Why are Freepers/wingnuts going off the deep end all of a sudden?

[Kievan Rus]

Some Freepers and crazy wingnuts are going off the deep end right, and they almost seem to be doing in en masse right now. On the breaking news forum, there's at least two mentions of wingnuts being charged with making threats of violence against the President, and that's just in the last few days. There's been other instances of wingnuts making threats such as that. Scott Roeder was a Freeper wingnut and he murdered Dr. Tiller, and many right-wing pundits clamored for it and didn't seem all that concerned once it happened. A topless coffee shop in Maine was destroyed by arson, and I wouldn't be shocked if a wingnut was the firebug. Richard Poplawski was a racist whacko that thought the evil gubmint was coming to take his guns away and he murdered three Pittsburgh police officers. There was a shooting at a Unitarian church last year by a screwball who was a devoted follower of the conservative hate machine.

My theory is that they're all going off the deep end because there is a foreboding sense that they are losing the "culture wars." They've been losing for years. For the past thirty years, the Freeper crowd has more or less owned the U.S. government...and yet, abortion is still legal, Playboy is still in publication, the women's movement hasn't gone away, racial minorities are still a visible part of society, sex has lost at least some of its taboo, and gays and lesbians are gaining lots of rights. But perhaps, the election of Obama, the nomination of Sotomayor, and the outright failure of the socially conservative agenda, coupled with wingnut hate media, are beginning to cause the mentally unstable amongst the Freepers and wingnuts to start going off the deep end. And I fear it may get worse with these unstable wingnut types, because there are few things more dangerous than a fanatic who feels he's on the losing end of history. Look at what the Iraqi Republican Guard did to Kuwait during the withdrawal in 1991, or what the Japanese did towards the end of World War II.

What do you think?

[hatrack]

1. They're ignorant, they're paranoid and (above all) they LOST.

i.e., they were wrong - and the simple, rigid minds of the 22% have a great deal of difficulty coming to terms with unpleasant facts, such as everything they assumed about the world flying out the window.

Add to that a culture in which they're immersed in guns, heroic myths and fundamentalist monotheistic religion, it's no wonder that zits like Roeder are popping up everywhere on the body politic, even if most of America no longer cares about perfect skin.

[havocmom]

2. They lost, a black man is President, he is doing better & more in 6 mos.

than their bozo could have ever dreamed of doing, people really approve of him and he is disproving all their racist beliefs.

They simply can't deal with it all.

[obliviously]

7. President Obama is a man

plain and simple a good man . Why do we have to continually highlight the races of people.
He is a exceptional American we can all be proud of.

[havocmom]

12. I don't have to highlight race, but the wingers are wrapped around the axle about it

and all their erroneous beliefs are being shown for the crap they are. Delusional people do not generally respond well to having their delusions proved wrong in ways they cannot ignore. They are flippin nuts.

[obliviously]

15. the world is nuts

I try to look into the soul of a person. We need to start looking on the upside of things this period is becoming depressing in more ways than just economical. Lets start celebrating the good for a while.

[havocmom]

34. Lovely sentiment, but OP is about freepers and right wingers

They are not we.

Edited to add: and pretending freepers and right wingers are all just wonderful as part of the human family is sorta naive at best. To be able to defeat a bad idea, one would do well to attempt to comprehend its appeal in the first place

Am profoundly moved by the lovely people coming here recently, advocating that we just look at the best, whether it's really there or not. Such concern that we all play nice and be kind, gentle. Such concern. Quite moving. Not an effective way to bring about real change to a system which has not been nice, kind, gentle to most Americans of late, but very touching.

[jazzjunkysue]

38. Yes. It's the fracturing of many long held delusions.

Xtian whites who live in segregated areas have held onto childish biases, and now, the presidency and the congress and the white house staff and the supreme courts are all looking like the melting pot we've been in urban areas.

The country folk are in shock: It was OK if the blacks and latinos were athletes, and musicians, but not world leaders.

[havocmom]

40. Perhaps even deeper. If I am not bright, don't work hard, don't work smart, don't achieve much

I could still pretend I was somehow better than X, Y, Z group of people. It gave me some sense taht I was better than I actually was and I took a misplaced comfort in that knowledge.

When the professions and leaders start to include more than 'token' members of X, Y, Z group, somehow the reality that I am not so hot starts to sink into my subconscious, at least on some level.

Before too long, part of me is waking to the notion that my own 'bad luck' might have more to do with what I haven't learned, tried, done than with the fates. My most dearly held delusion of all, that I am better than 'them' by virtue of some genetic marker which was not of my doing, gets tested by reality. I get pissed at some infantile level, but I must deal with it so:

If X, Y, Z group is prospering, and I am not:
A) THEY are holding me down
B) THEY are getting special treatment
C) I have not been working toward my potential and need to apply myself better instead of blaming others for my predicament.

Most people will not deal with the possibility that C is the response that most applies to their personal case.

Most 'leaders' who work to maintain the status quo are more than happy to feed me crap that rots in my belly, poisons my mind, and keeps me focused on A & B so I have little chance of even noticing C, were i inclined to a bit of intellectual honesty and critical thought applied to MY part in MY circumstances.

