bigger, rudedude.

I’m talking about the global-communist plot and the many avenues-of-approach they predicted they would take and that are coming to pass.


47 posted on 10/20/2009 8:57:17 PM PDT by Ghost of Philip Marlowe (I'd rather be a teabagger than an ankle-grabber.)
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To: Cringing Negativism Network
Have those Birchers been anti-Jew, or were they of the impression Jews held them and theirs in contempt?

Not trying to stir things up. Just making an observation.

There are a (lot) of arrogant, know it all pro-gay ACLU type Obama-hugging kook leftwing Jews in very influential positions in America, who with great regularity ridicule fly-over country, and the segment of America the Birchers represent.

Just saying.

Perhaps it’s defensiveness you’re seeing, and perhaps misinterpreting to be something more sinister than that.

First of all, I'm a rural redneck from flyover country. I'm not Jewish. And as I said, I was a John Bircher for four years.

Unfortunately, the anti-Semitism of the groups within the Birch Society orbit are not based on "pro-gay" Jews because until relatively recently most Jews--even the liberals--were not "pro-gay" (you must remember how utterly new the "pro-gay" position is). Yet these groups have been anti-Jewish all along, from the days before WWII to today. Perhaps you know of some "pro-gay Jews" in the 1930's?

Second, why punish Israel for the sins of liberal American Jews? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What brainless dolt believes that the domestic policy of American liberals is manufactured in Jerusalem? Yet the JBS and others in its orbit have evinced hostility to Israel and opposed "getting involved" in its wars while simultaneously supporting "getting involved" everywhere else in the world. The Communists put Israel and the anti-Communist countries in the same category, but certain American "right wingers" insisted on taking the Communist position in the Middle East!

Finally, no one could have more contempt for the pious Middle American than a man named Revilo P. Oliver. He rejected all religion and considered it a scam, and preferred a life governed by the laws of nature without the interference of toublesome morality. And for your information, he was not a Communist but a "right wing anti-Communist"--in fact, he was one of the twelve men who founded the John Birch Society! If you doubt my word, his atrocious, blasphemous writings (which poke fun at all religions and accuse the chr*stian apostles and church fathers of using mushrooms to cause them to have hallucinations) are available on the Internet.

Similar to Oliver's rejection of religion and the supernatural was a loathsome creature named Ben Klassen (sp?) who founded the "Church of the Creator," an atheistic "religion" (the "creator" in the "church's" name is not G-d but the "white race") whose writings are also available online. Klassen hated and loathed the Bible as an alien Jewish imposition that "aryans" should have nothing to do with and he ridiculed the Bible's stories (just like any liberal) as silly and pointless, claiming Aesop's Fables were far superior. And while Klassen wasn't a founder of the JBS, guess what? He was once a member! Almost all American anti-Semites got their start in the JBS. And I say this as a former member who used to look up to them.

Not all "right wing anti-Communists" are friends of the people of Middle America. If you doubt me, just read the putrid blasphemies of these men.

48 posted on 10/20/2009 9:03:17 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayhi hageshem `al-ha'aretz; 'arba`im yom ve'arba`im laylah.)
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To: April Lexington
Cautious reply.... I understand your issue but I disagree with the Blue Lodge analogy. The more one studies communism in the United States, the more one becomes aware of the astounding number of American and European Jewish people involved in that movement. It is a stunning percentage and that fact alone has created an environment where antisemitic attitudes have developed. I can't explain it and I certainly don't paint all Jewish people to be communists (I know, in fact, not all are) but if one is serious about fighting the Left, one needs to look in the usual places for evidence. As for me, I'll stand side by side with you in fighting the Left.

I do not dispute what you say for one moment. What I do not understand is "getting even" with leftist Jews by punishing Israel and supporting its Communist terrorist enemies, and some "anti-Communists" do.

What has Israel done to earn the wrath of conservatives?

49 posted on 10/20/2009 9:05:34 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Vayhi hageshem `al-ha'aretz; 'arba`im yom ve'arba`im laylah.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

I stand corrected.

My impressions are from the left coast, the inner sanctum of Hollywood tripe.

I defer to your clearly more abundant understanding of the topic. But I sure wish (some, perhaps most) Jews weren’t on balance so fundamentally hostile to traditional America.

