Birtherism, and Other Nonsense Thinking, Explained.

An interesting, thoughtful deconstruction of the sort of insane thinking behind not only birtherism, but other ideological beliefs that seem to be unhinged, or otherwise favored by the unhinged.

The logician and pragmatist C.S. Peirce called these sorts of patterns of thought 'pseudoreasoning,' and it looks very much like a form of rationalizing. And the key to the effectiveness of these strategies of thought is that the people making errors with them are not exposed to the consequences of being wrong. If you pseudoreason your way to believing that you can fly, you pay the consequences. But if you pseudoreason your way to believing that the President of the United States is a Muslim Marxist AntiChrist, you make lots of friends (and if you stop believing them, you lose those friends).

'Pseudoreasoning.'

In the preceding graph, and specific to birthers, the writer notes that."Birthers don't dislike Obama because they think he was born abroad. They think he was born abroad because they dislike him." He does not deconstruct the why of it. He avoids the racist component. And that's ok with me. After all, it's not an either or thing. People can dislike P. Obama for a variety of reasons. Racism doesn't exclude other reasons, nor do other reasons exclude racism. Thing is, it's coming from a place of irrational hatred. Everyone (but for birthers that is) gets that part. Part that some folk disagree about is, how much of the hate soup is comprised of racism?

Oh. One note further about how pseudoreasoning can help folk make crazy friends, and lose rational ones? I have seen how that works, in life. Well, to be more honest, it mostly was on the Internet. It was before birtherism became the rallying cry for batshit crazy GOPers. But still, just after the election of Obama, the shit hit the fan. And I was already in the process of losing a friend to the batshit insane, redneck, racist hordes.

Ever see someone change from a rational human being to an evil lying zombie? It can happen pretty fast, I tell you. One day you are having a rational conversation with a rational human, and the next day the person is saying idiotic shit like,"I can prove Obama is a Marxist." That's practically a verbatim quote. Yes, you can experience shit like that, or (again from the archives of my life) you can end up seeing a person who claims to be offended by vulgarity proclaiming in public on the Internet they might be a redneck. Ya. That friendship ended ugly. Anyway, I used the word zombie for the imagery, as it is not a pretty thing. I bet that she either is a birther still, or at least was before the so called long form was released last week.

Anyway, that's it for now, kiddies. Oh. One last note. Remember, if you have to get intoxicated, do it on wine, not on ideology, or pseudoreasoning, or some other batshit crazy nonsense. Hmmkay?

Afterbirthers Lingering, Racists Persisting, Apologists Weaseling . . .

Firstly, I love the neologism "Afterbirthers." It's a stunning image for people who are not exactly acting rationally human. People who can't let this shit go are clearly bloody messes.

Now on to the racism-related issues. But let me list my biases. Firstly, as a matter of intellectual argument, if not reality, I avoid false binary choices. In other words, I often find myself having to say, the correct answer's not necessarily (a) or (b.) Sometimes it's (c) -- all of the above.

And as another bias, I say it this way. I have played horse shoes. And I have played darts. When it comes to racism, I grade by horse shoe rules, not darts. In darts, you hit the right section of the board to get the point, and if you don't, you don't get the point. In horse shoes, close is close enough.

Taking that kind of grading to discussions about whether or not some thing or some person deserves the label racist, here's an example of how that works for me. Take for example when some GOP pol panders to the racist sentiments in the party, and makes what is essentially a race based attack on another, like "He ain't one of us. He ain't a proper American." Ya. I am not going to waste my time trying to figure out what is going on deep inside that asshole's cognitive processes. I just analyze the behavior, in using a racist dog-whistle, if not more obvious and odious racist messaging, and say, that's close enough. If one really doesn't believe that shit, but plays that shit, one should have to "own" that shit. Lie with the dogs, get fleas. All that. So as far as any politicians or pundits employing the rhetorical arguments of birtherism, I am tossing them in the racist box, under the close enough - own your shit theory.

