Error is the discipline through which we learn and advance. When we do not accept each lesson given through error, we build a straw house. The longer we do this, the more daunting it becomes to our vanity and comfort to begin over. The search for more elaborate dysfunctions continues.
james wilson | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 9:42 am | #

This piece is exceptionally inspired writing from an already exceptionally inspired writer, Doc.

Thank you.


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The Machine | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 9:49 am | #

This probably has lot to do with the nature of much of today's higher education, which has increasingly little to do with science, logical reasoning, or history, and leads people to believe that they are much more educated than they in fact are.
david foster | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 10:17 am | #

I bet those people who think that 9-11 was an inside job also think that extramarital affairs "just happen". I know lots of people who have given this lame excuse for their choice to violate their word to their husband or wife.

Thanks for the good post Doc.
Army Mom | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 10:52 am | #

So ultimately Michael Savage is 100%right and "Liberalism (as practiced today) is a Mental Disorder". He's a little crazy himself sometimes but man is that guy smart.
John M | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 11:01 am | #

Excellent. Thanks.

I've said this before on other sites, but I think it's relevant here - I believe the Left in America is the John Birch Society turned inside out.

Their hates are different (opposites), and the left has the msm and academia on its side, but they're otherwise identical - they both insist on forcing reality into the Procrustean bed of their preconceptions.

And when reality refuses to fit into their preconceptions, they do everything from exhibit the symptoms described here to outright lying.
max | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 11:10 am | #

We have to acknowledge those brought out of denial by 9-11. Brought out of a denial that democrats give a damn about anything other than their own narrow political aspirations. One of my favorite lines i read recently was of someone admonishing the democratic party for giving them no choice but to vote Republican.

We now have a party inhabited by atheist and bible thumpers, pro lifers and pro choicers, classical JFK liberals and Goldwater conservatives. All as a result of the leftward spiral and outrageous behavior of democrats since that awful day.
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 11:14 am | #

Another favorite delusion of the Lefties is that the Bush Administration (or all Republicans, for that matter)is hellbent on destroying the environment. Their word for this destruction is "raping," surely an emotionally connotative word choice and one designed to set them up as victims of a bully yet again.
onlineanalyst | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 11:59 am | #

Paranoid and delusional thinkers who are not so completely nuts can often manage to functional quite normally and you don't know how crazy they are until you speak to them at some length.

The harm they do is enormous because the hold jobs where they exercise discretion, they get on juries, they become witnesses in legal proceedings, and, believe it or not, because they are often very political they sometime get appointed to judgeships. Yikes!
Flash Gordon | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 12:31 pm | #

I think one of the reasons there are so many delusional lefties is that they only associate with folks who think like them. They absolutely cannot stand it when someone challenges their ridiculous assertions in public! And now they have cesspools like Kos that tell them what to think. They like to try to change physical facts to fit their theories, which is bass-ackwards from what they should be doing.

But as far as the JFK assassination goes--you're never going to convince me that a lone gunman (Oswald) was able to fire such accurate shots so quickly from a bolt-action rifle at a moving target at the distance the shots were reputed to have come from. Someone had to be firing a semi-auto weapon, at least.
Garry K | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 1:17 pm | #

Our medical director, a very wise psychiatrist of many years recently explained to a group that "removing obstacles" is what we do here. There are things that are so obvious and commonsensical that any observer can notice them. Our patients have some obstacle which prevents them from seeing the obvious. Explaining the obvious to them does little good; were it not for the obstacle, they have the faculties to see what others see.

The obstacle may be an injury or a brain disease. Often, however, the obstacle is a need to believe some larger narrative. Admitting the obvious would call the template into question.
Assistant Village Idiot | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 1:54 pm | #

Brilliant, Dr. S., for lack of a better term.
J. Peden | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 1:56 pm | #

Great article Doc!

I wonder how much of this is a rejection of the Western tradition?

One thing the Western tradition makes clear: You can, through your own efforts, become quite clever and knowledgeable. But at the same time, there is always something bigger, better, faster, and someone more clever than you. Hubris is the vice of the Greek tragic hero, and humility the virtue of the saint.
R S | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 2:42 pm | #

"But as far as the JFK assassination goes--you're never going to convince me that a lone gunman (Oswald) was able to fire such accurate shots so quickly from a bolt-action rifle at a moving target at the distance the shots were reputed to have come from. Someone had to be firing a semi-auto weapon, at least."

Garry K | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 1:17 pm |

Look up Massad Ayoob's work on that before you go off the deep end.

All centers around how the Marines used to teach a southpaw to use a bolt action rifle supported at the fore-end, in which the lefthand is on the trigger and never leaves it, right hand is on the bolt and never leaves it.

