How fact-free claims about Obama's citizenship gained mainstream currency

[last_texas_dem]

by Steven Thomma

>>>>The false allegation that President Barack Obama was born in another country is more than a fact-free smear.
Marked by accusations and backstabbing, it's the story of how a small but intense movement called "birthers" rose from a handful of people prone to seeing conspiracies, aided by the Internet, magnified without evidence by eager radio and cable TV hosts, and eventually ratified by a small group of Republican politicians working to keep the story alive on the floors of Congress and the campaign trails of the Midwest.

It's a powerful story about what experts call political paranoia over a new face in a time of anxiety and rapid change - the sort of viral message that can take hold among a sliver of the populace that's ready to believe that their new president is a fraud, and just as ready to angrily dismiss anyone who disagrees with them as part of the conspiracy.

"He is NOT an American citizen," yelled a woman at a town hall meeting in Delaware, angrily confronting a congressman. "I don't want this flag to change. I want my country back."

When Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., responded that Obama is a citizen, she and others in the room jeered him.

"It's a fascinating phenomenon," said Jerrold Post, director of the political psychology program at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs and author of the recent book "Political Paranoia."
"They are not searching for the truth. They are searching for anything that confirms their fixed idea, their malevolent idea. ... It doesn't soothe people to tell them it's not legitimate. That makes them angry.">>>>

http://www.kansascity.com/437/story/1359646.html

[Frustratedlady]

1. I find it interesting that these people would believe an old woman vs. a legal form

without question when it benefits their goal. Those same people would probably pooh-pooh other elderly persons for stating the questionable and say they were senile or pre-Alzheimer's.

[safeinOhio]

2. Reminds me of the "Cargo Cults"

of the 19th century in the Pacific islands.

[The Wizard]

3. Cargo cults went well into the 20th Century

Planes flying over would jettison some cargo to save fuel and the natives on the ground thought God was dropping things from heaven.
That we have people now who have the same thought processes is fascinating. Maybe they could be studied to learn what caused the disconnect between them and reality. I wonder if Fox Propaganda Network plays a role in corrupting the brains of the weak minded among us.

[safeinOhio]

4. I think it also involved

visions of dead ancestors returning on ships to bring cargo and destroy those from the west that invaded their islands. Same thing popped up in distant unrelated places with the same theme.

[EFerrari]

5. This is exactly the same game the media plays with Chavez

or with anyone else the PTB want to demonize. They can count on a number of ill-informed or impressionable people to take it as gospel.

Now they're doing it to our president.

[MADem]

7. Chavez is a jerk who is actively muzzling opposition and free speech in VZ. Not the same.

Not even close.

[RC]

10. Interesting.

I googled "cargo cults". The things one learns. Christianity itself fits as a Cargo Cult.

[bluestateguy]

6. In the 90's it was the "Clinton Body Count" people

They would be doing some version of this shit if ANY Democrat was in the Oval Office.

[Gman2]

8. They dont give a shit about truth. A widespread unfaith in his fitness to lead

will do them just fine. They want to make him apologize. They want to subject him to demeaning rituals, like making Clinton show his willy. They use this as their weapon. They want to strip that black man down and make him pay for his insolence. This is war, and like Maher said, we allow them to fester, and we aint gonna like it. They are reframing the great depression, Hitler, fascism, socialism, communism, american exceptionalism, and a whole host of oterh terms. Luckily, the right has no academia, and little philosophy. It is a simple operation to rip the guts out of any right wing denialist. Our country can ill afford LUDDITE DENIALISTS, just when we arte trying to see clear to our place in the world. To crush them in debate, is the patriotic thing to do. Before we face a hillbilly revolution, with all that ammo they have been playing with. The gov understands this well. The kettle is about to boil over. They will NOT accept a black man calling the shots. EVER. Ridicule, hard glares, stigma, putting oafs and blowhards in their place. Liberals better show a real spine and soon, or they will get uppity, thinking we can be cowed. Stand up now, or pay later dearly. A civil race war WILL NOT save our economy. Even though many think WW2 did.

[madmom]

9. I find it amusing these same people believe in their religious dogma where there

is no proof only "faith", but refuse to believe in Obama's right to the presidency.