And the crap I get fed to reinforce my delusions also keeps me from taking a long hard look at those who feed me the crap in the first place.

[jazzjunkysue]

44. Well said, havocmom. Great screename!

[populistdriven]

46. Rush, Sean Hannity, Jon Arthur, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck

they have been blowing their dog whistles until they are red in the face trying to get the base mobilized

[pscot]

3. Cornered Rats

Doomed but still dangerous.

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. All you said

and would like to add: I think the economy, jobless rate, health care (or lack there of), and more in this recession/depression era, is adding to the desperation.

[krispos42]

5. "all of a sudden"?

:rofl:

They've been off the deep end since the wealthy teamed up with the Religious Right, back in Reagan times.


They're the party of emotion and black-and-white. They and their mouthpieces will have a certain amount of rage every single day, because anger and fear override common sense and intelligence. They react the same way, whether Obama fails to wear a flag pin or barbeques a puppy and eats it with a side of mashed potatoes. Doesn't matter; they need to generate a certain minimum amount of rage over a minimum amount of time. Remember the dijon mustard blowup?

:eyes:

Dijon mustard, for fuck's sake.



It's their pattern. And it work, to an extent.



This is why I wish Obama would just be liberal. He'll recieve the same flak regardless, but we'll actually get things done

[live love laugh]

9. I know...right? "All of a sudden." Best. Joke. Evah.

:rofl:

[madeline_con]

13. They're going through an extinction burst. n/t

[krispos42]

14. It's like the dinosaurs

The asteroid (Obama) hits, and they're all "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" just before the fireballs turns them into ozone.

[47of74]

6. Poor ol' RimJob, he's probably got so much paperwork right now...

Poor ol' RimJob, he's probably got so much paperwork right now from various law enforcement agencies wanting to see what wingnut said what in the wonderful world of FreeperLand.

[JenniferJuniper]

8. And that old States Rights thing is backfiring on them

what with all those states going gay! Massachusetts has had gay marriage now for 5 years and God hasn't destroyed it yet. Hell, I think God actually was pleased, considering that the Red Sox finally won that ever elusive World Series just a few months later.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. The last time it's ever been this bad

is when (quell surprise) another Democrat was POTUS. Back in the 1990's, the RW was able to stir up the cultural resentments of the fundies, the so-called "angry white men", and, of course, militia-types whose fevered imaginations conjured up visions of UN-controlled one-world government replete with black helicopters, weather making machines, and forced disarmament, as well as making the Clintons out to be megalomaniacal masterminds with their eyes towards tyranny and ultimate power whom committed numerous unspeakable atrocities that the so-called "liberal media" was only too glad to help them cover up and bury.

During the last 8 years, when we actually seemed to be on the cusp of an actual Republican quasi-dictatorship in this country (particularly between 2002-2003), these types seemed amazingly quiet, if not wildly supportive of Bush/Cheney's efforts to make our government more authoritarian and less accountable to, well, anybody.

Of course, now that we have another Democrat as POTUS, a BLACK one at that, suddenly our country is being pronounced by the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et. al as once again being in danger of being at the mercy of a socialist/fascist (they can't seem to decide which one) would-be dictator trying his best to bankrupt the country, as well as upending and destroying our "capitalist" economy (among other imagined nefarious goals).

It's hard to know just how exactly to respond to the situation because there simply does not seem to be a way to have a rational discussion with the people pushing this kind of fear-mongering garbage nor the people whom are buying into it. Bill Clinton, I think, put a stop to some of this back in 1995, after the OKC bombing of the federal building, when he saw an opening to condemn the right-wing hate machine by (rightly) identifying that they bore some responsibility for the kind of messages they were putting out and how that was "inspiring" some people's actions. Hopefully, we will not have to suffer a similar (or worse) tragedy during Obama's Presidency before Obama (or somebody else) points out the possible (likely?) end results of the kind of unrelenting hate speech spewed by the aforementioned individuals (and others) towards Obama, the federal government, et. al.

[janx]

41. The rhetoric is worse now than I've ever seen it.

It's not civil at all.

[Badgerman]

11. An awful lot of these people are in the military and police forces...that should scare you a little.

[sam sarrha]

16. Free Republic is a Manchurian Candidate Factory...

[upi402]

17. Those bedwetters are the most twisted freaks of all

That's what I've seen, once the dust settles and the bullshit is tilled.

[RandomThoughts]

18. Maybe thats the peace and comfort of faith.

The complete knowledge of total love, and perfection in all things. Why would anyone stress out. Just show love when ever you can muster the strength and share the best parts you can find in yourself, in that you always win.

:loveya:

[leftofthedial]

19. they've ALWAYS been off the deep end.

We just had a gummint to match until January.

