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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 01/12/2010 : 22:22:58
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I'm reading Michael Shermer's 1997 book, Why People Believe Weird Things. His Chapter 7 is "Epidemics of Accusations."
In this chapter Shermer makes the case that outbursts of mass hysteria such as the witch hunts of 17th Century, UFO abduction scares and accusations of widespread demonic abuse of children, are all essentially self-organizing feedback loops.
(Graph "borrowed" from here.)
These historically periodic crazes require underlying social conditions that are conducive to their emergence and growth. Wild claims and/or accusations are made, which inspire others to make such claims. This convinces people that the claims are valid. The persecution of the "guilty" begins. (Denials of guilt are taken as proof of guilt.)
The accused are pressured and sometimes tortured to admit their guilt, and to name other "conspirators." The appearance of a vast, evil plot is confirmed in the minds of the crusaders, and the witch hunt spreads and grows. "Normal" people of decent reputation are so convinced of the evil they think they are fighting that they begin to not only believe, but to see things that aren't there. Sometimes mass hallucinations result. Cowed doubters keep their mouths shut.
Eventually, elites threatened by the breakdown of society, and scholars and other educated people organize to question the witch hunts. With no real material evidence or support, the craze rapidly dies out and the witch hunters become the hunted.
You can see where I'm going with this. I'm now convinced that the Teabagger insanity is the witch hunt of the early 21st Century.
After eight years of theocratic ascendancy, a suddenly powerless and leaderless (too many leaders is the same as none) Religious Right has gone bonkers. These people "really" "are" "seeing" (for instance) improved access to medical care as an atheist Islamic liberal socialist Nazi conspiracy.
My main questions are, 1) Are we seeing the apex of this craze, or has it barely begun? 2) When will the mass hallucinations kick in to accompany the existing delusions? 3) What will happen if a charismatic and Machiavellian leader emerges?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/12/2010 23:27:27
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/12/2010 : 23:26:54 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Would McCarthyism be a more recent example?
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Sure seems like it to me.
Also, Arthur Miller's 1952 play, "The Crucible" used the Salem Witch trials as a way of pointing out McCarthyism's excesses. Miller recognized that the same dynamics were at work. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/12/2010 23:29:39 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/13/2010 : 08:33:24 [Permalink]
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I think it's on it's on it's way up, to reach it's peak around the 2012 election. The hallucinations kicked in sometime during the last administration, and I don't see a charismatic and possibly Machiavellian leader on the current horizon, unless Alan Grayson ascends to real power. Cheney's certainly Machiavellian enough but has the charisma of an earwig, and Palin is, well, Palin.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 01/13/2010 : 16:05:32 [Permalink]
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Filthy.....
Have you considered Palin as a Manchurian Candidate, very carefully rehearsed and controlled by Rove and other Conservative Party propagandists, winning the nomination, and going on to debate Obama?
She has sufficient "charisma" to lead the Moran March of the Conservative Party right up to the disaster of debating a true master of oratory and personal appeal who also is a distinctly defined intellectual and massively informed politician.
I truly hope to the very soul of my being (allegorical) that the Bitch of the Arctic wins the Conservative Party nomination for the Presidency of the United States! |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/13/2010 : 16:58:13 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by bngbuck
Filthy.....
Have you considered Palin as a Manchurian Candidate, very carefully rehearsed and controlled by Rove and other Conservative Party propagandists, winning the nomination, and going on to debate Obama?
She has sufficient "charisma" to lead the Moran March of the Conservative Party right up to the disaster of debating a true master of oratory and personal appeal who also is a distinctly defined intellectual and massively informed politician.
I truly hope to the very soul of my being (allegorical) that the Bitch of the Arctic wins the Conservative Party nomination for the Presidency of the United States!
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This has crossed my mind. Palin is getting more exposure than all of the other Republican prospects combined, especally since she hooked up with the teabaggers. Whether or not she is on a leash is the question. It's that abysmal ignorance she displays at seemingly every opportunity. If she's faking that, I must ask: to what end? Is it possible that she and her handlers(?) believe that major stupid will win over voters?
Palin is a loose cannon that could well wreck the party if she should be nominated. I am a little appalled at the thought of her actually getting that nomination. It would show an equal stupidity on the part of a pretty large percentage of the population. I do not think that the average conservative on the street is that brain-damaged. Could be wrong, there.
Her base, if she has one, are the teabaggers, and they are, while high profile, little more than a nuisance. Their numbers are small and their only agenda is the overthrow of Obama. I don't see any change in either the numbers or the philosophy. Could be wrong there, too, but I don't think I am. Those people are seriously fucked up.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 01/13/2010 : 22:50:22 [Permalink]
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Murdoch has managed to buy the undying Conservative fealty of many TV "personalities", many of whom appear preposterous to folks like you and me, but obviously infatuate O'Reilly's "Folks" (distinctly different kind of folks) who swell the ratings of Faux News to double or better those of competing cable networks.
