I find the birthers fascinating

[Gman]

like watching a train wreck happen. It's a kind of morbid curiosity to watch them over at FR. You know it's only going to get wierder and wierder. So you can't help but wonder just how far they will go. There is such a mob mentality, almost a lynch mob mentality. They talk openly of a shooting civil war. It's like strolling through an insane asylum and watching people be insane but wondering how is it that they are so insane.

Now, Orly Taiz or whatever the hell her name is, is trying to peddle a fake Kenyan birth certificate as really belonging to the president. They are convincing themselves that this BC is authentic and are now waiting for the SCOTUS to rule on something Taiz filed. The irony of their out of hand rejection of the real Hawaiian BC and blind acceptance of the obvious fake is absolutely jaw dropping in an OMG! kind of way.

I won't link to anything over there. But there must be 20 threads going on the topic. And anyone that points out any of the absurdity on the matter is flamed to the point of being fried alive.

To me it's like, just how fucked up can they get? The party out of the white house with very few exceptions, picks up seats in congress in the off year elections. But they are pinning down every Republican congresscritter to get some kind of committment one way or the other. Either the critter hates this country because the congressperson thinks there's nothing to the birther issue thereby appearing somewhat rational to the rest of the world and may win the general election, or the congressperson is a true patriot and thinks Obama was born in Kenya and to everyone else appears irrational. More and more are taking a sidestep position saying the issues needs to be studied. At this rate, the Democrats will pick up even more seats.

[XemaSab]

1. I have to wonder

how many people over there are trolls.

[blondeatlast]

3. I believe someone said there are "staggering numbers of Leftists" in on the conspiracy.

I read that in someone's copy of a post from there but thought it was very indicative of their utter paranoia--and stupidity.

Just when was the last time "staggering numbers of Leftist" could agree on lunch, much less this? OTOH, for the chance to pwn FR--I think we can all come together, so who knows?

[Mariana]

6. They might even be a majority. Heeheehee. nt.

[MADem]

2. .....................

[MrMickeysMom]

13. friggen hilarious ...

This about shapes it up.

Could be the birther's gene pool needs some chloreeeeen.

[Flying Dream Blues]

38. LOL!

Edited to add: Don't you mean "Muslin" ?
:)

[DJ13]

4. They're being played by someone

Not sure who or why just yet, but this fits some group's agenda.

THAT is the part we need to focus on, the why and the who thats behind this bout of racially tinged insanity.

[blondeatlast]

9. The motion to disbar her from the CBA happened just this week--and the dimwit

actually FILED that prank document, if I understand correctly.

This is going to be great fun, I believe. A very, very public humiliation--I almost feel sorry for her.

Wait--no, no pity at all.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

16. SERIES??///?

A motion to disbar her was filed? Or did you mean a complaint was filed?

Got a link to that story?

It's not an offense to be stupid, so I'm curious as to what the complaint says...

[MADem]

30. Yes, she filed it. She says that her document "actually has signatures!"

....of a LAUNDRY detergent!!

:rofl:

[formercia]

34. Who knows

It might just be some Democrats with a sick sense of humor.

Just whacking the bushes to drive the crazies into the open.

[timeforpeace]

5. It seems to have more traction here than anywhere else. Never see it mentioned in the media.

[blondeatlast]

8. Goody! It's Party Marty again! apparently you don't watch Hardball, Countdown, Rachel Maddow,

The Daily show or The Colbert Report.

Almost forgot Real Time with Bill Maher, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show.

Apparently you don't listen to radio either, even the music jocks have been enjoying poking fun at the dolts who believe this.

Have a happy night--even Lennon actually ENJOYED stuff. He really did.

[tularetom]

7. To each his own - I find Gaboon Vipers fascinating

But I wouldn't want to hang with them.

Remember what PT Barnum said about nobody ever going broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

17. Do you remember when

a kid - a teenager - in DC stole a couple of Gabon vipers from the National Zoo? And then they slithered out of their bag while he was on a bus, and the bus was stopped in downtown, on K Street, NW?

They hilarity that ensued! All the jokes were that how could they ever find any vipers when K Street, where they disappeared, is the home to all the biggest lobbying outfits.......................

[spanone]

10. hatred and blatant racism isn't hard to spot. they are showing their true colors

and they're frightening

[ginnyinWI]

11. I just got a litany from my rightwing dad fresh from the latest rw radio propaganda.

1. The Cash for Clunkers program is a failure.

2. The "beer party" was a complete failure.

3. Obama's real name is "Barry Shaporo" (huh??? his sister's last name is Soetoro--get it right, Dad!)

4. Obama's approval rating is down to 40%.

5. Obama didn't write either one of his books: they were ghost-written.

6. Obama went to Russia, the Middle East and the G-8 and apologized for this country.

7. Obama is actually a racist--a "Black racist".


Earlier this year he repeatedly called the President stupid for one thing or another that he did. A lot of the stuff is about the future--how this or that thing will never work out, will fail, etc. because they just don't have enough actual material to work with. They are left with speculations about the future. He is always prophesying that the country is going to be ruined. I could go on and on but it's too depressing.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

19. Every time I see the racism charge

leveled against Obama, I wonder how the person alleging that skips over the fact that Obama's mother was white, and the grandparents who raised him were white, and his daughters are 1/4 white........................