[Enthusiast]

20. You could not help going off the deep end

if you bought into all the propaganda they have been bombarded with for years. They have been told that President Obama WANTS to destroy this nation. Then the propaganda tells them "Look here at this evidence, you are losing your jobs, your homes and your cars." Actually it is a wonder wingnuts are not coming more unglued than they are. They actually believe all this right wing nonsense and end times bullshit. Under the circumstances I think they are showing a great deal of restraint.

[pipi_k]

49. Sometimes I wonder

who's crazier...

the people believing this shit, or the ones feeding it to them.


I do think, though, that the people feeding it to them (Coulters, Hannitys, etc) are truly evil, especially if they don't totally believe what they're dishing up to the everyday crazies...

Taking advantage of a person's reduced mental state to feed them scary garbage rates pretty high on my list of most disgusting things ever.

[Enthusiast]

50. They are truly evil alright.

They are right up there with pedophiles, in my book. Like you say, they are taking advantage of the weak minded.

[Kablooie]

21. They've been Americas chosen for 8 years ...

And were told that they would remain so forever.

Now all of a sudden they've learned that this was a lie and they are pissed off.

[Submariner]

22. Rove and DeLay told the republitards they would have a PERMANENT repuke majority

and we have all seen how well that turned out. Now the racist crackers get to feel how we felt for 8 years under Dubya. Good riddens to them.

[snake in the grass]

23. I think this is just the beginning.

There is an enormous amount of potential violence under the Freepoids just waiting to get out. We will be seeing many meltdowns in the future. I would like to see the administration take the threat seriously and start busting these freaks. Roeder was a start. Expect more.

[B Calm]

24. The Gun Nuts and Anti Choice crowd have always been nuts. . .

[boomerbust]

25. African American Yankee President

[no_hypocrisy]

27. It's worse than that to them. Our President is the child of an interracial couple.

To Freepers and their ilk, the Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia, disabling the criminalization of interracial marriage is an abomination. Races shouldn't mix in their small minds whether it's based on eugenics or abject prejudice.

[canetoad]

26. I think it was the Cairo speech that did it

Not enough praise Jeesuses.

[sendero]

28. I think..

... you pretty much nailed it. And I think it will get a lot worse before it gets better.

In addition to losing the culture war, they are losing the economic war also. There's going to be a lot of disillusionment in this country, and the wingnuts, being true believers, are going to get more than their share.

[conscious evolution]

29. Its the programming

by the riech wing media.
They have been manipulating the freeps for a while but in the last few months there has been a steady escalation in the retoric that feeds the hate.

[scheming daemons]

30. You hit the nail on the head... everything they believe in is being dismantled

...which is a good thing. Because they believe in some seriously stupid shit.

[Hepburn]

31. They have always been paranoid POS. n/t

[lpbk2713]

32. Limbaugh's desperation must be contagious.

They see and hear him going into hysterical convulsions and it makes the shiitoheads all freak out.

[NeedleCast]

33. They've Been Going Insane Since Obama Won

Actually, they've been going insane since about the middle of the Primaries when the direction the winds were blowing started to become clear.

I think it's just the result of losing after eight years of Bush. They thought Bush was King Awesome and can't believe after eight years that the population of the US completely rejected his policies and unceremoniously threw the GOP out on their collective asses (which started in 2006, but they still had the white house).

I think much of what you said in your last paragraph is correct. The GOP is losing the culture war and has become increasingly desperate. I think they're way to chicken to do anything on a large scale, but I agree that there are going to have to be some crazies and true zealots that are going to do stupid and dangerous things.

[Recursion]

35. Nah. It's just selective reporting and moral panic

In my opinion

[cherish44]

36. They get this way whenever Democrats are in power

It's only a matter of time before the new Timothy McVeigh makes his statement.

[lib2DaBone]

37. Wingnuts only do what they are told.. incapable of reasoning..

Rush, O'reilly, CNN... the right-wing Corporate media control these people like organ-grinder monkies on a leash...

[steven johnson]

39. It is the end of the Reagan Utopia

The Paranoid News Network sent out a story -- you didn't read it?

[Odin2005]

42. They are going neurotic because their worldview is collapsing.

rage, envy and fear are bursting through their damaged superegos and they are flailing around like mad.

[Mojo_electro]

45. Yup...

The hope for creating a theocracy is disintegrating before their very eyes. Every now and then if I can stomach it I'll read FR, but lately that's been making it hard to keep lunch down. They've gotten so mean spirited (even more so than usual if that's possible)

More and more I see that the "clinging to guns and god" statement was dead on.

They've also basically come out of the closet and freely admitted their racism on some threads. I'd say it's funny watching them flail around, if they were not so dangerous....

They've been so wrapped up in their view for so long, seeing it collapse is too much for them. They're being proved wrong, and they cannot handle it...

Ease up, wing-nuts... it'll be a'ight... just "move away from the mic to breath in" :rofl:

[UTUSN]

43. k&r #4. It's the same wingnut fever like when JFK was shot. n/t

[The River]

47. Like A Bag Of Microwave Popcorn

and RW radio is the microwave that's
heating them up. A few have popped.
More will follow.

[Captain Hilts]

48. Were you awake during the '90s? This is nothing new. They're just empowered by the Internet now. nt