Lt. Ayoob was able to recreate the same exact firing sequence of timing and accuracy repeatedly once the technique was known.


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The Machine | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 7:41 pm | #

Dr Sanity
This isn't a question about conspiracy theorists, more so about people afflicted by Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS)although many BDS patients are also conspiracy theorists.
Why are there so many people on the Left unwilling to consider that a political philosophy they embraced as teenagers is quite possibly flawed and often dangerously wrong? Has life taught them nothing between 1968 and 2007?
Dan | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 9:07 pm | #

REMOVING OBSTACLES

"Explaining the obvious to them does little good; were it not for the obstacle, they have the faculties to see what others see.

The obstacle may be an injury or a brain disease. Often, however, the obstacle is a need to believe some larger narrative. . . . "
Assistant Village Idiot | 04.16.07 - 1:54 pm | #

Great post, Dr. I read Whittle's post too.

Did you see that part in his post about the Chemtrails?

Go to google and type in "Chemtrails" and hit a few of the sites.

There is this whole group of nuts who think that the contrails left by jet airliners are really a secret government plot to spray us with chemicals in order to poison us and/or alter the environment.

I kid you not.
Tom the Redhunter | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 9:33 pm | #

I canot tell you what an honor it is to have such a brilliant person amplify what was essentially a hunch on my part into a beautifully structured and well-written treatise.

Before I start any of these essays, I sit down and link long and hard about one thing: "What if I am wrong?" Or, more precisely, "What evidence would I need to see to convince me I am wrong."

I feel that if these poor lost souls would just ask that question -- even every once in a while -- those without physical brain damage might be able to return to what the good Doctor called "the main road."

I wish that they would -- and not just for myself and the rest of society. It must be an awful, awful way to live.

I am linking the essayt back to this exceptional piece of work right now. I only wish I had been able to do so earlier. If the Malleus Maleficarum was "The Hammer of Witches," then Dr. Sanity must surely be The Hammer of Paranoid Psychotics. I just wish I knew some Latin.
Bill Whittle | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 10:34 pm | #

"Link long and hard" should have been "think long and hard." Obviously a clinical case of Instalanchophelia.
Bill Whittle | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 10:36 pm | #

Is it paranoid to believe Halliburton plays both (R) and (D) for benefit?
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 10:47 pm | #

You ain't no small beans yourself, Mr. Bill Whittle.

Good writer, great clarity.

Enjoyable read.


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The Machine | Email | Homepage | 04.16.07 - 11:44 pm | #

(2) it would cause him to admit his own insignificance, because if he is NOT the center of a plot and the focus of his "enemies" then he must be shamefully unimportant - a nobody.

Thank you for that.

A couple of times I've had to deal with paranoids who believe that large groups of government agents are watching their every move. I've tried to explain how much that would cost - 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, salaries about $40,000 per year plus benefits, supervisor costs, office space, etc. It comes to about $1 million per year to have ONE person watching you all the time. If they're in a team of 4 peope, $4 million per year. Now what do they know that's worth that much?

Of course it never does any good.
Richard R | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 2:54 am | #

"What, in short, is the miserable black hole of self-loathing that drives a person like Rosie O’Donnell and millions like her?"

Is Rosie’s “paranoia” symptomatic? Did she ever get blindsided by a profound personal betrayal of some kind, or a series of such, that knocked her worldview silly, and didn’t have the temperament, reasoning skills and support system to keep this thing from addling her permanently?

A natural hypervigilance and need for validation may have morphed into paranoia and anti-authoritative rage. The “millions like her” may be not be “self-loathing”, but are experiencing a misplaced projected rage against the machine. (Sorry, I liked the sound of that..)
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 3:50 am | #

This horrible tragedy at Va Tech is being primed by conspiracy nuts as i speak. Some want the University President to be fired for not doing the impossible. As usual the press is armed with 20/20 hindsight and passing it off as all clearly knowable before the fact.

What is it about Americans that have this belief that everything that befalls them was clearly due to indifference and incompetence in the OTHER?

There are no perfect people. From the lady that does your dry cleaning to the President of a University. To pretend otherwise is a form of delusion in itself.
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 7:03 am | #

Obviously, The Machine has never fired a bolt-action rifle. When you fire any weapon, it will recoil by some amount (depending on the size & design of the weapon), and that will necessitate taking a bit of time to realign the sights on the target after shooting each round. Also, the act of working the bolt to eject the spent round and to chamber the next round will cause your sights to drift off target, unless you're an actual machine.

There's NO WAY an ordinary schmuck like Oswald could have grouped those shots that close together, that quickly, from that distance, using a bolt-action rifle, that's what I'm sayin'. Now, go and practice shooting some with a bolt-action rifle, preferably at a moving target, then get back to me, OK?
Garry K | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 9:49 am | #

You call yourself Dr Sanity & the name you chose says it all.

