By Michael Wolraich
From Booklist The persecution narratives of right-wing extremists geared toward stirring up hysteria in regards to the “socialist“ time table of the Democrats usually and President Obama particularly are a part of a protracted historical past of fearmongering and paranoia, asserts political blogger Wolraich. bringing up proclaims and blogs by way of Glenn Beck, invoice O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and others, Wolraich taunts at claims that there's a conspiracy to wreck Christmas in an overwhelmingly Christian country or that Obama’s rules are racist and geared toward aiding minorities on the cost of whites. He intersperses his feedback of contemporary extremists with old views on fearmongering and paranoid campaigns, together with the execution of Socrates on fees of corrupting early life, the banning of Shakespeare from London on comparable fears, bans on comedian books within the united states, and the Red-baiting of the McCarthy period. He dates the intermingling of right-wing extremism and spiritual fundamentalism to the Eighties with the IRS crackdown at the tax-exempt prestige of segregated faculties. The Tea occasion is the most recent manifestation of concerns approximately hodgepodge conspiracies which are being dangerously exploited by way of political opportunists. Wolraich is keenly analytical and sometimes caustic during this compelling examine using persecution to push politics to the intense. --Vanessa Bush overview ***The Belltown Messenger*, November 2010 **“It's a kind of books i could not positioned down, blazing via it in an afternoon… Do get Wolraich's ebook. as well as making me cry, it additionally made me laugh.” ***Instinct journal, *January 2011 **“A good researched examine media and politics (and the politics of media) added with a regular Show-esque tone.” ***Booklist*, 12/7/10** “Wolraich is keenly analytical and infrequently caustic during this compelling examine using persecution to push politics to the extreme.”
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Additional info for Blowing Smoke: Why the Right Keeps Serving Up Whack-Job Fantasies About the Plot to Euthanize Grandma, Outlaw Chris
Example text
44 Between Beck, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, a host of commentators and politicians, and legions of angry bloggers, we are in the midst of a full-scale crazy blitz from the right. ”l45 It seems as if conservative commentators have been competing with one another to see who can spin the scariest conservative nightmare around every Democratic initiative: the bank and auto bailouts will lead to communism; same-sex marriage will lead to legalized polygamy, bestiality, and pedophilia; AmeriCorps is a fascist civilian force for rounding up conservatives; and on and on.
One of the first steps in the conspirators’ grand plan is to brainwash America’s youth. As one concerned blogger wrote before Obama’s speech:We can learn a lot from the spread of propaganda in Europe that led to Hitler’s power. A key ingredient in that spread of propaganda was through the youth. And it’s not just Nazi Germany. 10 Another contributor enthusiastically invoked the dreaded “slippery slope”:I remember from history class that some other very prominent figures in history started out like this, all about education and change for the better.
The conspiracy theories may attract audiences and galvanize voters, but they spoil mutual trust, scuttle the possibility of compromise, and found ideology on fabrication. The many “town hall meetings” that politicians hosted during the health care battle—where people screamed their favorite conspiracy theories, carried assault weapons for show, and brawled like drunken soccer hooligans—are microcosms of our scarred political landscape. When Obama spoke to the nation to defend the Democrats’ health care plan, he was forced to publically deny evident falsehoods that could be easily confirmed by anyone who bothered to read the plan, and this act of stating the obvious was widely applauded as a vigorous response as if obvious facts were some kind of rhetorical weapon .