That was the title of this morning’s sermon. The scripture text was from Mark’s Gospel from which I excerpt this:
23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, …25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
Mark 1:23,25-26 NRSV
Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to do that to a birther? It’s easy to think of a birther as someone possessed by an evil spirit, and by an evil spirit I don’t mean a supernatural demon, but the infection of an evil idea or meme. While the birther mythos, especially when expressed using the seductive tricks of the propagandist, is an infectious idea, I do not think for many birthers that the idea is the real problem.
I see birtherism more as an anxiety disorder. Let me offer an example. Some people have a problem when they leave home: they wonder if they locked the door (turned off the oven, left the water running) and they go back to check. They are anxious in the presence of uncertainty, so they go back and check, and they go back and check again, and again, and again.
Birthers seem to have anxiety over an ineligible President; they check his birth certificate released in 2008 and then doubts and anxiety rise. So they check again and see that the Director of the Hawaii Department of Health states Obama was born in Hawaii. But after a while doubt and anxiety creep back. They find birth announcements in the newspapers; doubt and anxiety return. A long form birth certificate makes the scene; more doubt and anxiety. More certifications from Hawaii – more anxiety. Now birthers demand criminal investigations, Congressional investigations, access to microfilm, document analysis, kindergarten records (!), college transcripts, passport records, school papers, immigration forms and finally they demand legislation to set up a regime under which eligibility is certified by the government (or all 50 states!), thinking once and for all they will be free from uncertainty and the anxiety it causes. It won’t make any difference because birtherism isn’t about facts, it is about fears.
Behavior such as I have described is that of someone with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD, which coincidentally abbreviates Obama Citizenship Denial). OCD is typically a genetically-based disorder. It is often treated with a regimen of cognitive therapy and drugs. The barrier to treatment is first getting the person with OCD to realize that they have a problem that they want to change. Part of the therapy is to get the patient to appreciate that their anxiety is not reasonable (sure, it’s theoretically possible that the door is locked even after checking it once, but is that reasonable?) and then to learn to be more comfortable with anxiety through a series of exercises that make them uncomfortable.
Sure there are malicious birthers motivated by racism and political ideology (evil spirits), but a lot of them sound like folks with an anxiety disorder. Heaven knows they are consumed with anxiety about chemtrails, FEMA camps, creeping socialism, Armageddon, black helicopters, international bankers, and losing their guns. I hope some of them will get treatment.
The only anxiety is that felt by the bitter leftist fascist obots who can’t believe that The Won is an illegal president, and his facade is unraveling by the second. Georgia is only the beginning, as there are 11 other challenges in the works, and he will be tossed from the ballot.
That is unless he resigns first, but asking a liberal to do the right thing is like pulling teeth.
ROTFLMAO!!!!
. . . quod erat demonstrandum.
Lord Basil the comic, now that was funny, thanks for the laugh!
Fascists are rightists; communists are leftists. Haven’t you finished 8th grade?
Obama is a centrist, not a liberal. For example, his health care plan is to the right of what Nixon proposed. Drone killing of Al Qaeda leaders is definitely not liberal.
Fascism and socialism communism are kissing cousins of totalitarianism. The right believes in freedom and thus has no totalitarian extreme.
Glenn Beck had a great special about this once.
Vietnam veterans receiving assistance from the Veterans Benefits Administration enjoy taxpayer funded democratic socialism.
@Lord Basl
“Glenn Beck…”
Woops, there goes your credibility.
Tell that to Los Desaparecidos of Argentina.
Socialism is not totalitarian. Ask the folks of the most socialist country in Europe, Denmark.
Yes fascism and communism were totalitarian in their implementations, but totalitarianism is an extreme, an extreme of the left and of the right. Just because they are both extremes doesn’t mean that they are the same kind of extreme.
Modern extremists of the right try to rewrite history so as to dissociate themselves from the bad right-wing extremists of the past (the fascists). The best example of the far right in the modern world is the Taliban. Indeed the extreme right in the US wants to make the US a Taliban state, only substituting Christianity for Islam, and the Ten Commandments for Sharia law.
Did he have credibility in the first place?
No.
The world is three-dimensional, poor Basil’s political understanding is confined to one.
New vocabulary for ya, Lil’ Lord Bassy: Statism.
Back to the topic: I suggest a federal exception for birtherism from the Americans with Disabilities Act. And an exception for the same tucked in to the DSM-V …. if it ever gets released.
Georgia isn’t the beginning until Obama gets tossed from the ballot. You are counting your chickens prematurely, and trying to start a trend with zero data points.
Let’s list all the things in America are to some degree socialist. I’ll go a few ….