Now let's take a look at the rank and file, the GOP base. And I will pull in the false binary argument, as there has been a lot of that shit in the press, on the net, floating among the commentariat, this week particularly. Firstly. There's a lot of white redneck resentment out there. Demographic projections say that the white population advantage will be lost by mid century(ish,) and folk who are not (based on the American cultural definition) white, Latinos, will be the biggest demographic block (never mind the nuances of divisions in the Latin/Hispanic world. Not germane to this discussion.) So they know their world is going to change, even if as a practical matter that might mostly mean the loss of a delusion. After all, to the people who actually run this nation and the world, us vs them is more about economics and class, rather than the stupidity of melanin and hair texture and eye color. But if all you got to be proud of is the stupidity of melanin and hair texture and eye color, the loss of enhanced social status (even if greatly if not mostly delusional,) losing that might seem to be losing a lot, indeed.

So that's the base line here. (That and the theme expressed in Bob Marley's "400 Years," and by that I mean American History.) And it is so easy to do an Us vs Them construct, and then embrace it, when one is doubly resentful not only because of loss of status, but also current economic worry. And once the race thing is there, it's there. It's not going anywhere.

So please people. Stop with the,"Gee they have other reasons to be persistent with this birtherism and afterbirtherism shit," bullshit argument. It's not either (a) or (b.) It's (c) -- all of the above.

To a resentful GOP-voting redneck, they might very well have a host of other reasons to hate on P. Obama. But you can't argue away the reality of P.Obama being an ethnic other, and the practical reality that if they can go there, as far as they can go there, they will go there. This is not nuanced, academic elite discussions of the minutiae of policy points, while sipping claret and nibbling on tiny Watercress Sandwiches with the crusts cut off, served on bone china. It's raw, nasty, emotional and irrational thinking and behaving. Never ignore the obvious.

And I suppose I should take a clearer whack at the apologists. I recently saw the clip of Dr. Phil on David Letterman's show, making a pathetic excuse for "He with the funny hair who will not me named." No Dr. Phil. The fact that people may say racist sounding shit without thinking, never mind specifically having as an intent to come across as or otherwise communicate a racist thought, is not an excuse from being a racist. Actually, it's prima facie evidence of being a racist. Particularly that whole doesn't even have to form specific intent part. That shows how deep that sickness runs, actually. What the fuck kinda Dr. are you? Are you a Dr. Laura kinda Dr.?

Anyway, that is all for now. But remember. Racism and White Resent-Driven Redneckism are pet peeves of mine. And that shit's not going away, well, not soon enough to suit me, at least.

Those God Damn Birthers!

Brotherman lays out a powerful case why the whole birther thing is the most odious kind of racism. I have just taken that for granted with out the breakdown.

But here is my explanation of why it was odious, even with out the racism part.

Imagine you ask someone out on a date. They say,"No 'effin way I will go out with you. But will you wash my car for me? Will you watch my dog? Will you drive me to the airport and pick me up when I get back?"

And they you ask, "If I do any of that, will you then go out with me?" And then they say, again, "No 'effin way I will go out with you. Now gimme a hundred dollars."

Ya. This whole birther thing and now the transcript thing, and what ever thing they come up with after that? It might be racist abuse. It might not consciously be racist abuse. But it definitely is abuse. And it's sickening.

Will This End Birtherism? Hells Noes!

I have said that before, but now that the WH has released the other form, it does at least make those silly if not racist d-bag wing nuts look crazier and crazier.

Oh. And I am not swearing to it, but following bringing up that crazy reality TV moron on my FB page, it hit me. Remember the Week of Not Talking About Palin? I think we should try to do the same thing to that creature with the bad comb over haircut.

I do not think he will fade away if we just stop paying attention to him. The real world does not work in such clear causative ways, where human egos and insanity are concerned. But still. He's vulgar. He's a liar, and he's the worst of worst kind of cynical political and media whores. So let's avoid speaking of him. Ok?


Oh. And another quickie. Did ya hear about the lady arrested at the Rep. Allen West Town Hall?

Firstly I do not recall a single one of those insane, histrionic, loud and crazy tea baggers getting arrested. So this is a thing that makes me go hmmmm, right there. Talk about general hypocrisy. But beyond that, where's the crys about how the lady got arrested for using her free speech rights? WTF. Well I am not surprised. I have been saying it for a while now, how the GOP is basically hypocritical and bullshit on this issue. Scummy, they are!

