dagblog - Comments for "Ever Notice That The Birthers ..."

That is so true and the irony

Richard Day — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:06:56 +0000

In reply to Another thing that Birthers

That is so true and the irony here is that McCain never got into that argument at all and would shush people at the town meetings who would refer to Obama as a socialist or Muslim.

This is a cultural/social/psychological phenomina that just will never go away. It is an US vs. THEM dichotomy.

We all know that if our President were not Black, there would be no issue but most birthers will not face this fact.

Another thing that Birthers

Verified Atheist — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:27:25 +0000

In reply to Ever Notice That The Birthers ...

Another thing that Birthers seem to ignore: by his own admission, McCain wasn't born in the United States; he was born in Panama. His parents were American (just like Obama's mother), so he was born a US citizen, but he wasn't born in the United States.

Of course Uncle Joe Biden

Richard Day — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:13:55 +0000

In reply to Ever Notice That The Birthers ...

Of course Uncle Joe Biden would have to remain awake--at least most of the time!

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/big-fcking-bore-did-joe-biden-fall-asleep-dur...

This whole thing is

CVille Dem — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:22:36 +0000

In reply to Ever Notice That The Birthers ...

This whole thing is ridiculous and irrelevant! Even if he was born on Mars, or MECCA, or Kenya or the North Pole, his mother was an American citizen and that makes him a natural born citizen. Too bad that the shitty state of health care prevented her from seeing her son grow up, but it is time to stop responding to doofusses. Can we stop this nonsense? NOW?

as a tool to reject reality

artappraiser — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:49:39 +0000

In reply to Ever Notice That The Birthers ...

as a tool to reject reality completely.

The reality of a globalized world has become too complex, that's the problem. Life is no longer a question of just understanding a small insular village. So conspiracy narratives are made up to deal with things. The irony is that the conspiracies often get more complex than reality in order to maintain the illusions started. They either have to ignore facts (i.e., ignore the Biden thing) which is what birthers of often do, or make up elaborate possibilities to explain away inconvenient facts.

Wikipedia has a nice applicable entry:

....conspiracy theory goes beyond the boundaries of rational criticism when it becomes nonfalsifiable. Such a theory is a closed system of ideas which explains away contradictory evidence by claiming that the conspirators themselves planted it.^[1].....
According to political scientist Michael Barkun, conspiracy theories once limited to fringe audiences have become commonplace in mass media^[1] He argues that this has contributed to conspiracism emerging as a cultural phenomenon in the United States of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and the possible replacement of democracy by conspiracy as the dominant paradigm of political action in the public mind.^[1] According to anthropologists Todd Sanders and Harry G. West, "evidence suggests that a broad cross section of Americans today…gives credence to at least some conspiracy theories."^[3] Belief in conspiracy theories has therefore become a topic of interest for sociologists, psychologists and experts in folklore....

And here's an oldie but goodie webiste from an old Favorites list:

How To Design And Promote A CONSPIRACY THEORY — Resources
by Ric Carter

"The essential features of all games: symmetry, arbitrary rules, tedium." —Jorge Luis Borges

Those dealing with political-military, racial-ethnic, religious-cultic, alien-paranormal, commercial-financial and other complex matters, often find it convenient to structure their ideas about phenomena and behaviour of such organizations in terms of a conspiracy....

That the child Barack Obama had a global background makes him all the more appealing a target for a conspiracy topic.