How To Discredit An Idea

Without really trying all that hard. SeeDubya at Junk Yard Blog takes a righteous smack at the people suddenly talking smack about weird conspiracy theories.

Many within the Republican Party–most of them principled conservatives who are right on nearly everything else–disagree with me on the priority of controlling what comes across the border. I think there are a few who are scoundrels and adopt the position they take out of greed or out of some weird ideological quirk. Some of them don't like the rhetoric and the personalities calling for tighter borders and allow that dislike to affect their position. A few of them are dumb or remain willfully ignorant of the risks our current border situation poses (I was in this latter camp myself until about, oh, 9/12/01).

But most of them are simply people who disagree with me–they are people who have thought about the issue and weigh the risks and costs differently than I do. They're loyal Americans and they want what's best for the country. They just happen to be wrong about it–and, I think, dangerously so.

What they are not is secret agents of an internationalist conspiracy, dedicated to eradicating America's sovereignty in order to bring on that sweet, sweet New World Order. There do exist such people who are committed internationalists, who think the world has outgrown the tired old notion of Westphalian sovereignty, and who want to see the U.N. running things (actually, I even know someone like that, a law professor, but he's a fringe lefty and not at all secret about it). But you're not going to find those people on the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board . And you're making yourself look like an idiot trying to convince me that's where they are. If you are trying to convince me that George Bush is running some Illuminati endgame here, you're just making yourself look ridiculous. Not just yourself, but also that policy you feel so very strongly about.

I have heard these conspiracy theories a number of times before and have stayed right off them as subjects because they are downright weird. But they continue to pop up so I guess it is time to say something. These are, to me, a right wing version of the 9/11 conspiracies. And SeeDubya is right, this kind of thing overshadows the legitimate reasons for concern about the border that a lot of us have. Read the whole thing and follow the links.

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  By TBinSTL, November 24, 2006 @ 4:24 am

  Oh, I think the damage is more than many are willing to admit. I have heard this whackjob kind of crap for some time now and personally know a few people that intentionally stayed home on election day because this crap convinced them that they couldn’t trust the Republican party anymore and I know of at least one that voted straight ticket Dem because he KNEW the Dems weren’t going to sell out US sovereignty like the Repubs were. I. Kid. You. Not.

Other Links to this Post

1. The Jawa Report — November 23, 2006 @ 5:21 pm