Obama vs. Bush Derangement Syndrom

headscratcher4

Philosopher
headscratcher4
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http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/04/cantor-event-heritage/

Ok, I’ll admit to more than one attack of Bush Derangement Syndrome over the course of the Bush years. But now I see stuff like that above, and wonder was that me in the mirror? Possibly.

Anyway, Obama Derangement Syndrome, worse, not as bad, about the same?

My biased sense – based on my own peculiar epistemological closure – is that it is worse: claims of being anti-American, not born in this country, secretly working to bring down America, undermining America abroad… but, as said, I do recognize the limitations of the media outlets I select.

What do others think?
 
I think I'm fairly ignorant about these disorders. Are they in the MSV-IV?
 
headscratcher4 said:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/04/cantor-event-heritage/

Ok, I’ll admit to more than one attack of Bush Derangement Syndrome over the course of the Bush years. But now I see stuff like that above, and wonder was that me in the mirror? Possibly.

Anyway, Obama Derangement Syndrome, worse, not as bad, about the same?

My biased sense – based on my own peculiar epistemological closure – is that it is worse: claims of being anti-American, not born in this country, secretly working to bring down America, undermining America abroad… but, as said, I do recognize the limitations of the media outlets I select.

What do others think?
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Worse. Definitely worse.

The US did indeed attack Iraq based on a pack of lies. The "Patriot Act" was indeed passed. The 2000 and 2004 elections were indeed, if not outright fishy, then more amateurishly and ineptly conducted than in any other First World country in the last couple of decades.

Whereas, on the other hand, Obama is NOT a secret muslim. He is NOT a secret communist. He is NOT really a Kenyan/Indonesian/whatever pretending to be natural born citizen. He did NOT propose or install death panels. And so on...
 
BDS sufferer: Bush is out to destroy the Constitution. Bush is Hitler.
ODS sufferer: Obama is out to destroy Western Civilization.* Obama is Hilter + communist + fascist + Muslim + atheist + not American

I think the latter are more over the top than the former.


_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* an actual accusation from Rush Limbaugh.
 
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Again, my own bias may be showing, but it seems to me that the single greatest difference between BDS and ODS is who is deranged. By this I mean that with Bush, so many who decried Bush in the harshest terms were relegated to the nutter fringes and dismissed as the looney left.

It seems -- a gut reaction -- that more "establishment" types are prone to go more than a little nuts when it comes to Obama. I don't know, but I don't think that Franklin Graham is considered, for example, the right-wing mirror of, say, Al Sharpton, but Graham has said beware of Obama and that persecution of people for being believing Christians is coming.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/04/franklin-graham-obama-giv_n_562586.html
(I know, Huffpost is in and of itself a biased source)

But, while the likes of Al Sharpton or Noam Chomsky riled the right with their criticisms of Bush, they nonetheless are individuals of limited authority and audience...whereas with Obama it seem like some of the most powerful broadcasters in the country...Beck, Limbaugh, etc. -- have taken up the chant that somehow Obama is anti-America, etc.

While I think there are similarities in the shrillness of ODS sufferers, I can't help but think that the fact their cultural and establishment prominence makes them somewhat worse.
 
KingMerv00 said:
Another vote for "same" here. The real syndrome is confirmation bias.
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Yes, that's the problem. Can you imagine the outrage if somebody were to make a TV movie about the assassination of Obama? And yet someone did make a TV movie about the assassination of Bush. The outrage is always selective.

I also note that the OP references a question asked by an audience member, and that the Republican representative (Eric Cantor) rejected the characterization of Obama as a domestic enemy.
 
And was, according to the story, booed for his failure to embrace the accusation....but one wonders what Cantor might have said were there no cameras...I mean he did agree to speak to this audience and he must surely have had some idea of who belonged to this organizations.
 
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Brainster said:
Yes, that's the problem. Can you imagine the outrage if somebody were to make a TV movie about the assassination of Obama? And yet someone did make a TV movie about the assassination of Bush. The outrage is always selective.
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It's fun to compare:

BDS
Bush has the IQ of a carrot
Bush hates Muslims
Bush doesn't care about black people
Bush started a war to avenge his father
Bush is planning martial law

ODS
Obama is radical Muslim
Obama is radical communist
Obama hates Muslims
Obama hates Jews
Obama is planning martial law
 
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And Certain Politicians in both parties are willing to play footise with militants if they think it will win them political advantage. Quite a few of the more liberal Dems were definently flirting with the militant left in the Bush years.
 
Chaos said:
Worse. Definitely worse.

The US did indeed attack Iraq based on a pack of lies. The "Patriot Act" was indeed passed. The 2000 and 2004 elections were indeed, if not outright fishy, then more amateurishly and ineptly conducted than in any other First World country in the last couple of decades.

Whereas, on the other hand, Obama is NOT a secret muslim. He is NOT a secret communist. He is NOT really a Kenyan/Indonesian/whatever pretending to be natural born citizen. He did NOT propose or install death panels. And so on...
Click to expand...

Translation: Bush Derangement Syndrome was normal and natural, and Obama Derangement Syndrome is nutty and unnatural. Whose ox, indeed, is being gored?

BTW, I note that Obama pushed for the extension of the Patriot Act. Doesn't this make Obama Derangement Syndrome normal and natural?
 
It doesn't have to be a two-way race. Hillary Derangement Syndrome is just as fervid.
 
There are a few principles upon which my distinction between BDS and ODS is founded:
  • I'm not one of those wackos that inhabit the extremist fringes of both factions.
  • My faction's most extreme opinions are consistently marginalized by my faction's mainstream.
  • The other faction, on the other hand, consistently adopts extreme opinions as part of their mainstream position.
  • The flaws of my faction's leadership and figureheads are both understandable and largely excusable.
  • The flaws of the other faction's leadership and figureheads represent gross character defects and jeopardize the commonwealth in a variety of serious ways.

Naturally, based on these principles I conclude that BDS is a serious problem that plagues the mainstream left. ODS, meanwhile, is a fringe far outside the mainstream right. Most of the things that get called ODS are actually legitimate and sober criticism.

Or is it the other way around?
 
I found the birthers about as distasteful as the Swift boaters who went after Kerry ... no, moreso. I had to start auto deleting emails from my cousin who lived in Maine, even after I sent him emails pointing out that the whole born in Hawaii a few years after I was born in DC was end of story, would he please stop sending me that crap?

Close call. Not sure which annoys me more.

DR
 
Chaos said:
The 2000 and 2004 elections were indeed, if not outright fishy, then more amateurishly and ineptly conducted than in any other First World country in the last couple of decades.
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And don't forget all the cases of voter fraud with ACORN in 2008. Oh wait, that was in Obama's favor, never mind.

Chaos said:
He is NOT a secret communist.
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Who said he's a communist? I thought he was a socialist?

Ladewig said:
BDS sufferer: Bush is out to destroy the Constitution. Bush is Hitler.
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Don't forget he created Hurricane Katrina with his weather machine and aimed it at the poor neighborhoods of New Orleans.
Ladewig said:
ODS sufferer: Obama is out to destroy Western Civilization.* Obama is Hilter + communist + fascist + Muslim + atheist + not American
Click to expand...
Is atheism a bad thing?
 
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