One of the hallmarks of the current extremist Right in this country is that they spend their time freaking out about issues that really don’t exist. For example, they’ve been losing their minds lately over the Fast and Furious “scandal,” in which, they allege, the ATF has been intentionally walking American guns into the hands of Mexican cartel leaders in order to cause them to kill more and more people, in an effort to sour the American public on the Second Amendment, so that Obama won’t have such a hard time taking away old white guys’ guns. Yeah, this is actually their conspiracy theory. What’s remarkable about it, though, is that wingnuts’ familiarity with these conspiracy theories, the way they accept them, no questions asked, is so entrenched that their leaders don’t even have to explain themselves or their sources anymore. All they have to do is mention a few words and phrases, which then elicit a Pavlovian response in their followers, and it’s mission accomplished, a solid day’s work, etc.
Here’s Brian Brown of NOM, explaining in one paragraph, a conspiracy theory about how the evil liberals are out to get them via the office of Secretary of State in all fifty states. The conspiracy theory dogwhistles are in bold:
“Perhaps you’ve never heard of the Secretary of State Project. But if you haven’t, you should. With backers including George Soros and Tim Gill, the Secretary of State (SoS) Project is quietly packing Secretary of State offices across the country with left-wing activists…designed to tip the balance in close elections. One of those first SoS Project targets was Minnesota – where with just a few dollars they managed to replace a two-term incumbent with former community organizer and ACORN ally, Mark Ritchie. That race paid Soros and company their first dividends as Ritchie oversaw the 2008 recount between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. And now Ritchie is USING THE POWER OF HIS OFFICE to UNDERMINE the Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment, a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between ‘one man and one woman.'”
Oh, Bravo, Brian. I used to have a hard time deciding where to place you on the stupid vs. evil scale, but I’m seeing skills I didn’t know you had. George Soros is the rich guy (though nowhere near as rich as the Koch brothers, who actually finance the Teabaggers and have bought Republican politicians across this country) whose face no wingnut could pick out of a line-up, yet who has become such a Boogey Man figure to the average wingnut that one must merely invoke his name in order to strike fear/resentment into the hearts of greater Wingnuttia. Tim Gill is George Soros for wingnuts who have a prurient obsession with gay sex. “Left-wing activists” is just what it sounds like, but it also reminds one of the phrase “activist judge,” which means “judge who rules in a way I don’t like.” But to follow that up with the Obama reference? Stroke of genius, Bri. Community organizers are an incredibly important part of making change happen in this country, but they’ve been around a long time. I mean, hell, the guy Brian’s religion is named after was a community organizer. But no matter! Wingnuts hear “community organizer” and 2008 and the Fear of a Black Planet comes raging back to them, as if it ever left in the first place. And just for good measure, he namechecks ACORN, the once-great organization which spent its time (quelle horreur!) making sure poor people’s and minorities’ voting rights were preserved and exercised, but which fell because of a racist, right-wing witch hunt. Regardless, by name checking ACORN and community organizing, Brian managed to activate the Two Minutes Hate for his readers in both the homophobia and the racism quadrants of the wingnut brain, thus ensuring that his followers are at least halfway paying attention.
The reason for Brian’s rant is that he’s all butthurt that the wording of Minnesota’s anti-gay marriage discrmination amendment isn’t the way he would like it to be. Also, he’s begging for donations, which goes a long way to explaining why he started with the paragraph quoted above. Gotta make sure those donors are good and freaked out, don’t ya, Brian?
[h/t Joe]
