In part, this stuff is stickier with the wing nuts because they’ve been fed this shit by conservative media for over thirty years now. (I know; existed before then but as fringe stuff. Thirty-plus years ago, it became huge.) Too, Trump’s shtick is based on repeating said outlets bullshit, providing enough legitimacy to let’s say excite the audience. Meanwhile, the mainstream media are failing at calling out any of the bullshit (which another story).
Now, if anyone wants to claim that the attraction of the bullshit is because the audience for it is scared by their world collapsing before their eyes as well as ever growing exploitation by their employers, Big Business, etc., etc., etc., I’m not going to argue.
Or, you know, maybe those people are just credulous schmucks. Maybe!
The great thing about these conspiracy theories is that they morph and twist and expand and can never ever be disproven. Take Vince Foster's death. The initial theory was that he was Hillary's lover who was going to expose her for being a lesbian. (Makes no sense whatsoever, but, sure.) So Hillary had him killed. You may recall that his death was investigated by the Park Police, the DC police, the Secret Service, the FBI, TWO Republican special counsels, TWO Republican House committees, a Senate committee, and a gazillion freelance kooks.
But nobody ever found any evidence linking Hillary Clinton to Vince Foster's death. Because all of them--thousands of people, most of them Republicans including Newt fucking Gingrich--all of them were part of the coverup to protect Hillary Clinton.
Now why would all those Republicans want to protect Hillary? Well, it turns out that George Soros funded an army of private investigators who dug up dirt on each and every one of those Republicans. That's why Donald Trump never even tried to "lock her up." Because she had the goods on him!
And so it goes. The theory of why and how a super criminal like Hillary Clinton continues to remain free will morph and twist as needed. Ever more people being blackmailed or paid off, every Republican on George Soros payroll if that's what it takes to preserve the initial kernel of Hillary having Vince killed because he was her jilted lover who would expose her for being a lesbian.
"liked" with a shudder. as I used to piously intone through the 70s, 80s and 90s (while reliably high), 'drugs are not for the weak-minded'. the flip side of the coin seems to be, 'the Republican Party is FOR the weak-minded'.
even though I'm pretty much inured to the depravations of the right, I am still able to be surprised at just HOW MANY of those who walk among us, whom I though I knew with some assurance, have fallen hook, line, and sinker, for the conservative line. can't blame it on the micro-plastics, because we've all got those in us.
in addition, reading that old village voice piece you wrote (and I remembered), made me marvel that you, mr edroso, have apparently escaped significant brain damage despite your many years of delving into the right-wing quagmire. a superior intelligence indeed.
It would help if more responsible players, especially those with any power, bothered to dole out consequences for this garbage. For example: why does the AMA not revoke medical licenses of "doctors" who are anti-vaxxers?
But then I guess even organizations like the AMA have fallen victim to the steady sanding away of professionalism that has also been perpetrated - even implemented - by the right.
Republicans don’t need policies anymore. Pope Leo the Execrable built them a Supreme Court that is enacting all their revanchist dreams for them. Instead, they have to keep stirring the toxic stew of bigotry and resentment that makes their base love Trump and hate The Other while finding ways to keep The Other from voting. If they jettisoned clueless asswipes like Scott Walker, they’d be even more successful than they’ve been so far. But “raise the voting age” is easier to say than, “We offer young people nothing but crappy weather and gross inequality so how do we get them to vote for us?”
Remember what Cris Rufo said about his clever strategy for creating the CRT panic? The key was to never, under any circumstances, actually define what he meant by "CRT", so that people would be free to project ANYTHING they didn't like onto it. And so we get Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in the official Republican response to the State of the Union, saying "CRT" three times without even spelling out the acronym. That's no accident.
And now Trump is saying any Republican member of Congress who doesn't vote for impeachment should be primaried. The reason for impeachment? "Democrat fraud and corruption." Which is brilliant, people who think Hunter Biden used his dad's name to get some cushy no-work jobs that paid enough to keep him supplied with cocaine can co-exist with those who think Biden's a pedophile who drinks the blood of Christian children. But holding this coalition together is tricky, the key is to NEVER define what you mean by "fraud and corruption."
