Despite being known for our sunny disposition and indefatigable spirit, we present to our loyal readers the latest edition of "WE'RE DOOMED" (C) Justice Building Blog and Rumpole, 2021 all rights and wrongs reserved.
The next time you're picking a jury with a venire of 50 members (stretch your imagination a little) know that 8 or 9 of them believe that "a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics." 17 of them "believe that voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election." Source: NPR/Ipsos Poll. The numbers are even higher if you include those perpetually scowling individuals who are so insecure they put their chairs a bit higher than everyone else and always wear black. (No post is good without a gratuitous shot at the judiciary). At least a 145 Republican Congressmen and women (and one complete lunatic) believe the Joe Biden-Democrats-stole-the-election- conspiracy theory.
The scary part of conspiracy theorists is that they have lost all capacity for rational thought. One study found that "the more participants believed Bin Laden was dead before special forces killed him, the more they also believed he was still alive." Ditto with those who believed Princes Diana was murdered, and is also still alive. Elvis has left the building...in a coffin...but eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich.
What should be no surprise is that study after study shows that losers are the ones who drawn to conspiracy theories. See American Conspiracy Theories, by Uscinski and Parent. That is why Trump, who lost the popular vote in 2016 was a conspiracy theorist from the beginning of his misbegotten presidency. People who are downtrodden, uneducated, and not introspective buy into conspiracy theories. Rather than look at their own short comings, they look for anything else to explain their losses and their lack of success. A recent Pew poll found 75% of Trump votes believed Trump won the recent election. Trump voters are losers, in more ways than one. Losers need conspiracy theories to explain their losses when they cannot accept their own shortcomings.
Fear also drives conspiracy theories. Take masks. Masks are the symbol of Covid-19. Covid 19 cannot be seen with the naked eye. Fear is the root of most anger. For a certain percentage of people who are the most afraid of something that they cannot see or understand, the embodiment of that hidden monster- the Mask- becomes the focal point of their anger. Logically masks would keep the most fearful safe. But some people need a way to vent their fear. It is the same counter-intuitive reason why some people who are afraid of heights get an almost uncontrollable urge to jump from a ski lift.
So here is where we sit in 2021. 17% of the American Public believe certain high-level democrats engage in pedophilia and Satan worshipping. Most of the Republican party believes Ted Cruz's father was part of the plot to kill President Kennedy. Republicans elect members to Congress who assault children who were shot and want to kill Nancy Pelosi. They believe that Jewish Bankers control lasers from space and that Barack Obama was spirited from his birth place in Africa because on the night of his birth a star appeared foretelling his ascendency to the Presidency if only his US citizenship could be faked. John Lewis or Sam Rayburn or Tip O'Neil they are not.
Rather than rally to a tough fight, Covid has caused our country-men and women to lose their minds. We are doomed.
We are doomed, especially when most of the criminal defense attorneys in Miami believe a certain blog is written by a cabal of ex-members of England's Queen Council trying to make Miami Vegan, communist, and fueled by solar power.
OUR FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE WE ARE DOOMED SOCIETY:
The seminal work on this topic is Anti Intellectualism In American Life by Richard Hofstadter published in 1963.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/amp/When-the-CIA-ran-a-LSD-sex-house-in-San-Francisco-7223346.php
DeleteUntil this was declassified, it was a conspiracy theory too. Bunch of losers!