Well, well, well. It appears that the clump of talking heads on Fox who spread The Big Lie knew it was a big lie and broadcast it as reality, anyway.
I, along with millions of other reasonably-intelligent Americans, never believed that verbal vomit being spewed forth on Fox, but millions of other people did. It’s no secret that a person, or a group, can come up with the most outrageous, unbelievable, nonsense and say it’s true. There always will be people who believe it, as proven by the number of viewers who daily accept what they hear on Fox News as facts.
Look back to 1938 and the thousands of radio listeners who panicked because they thought Martians had landed and were prancing about destroying the world because of Orson Wells’ broadcast of War of the Worlds. For that matter, look at the millions of Hitler’s followers who believed his lies about the Jews. Look at the horrors that followed because of it. The world never will be at a loss for gullible inhabitants, ready to believe the latest big lie or conspiracy theory. Just ask Elvis next time he shows up at a garage sale some where.
An example from eight years back would be one event-cum-lie-cum-conspiracy that was so inane it’s hard to believe anyone could entertain the fact that it might be true, except for some Texans and their governor. This example was the “Jade Helm Conspiracy.” Jade Helm was the common name for an annual military exercise held in multiple states to get different branches of the military to work together.
During the exercise, some states were designated as being friendly and others were designated as hostile. Military participants in friendly states were the Defenders, while those in hostile states were the Opposing Forces. The Opposing Forces drew up maps and plans that they hoped would lead them to victory, which amounted to capturing some type of target such as a Port-A-Potty or a rabid weasel. Texas happened to be one of the states selected as hostile and part of the opposition.
Somehow, some unaware Texans with IQs three points higher than a guava melon got hold of copies of the opposition’s maps and plans. Stupid as it was, they managed to convince a portion of the population that Jade Helm was actually a secret plot to seize the guns of citizens and, when the time was right, impose martial law. Imported Chinese troops that had been secreted in vacant Walmart stores would do the seizing, then spread over the country to round up political dissidents, institute population control, and invade Texas (?). Once this was accomplished, Obama would move in and use the Walmarts as internment camps, where political opponents would be re-educated. Even Alex Jones jumped in, saying that HELM was an acronym for “Homeland Education of Local Militants.”
As dumb as this scenario was, 32% of registered Republicans and half of all Tea Party supporters believed that Obama, as president, was going to invade Texas. Texas governor Abbott even had the Texas State Guard on alert in case Obama and his Merry Men took up arms and attacked a poor, defenseless, outhouse.
Obama said this was his favorite conspiracy theory.
So there you go. As Honest Abe said, “…you can fool…some of the people all of the time….” Somewhat sad, that it’s always the same “some” all of the time.
And this just in from Florida courtesy of their brain-on-life-support governor: A graphic version of The Diary of Anne Frank has been banned in schools in some parts of the state. Fear not, kiddies. You’re still free to read Hitler’s Mien Kampf.
Up next: Fahrenheit 451.