‘It’s making us look really bad': Local Texas officials lament bizarre Jade Helm conspiracy theories

[DonViejo]

The conspiracy theories grew wilder as the massive military exercise grew closer: food riots and martial law were coming to the United States, some said.

Dissidents would be assassinated, Wal-Marts turned into prison camps, foreign troops brought in to help.

Then the governor of Texas lent credence to the paranoia by ordering the state’s National Guard to monitor a weekslong special operations training exercise called Jade Helm 15 involving 1,200 troops and seven states.

Some people reportedly buried their guns so government troops couldn’t take them away. Others stockpiled ammunition and supplies.

A group called “Counter Jade Helm” helped organize quasi-militias to keep track of troop movements.

Jade Helm began last week not with a bang, but a whimper.

Bastrop, Texas — the scene of a rowdy public meeting where people held up signs declaring “no Gestapo in Bastropo” and wore t-shirts with the words “come and take it” under a drawing of an automatic rifle — was eerily calm on the third day of the exercise.

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/its-making-us-look-really-bad-local-texas-officials-lament-bizarre-jade-helm-conspiracy-theories/

[Downwinder]

1. Look around, Texas is an occupied territory.

There are more US troops in Texas than in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[hobbit709]

2. Especially with our governor in on the stupidity.

[samsingh]

3. gotta admit - seeing miltias go up against the US army would be amusing (if not for the deaths)

and short lived.

[CanonRay]

4. When nothing happens, these nuts will say

it was because they stopped it.

[oldandhappy]

5. making us look bad

[procon]

6. The Stupid is a contagious disease.

It's 2015, so how do (supposedly) sane people living in America with an unlimited access to a wealth of internationally renowned, respected and legitimate information sources, choose to believe these crazy conspiracy theories? Why do they believe the incoherent, madman's ravings of every wild-eyed lunatic with a blog, and disregard the carefully articulated information presented by knowledgeable people with decades of experience and gravitas?

It happens so frequently in those who embrace rightwing dogma that its becoming a characteristic of that ideology. What is the single common denominator?

a). education
b). locale
c). income
d). FoxNews

[Archae]

8. Why do people believe in wild conspiracies?

Several reasons.

1. Shit happens.
Natural and man-made disasters occur, and some people decide that "Somebody is to blame!"
Bad storms are caused by the "government weather control."
Presidential assassins are part of or a patsy for nefarious plots.

And so on...

2. Conspiracy stuff is fun to read about or watch.
Reality can be boring.

3. Conspiracy theorists make a lot of money pandering to these crowds.

[procon]

10. You're right, and that's all very true, but WHY are rightwingers so susceptible?

Call them naive, gullible, ignorant, credulous -- pick a word -- they fall for every crackpot hoax they see. Why don't we liberals fall for the same foolishness? Oh sure, we laugh at the stuff churned out by the The Onion and The Borowitz Report, but even when we aren't familiar with a particular subject, we can recognize the difference between a spoof and legitimate news.

[Archae]

11. It's not just rightwingers...

Although there seem to be far more believers on the right nowadays.

I think it's because even when they do gain power, rightwingers simply mess it up.

PJ O'Rourke said republicans are convinced government can't work, so they get elected to prove it.

And of course, it's *NEVER* their fault, it's caused by Jews/Illuminati/The Left/communists/whatever. /s

[Fred Sanders]

7. More proof that gun nuts are stupid and paranoid, just like the NRA, gun companies and Fox molded them.

[Eleanors38]

9. Fart jokes are like that. Funny, till someone cuts the real thing.