This is what gets me about the whole "No Labels" thing. They claim they want to represent the ideological center with common sense solutions because the two parties have become too extreme. Let's see, on one side who have folks who want to address climate change, work on immigration and write down student loan debt while on the other who have people who want to prevent Fauci from going on a killing spree of his political enemies. So, both sides.
I dipped into the Xitter the other day and was stunned to find that the Deep State Plot du Jour was that the Proud Boys were all feds and always have been. IT'S A FALSE FLAG OPERATION, KENNETH, and the rebranding of said FF as the Blood Tribe was just the Deep State evading detection by the Scooby Doo gang. I thought then what Mssr. Edroso encapsulates so well here: when it became obvious that the Proud Boys were violent fascists, they were "reimagined by some of these guys as a Democratic dirty trick against Republicans to make them look like credulous fools." Oy.
a) "JAQed off" is better than any of us know, and indeed, better than any of us CAN know.
b) I'm listening to Rachel Maddow's podcast "Deja News," documenting how many of today's political nightmares are anything but new. So in 1964 the GOP ran "Operation Eagle Eye," which circulated false "information" meant to suppress the Black vote. Just outright lies. They have been utter shits since at least since then. I know--you're shocked. Deal with it.
I wonder sometimes why conspiranoid grifters even need such tenuous connections for their lunacies, like the Fauci investigation referral being suspiciously coincidental to a fire in the building housing Rand Paul's office. Why do they even bother? If anything and everything is evidence of lib nefariousness then why not just pull 'em out of their ass and leave it at that?
Especially in this case since Paul's office is in Bowling Green, site of the infamous islamist terrorist massacre, so they could have given their ass a rest on this one.
Pfft.
In part, this stuff is stickier with the wing nuts because they’ve been fed this shit by conservative media for over thirty years now. (I know; existed before then but as fringe stuff. Thirty-plus years ago, it became huge.) Too, Trump’s shtick is based on repeating said outlets bullshit, providing enough legitimacy to let’s say excite the audience. Meanwhile, the mainstream media are failing at calling out any of the bullshit (which another story).
Now, if anyone wants to claim that the attraction of the bullshit is because the audience for it is scared by their world collapsing before their eyes as well as ever growing exploitation by their employers, Big Business, etc., etc., etc., I’m not going to argue.
Or, you know, maybe those people are just credulous schmucks. Maybe!
Considering how flammable their pants are, it's amazing that so few Rep abodes, workplaces, charnel houses etc get burned down.
"calling these guys “prominent” may seem a stretch"
Actually, it is only a slightly stretchier stretch from 'prominent' to 'preeminent'
And in any case, if they weren't spewing lies they'd be silent, because They Do Not Have Anything Else.
I like when you pull back and explain how the whole lurid subculture works.
Good article.
Though for some reason the phrase
" Fash Beardo JAQed off." Is stuck in my forebrain , waiting to escape into polite company.
The great thing about these conspiracy theories is that they morph and twist and expand and can never ever be disproven. Take Vince Foster's death. The initial theory was that he was Hillary's lover who was going to expose her for being a lesbian. (Makes no sense whatsoever, but, sure.) So Hillary had him killed. You may recall that his death was investigated by the Park Police, the DC police, the Secret Service, the FBI, TWO Republican special counsels, TWO Republican House committees, a Senate committee, and a gazillion freelance kooks.
But nobody ever found any evidence linking Hillary Clinton to Vince Foster's death. Because all of them--thousands of people, most of them Republicans including Newt fucking Gingrich--all of them were part of the coverup to protect Hillary Clinton.
Now why would all those Republicans want to protect Hillary? Well, it turns out that George Soros funded an army of private investigators who dug up dirt on each and every one of those Republicans. That's why Donald Trump never even tried to "lock her up." Because she had the goods on him!
And so it goes. The theory of why and how a super criminal like Hillary Clinton continues to remain free will morph and twist as needed. Ever more people being blackmailed or paid off, every Republican on George Soros payroll if that's what it takes to preserve the initial kernel of Hillary having Vince killed because he was her jilted lover who would expose her for being a lesbian.
