Right Wing Conservatives Going Nuts Over Seeing Themselves in MirrorBy: Scarecrow - FDL
Wednesday January 12, 2011 3:08 pm
<snip>
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much panic among right wing commentators, but it’s not hard to understand what’s driving their fear. Their almost uniform response to any frame connecting Saturday’s shootings with their own conduct and statements has been couched in anger that the media, never mind liberals, would “libel” them as somehow complicit in the murders.
Except almost no one is making that connection. The broadly accepted view across the media (and at FDL) is that there’s no evidence linking Loughner’s motives, statements and actions to any direct incitement or complicity on the part of any political party or movement. And no one’s seriously arguing that even Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle or any other politician who’s made irresponsible statements for months is responsible for Loughner’s actions. So what explains the right’s frantic efforts to deny charges no one’s making?
I think Charles Krauthammer inadvertently suggested an answer in his Washington Post column. In describing how mentally unbalanced Loughner appears to be, Krauthammer, again emphasizing the word “libel” — what is it about conservatives and “libel”? — seeks to distance the Tea-GOPers from the alleged shooter, who appears to have no recognizable political motivation in the left-right way the media usually defines these things. But how does Krauthammer describe the man? <my bold>
His own writings are confused, incoherent, punctuated with private numerology and inscrutable taxonomy. He warns of government brainwashing and thought control through “grammar.” He was obsessed with “conscious dreaming,” a fairly good synonym for hallucinations.
This is not political behavior. These are the signs of a clinical thought disorder – ideas disconnected from each other, incoherent, delusional, detached from reality.
These are all the hallmarks of a paranoid schizophrenic.
Okay. But exactly how should one describe many of the political statements, signs, claims, writings, etc of the most extreme elements of the Tea-GOPer movement? Are they not infused with birthers, deathers, denialists, and paranoid/conspiracy geeks? Are they not the ones who insisted there were death panels, and socialists, or fascist, or communists, or whatever engaged in a secret government takeover conspiracy to turn the country into a communist dictatorship? Are not their ideas frequently “disconnected from each other, incoherent, delusional, detached from reality”?
<snip>
More:
http://my.firedoglake.com/scarecrow/2011/01/12/rw-conservatives-going-nuts-over-seeing-themselves-in-mirror/:kick:
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