[ginnyinWI]

22. I know.

Logic or making sense has nothing to do with my dad. I've been reading his emailed rants for years and it does no good to even try. His big thing before the election was that Obama was like Hitler--who could charm the crowds and give a good speech. Said Obama secretly wants to inflict his Marxist ways on us all--just like Hitler! See what I mean? Hitler was a Marxist?? Another time he said that Obama has a deep seated hatred of white people.

It's actually kind of amusing, if I can manage to stay out of arguments with him. He's an old guy about to turn 81. No changing his mind ever.

[Mariana]

21. My rightwing dad does that too, exactly the same litany

and predictions. Talk about groupthink. Just ONCE I'd like to hear an original thought from him.

You know what's amazing? Once upon a time, in the late '90's I think, he asked me if I'd ever heard Rush Limbaugh's show. He said "You've got to hear this guy. What a wacko! He's funny as hell." Now he believes every word. I'd like to think it's an early sign of senility, but I don't believe that. It's the effect of years of exposure to constant propaganda. He's allowed himself to be rendered incapable of independent, rational thought. He used to have a fine intellect and we'd have wonderful deep discussions about all kinds of issues, even though we often disagreed.

I agree with you that it is depressing. You are not alone.

[ginnyinWI]

23. my dad has gotten more conservative as he's gotten older.

My husband and I were trying to puzzle this out today. He thinks it's due to the media--there never used to be so many political programs that catered to just one side or the other. When we just had Walter Cronkite there wasn't a chance to hear extreme views on mass media, and now there certainly are. You join the "ditto-heads" and feel empowered, in the know, smarter than the average person. Too bad it's all an illusion.

My dad listens to FOX and local rightwing radio, not Rush that I know of. But it's bad enough. I think Glenn Beck must be one of his faves because I've heard him repeat stuff from him.

I made the mistake in 2004 of admitting I was voting for Kerry. He will get wound up from some program and then make me the conduit for all of his frustrations, bitterness and fear because I am "a liberal democrat" who is "stupid"--exactly like the straw man they set up on those programs. It gets really bad and after this last episode I've resolved that I can't email him any more about anything, lest I give him an opening for an attack.

Thanks for the solidarity. :pals:

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

26. When the only thing that airs on radio nowadays.....

....are right-wing talking points, fed constantly to people who may be passive in their beliefs.....it's a recipe for creating right-wing nuttery.

[Mariana]

27. Local rightwing radio is often even worse than the national

shows, at least in my neck of the woods. And Faux by itself is enough to scramble someone's brain if they listen to it day after day after day.

Faux didn't used to be as bad as they are now. They were always rightwing, but they've gradually gotten more extreme over time. And I think the change has been slow enough that people who've watched it every day for years, like my dad, really haven't noticed that Faux has long since become a parody of a news channel and a blatant propaganda outlet.

In fact, it's become SO ridiculous that I wonder sometimes if Rupert Murdoch isn't conducting an experiment to see just how much complete bullshit Faux can air before people say, "Give me a break!" and just stop watching it. Unfortunately, it seems to be going the other way. The crazier the content and the goofier the presentation, the more viewers watch it!

[ginnyinWI]

28. I put Hannity on last night out of curiosity.

It was so obvious to me--the bias and twisted thinking. But as you say, if you watch it constantly and trust that it's the most fair news out there, you don't realize what's happening. I've heard my dad parrot the "fair and balanced" mantra FOX proclaims about itself as he recommended it to me as a great source of news! With no hint of irony. And this is coming from a retired high school math teacher with a Master's degree. It's a real life example of indoctrination by propaganda--just like happened during WWII.

I suppose it's natural that FOX would become more and more extreme if getting ratings are all that matters and their . CNN is getting more and more like a tabloid every day too, trying to compete. And putting up with the likes of Lou Dobbs. MSNBC leans to the left. But I think right now the righties are more intent on hearing their own viewpoints simply because they are out of power in Washington and want to find a bit of hope. Just like we did in the era of *.

[pipi_k]

37. I'm getting to the point where I don't trust ANY news source

although some I trust less than others (Fux News)

But it's the same thing with, for example, the so-called sports media outlets like ESPN.

I love football. I live for football every year.


But going to the ESPN site and reading what they're saying....well, it's nothing but a lot of sensationalized bullshit.

Two weeks into the season and they've already got their Superbowl contenders (and winners!) picked out.

"Experts"....bah.

And yet I can't seem to stay away. It just helps to know that we have to take these things with a grain...or five...of salt...

[Maru Kitteh]

29. On Saturday I saw, at the same time 2 TV's one on FOX, the other on CNN

I was in a hospital cafeteria and there were two TV's in the seating area, one on each channel.


FOX headline - Cash for Clunkers: FAILURE

CNN headline - Cash for Clunkers: More popular than anticipated


I didn't stick around to find out how they tried to spin it as failure. It's nutz.

[ginnyinWI]

35. interesting!

What a perfect example of FOX's biased reporting!