"liked" with a shudder. as I used to piously intone through the 70s, 80s and 90s (while reliably high), 'drugs are not for the weak-minded'. the flip side of the coin seems to be, 'the Republican Party is FOR the weak-minded'.
even though I'm pretty much inured to the depravations of the right, I am still able to be surprised at just HOW MANY of those who walk among us, whom I though I knew with some assurance, have fallen hook, line, and sinker, for the conservative line. can't blame it on the micro-plastics, because we've all got those in us.
in addition, reading that old village voice piece you wrote (and I remembered), made me marvel that you, mr edroso, have apparently escaped significant brain damage despite your many years of delving into the right-wing quagmire. a superior intelligence indeed.
baffled in the bay state.
Time to reread Umberto Eco's essay on Ur-Fascism.
It would help if more responsible players, especially those with any power, bothered to dole out consequences for this garbage. For example: why does the AMA not revoke medical licenses of "doctors" who are anti-vaxxers?
But then I guess even organizations like the AMA have fallen victim to the steady sanding away of professionalism that has also been perpetrated - even implemented - by the right.
Republicans don’t need policies anymore. Pope Leo the Execrable built them a Supreme Court that is enacting all their revanchist dreams for them. Instead, they have to keep stirring the toxic stew of bigotry and resentment that makes their base love Trump and hate The Other while finding ways to keep The Other from voting. If they jettisoned clueless asswipes like Scott Walker, they’d be even more successful than they’ve been so far. But “raise the voting age” is easier to say than, “We offer young people nothing but crappy weather and gross inequality so how do we get them to vote for us?”
Remember what Cris Rufo said about his clever strategy for creating the CRT panic? The key was to never, under any circumstances, actually define what he meant by "CRT", so that people would be free to project ANYTHING they didn't like onto it. And so we get Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in the official Republican response to the State of the Union, saying "CRT" three times without even spelling out the acronym. That's no accident.
And now Trump is saying any Republican member of Congress who doesn't vote for impeachment should be primaried. The reason for impeachment? "Democrat fraud and corruption." Which is brilliant, people who think Hunter Biden used his dad's name to get some cushy no-work jobs that paid enough to keep him supplied with cocaine can co-exist with those who think Biden's a pedophile who drinks the blood of Christian children. But holding this coalition together is tricky, the key is to NEVER define what you mean by "fraud and corruption."
You would bring up that Whitey shit to make me aware of how completely I'd forgotten it. Aargh!
This is what gets me about the whole "No Labels" thing. They claim they want to represent the ideological center with common sense solutions because the two parties have become too extreme. Let's see, on one side who have folks who want to address climate change, work on immigration and write down student loan debt while on the other who have people who want to prevent Fauci from going on a killing spree of his political enemies. So, both sides.
I dipped into the Xitter the other day and was stunned to find that the Deep State Plot du Jour was that the Proud Boys were all feds and always have been. IT'S A FALSE FLAG OPERATION, KENNETH, and the rebranding of said FF as the Blood Tribe was just the Deep State evading detection by the Scooby Doo gang. I thought then what Mssr. Edroso encapsulates so well here: when it became obvious that the Proud Boys were violent fascists, they were "reimagined by some of these guys as a Democratic dirty trick against Republicans to make them look like credulous fools." Oy.
a) "JAQed off" is better than any of us know, and indeed, better than any of us CAN know.
b) I'm listening to Rachel Maddow's podcast "Deja News," documenting how many of today's political nightmares are anything but new. So in 1964 the GOP ran "Operation Eagle Eye," which circulated false "information" meant to suppress the Black vote. Just outright lies. They have been utter shits since at least since then. I know--you're shocked. Deal with it.
I wonder sometimes why conspiranoid grifters even need such tenuous connections for their lunacies, like the Fauci investigation referral being suspiciously coincidental to a fire in the building housing Rand Paul's office. Why do they even bother? If anything and everything is evidence of lib nefariousness then why not just pull 'em out of their ass and leave it at that?
Especially in this case since Paul's office is in Bowling Green, site of the infamous islamist terrorist massacre, so they could have given their ass a rest on this one.
they want to make us all live it out with them.
The definitely want to inflict it on us all.