Giving Credit Where Due . . .

Jan Brewer Vetoes Presidential Birther Bill.


Honestly, I thought she would have been down with that racist birther shit. I was wrong. So Kudos to Jan Brewer for putting common sense before politically expedient racist sentiments.

(Now if only we can get her to stop hating on the Mexicans . . . .)


Edit to Add:

Hell must have frozen over. I agree with that evil pigeon Charles Krauthammer. Re Donald Trump he says,“the vulgarity of him is offensive.”


But first, let me explain the pigeon reference. Krathammer has this ugly, scavengerish look to him. Reminds me of those nasty looking things found in big cites that are often called flying rats. (Ok. I'm not being nice. I can live with that.)

Now on to the Donald. Now I do not think the Donald is deliberately trying to make the rest of the field look better by comparison. But ya know? A ding bat like Mrs. Palin, who very well might be the perfect vision of Redneck Royalty, looks a lot less vulgar next to him. Hell, that awful comb over even makes Palin's coif, which I call a modified mullet, look less vulgar by comparison. Now there would be no reason for him to be trying to do that, particularly. I'm just amused to see the contrast. No matter which of these dwarfs in the GOP roster gets the nomination, they are still going to be Dwarfs. I really don't think he is running. But if he does, I do hope he busts out in the primary and runs as an independent. I see that ending with nothing but good news for the Dems.

If You Want Serious Commentary on Politics, Go With the Comics.

And the race for best bit this week is heating up. There's Jon Stewart's take down of the GOP Wanna Be Nominee field. The Shot at The Donald was particularly good stuff.

Jon Stewart on The Contenders.

Running basically equally is Steven Colbert's take down of that snake man Sen. Jon Kyle. Colbert on Kyl.

And since we are on the topic of Kyl, dare I ask is it unfair to brand all of the GOP as equally faithless and dishonest as he? Well there's a certain madness to his nearly-honest correction. I mean, could a human get any closer to admitting they are a damned liar with out flat out saying so?

Kids. I know as a matter of "fair practice," it's wrong to paint the entire GOP with this brush. But ya know? So many of them do that shit. They will just make shit up, tell out and out lies, repeat and repeat again pure bullshit they know really is not true. But since bullshit is one of the few rhetorical styles they know (along with bullying,) they do it all the freaking time. It's all they got, really, since the facts more often than not are against them. Never mind reason. That's an alien concept to the Current GOP.

Oh. And one last thing for now. I have seen in a couple places, already, peeps using/making "Private Ryan," references to Paul Ryan. Nah. I prefer the rhyming Lyin' Ryan. It's accurately descriptive.

Addendum. Why Ann Althouse is Less Smart than Mrs. Palin. (Who is not really very smart, really.)

Go back to my previous post about Mrs. Palin, "Cowardly or Clever."

Logic says there's a reason she personally believes P. Obama was born in Hawaii. Is she some kinda fucking genius? Not hardly. But she was the GOP nom for VP, in the race against now P. Obama.

So here is the question that divides the fucking brainless total morons from everyone else. Do you think that if there was any real reason to believe that Birther shit, that the McCain Palin campaign would NOT have been all over that shit?

I mean it was as incompotent a campaign as can be imagined, but if there was a smoking gun there, it would have been turned up back in the 2008 campaign. Right?

That's why Mrs. Palin can say she believes he was born in Hawaii, born American. Cause the due diligence has been done already. Fuck a duck. Now she can play her cynical game of encouraging The Donald and appeasing (or at least not totally contradicting) the way the fuck too racist, looney base. But if she dared say she thought he wasn't an American, some former McCain staffers would (we have every reason to believe) be very happy to recount the briefing sessions when that was discussed, proven to be a tin foil hat baseless conspiracy theory, and dismissed by the campaign.

So anyone who comes along now, pimping that shit is just a fucking racist idiot. JMO.

Raise Your Hands. Who Doesn't Get it, that Birtherism is Inherently Racist?

