Is This Country Going Nuts?

[Walter Ego]

Has the popular election of an African-American to the presidency driven this country over the edge? Birthers, deathers, the Obama is Hitler meme (it wasn't so long ago when George Bush was Hitler... ah, nostalgia!), Obama as the avatar of our robot overlords (aka the Glen Beck/Alex Jones convergence) or is this just a periodic outbreak of insanity from my neck of the woods?

Just asking...

 

[Upchurch]

A little bit, yes.

 

[tesscaline]

Going? No. I don't think this country is much more insane than it has been for the past several decades. It's just that all the crazies are starting to speak up a tad louder than they used to, and are getting more air time than before.

 

[Thunder]

The election of a black, Liberal, Indonesian-raised President has indeed awoken the sleeping bigoted American dragon.

 

[Just thinking]

What makes you think it's any more nuts now than it's been for the last 40 - 45 years?

 

[applecorped]

Business as usual.

 

[gtc]

These conspiracies do seem to resonate among more of the mainstream right than of the mainstream left. However, the fact that people were saying the exact same things about Bush and Clinton before him suggests that, at most, it is a matter of degree.

I don't know to what extent it has to do with race. I can't get my head around why fifty percent African means he is Black but fifty percent European doesn't count for anything.

 

[Thunder]

I don't know to what extent it has to do with race. I can't get my head why fifty percent African means he is Black but fifty percent European doesn't count for anything.

maybe its because black genes are dominant and white ones are recessive.

 

[gtc]

maybe its because black genes are dominant and white ones are recessive.

Are they?

Even if that is the case, even people who aren't conversant with genetics seem to think he is more black than white.

 

[Mitchell314]

What makes you think it's any more nuts now than it's been for the last 40 - 45 years?

The president is always the anti-Christ/Hitler reincarnate. And the next one will be too.

 

[Walter Ego]

I don't know to what extent it has to do with race. I can't get my head around why fifty percent African means he is Black but fifty percent European doesn't count for anything.

Not to put it too delicately, but does Obama look like anything but a black man? He could have two white parents and would still be considered a black man in this country. That's the reality of race in America.

 

[gtc]

Not to put it too delicately, but does Obama look like anything but a black man? He could have two white parents and would still be considered a black man in this country. That's the reality of race in America.

I see what you are saying but that is part of my point too. What Americans consider black doesn't seem that close to actual Africans.

 

[Tricky]

maybe its because black genes are dominant and white ones are recessive.

Are they?

Yes, but it is not a Mendelian type of relationship where there is a single gene controlling a single trait. Skin color is a complex characteristic which is influenced by a number of different genes and resulting in all sorts of "in between" variations. So it is a tremendous oversimplification to call blackness "dominant".

Class is over. Back on the soapbox.

 

[Tricky]

Not to put it too delicately, but does Obama look like anything but a black man? He could have two white parents and would still be considered a black man in this country. That's the reality of race in America.

I see what you are saying but that is part of my point too. What Americans consider black doesn't seem that close to actual Africans.

Obama and Tiger Woods looks like men of mixed "race". How weird is that?

 

[David Wong]

The president is always the anti-Christ/Hitler reincarnate. And the next one will be too.

Yeah, this is just how we roll. 90% of it is said because people get high off the reaction from the other side. "Ha! I made them really really angry with something I said! I am awesome and powerful! Now let me think of something else that will outrage them!"

Just playground games.

 

[skeptical]

Funny, I was thinking of starting a thread basically on the same topic. Yeah, I know, crazies have been around for a long time, the US has a history of anti-government rhetoric, yada, yada, etc.

However, yesterday I had the displeasure of watching Glenn Beck for about 10 minutes (as much as I could stand as my head was starting to hurt from repeatedly slapping my forehead). The man is certifiable. He took one of the most innocuous things I have ever seen from a group of artists and somehow was trying to twist it into some grand conspiracy about...propaganda or something I couldn't really follow it, but it was something really evil. He's delusional, really. And he's on a major network.

Second case in point: Obama's going to give a speech to kids in school, focusing on how they need to take responsibility to learn as much as possible to be competitive in the global market place. The reaction from the Republican party: Obama wants to indoctrinate kids in socialism and the lesson plans are "greatly slanted toward activism" (Michelle Malakin). I read them, and there's nothing even remotely "activist" about them, they are nothing if not benign.

People are bringing semi-auto's to presidential speaking engagements. Ex VP's are defending torture and Ex almost-VP's are claiming Obama wants to murder their elderly and deny care to their handicapped children.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I just don't recall this level of insanity from people who are supposed to be "serious" bastions of public discussion. Its one thing for crazies to be crazies, but it seems different for major public figures to not just cater to the crazies but to BE some of the crazies.

 

[zaphod2016]

Going? No. I don't think this country is much more insane than it has been for the past several decades. It's just that all the crazies are starting to speak up a tad louder than they used to, and are getting more air time than before.

The Republicans haven't been an opposition party since the late 90's, so its natural to expect a bit of a learning curve as they re-adjust to their old role.

I expect this will quiet down after the 2010 elections, at which point Obama will lose the Democrat majority in Congress.

 

[LostAngeles]

These conspiracies do seem to resonate among more of the mainstream right than of the mainstream left. However, the fact that people were saying the exact same things about Bush and Clinton before him suggests that, at most, it is a matter of degree.

I don't know to what extent it has to do with race. I can't get my head around why fifty percent African means he is Black but fifty percent European doesn't count for anything.

maybe its because black genes are dominant and white ones are recessive.

Are they?

Even if that is the case, even people who aren't conversant with genetics seem to think he is more black than white.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule

I'm going to assume neither of you are American.

Obama and Tiger Woods looks like men of mixed "race". How weird is that?

****. Why did I get stuck looking like a Middle-Eastern Mexican Hawaiian Sicilian Egyptian then?

 

[Brainster]

I will admit that I am enjoying the madness from my own side of the aisle about as little as I enjoyed the madness from the other side of the aisle for the prior eight years.

 

[Rolfe]

Not to put it too delicately, but does Obama look like anything but a black man? He could have two white parents and would still be considered a black man in this country. That's the reality of race in America.

I wonder if it's spreading? Last year I helped in a by-election campaign, and it so happened I hadn't seen any pictures of the Conservative candidate while I was canvassing. Then a day or so before the actual poll I caught a late-night TV broadcast she was in, and I remember thinking, she's quite dark-skinned, but didn't think any more about it.

Then later, after the poll I think, I caught another interview with her, and she was going on about how great is was the the Tories had selected a black single mother as their candidate.



Here's her homepage.

I have to say she looked a little darker than this in the TV interview, maybe because the Labour and SNP candidates both happened to have very fair hair, but honestly!

Rolfe.