Following the reveal that the IRS had been using keywords like “Patriot” and “Tea Party” to identify social welfare organizations that required further review before being granted tax exempt status (which is totally logical by the way), I came across an article in Slate about the side effects of this “Worst Conspiracy in American History!!!!”
The article looked at a robust group of protest-sign-sporting Tea Partiers who were having a grand ‘ole time trying to show how patriotic they are (but not political, of course… because then they’d have to pay taxes… protesting in Washington, DC is an act of “social welfare,” apparently…)
Yes, the IRS messed up. It should have singled out ALL 501(c)3’s. There are just so many more of them on the “Tea Party” side of the fence, which made it easier to spot them with keywords. Right now, as usual, everyone is too riled up in the excitement of a good scandal to see reason. Moreover, every single one of the whining Tea Party Patriot “social welfare” groups was granted their coveted tax exempt status, anyway… so as usual in politics: what’s the point?
Sadly, rancor, wild rhetoric, and product-selling-paranoia make up the backbone, cornerstone, and keystone of the extreme right-wing – that’s the point of this article. We’re likely stuck with the Politics of the Paranoid for at least 2 or 3 more national election cycles. All we can do is try to mitigate the damage being caused by the extreme right-wing by staying true to facts, logic, and a bit of compassion.
Back to the article: the article covering these Tea Party protesters further illustrated how totally absurd politics of the Right Wing have become since America elected a black man President of the United States. Extreme democrats might spend too much time talking to their plants and checking for the recycle symbol, but at least they don’t entirely exist inside an information bubble, or behave like people in psych wards ranting that the boogieman is out to get them. In a free country we all must accept a certain amount of “crazy”… but I’d rather have the sort who hug trees than the sort who constantly incite fear, paranoia, ignorance, and hate.
From Slate: “The paranoia quotient was unusually high. People who had shown up outside the IRS, bureaucrats occasionally glancing down at them, were shy about revealing their identifies. A half-dozen activists, happy enough to talk, would only give me their first names. Another man walked the perimeter wearing a paper bag with holes cut out for visibility: His “mask of intimidation and fear.” And another activist, a man wearing a T-shirt with the visage of the late Andrew Breitbart, briefly argued with a cameraman—“film my shirt, not my face”—before wrapping his head in a green scarf.” Full Story.
Humans have always loved concocting conspiracies and lore to explain things they cannot understand, but the extreme right-wing has turned it into an art form that is also worn as a badge of honor, ideology purity – a sense of self-worth and belonging.
A person in America cannot identify themselves as a (or at least be accepted by) loyal Right Wing Conservatives UNLESS they are paranoid to the point of the rest of the country being motivated to dig into the details of the Obamacare text to see if it has mental health benefits that will cover these poor, paranoid, patriotic souls.
Can someone in the United States be a staunch conservative without being a paranoid ideologue?
I don’t think so – at least not in the short term. What it means to be a “true conservative” has mutated into being a wee bit… ok… a lot bit… paranoid (have you attended your local county meeting or townhall lately? All things lead to Agenda 21… it’s truly amazing). It’s an unspoken part of the true conservative party platform: fear thy government to the extent of bunker-building! In the far right republican mind, to love one’s country means to fear – with all one’s might – that the government (and most definitely the U.N.) will one day show up at your front door, throw you into prison, confiscate all your property, and populate your street with the original cast of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
This isn’t hyperbole… I live in California, in a purple district, and even our county supervisor meetings are 2 hours longer than they used to be due entirely to the public comment period which is now dominated by people who literally yell to the room about the latest conspiracies of the far right. It’s odd, fascinating, theatrical, and based entirely on paranoid log posts people dig up online on weekends… sort of like Fox News.
The tough part – the glue that binds the extreme right wing paranoid to the Republican Party as a whole – is that the extreme right cannot exist without this paranoia, and the Republican Party cannot win in red districts without support of the extreme right. If the far right didn’t wear paranoid fanaticism as a badge of honor and identity it literally would not exist. The paranoia and fear mongering brought them together as a group, so if the cause were to dissipate, so too would the extreme right.
And we all know the right-wing media (especially those who have nothing more than an online broadcast) will never let the paranoia go because it’s their bread and butter – it pays for their mansions, cigars, and automobile-based analogs of Viagra.
Paranoid conspiracy theories don’t feed the far right – they are the far right. To be a Tea Party Patriot is to be a paranoid citizen of America. Incredibly odd… and must be a very difficult way to go through life.
The biggest mistake of American Politics – and culture – and stability – in the 21st century is that the medical community has not added “Tea Party Paranoia” to the official book of psychological disorders. It is something that, by any other name, would justify medication, empathy, and group counseling.
If any person were as paranoid about anything other than politics as Tea Party Patriots are about the government, you’d find a unanimous vote by friends and colleagues to get that person psychological help. In politics, however, it’s condoned and even encouraged by those who are willing to make money off of instilling fear and soul-breaking paranoia into the masses of those who don’t know any better.
People who should be true educators of the public – those who have a platform and a following who listen to them – are using it more often to incite more paranoia than teach Truth, compassion, and productivity. It’s a sad state of affairs. But once again, since it’s political – anything goes. I for one prefer responsibility, facts, and compassion in my politics – not exploitation and fear mongering.
I say it again: if those people were out there with bags over their heads shouting abbot anything except politics, we would nearly unanimously say they need psychological help. But in politics, any behavior creates channels of making money – and that’s where it all goes to metaphorical sh*t.
Alex Jones: your listeners need help, not your lies peppered in paranoid hyperbole that cause those poor people to have nightmares about fabricated ghosts and zombies piloting black helicopters. That you choose every day to worsen what should be considered a near debilitating condition shows us all what kind of person you really are: pathetic, sad, small, and cruel.
