tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268985416439660021.post4298076354409761836..comments2023-07-18T03:44:33.021-07:00Comments on The Bit Maelstrom: Conspiracy Theoryblakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05430444326700437630noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268985416439660021.post-80207143387955016352009-02-03T13:44:00.000-08:002009-02-03T13:44:00.000-08:00I'm not one to use the word "wicked" normally but ...I'm not one to use the word "wicked" normally but that's what the whole "attack Palin" thing was.<BR/><BR/>I agree she's a threat. It's ironic that she's a threat because she is the epitome of the '70s feminist ideal: She has a career--what a career!--she runs with the boys, she plays hardball, but then she's with the kids and loves the husband, who supports her and accommodates her.<BR/><BR/>Yeah, it's like the Lewinsky thing: The only thing that matters is party. There are no standards.<BR/><BR/>Unlike Monica, though, the infosphere was completely flooded with anti-Palin crap. I knew women who should've related to her deciding she was a phony.<BR/><BR/>Yeah, their treatment of Trig--these people who had been howling over Chelsea's mistreatment--again, it just shows, it's all about party identification.<BR/><BR/>Knox--I will now forever think of Titus as Anderson Cooper. Heh.blakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05430444326700437630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268985416439660021.post-25325618251798554492009-02-03T11:40:00.000-08:002009-02-03T11:40:00.000-08:00Wonderful post blake. What can one say?when I hea...Wonderful post blake. What can one say?<BR/><BR/><I>when I heard this Daily Kos-rumour happen in real time that day on Althouse, I cried.</I><BR/><BR/>@Victoria,<BR/><BR/>Your website during that time was a tremendous inspiration--please never give in to those evil forces--we need you.<BR/><BR/>How about this Althouse conspiracy:<BR/>blake = victoria = ron.<BR/><BR/>I know that a lot of facts get in the way, but how come you all know so much about the same movies? :)chickelithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10773887469972534979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268985416439660021.post-87290923867933256672009-02-03T11:12:00.000-08:002009-02-03T11:12:00.000-08:00I don't know if you recall me saying this, but act...<I>I don't know if you recall me saying this, but actually, despite being rather jaded about conspiracies, when I heard this Daily Kos-rumour happen in real time that day on Althouse, I cried.</I><BR/><BR/>Victoria, that whole period of time was the lowest in politics that I can think of. The whole Clinton/Lewinsky scandal was a big deal to me. It was an unpleasant dose of reality at the time, that my liberal friends weren't bothered by it, even the ones that claimed to be big feminists. Seeing the hypocrisy of the Left eally got the whole process started, ultimately changing me from a democrat to a right-leaning libertarian. <BR/><BR/>But with all that said, emotionally, that didn't compare to what happened to Palin. I still can't believe the lengths they went to in order to destroy her. Just to make way for mediocre Barack Obama.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, as I said, that was a really low point for me. Reading your website helped tremendously at the time.knoxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231876226573540476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268985416439660021.post-7345089064485302662009-02-03T11:03:00.000-08:002009-02-03T11:03:00.000-08:00I hope to see better in the future from everyone.D...<I>I hope to see better in the future from everyone.</I><BR/><BR/>Don't forget all the theories about the true identities of all those commenters on Althouse. Like the mysterious and hostile dowtownlad. Some people think he's Sully, and at times hasn't he been Glenn Greenwald? And didn't someone postulate long ago that Cyrus Pinkerton (I think) was Amanda Marcotte? It goes on and on.<BR/><BR/>How about this one: titus = Anderson Cooper?<BR/><BR/>Far-fetched? Maybe. But just imagine AC writing that stuff. It's good for some laughs at least.knoxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13231876226573540476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268985416439660021.post-41164313700071574352009-02-03T04:34:00.000-08:002009-02-03T04:34:00.000-08:00I mean, we have to believe that Palin faked a preg...<I>I mean, we have to believe that Palin faked a pregnancy to protect her daughter who immediately got pregnant again and delivered because... Why, exactly?</I><BR/><BR/>The only thing I have been able to come up with, is this, Blake.<BR/><BR/>Palin represents the conservative paradigm in absolute terms. The perfect storm of religiosity, conservative politics, and heroic personal life story.<BR/><BR/>Instead of being someone worthy of praise (even if you disagree with her politics), she represents a kind of woman that they secretly suspects still exists, one completely untouched by modern feminism in its victimhood sense, and that cannot be allowed to stand. It would upset too many apple-carts, including their own parallel choices.