Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating

[Emit]

Toxic to Democracy
Conspiracy Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating
By Chip Berlet
Political Research Associates

Is it a surprise that an angry citizen, John Patrick Bedell, attacked the entrance to the Pentagon? Was it a surprise that an angry taxpayer flew his small plane into an IRS office? These and other acts of violence are linked to a form of apocalyptic conspiracism rampant in the United States. Last summer PRA Senior Analyst Chip Berlet warned that the combination of burgeoning conspiracy theories coupled with rising populist rage and anti-Obama scapegoating would likely lead to some individuals acting out in apocalyptic violence. They would feel justified because they were acting "before it was too late" to save the nation from an imagined sinister plot. Berlet's report was titled Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating.

http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/toxic2democracy/index.html

[Wilms]

1. ...that noise and the "burgeoning conspiracy theories" BS.

Members of the 9/11 Commission, who themselves authored a theory about a conspiracy said the investigation was incomplete.

Last week, a right-wing pastor lumped Vancouver citizens protesting the economic disaster Olympics tend to leave with the people that murdered Israeli athletes in Munich.

Just because a mentally ill person shoots up the Pentagon, doesn't mean that 9/11 wasn't an inside job.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Just because a mentally ill person thinks 9/11 was an inside job doesn't mean 9/11 was an inside job

Not that this stops any of the nutters from ranting about it CONSTANTLY.

[Wilms]

3. Of course. But no one claimed that it would.

The reverse is suggested by the article author.

Cheap. Like a recent post I'm thinking of.