Ann Althouse maybe? I will not link her site, but she has over the past few days given aid and comfort to that racist opportunist Donald Trump with his media whoring pro Birther inherently racist shit.

Not that I am surprised; I doubted she'd pass my test, before. But some people are just too fucking insane not to get it, that birtherism is based on the wing nut tea bagger cultural discomfort (i.e. racism) that lots of right wing white Americans have about our Negro POTUS. Or make that Half Negro. Anything less than vanilla white is not white enough for some people. And I think I said it here before. I don't thing Trump is really pursuing some racist agenda. So much. But I really think what he is doing is shameless self promotion on account of his shit-tastic show (as I say, that jumped the shark in the second season) having tanking ratings. And did I say media whore? He doesn't care if his image gets damaged with the racist implication. Curse. Taint. He's sooo past that shit. He doesn't care if he is liked, or respected, or even feared. He cares about nothing but the most vulgar commercializing of his own old nasty ass. I think he would have sex with farm animals for ratings at this point, he's such a ho. JMO.

But what motivates anyone with an IQ allegedly above 22 to encourage that shit? I mean it is one thing for Mrs. Palin to do that. She is also a resident of Reality TV Bullshit, Cash-Out Your Own Ass, & Pimp Your Own Fucking Kids Land. So she is closer to The Donald than allegedly reasonable normal folk. But Perfessor Althouse will have to come up with her own defense for flirting with racism. Trying on KKK robes just to see how they fit with out taking the oath is a line of shit reasonable, intelligent people will not condone.

Quickies. What do You Call Reverse (Geographically) China Syndrome?

Do you call it Toledo Syndrome? I don't have a globe here, and I am not up for the math. Wait. Let me google it. Ok. I got a little obsessed there, worked it out and if that reactor in Japan that has melted the floor of the plant keeps melting shit until it comes out the opposite side of the planet, I expect it to come out off shore of Argentina. So call it South Atlantic Syndrome?

Moving on. Donald Trump is full on racist opportunist mode, with his birther whoring. I always thought there was something fundamentally shitty about him. Now I am convinced beyond any doubt of that.

Bill O'Reilly can't see the forest for the trees, re Mrs. Palin. Yes, she appears weak in not talking to the REAL press, but I don't think her poll numbers are down on account of that. They are down because even with out real reporters asking her real questions, she still comes across as some ignorant, snowbilly who's maximum brain power is equal to a bucket of snot.

Oh, and speaking of insulting Mrs. Palin, it's not necessarily sexist to use really harsh insults in her specific direction. It might be mean and nasty and meant to sting, ya. But it is not an indictment or slur against all women to viciously insult her for being no smarter than a bucket of snot, in the harshest terms possible. (Bill Maher is a Jersey boy. Love us or hate us, we usually don't do passive aggressive insulting. We call out a ho as a ho! If we really go old school we use the pronunciation who-ah.)

Anything else? Herman Cain. Kudos Herman. You have just proven as a concrete fact that yes, blacks can be every bit a racist as white folk. It's just that you happen to be a black wing nut racist.

Lastly, touching on one of my pet peeve topics of late. Yes Andrew Breitbart. We are trying to shut you up. You make us sick. And as opposed to wing nuts, who seem to believe in some childish, warped, redneck outlaw, unsophisticated and all the fuck ways hypocritical view on non-governmental involved free speech, we hold some values higher than that. For example, I would say my right to tell you to shut the fuck up means more to me than your right to be an obnoxious liar and rat fucking GOP hack badly masquerading as a journalist. But that is my explicit way of saying it. The more general liberal way of saying it, is society has a right to protect itself from being violated by shit like you. If society does not have the right to set standards, there is no real civilization. There's just outlaw rednecks, stinking up the joint. And we don't need any more of that, fuck you very much. Ok. I'll end there.

Slow News Day, Edition. Birthers, Normalizing the Insane, GOP Racists, and Ann Althouse.

I am not even going to link it, but Ms. Althouse is proving she is as least the 'mess' part of my description of her as a hot mess, by a post regarding birthers . . . as not being as crazy as troofers. Let me explain a bit more. Some poll recently released is saying a bare majority of GOPers are birthers. (I call the phenomenon of this absurdity,"Normalizing the Insane." To borrow and warp the commercial slogan, this isn't your father's GOP. It's the crazy shit version of the GOP.)

