I never thought I'd live to see Republicans voting for 9/11 Truthers, and party leadership putting them into important positions. No sense of shame. Weren't they the party who forced us into war over 9/11? And rammed through lots of Homeland Security laws that make the average person feel scared and uncomfortable? And that was all for nothing, huh?
I never thought I'd live to see Republicans voting for 9/11 Truthers, and party leadership putting them into important positions. No sense of shame. Weren't they the party who forced us into war over 9/11? And rammed through lots of Homeland Security laws that make the average person feel scared and uncomfortable? And that was all for nothing, huh?
It's important to remember the past doesn't exist for these people. Nor does the future. They know they can't defend what they've previously advocated for. There's only now, and that's where the fight has to occur. Unfortunately, our media is a mixture of credulous and incompetent.
Most of the 9/11 Truthers I know are conservatives, not liberals. I grew up in Queens and was 15 when 9/11 happen. It started out as the first liberal conspiracy theory I came into contact with in my life, with most adherents being anti-Bush liberals. Michael Moore even delves into this territory a bit in "Fahrenheit 9/11" when discussing the Carlyle Group and Bush's responses to Dick Clark's warnings about Bin Laden being "determined" to strike the US. I put the turn from that particular conspiracy being a left-wing one to a right-wing one around 2008 at the end of the Bush 43 presidency. By then, the war in Iraq had deteriorated after we never found WMDs in Iraq, and Dick Cheney's KBR was making a killing on no-bid government contracts. For GOP grass roots voters who were serving in the wars, this was a turning point for them and they saw the writing on the wall. The financial crisis later that year and the TARP bailouts exacerbated that move away from the GOP elites.
The only thing tethering the proto-MAGA base to their elites who kept using them as recycled cannon fodder in the war on terror was the "threat" of America's first black president. They got into a lot of conspiracy theories from there--mostly via Alex Jones and the new "alt-media" like Breitbart, Ron Paul's popularity within the grass roots base skyrocketed, and when Romney lost to Obama in 2012, the proto-MAGA base finally turned on their elites and by 2016 they chose Trump as the form of their destructor to take on the "globalist government." Now it's mostly a right-wing conspiracy because if you believe in "globalist governments" then you probably think that 9/11 was an inside job organized by "globalists" to strengthen their hold over governments and the hold that those governments have over the economy.
Point being: MAGA sees the Bush dynasty as being "the other side of the same coin" with the powerful liberals who they think run "globalist governments," so their radicalism against both "the coin" and the globalism it controls doesn't see color in political parties, it sees wealth and power backing both sides and THAT is their enemy. The "old money" power players who control everything in government, economics, and foreign policy. That's why they see conspiracy theorists as their friends and conservative old money ivy league grads as imposters. That's why they chose Trump over Rubio or Cruz in 2015. He was THEIR conspiracy theorist in chief. He saw things the way they did. The whole "I gave money to both dems and republicans all these years because I KNOW the system is rigged" had a message that really resonated with the MAGA base because it is true.
There are very clear boundaries to MAGA and they are policed (for the most part). People that do not toe the line get "canceled."
This is par for the course with most strong in/out group structures. It isn't that the boundaries make sense or are true, or are consistent across the spectrum--it is that they exist and are simple to understand. Very much in/out, good/bad what zero tolerance or allowance for context or thought.
Lots of code words and slogans that mean something specific to the in group in comparison to what they mean to the out group. Things get compacted and simplified and sloganized.
The "leadership" (which does no actual leading) must toe the line or get purged. Same thing with the rank and file. It is almost religious in function and behavior... and given time it tends to eat itself, barring some form of control being imposed.
I do not see anyone in a position (currently) to impose that control--not in the GoP and not in the MAGA movement.
I never thought I'd live to see Republicans voting for 9/11 Truthers, and party leadership putting them into important positions. No sense of shame. Weren't they the party who forced us into war over 9/11? And rammed through lots of Homeland Security laws that make the average person feel scared and uncomfortable? And that was all for nothing, huh?
It's important to remember the past doesn't exist for these people. Nor does the future. They know they can't defend what they've previously advocated for. There's only now, and that's where the fight has to occur. Unfortunately, our media is a mixture of credulous and incompetent.
It is less about credulousness and (in)competence than it is about profit.
I don't think it's mutually exclusive.
Most of the 9/11 Truthers I know are conservatives, not liberals. I grew up in Queens and was 15 when 9/11 happen. It started out as the first liberal conspiracy theory I came into contact with in my life, with most adherents being anti-Bush liberals. Michael Moore even delves into this territory a bit in "Fahrenheit 9/11" when discussing the Carlyle Group and Bush's responses to Dick Clark's warnings about Bin Laden being "determined" to strike the US. I put the turn from that particular conspiracy being a left-wing one to a right-wing one around 2008 at the end of the Bush 43 presidency. By then, the war in Iraq had deteriorated after we never found WMDs in Iraq, and Dick Cheney's KBR was making a killing on no-bid government contracts. For GOP grass roots voters who were serving in the wars, this was a turning point for them and they saw the writing on the wall. The financial crisis later that year and the TARP bailouts exacerbated that move away from the GOP elites.
The only thing tethering the proto-MAGA base to their elites who kept using them as recycled cannon fodder in the war on terror was the "threat" of America's first black president. They got into a lot of conspiracy theories from there--mostly via Alex Jones and the new "alt-media" like Breitbart, Ron Paul's popularity within the grass roots base skyrocketed, and when Romney lost to Obama in 2012, the proto-MAGA base finally turned on their elites and by 2016 they chose Trump as the form of their destructor to take on the "globalist government." Now it's mostly a right-wing conspiracy because if you believe in "globalist governments" then you probably think that 9/11 was an inside job organized by "globalists" to strengthen their hold over governments and the hold that those governments have over the economy.
Point being: MAGA sees the Bush dynasty as being "the other side of the same coin" with the powerful liberals who they think run "globalist governments," so their radicalism against both "the coin" and the globalism it controls doesn't see color in political parties, it sees wealth and power backing both sides and THAT is their enemy. The "old money" power players who control everything in government, economics, and foreign policy. That's why they see conspiracy theorists as their friends and conservative old money ivy league grads as imposters. That's why they chose Trump over Rubio or Cruz in 2015. He was THEIR conspiracy theorist in chief. He saw things the way they did. The whole "I gave money to both dems and republicans all these years because I KNOW the system is rigged" had a message that really resonated with the MAGA base because it is true.
There are very clear boundaries to MAGA and they are policed (for the most part). People that do not toe the line get "canceled."
This is par for the course with most strong in/out group structures. It isn't that the boundaries make sense or are true, or are consistent across the spectrum--it is that they exist and are simple to understand. Very much in/out, good/bad what zero tolerance or allowance for context or thought.
Lots of code words and slogans that mean something specific to the in group in comparison to what they mean to the out group. Things get compacted and simplified and sloganized.
The "leadership" (which does no actual leading) must toe the line or get purged. Same thing with the rank and file. It is almost religious in function and behavior... and given time it tends to eat itself, barring some form of control being imposed.
I do not see anyone in a position (currently) to impose that control--not in the GoP and not in the MAGA movement.
ЁЯТп %!!!!!!!!!!!!