re: #142 shiplord kirel

The moon hoax girl was more of a casual believer. I think you’re right about the hard-core believers though, they desperately need to believe in their theories. This is really a mental health issue in many cases, but its usefullness to political axe-grinders and power-seekers probably keeps it from being fully addressed as such.

Yea totally. And it works for all sides. I mean, the hardcore left who believed that Bush was literally the devil is in the same camp. You know, the kind who believed that Bush was going to overthrow the government with a military coup and burn the Constitution live on TV while he declares power by fiat.

There were leftists who made entire careers for eight years on this crap and were widely hailed as speakers of truth to power etc…. Many were extremely well educated and, I suppose, given to high degrees of rhetoric and polemics perhaps. But some of them likely believed this stuff and it showed.

Only, it did take a little longer for the crazies to come out in full force back then. The Teabaggers came out within months of Obama’s election and have been far more visceral and threatening to the general population at large.

But whether it is from the right or the left, insanity on that level is just insanity. It’s like talking to people in an asylum: nobody believes that a casual or even single heated debate with them is ever going to change the way they think. You usually need a lot more than that.