Social Security
Medicare
Veteran’s Benefits
Earned Income Tax Credit
Medicaid
Publicly-funded infrastructure
Public universities
…
The National Football League
…
I can’t help but wonder if any has ever been treated for birtherism and if so what the results were.
There have been a few awakenings. Joyeagle. And, ummm …. uh ….. hmmm. Okay, one.
Lord Basil January 30, 2012 at 12:11 am Lord Basil(Quote) #
Georgia is only the beginning, as there are 11 other challenges in the works, and he will be tossed from the ballot.
which “11 other challenges “?
MANY deadlines have already passed
an INTERESTING factoid about il
All Republican Presidential Candidates May be Removed from Illinois Primary Ballot Depriving Voters Ability to Vote on Them
Late on Friday afternoon (Jan 13), the various Republican presidential campaigns filed ballot challenges to all the other Republican candidates for President. Currently all candidates face ballot challenges and according to sources, all Republican candidates have fatal flaws with their paperwork. If the challenges are successful, when Republican primary voters show up to vote on March 20th, they will have NO choices listed to vote for President.
http://www.chicagonow.com/publius-forum/…
I thought there was an ointment for that.
Can’t find that story on the link you provided. Can you correct it or be more specific?
Here’s a great story on Glenn Beck; you will appreciate it:
http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2010/11/glenn-beck-accidentally-not-put-down.html
(I will completely ignore the troll, because his beliefs espoused here do not deserve the dignity of a reply)
I think birthers are people who allow their resentments and bitterness distort their perception of reality. This, coupled with their dishonesty (no one who is being intellectually honest can say that Obama is not qualified with a straight face), results in their very hateful delusions of the world.
I think conspiracy theories come from bitter unhappy people who project their unhappiness by making the world a worse place than it really is. For example, if TImothy McVeigh had learned the social skills to date normally, I think he would be a happily married man with a beautiful family today instead of the now-dead monster who deliberately killed so many people. No, I am not saying birthers are that hateful, but their thinking does worry me.
Actually, since the challenge was “tossed” out in Alabama, the chances that a birfer success in Georgia will be repeated elsewhere, are fairly small.
No state will want to look as dumb as Georgia.
That guy Publius is a right-wing Republican. I cannot find anything in his archives either. Perhaps he ditched it. Hm, could it be because it is true? Enquiring minds…
http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/16/3664025/challenges-filed-to-presidential.html
James Von Brunn – Birther, Racist, Alleged Killer
(excerpt) Brian Beutler and Zachary Roth have the background on the man who murdered a security guard at the Holocaust Museum.
Von Brunn, apparently a World War II vet, has a long history of white supremacist writing. His book, “Kill The Best Gentiles,” embraces Adolf Hitler’s view that Jews concocted World War I as part of a scheme to stab Germany in the back — a myth the Nazis used to justify the Holocaust.
He also wrote an internet posting complaining that Obama’s birth certificate and other documents have not been made public.
(source: http://washingtonindependent.com/46418/james-von-brunn-birther-racist-killer)
Apologies to Publius. He did not toss out the article – but it is true he did not archive it. After a few attempts, google showed this:
http://www.chicagonow.com/publius-forum/2012/01/all-republican-presidential-candidates-may-be-removed-from-illinois-primary-ballot-depriving-voters-ability-to-vote-on-them/
Hm, bad for democracey, having to follow all these rules. I wonder what he thinks about the three challenges to Obama, one of which has already been dismissed.
Michele Bachmann left the race screeching loudly of the evils of socialism.
She then deliberately suspended her campaign rather than end it in order to receive taxpayer funded matching federal funds to pay off her campaign debts.
I guess her farm subsidies weren’t enough.
JTC is hereby awarded a gold star for service to the blog.
I have noticed that no candidate actually ends their campaign anymore. 😉
I guess they just go into the grave, to await the Day of Judgment, when the dead shall rise again. Rise again to eat brains.
doc…. and you think we’re nuts.
Well, yes.
They’d have to give up their Super-Pac and all that uncoordinated money and stuff.
Colbert can’t even get his back from his buddy Stewart. 😎
You’re worse than that.
You’re a guy, going around posting as “Bernadine Ayers.”
Case closed.
They have been raising Cain.
God grant me the serenity to accept that Barack Obama is eligible to be president;
The courage to stop repeating known falsehoods;
And the wisdom to support democracy.
Good points & observations. Thanks.
They have been raising Cain. [bada-bing]
Awesome Bob! I find that the final verse can really turn the screws: 😉
God grant me the serenity to accept
that Barack Obama is eligible to be president;
The courage to stop repeating known falsehoods;
And the wisdom to support democracy.
Casting one vote at a time;
Enjoying one campaign at a time;
Accepting defeats as part of the process.
Taking, as Obama did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that Obama will make all things right
if I surrender to Obama’s Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Obama
Forever in the next.