<BR/><BR/>So in this counter-narrative of theirs, instead of a selfless mother who abided by her religious scruples to give birth to a "flawed" child, she must be turned into a conniving, heartless religious fiend who finds her daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy so insulting, that she takes it on herself to deceive people about her "grandchild"'s parentage.<BR/><BR/>(Of course, one of the twists about this narrative is that Todd is the father of this baby, born of an incestuous liaison)<BR/><BR/>In essence, what the anti-Trig conspiracists are saying is that Palin would do ANYTHING to hide the fact that she is a great big hypocrite. <BR/><BR/>I don't know if you recall me saying this, but actually, despite being rather jaded about conspiracies, when I heard this Daily Kos-rumour happen in real time that day on Althouse, I cried.<BR/><BR/>I mean, I couldn't believe they would use a helpless Down Syndrome baby to attempt to bring down a politician they feared.<BR/><BR/>They're sick.<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/>Victoriavbspurshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00992013640447117624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268985416439660021.post-88610194395118944352009-02-03T04:07:00.000-08:002009-02-03T04:07:00.000-08:00I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT TRIG TRUTHERISM!That was ...I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT TRIG TRUTHERISM!<BR/><BR/>That was one of the really and truly lame inspirations for this post. <BR/><BR/>I mean, we have to believe that Palin faked a pregnancy to protect her daughter who immediately got pregnant again and delivered because... Why, exactly?<BR/><BR/>I think you're on to something as far as the angle to these new theories: It's tied in heavily to political partisanship, which isn't something I heard about Apollo, nor even about JFK. (It probably was alleged that the Reps killed him, but that's never come up in my reading.)<BR/><BR/>It's also enough, apparently, to simply argue that the official explanation is inadequate--though that was true of JFK as well.<BR/><BR/>It's the combination of superpowers and incompetence that I find most fascinating of partisanship.<BR/><BR/>Do people still write books? I've been out of print for ten years now! :-)blakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05430444326700437630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268985416439660021.post-24271120645363689052009-02-03T03:35:00.000-08:002009-02-03T03:35:00.000-08:00On a lighter note, another dumb conspiracy making ...<I>On a lighter note, another dumb conspiracy making the rounds is the "Obama wasn't born in America" theory. This requires us to believe that the State of Hawaii is hiding something (apparently in a many-decade anticipation of Obama's eventual Presidential bid) and that there's not a single Republican or Hillary supporter able to sneak that evidence out.</I><BR/><BR/>Blake, I love your post here, because like mine it begins to touch upon some of the themes about the genre I find absorbing (in my case, in a negative way).<BR/><BR/>I think if you and I put our heads together, we could research the topic in such a way as to possibly create a book out of it.<BR/><BR/>(The topic certainly needs an update from the very good, but basic, <A HREF="http://www.danielpipes.org/books/conspiracy.php" REL="nofollow">book</A> by the estimable Daniel Pipes)<BR/><BR/>I like that you ended with the latest conspiracy theory making the American rounds, albeit seconded by the equally moronic Palin-Not-Trig's-Mother one:<BR/><BR/>That Obama was born in Kenya and not in Hawaii.<BR/><BR/>What is fascinating in an expected way is that the people who are pushing is meme are not just right-wingers (though sadly, there are plenty of those doing so). The two main champions of this theory are two Truthers, Andy Martin and Philip J. Berg.<BR/><BR/>As I mentioned in my blogpost, just the mere association with Trutherism discounts whatever else the person has to say for me.<BR/><BR/>So even if I were inclined to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Obama had somehow retroactively thought that their son would be President of the United States one day, and tried to cover up the fact that he wasn't born on US soil, I would dismiss it for that reason alone.<BR/><BR/>Likewise, if Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy and wasn't even in the Depository Bldg, why did he bring "curtain rods" on the day of the assassination, then kill Officer Tippett in cold blood after a routine stop, not to mention mysteriously turning up at the cinema during work hours?<BR/><BR/>Ack. The mind reels, then flips then caterwauls in agony.<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/>Victoriavbspurshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00992013640447117624noreply@blogger.com