Now her lead in, her post title is,"Birthers aren't like Truthers," and to an albeit, tiny degree, I agree. But her argument is so shallow, vapid, ill informed, and ill supported that in the end, she is so mostly wrong she's just plain wrong, even when accidentally right. First, the accidentally right part.

Ya, there is a big difference (and perhaps some minor ones) between birthers and troofers, but the similarity is that both approach their fantasy conclusions from what ever bias they had, before the issue in interest became an issue of the day. I would say that troofers are 'don't trust the government generally,' folk. That's their gig.

However, there are at least two lines of bias behind the birthers. Firstly, in the GOP there is a lot of hate for anyone who resembles the label "liberal." So P. Obama has that going against him (remember how bat fucking crazy the loony Right Wing went when Clinton was elected?) But above and beyond that, is the racism factor. And accuse me of doing a high wire act without a net, but honestly. Has the birth certificate issue ever come up, before it was a black man? I wish that were enough, but I think I need to flesh out my (informed, actually) speculation. Here in 2011 America has evolved as (meaning only) far that most white GOPers get this much; being called a racist is bad, and one can not longer disparage a "nigger" merely for being a "nigger," anymore, save in the company of admitted racists. (I am not saying most GOPers only get that much. Too many only get that much. Or, too few get more than that.) So where does that not yet eliminated racism go? It goes into proxy complaints. It goes into such criticisms as disparaging "multi culturalism," and/or "urban people," and/or strange foreign religions, and anti-immigrant sentiment (some shit never changes,) and it goes into the birther's crazy arguments.

You can not directly say you are unhappy that the POTUS is a black man. But (if you are that self delusional or generally delusional not to know you really are not fooling the rest of us) you can take ass-holey shots at his foreign name, and whine that he wasn't born in the USA.

Now as far at Althouse goes, she seems to have missed even considering any of that. She instead argues that the birthers have one issue and one question. Excuse me? Talk about assumes facts not in evidence. This is the very same kind of self serving, shallow, borderline magical thinking that makes people believe and say stupid shit like celebrities die in threes. (Dummy! They don't die in threes. You are counting in threes!)If you narrow down the entire universe of motivation and causes of the birther's insanity to one cause, you are editing things to suit your argument. That's not only intellectually lazy, and intellectually dishonest, it's pure bullshit.

After that, Ms. Althouse goes truly off the deep end, by quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 37. For you non lawyers out there, it's one of the rules regarding discovery of evidence. Her citation of that is likely more unhinged than either what the birthers believe, or even trying to defend the birthers, as a general matter. The reason it is unhinged is as follows:

Court's have jurisdiction over matters as granted under the US and various state constitutions and laws. And they are honor bound to follow precedent and applicable rules. Doubting birthers are totally without restraint. To make an analogy between a court of law and the birthers . . . to equate the two is to raise the rules of a simple and silly child's playground game to the holding of a per curiam (by the court, as an institution, speaking in one unified voice) decision of the US Supreme Court. (Gawd, I so fucking hate idiotic, far off analogies.)

But sure. People can decide for themselves what is good evidence and what isn't. But when people depart reason and rationality and substitute crazy shit instead? Well we should call that crazy shit. I have gone long, here, but again, this is a mere example of the deevolution of the GOP or if one prefers, the Conservative Movement. The more crazy shit they accept, the crazier they seem. It might not be the paranoid flavor of crazy, so much. Ms. Althouse makes a sorta marginally, yet likely less than half accurate point there (cause let's be real. Racism is the product of irrational thoughts and beliefs, often including paranoia.)But it is crazy shit, and it is an offense not only to reality and reason to define down normal in that way, but like all bullshit, it is dangerous to all of us and all of society.

Said simply, if every point of view is sorta equal, all sorta valid, than all are equally meaningless.

Get it?

* Note: I found the graphix after finishing the composition. Now I am not going to say that the mere fact the majority of GOP birthers are from the south = proof of racism. But I am not in the least fucking bit surprised by those metrics.