The “War on Christmas” Has a New Commander!
I confess I hadn’t heard about this latest broadside from the knuckle-draggers of the inbred right wing yet, but I was quite unsurprised by it.
This latest meme about the President can join the rest of the right wing paranoid fantasies. These include (but are not limited to) his practicing of a radical form of Islam, his cocaine use, his closet homosexuality, his Kenyan citizenship, his intent to set up “death panels” to rid us of unproductive elderly white people, his plans to recruit youngsters into homosexuality by indoctrinating them in the ways of gayness from an early age, his parallel plans to indoctrinate said youngsters into Communism at the same time, his setting up of secret concentration camps across America…. man, I can hardly wait for what these idiots will come up with next.
And I personally know people who will eat this latest serving of smelly shit, and demand more. Sad, that is.
“It must be true. I read it on the Internet.” Those, I submit, are 10 of the most idiotic words one can utter.
But, oh boy, do folks utter them in this new Information Age. I know. I hear it all the time. The utterances come from those with a point of view they want to propagate.
Consider this latest gem that flew in over the transom.
A courteous lady from San Antonio called to tell me about an e-mail she had received. It supposedly was from someone who allegedly knows an artist from Amarillo who every year sends Christmas ornaments to be hung on the White House Christmas tree.
So, she was passing on third-hand information as truth.
I must stipulate that the caller declared her antipathy toward President Obama. I’ll give her credit for laying her bias on the table.
The White House, according to the e-mail – which the caller forwarded to me – invites artists to send ornaments to be hung on the White House Christmas tree. It’s all changed this year – allegedly. The artist “got her letter from the WH recently,” the e-mail states. “They will be called Holiday trees. And, to please not send any ornaments painted with a religious theme.”
The note ends: “Just thought you should know what the new residents in the WH plan for the future of America. If you missed his statement that ‘we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation,’ this should confirm that he plans to take us away from our religious roots as quickly as possible.”
I made two points to the caller.
One, the anonymity of the e-mail makes me wince. I give next-to-zero credence to anything sent without someone’s name. I urged the caller to do the same. “I don’t agree with the president’s policies,” she said, expressing doubt about Obama’s repeated statements that he is a practicing Christian, declaring that he is becoming too cozy with Muslims.
Two, had the White House actually made such a statement about the White House Christmas tree, I told her, the media would be exploding with stories of outrage from tens of millions of Americans.
The media – including right-wing talk radio – have been quiet, I reminded the caller. She agreed, but she believes the e-mail to be true. Therefore, she was passing this tidbit on as fact.
Sigh. How does one combat such ignorance?
You can’t. If these people can convince themselves that the President is a Communist and a Nazi at the same time (ignoring the obvious clashes inherent in the two philosophies’ economic systems and the Nazi fixation on racial purity,) then they are pretty much open to whatever outrageous lie is being cooked up for them to believe. They believe this bullshit because they WANT to believe it.
Bless their hearts, they are guaranteeing morons like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh employment, at least.
Tags: ignorance, lies, obama, religion, rushpublicans, war on christmas
October 15th, 2009 at 10:28 am
What is the link supposed to take us to? I go to a Road Runner page with lots of links but no article.
I’m probably just missing it.
As far as Obama being the focus of criticism by the rightwing, there’s a lot of substantial things they could list.
For example, I am really freaked out by Obama’s obsession with Afghanistan and the troubling Vietnam-like quality our involvement seems to be taking.
The president has a fool by the name of Stan McCrystal in charge who seems to have no awareness of, or interest in, the history of foreign invaders who tried to make Afghanistan the jewel in our crown. The Brits tried a century ago and were sent packing. The former USSR tried and it turned into their Vietnam.
Yet, in the final days of the American Empire, we still operate as if we’re still a superpower and can invade and occupy any country in the world and control the outcome. Talk about arrogance.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Christopher,
I get the article when I click through?
October 15th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Yes, now it works fine. Thanks.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:08 am
I was having a rare conversation with a neighbor yesterday and he mentioned that he had read that Obama was a “dope smoker” and “one of them ‘gays’.” I took a deep breath, shook my head, and reluctantly asked where he reads such nonsense. His reply was confident and quick: “Its all over the internets and they have people who check that stuff for facts and if it wasn’t true it wouldn’t be there.”
I gotta get outta this place…..
October 15th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Good idea, Mike. Let’s get outta this internet and go to another one!