Hang out on various internet gun forums, go to gun shows, or spend any time on sites variously described as "conservative" or "libertarian" or what-have-you, and you'll eventually encounter some pretty kooky conspiracy theories. And I don't even necessarily mean kookiness about lizard people and secret FEMA guillotines, just people seeing patterns where there probably aren't any.
It's good to be reminded every now and then that there are folks politically opposite me who are equally susceptible, like this guy, who thinks that the whole outrage at TSA probulations is secretly funded and organized by shadowy right-wing organizations who want to privatize the TSA and keep it from unionizing... He gets bonus points for somehow tying it to Eric Prince and Blackwater, too!
It's another reminder that the political spectrum isn't a line so much as a circle, and no matter which direction you head from 12 o'clock, you eventually wind up on the bottom by the hatch where the cuckoos pop out.
I think that is why I never join any political movement on paper. Any organization I want to join, I make look bad.
ReplyDeleteI live in a community with quite a few folks who are rather disconnected from reality. However, this strange creature would stand out, even here!
ReplyDeleteWell, I do want to privatize the TSA and I certainly don't want them to unionize...
ReplyDeleteI don't think the .gov should ever negotiate with a union since nobody at the table is representing the taxpayer.
Bram,
ReplyDeleteSo you're part of the secret cabal!
Let us not forget Disney's The Swamp Fox, a Revolutionary War guerilla fighter..."Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox, tail on his hat, nobody knows where the Swamp Fox is at (I know, horrible English)
ReplyDeleteSwamp Fox, Swamp Fox hiding in the glen, he'll run away to fight again!"
You'd run away, too, if your name was FRANCIS MARION!
Thanks for it all, Leslie! RIP
One of those people that I consider reality-impaired.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting is the comment section. Evidently this guy has a big following.
"It's another reminder that the political spectrum isn't a line so much as a circle, and no matter which direction you head from 12 o'clock, you eventually wind up on the bottom by the hatch where the cuckoos pop out."
ReplyDeleteExactly.
(Well, in my graph, 6 o'clock is where the moderates are, and it takes high-pressure crayzee to push one uphill to twelve o'clock, on either side.)
Oh, and I'm still waiting for my wheelbarrow full of money, for my own muckraking on this issue.
ReplyDeleteThanx for that reminder, Tam. You're my favorite blog.
ReplyDeleteIs THAT what that is??? The back of Alex Jones head? I thought it was cow plop as big as a round bale of hay.
ReplyDeleteAnd then you have the ones that operate right out in public. To wit: http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/29/covering-their-assets
ReplyDeleteThis sort of thinking leads to Conspiracy theories…
ReplyDeleteConspiracy theories lead to irrationality…
Irrationality leads to the Dark Side*.
*Only without the ability to Force Choke people, or shoot lightning from your fingers.
*Only without the ability to Force Choke people, or shoot lightning from your fingers.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell's it good for, then?
I don't know. Being That Guy at various gathering who is always going on about Things THEY Don't Want You To Know, maybe?
ReplyDeleteYou mean my dad? But only if you're his kid and you're stuck in the car with him.
ReplyDelete*headdesk*
Never mind all that. Now I'm forced to have stuck in my brain cells that there's a website dedicated to Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber. Now I have to know what Justin Bieber looks like.
ReplyDeleteI want that two minutes of my life back, please.
Ain't it the damn truth... sigh...
ReplyDeleteJustin who?
ReplyDeleteThat twit is sure right about the outrage, and I hope he's right about all that funding.
ReplyDeleteBut he couldn't be more wrong on the TSA thing...I do NOT want to privatize transportation security; quite the opposite.
It may be unrealistic to think that we could actually adopt Israeli airport ops on a USA scale. But the idea of decked-out anti-terrorism trained military personnel doing what decked-out anti-terrorism trained military personnel do and profiling their asses off at our airports in place of the insane farcical opera playing out there now is powerfully appealing to me.
Privatize? Hell, no...defending against foreign threat is one of the damn few things that gov is actually supposed to do with our money, and the military is how it does it.
AT
You are idiots. You are listening to some random blogger trash someone else over an issue she (nor the majority of you) understand and have certainly not investigated. I'm not an Alex Jones fan, but having done my research I understand what the issues are and where he's coming from. The blind lady's view from the porch is out of context at best.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite disturbing to see so many of you jump on the bandwagon and slander a person and issue that are as obviously foreign to you as Pluto.
Ron Moore is a writer and drifter currently in Statesville, North Carolina. A former Local union president and Homeland Security Officer, Ron attended Oral Roberts University and is now an adherent to the philsophy of Bukowski and Wavy Gravy. He is the author of Washington Cats, a poetry collection.
ReplyDeleteMost times, these "About the Author" entries are about as much use as a football bat.
This one told me everything I needed to know about the essay and the essayist, to wit: My time is better wasted elsewhere.
My question to you, Tam, is why on earth you wasted your time on this whackadoodle?
gvi
Anon 6:34- That's only what WE want you to think. Do you really think that We would allow people like Ron or Alex Jones to live if they were actually saying anything that had any relationship with what's going on? You stupid dupe. Alex Jones, the 9/11 truthers, all of them, all part of the plot and under our direct control.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the hit team should be at your house in 10 minutes. Not because you figured anything out. Just because we can. Have a good day!
My amateur studies of conspiracism indicate an equal spread of this goofiness, left and right.
ReplyDeleteIt's an intellectual conceit bordering on superstition and frequently lapsing into belief in the paranormal. And no conspiracy nut believes in only one, just as multiple superstitions are the rule.
Such "thought" requires five assumptions. One, all history is driven by conspiracies. Two, everyone wants power over others. Three, whoever seems to benefit from an occurrence caused it. Four, appearances are always misleading. Five, there is no such thing as coincidence.