Rupert is a propagandist who has understood his time and managed to make billions off of it. He will make many more billions by paying Palin plenty to bring her wolf and caribou show to Fox and fill the "folks" to flatulence. Even a perfect-vacuum head like Stupid Sarah will respond to the big bucks. Pay her enough and she would fuck an Alaskan mountain goat on camera and set it on fire when done!
So her presumed unpredictability can easily be transformed into parroting the party line (whatever that may become for the Teabaggers by 2012) simply by regular large deposits to her bank account!
I predict that Pinhead Palin will succeed phenomenally on Phox!
So much, that she may never run for office again! |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/14/2010 : 03:01:54 [Permalink]
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One thing I feel certain about is that Palin's not the issue: The important factors are the large numbers of crazed reactionaries running around without meds, plus the organized effort of Murdoch, Ailes, Limbaugh and all the Noise Machine talking heads to stir up division and sedition in the USA.
Bill, I cannot believe you think Palin is actually intelligent enough to be effective. If she's not, she's only another expendable commodity to puppeteers like Murdoch and Ailes. The big questions remain whether the teabagging craze is on the rise, or has reached its climax, and whether it will ever get effective leadership.
Murdoch and Ailes are not able to be such leaders, mainly because Murdoch is an elderly Aussie, and Ailes looks like a toad. They can stir up the RR rabble, but neither can be the inspiring, charismatic leader required to sort out the total chaotic mess of the conflicting racist, anti-government, anti-poor, anti-science and just plain unintellible teabagger mobs.
Palin's a non-factor as a proto-fascist leader. She couldn't even handle the pressure as governor of one of the least populated states. Ailes may as well as invited a suicide bomber into Murdoch's studios. Palin's a self-serving lunatic. The first time she has an expense account item or clothing purchase denied by Fox, she's going to stab Fox in the back. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 01/14/2010 : 06:15:38 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Palin's a non-factor as a proto-fascist leader. She couldn't even handle the pressure as governor of one of the least populated states. Ailes may as well as invited a suicide bomber into Murdoch's studios. Palin's a self-serving lunatic. The first time she has an expense account item or clothing purchase denied by Fox, she's going to stab Fox in the back.
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She had to quit her governor job because she had to make hay while the sun was shinning on her sorry ass. Remaining governor would have impeded her efforts to capitalize off her adoring base. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 01/14/2010 : 07:52:18 [Permalink]
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Mooner......
One thing I feel certain about is that Palin's not the issue: The important factors are the large numbers of crazed reactionaries running around without meds, plus the organized effort of Murdoch, Ailes, Limbaugh and all the Noise Machine talking heads to stir up division and sedition in the USA.
Bill, I cannot believe you think Palin is actually intelligent enough to be effective. If she's not, she's only another expendable commodity to puppeteers like Murdoch and Ailes. The big questions remain whether the teabagging craze is on the rise, or has reached its climax, and whether it will ever get effective leadership. |
Mooner, I don't think Palin has the intelligence of a retarded platypus, but she is at least equally venomous and is quite capable of fascinating an audience of simpletonian rednecks by reciting a memorized list of homilies and reading elementary policy statements from a teleprompter. That's all it takes to excite the teabaggers! She's not an issue, she's a sideshow; but an important one because the Conservatives need the Rabid Right to keep their Base cobbled together.
Sarah won't run for office because, as you imply, her neurological development is too primitive to permit her to engage in debate or unscripted discussion, but she is a perfect inspirational leader for the new Conservative Party - the teabaggers and remnants of the Religious Right, the knee-jerk ultraconservative Republicans who vote reflexively, the cretinous airheads who ditto Limbaugh's verbal vomit and believe Beck's bullshit.
The established power/money forces of the Republicans will prevail; they will probably nominate a slick hypocrite like Romney, a money man to be sure because the Wall Street manipulators desperately need to be let alone to reconstruct the money machine that transfers the wealth of this nation into the fewest pockets possible.
But Populust Palin will be a big factor in establishing solid support from the Right Wingnuts. She will do as she is told by the party hacks as long as she is paid lavishly! However, if Glenn Beck is successful in drawing more Baggers to the Fox audience or to National Mall rallies and Murdoch and the RNC cut her down a few million from the obscene money they pay the Clown Corps on Fox, then you might see some fireworks! |
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Teabagging mania as a modern witch craze
