Well written piece about why conservatism is one conspiracy theory after another.

[JohnnyRingo]

For whatever reason, I felt immensely satisfied after reading this short essay that someone connected the dots to why republicans have been so bat crap crazy since January 2009.

From The Daily Banter:

Conservatism Is A Desperate, Sick And Absurd Conspiracy Theory

I can pinpoint one of the most gut-wrenching days of my life. November 2, 2004. I can almost nail the exact moment it became terrible: about 10:30 pm, EST.

That was the moment in which America decided to re-elect George W. Bush. I’ve analyzed that moment over and over and over, and I will go to my grave not understanding what, exactly, America was thinking.

For today’s conservative movement, it seems almost every day treats them like I felt that day.

The back to back elections of Barack Obama and the coalition that elected him were a direct rebuke to the world conservatives know and love. Even when they lost to Bill Clinton, they could comfort themselves with the thought that he pandered to some elements of conservatism, was from the south, and was a white male – and hey, he didn’t even get a plurality of the votes both times he ran. Losing to Clinton was disconcerting for the right, but here comes Obama, with well over 50% of the vote, winning with single women, minorities, all while getting walloped among white voters

Continued here:

http://thedailybanter.com/2014/05/conservatism-is-a-desperate-sick-and-absurd-conspiracy-theory/

[WhiteTara]

1. December 12th when the SCOTUS betrayed the nation. nt

[2naSalit]

3. ^^^THIS^^^

Me too also!

Totally made nine years of college useless and guaranteed my inability to pay the loans.

[WhiteTara]

4. It destroyed our business

and forced us off shore and we can't get back. Our income went to hell and we're facing bankruptcy. I will never forget.

I'm sorry that they destroyed your future too. I have no idea how we get back; but I know we can never stop fighting for any scraps for our future.

[2naSalit]

6. I call it

permanent survival mode... for the last 14 years.

I hope you can get back, if you want to. All we can do is keep fighting.

[WhiteTara]

8. I try to be gracious and call it a lifestyle not

a living. Because it is permanent survival and how I wish to thrive.

[RobertEarl]

2. Actually

Conservatism as practiced by the conservative politicians is a conspiracy. That is not a theory in the informal sense.

The 1% is the proverbial Powers That Be - PTB.

They do conspire to bypass laws to pollute, to steal capital and to hold down the general public, especially minorities.

They cover themselves by projecting and thereby causing obfuscation. It is a well known part of criminality that creating a scene to distract can be very successful. Best not fall prey to those actions, eh?

[starroute]

5. I don't buy the article either

For one thing, it seems like facile psychologizing to assume that people invent conspiracy theories solely to make sense of disturbing and rationally incomprehensible events. That might help explain the 911 Truthers, but it certainly doesn't explain the phony IRS story.

The article seems to be arguing that Obama getting elected at all, and then reelected, was as incomprehensible to people on the right as 911 or the Kennedy assassination were to the population in general. But that seems like kind of a stretch.

It becomes particularly implausible when you look at the other side of the political equation. The left felt dismayed when Nixon was reelected in a landslide in 1972 but quickly found reasonable demographic explanations. It was only later that Watergate and the other activities of CREEP and the White House plumbers came out. The left was dismayed again when Reagan won in 1980 but figured most people really did buy into that sunrise in America thing -- and it was only later that we found out about Debategate and the October Surprise.

I'll grant that liberals tend to blame themselves when things don't go their way, while conservatives in their frightened little bunny rabbit hearts immediately look for enemies to explain their failures. But that only explains why conservatives would be so easily won over by false narratives, not where the fake stories come from in the first place.

The IRS scandal, for example, itself seems to have been hatched by a right-wing conspiracy consisting of several Tea Party groups, Ginni Thomas's Groundswell, and the usual right-wing message machine. It's a slick and well-funded propaganda effort whose primary goal is to be able to use tax-exempt non-profits as a means of laundering dark money into the system with no accountability or transparency. Even doing damage to the Obama administration is just the cherry on the cake.

Climate change denial is another slickly produced conspiracy theory that has taken twenty years of dedicated propaganda and well-funded junk science to put across. And in this case there's not even the hint of a trauma that could have set it off -- just a lot of rich people and corporations trying to protect their profits.

[JohnnyRingo]

7. I see your point...

It's obviously well thought out and certainly well expressed.

I can mention that Jesse Ventura's old TV show proved every conspiracy theory conceived since the beginning of time is true, but I'm personally not a fan of the genre. I've had my bouts with suspicion in the past of some of them, including both Kennedy assassinations and 9/11, but I've since come to terms with the lack of conspiracy fact. I've found that most conspiracy theories have that one inconvenient puzzle piece that has to be pounded in with a mallet, or discarded altogether.

I once read that conspiracy theories are spawned when ordinary men perform extraordinary deeds, and people struggle to make sense of such phenomena. That explains everything from the grassy knoll to 18 Muslims bringing down the global symbol of capitalism. It also suits the birthers beliefs when a black man incredibly won an election against a famed Vietnam war hero.

As I see it, everything since 2009, including Benghazi and the IRS "scandal" stems from that one improbable event. After all, if Obama can swing a national election working secretly from behind the scenes, it's easy to make the jump that he covered up the killing of a diplomat to win re-election, masterminded a political purge by the IRS, and is busily converting FEMA sites into internment camps for NRA members.

I believe the basic root of conspiracy theory always sprouts from denial, and we know the right has yet to admit to themselves that Obama is our president.