It’s really frustrating. It’s all you see in Hollywood movies. Bashing traditional roles.

Bashing the Catholic church. Bashing what’s good and just, and building up that which is fundamentally wrong.

How can those who are so closely associated with such a righteous nation as Israel, be so wrong about so many things when they arrive in America?

It’s confounding.


50 posted on 10/20/2009 9:09:28 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (2012: Repeal it all... All of it!)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
I don't think Eretz Israel has earned the wrath of conservatives. We fight like crazy for Israel. Conservatives are rooting for Bibi and wish they'd nuke Iran off the map. The paleo Cons (Buchannan) are isolationists and may not support Israel. But, real Conservatives support Israel and its right to exist. If I were in charge, the Temple Mount would be bulldozed and turned over to the Lubavitcher for reconstruction. Islam would cease to exist in Israel.

As for getting even with Leftists, I could care less which god they worship. I'll let my G-d sort it out...

51 posted on 10/20/2009 9:13:18 PM PDT by April Lexington (Study the constitution so you know what they are taking away!)
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To: 1rudeboy
"I think the part about fluoride in our drinking water being a Communist plot is one . . . ."

Well, we have a science czar, John Holdren who talked
about forcibly and unknowingly sterilizing the entire
population by adding infertility drugs to the nation’s
water and food supply.

Holdren wrote about this in his 1977 book Ecoscience.

http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=34198

52 posted on 10/20/2009 9:35:12 PM PDT by DaveTesla (You can fool some of the people some of the time......)
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To: 1rudeboy

John Holdren, Obama’s Science Czar: Forced abortions, mass sterilization needed to save planet

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2294440/posts


53 posted on 10/20/2009 9:59:09 PM PDT by DaveTesla (You can fool some of the people some of the time......)
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To: Ghost of Philip Marlowe
"What did the JBS warn us about that has NOT come to pass or that is NOT about to come to pass? "

Can't think of a single thing....Of course there is the little matter of the russkie clean-up job West of Sakhalin Island in 1983...

Hmmm! Wonder what the reason could have been? /sarc

54 posted on 10/20/2009 10:17:39 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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To: pissant

These “smart” people don’t read much, do they? He can’t think of one reason why Obama’s relatives would lie about where he was born? Ask any illegal immigrant why someone might lie about citizenship issues. Good grief.

My eldest son has finally lived long enough to see the sanity of the “paranoia” of conservatives: the amoral liberal’s nose under the tent progressing to full blow wrecking crew insanity with the homosexual movement.

Frank has not lived with his eyes open or he has no culture, ideals, ethics and morals he does not want the leftist State to crush out of our society and lives as a Nation.


55 posted on 10/20/2009 10:17:44 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Zionist Conspirator
"The JBS is basically "chr*stian reconstructionist," anti-Fundamentalist, anti-Israel, and a continuation of the people who thought we fought on the wrong side in WWII. They are opposed to the "war on terror" and to American "interference" in the Middle East (because they think it benefits Jews) but they had no problem with the military draft in the Sixties or "American interference" in Central America in the Eighties. It's only bad for America when "democracy" gets exported to the Middle East. And no, I am not a Wilsonian, but I do detest this hypocrisy. "

Phew! That's the biggest load of Barney_Frankisms I've ever heard...

56 posted on 10/20/2009 10:22:47 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

Not the ones I know. Our regional is an observant jew and we have several jewish members.


57 posted on 10/20/2009 10:56:07 PM PDT by mombrown1 (PA Coordinatior SAS The Second Amendment is the reset button for the Constitution)
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To: Zhang Fei

Please do not cite Wikipedia here. Thanks.


58 posted on 10/20/2009 10:56:17 PM PDT by altair (Gridlock is Good)
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To: pissant

Looks like the Birchers were right. The Birthers may be also.


59 posted on 10/21/2009 12:53:36 AM PDT by CalTexan
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To: Frantzie

My subscription runs out shortly and I am going over to Investors Business Daily.

The final straw was Thomas Frank’s praise of Ayres and Dohrn.
Frank apparently knew them in Hyde Park-Frank earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago.


60 posted on 10/21/2009 1:07:09 AM PDT by Maine Mariner
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