Amen.
Dr. Conspiracy this part of your post:
“thinking once and for all they will be free from uncertainty and the anxiety it causes. It won’t make any difference because birtherism isn’t about facts, it is about fears”
is 100000% accurate as far as I’ve seen.
Racism abounds, I believe, but several of them, like Danea, butterdezillion and DiogenesLamp are clearly in the throughs of an OCD episode or some sort. Any hint from a fellow birther that NBC means born in the U.S. and they flip out.
What about girl reporter what’s her name…….at least sort of an awakening.
tee hee…..
Yes, but they are not able.
Seth you…
The blogging self-appointed graphics expert* that took the birthers on a roller coaster ride?
* It takes one to know one, don’t ya know. 😉
Even adamantly.
I like how Doc writes out his short essay about Birtherism as analogous to demonic possession, then the very first comment affirms the thesis.
They are really good at that.
I’d like to draw Dr. C.’s attention to a new piece of research on the conspiratorial mindset. Social Psychological & Personality Science published an article titled, “Dead and Alive: Beliefs in Contradictory Conspiracy Theories.” A summary of the report from Salon concludes,
“Researchers found that persons believing in one conspiracy theory are not only much likelier than the general population to believe in several such stories at once, but are also liable to accept mutually contradictory versions of the same tale. The only thing they can’t believe is that the official narrative could ever be true.”
Yeah, that sounds about right.
The original article is here: http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/01/18/1948550611434786.full.pdf+html
I don’t think they nailed it. I think it’s more how conspiracy theorists see the world (specifically how the make connections and fail to reject nonsense connections) that makes them conspiracy minded rather than some higher-level belief that the government isn’t trustworthy or that there are things behind things. More likely in my mind is that these high-level beliefs are just one more conspiracy theory in the cluster, and attributable to the same neurological quirks.
I think my present article on anxiety only accounts for a little bit of birtherism.
A great article, Arthur! Confirms my own confirmation bias about confirmation bias. Thanks for the link! The poor conspiracist sees questions everywhere, and finds answers everywhere, but is never satisfied, as the ultimate answer can only be found in the mirror. Again, I dedicate “Suspicious Minds” to all my birthin’ friends.
The writers should expand their study, they can easily demonstrate that a conspiracist will readily accept alternative, conspiratorial explanations of just about anything; I would expect the only conspiracies they might be immune to, would be those involving events, people, and places they are personally invested in, i.e., items about which their confirmation bias is based upon their own firsthand perceptions and personal experiences.
It would be interesting to see if conspiracists are likely to modify their religious beliefs, family histories, and any deeply held cultural beliefs in order to incorporate conspiracies. I would bet that they are—depending on the angle of opposition to their previously held beliefs—as the adoption of conspiracies, perceived as secret, privileged, coveted knowledge, would in their mind deepen their bond to the group identities.
This comparison to OCD really doesn’t work for me. Anxiety is a form of uncertainty. People with OCD aren’t certain they left the stove on, it’s just that they aren’t certain they turned it off.
Birthers, in contrast, always express certainty. They are certain that Obama in ineligible, certain that the Constitution requires that the President have two citizen parents, certain that all laws signed by Obama are invalid, certain that all military orders given while Obama is President are illegal, certain of every single thing they say.
So this is not anxiety. “Delusion” would be closer to it. I think your earlier articles on confirmation bias had it right.
I found it to be a very interesting article and worthy of consideration. Whether Dr. C’s argument about anxiety can lead one to develop such meta-beliefs about distrusting official authority…or whether a distrust in official authority causes anxiety as a result… I’m not sure.
Here are some excerpts from the article I found most interesting. (from pgs 6-7):
I do think there is something to this study. I certainly don’t think it answers everything on this topic…nor do I think anxiety is the full answer. But I do think there are valid points in both this study and in some of Dr. C’s hypotheses.
Thanks Dave! I found your argument to be very compelling on this. Upon reflection, I tend to agree with you on this – they have a need to express certainty…
But then again, such need for certainty could simply be a mask to cover for their inability to handle uncertaintly well. Are they crafting walls of delusion to cope – absolutely. But is this their way of dealing with their anxiety? – Perhaps.
But I also agree with you that I don’t see a necessary connection between OCD and the types of anxiety & coping mechanisms they demonstrate. In summary, anxiety I can buy as a big part of the equation here… but OCD seems to be a misdiagnosis. There may be some OCD Birthers, but I think the OCD is just another symptom they suffer and is not a root cause of their conspiracy thinking and need to perpetuate delusions.
As of the last report all of the challenges against the Republican presidential candidates have been withdrawn
Colbert supposedly got the money back tonight. I doubt he really gave up the money since there are no FEC problem if you run for President…. of South Carolina.