[Maru Kitteh]

36. No kidding. It was there, in real time, right in front of me. One story, two TOTALLY different

headlines.

[Odin2005]

12. This must be a field day for young psychologists looking for a PhD thesis topic.

So much mental craziness! :rofl:

[Skittles]

14. it depresses me such ignorance exists in the land of the free

it's downright disgusting

[backscatter712]

15. It's like watching a bunch of grown adults who still believe in Santa Claus! n/t

[snagglepuss]

18. Thanks for going over there and reporting back. You're braver than me.

I can't bear FR but share your morbid curiousity.:freak:

[AnnInLa]

20. I too find them fascinating

I like to go over there (FR and other similar) and look around, because we get caught up in our own bubble on the Left, and forget about the crazies. We should not forget about them or ignore them, hoping they will go away. They are not going away and are, of course, dangerous, in more ways than one.

Also fascinating is that they look at us in exactly the same way we view them, sorta like 2 sides of one coin. The exact things that are said on DU are also said on FR, just in reverse. They see us as dangerously extreme, paranoid, ignorant and gullible....the same way we see them. It really is 2 parallel, but alternate universes, existing side by side. When bush was at his most onerous, there were quite a few conspiracy theories discussed here on DU. Same song, different tune.

They will never accept Obama and the Dem Congress. We did not accept Bush and the Repub Congress either. Yes, they have a terrible case of Obama Derangement Syndrome, but we had BDS as well. It's just those 2 alternate universes. Thee reality is that this is the way it is now in the US, and it will get worse. I don't see any fix for it...Americans like to be part of a "Us vs Them" struggle. It's the struggle for power/control, and we are all caught up in it.

I think it's particularly hard for the birthers/freeps. Rove told them there would always be a permanent majority of conservatives, and they believed it with all their dark little hearts. Rove-troll said that conservatives make the reality and libs have to live in it -- and they believed that reality was permanent. So, quite a shock when your political-belief system crumbles, huh? Now, like crushed little children, they will grasp at any crazy theory, in the hope that something will change, and that their ccontrol/power will return, and their enemies, libs/dems, will be powerless again. It's all kinda sick when you think about it. It shouldn't be this way, but it is.

[Voltaire]

32. The difference is what they believe in is WRONG

And that can be demonstrated with any decently researched history book or other tract of fact. They live lies. At least we make the attempt to remain fact-based, no matter how much the truth hurts some folk.

I cannot stand to be compared to a right-winger as two sides of the same coin. We are not even dealing in the same fucking currency.

[Maru Kitteh]

24. Dr. Orly Taitz is also an anti-vaccine conspiracy nutter. Two sides of the same coin of insanity.

You mention: "The irony of their out of hand rejection of the real Hawaiian BC and blind acceptance of the obvious fake is absolutely jaw dropping in an OMG! kind of way."

She, with her fellow birthers, will never accept the hard evidence (the actual BC) because it does not fit with their desire for some big CT that will normalize and validate their ragged state of paranoia. Lather, rinse and repeat for Dr. Taitz (she is a dentist) and her fellow anti-vax'ers.

No amount of evidence, independent study or review will find acceptance with the birthers, for they will always say that it was done at the behest of the all-powerful, new, socialist dictator government. Likewise she and her fellow anti-vaccination nutjobs will reject all good science, all evidence, and all independent study if any doctor, researcher, student, university, science department, professor, or any of their spouses, girlfriends, parents, cousins, co-workers, lovers, or pets associated in even the most benign way were ever within 500 yards of any entity that ever received so much as a fountain pen from a pharmaceutical company. And of course the CDC and the WHO are all "in on it" too.

Orly Taitz is the complete package. Yes sir.

[BlueIris]

40. Of course she is.

I weep for her patients.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

25. I'd be amused....

....if I wasn't so fearful that it will only lead to another Oklahoma City.

[Ahpook]

31. I wish they would just come out and be truthful with everyone and themselves.

Just fucking say it! They don't like the color of his skin and its infuriating them he is President.

Its still terribly shallow minded but that idiocy can be debated. This is just fucking stupid

[Voltaire]

33. That's all it is

They need to get in touch with and own their racism. No more, no less. Whether its the Birthers or any of the rest of their deranged fucking nonsense, its. all. about. the. racism.

Don't sleep on these vermin. They will not stop until Obama is dead.

[demwing]

39. My 76 year old Dad says "Obama just doesn't LOOK like any other President"

I ask what he means. Is Obama too tall? Too young? Too thin? Hair too long? Clothes too flashy? Bad teeth? And I get the same answers...No, No, No.

"Just look at him" my Dad spits out like there's a bad taste in his mouth."Just LOOK at him."

Well the only thing I see different from the previous President's is that this man ain't white. So I ask my Dad if that is what he means. He won't admit it, I think because he's ashamed to do so.

Pops wasn't always a racist. Growing up in Southern California, we had a diverse group of friends and neighbors, and all were welcomed in our home. I never heard a single negative from my Dad based on race. Now all he does is sit in his room, watch Fox, mutter about impending death, eat sausage biscuits, and complain about Obama and how all the political appointments he makes benefit the blacks.