To ignore evidence is to bury your head in the sand.

You do your readers a great disservice pandering to their need to feel safe at any cost.
As I shake my head in dismay at the phoniness of this blog I ask myself "who is paying you?" (I note: you are very young & the environment in which you claim you work)

You see in the old days sounder ethics were taught, so all I would say is, you have a lot to learn & advise you create for yourself a better basis than the present limited frame you spout from by extending your knowledge.

You talk about personal responsibilty.
If your credentials were correct you would be advising that individuals they should find the courage to take a DEEP look at subjects (because learning never hurt anyone) then they would have facts they can produce instead of shallow scoffing.
The ignorant often puff themselves via loud empty scoffing they think their noise hides their ignorance.

If you found you had helped many stay ignorant what would you do? Say OOPS.
What a pity
Judith | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 9:59 am | #

Very nice article. I would only pick one nit:

"It is a PSYCHOLOGICAL PROJECTION because many Muslims want desperately to believe that Islam is a peaceful religion and prohibits such acts, despite what is said in the Qu'ran, and what is practiced in the real world."

You almost make this attitude sound maladaptive. Personally, I can only wish that many more Muslims wanted to believe theirs is a peaceful religion prohibiting such acts. In the world of religion, such a belief really *can* translate into reality.

As for a couple of the commenters here: I find it amusing when folks loudly and proudly announce that the shoe fits. But not amusing enough to tempt me to respond to nut-cases as if they were engaged in rational debate. DNFTT.
Kent | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 10:28 am | #

Judith:

I have one question:

WHAT are you spouting off about?

OK, another:

Do you even read the responses here? You completely miss the target......
DaveD | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 10:44 am | #

DaveD,

Judith is just engaging in the typical Leftist ad hominem attack sans the intellectual skill to carry it off. There is never an attempt to rebut what the good Doc states. The product of a disfunctional mind where name calling is the best one can hope for.
Judith should spend some time actually doing what she accuses others of not doing, maybe even checking the Doc' Bio for one would be a good start.
Dennis | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 12:15 pm | #

I provisionally divide conspiracy adherents into two categories: the lunatics who really do believe that stuff, and the poseurs who purport to believe it as a kind of sign/countersign (IFF?) to others to show that they're cool, too, and should accepted socially.
Occam's Beard | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 12:58 pm | #

As an aside, isn't it fascinating how leftists (cf. Judith above) always come back to accusations of economic interest ("who's paying you?")?

Having taken Marx to a logical extreme, they seem incapable of recognizing that anyone might be motivated by anything other than filthy lucre. Conversely, they seem to believe that all problems can be solved by money (training, health care, and aid will address the "root causes" of terrorism in the Middle East).

What training or health care would have dissuaded kamikaze pilots?
Occam's Beard | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 1:06 pm | #

The leftists cling to their failed 1970's theology in spite of its obvious failures of monumental proportions because they have never been conditioned by our state education system to admit they were so desperately wrong.

It takes a big Man or Woman to admit his/her mistakes. Their frail egos can't take it and so they ascribe to the notion that "everyone needs and excuse for their own personal failures." This coupled with a nice dallop of jealousy and an inflated sense of self gives us the phenomena we witness here.

Like Jake Blues said..."flood, locusts..it wasn't my fault!"
Wr_guy | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 2:25 pm | #

04.17.07 - 3:50 am, paraphrased:

What psychos already know:

1. Screw the victim over.
2. Profit from it. Get away with it. Sleep well at night.
3. Prevent the victim from getting whatever it is that their particular personality needs: justice, revenge, emotional validation, etc.
4. Tell them to “Just deal with it.”
5. Watch them become “loony.”

Example: Dubya’s poll numbers shot up to 90% when he convincingly promised he’d counter #3, to America on 9-11. His numbers still get a bump whenever he succeeds at what he promised on 9-11.
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 3:48 pm | #

Occam's Beard - great handle, BTW. Yes there is a type of cynicism that partially endorses conspiracy theories as possible in order to show that they wisely suspect their opponents as capable of anything. It is indeed a social, rather than intellectual phenomenon.

I thought judith was a hoot. Everyone should have let her go to see if she'd come back. Easy to say in hindsight, I know.

americafirst - something else is happening with Rosie. Having achieved fame and importance, any threat to losing that causes her to become unhinged. She was probably only slightly narcissistic to begin with, but like a young athlete given millions, the sweet addiction of people telling you how important you are is a brutal drug to get off. She fears annihilation if she becomes unimportant, so her anger is as if those who undermine her are actually attempting to physically silence her. You can see a similar, though less psychotic, unwillingness to endure diminution in status by Al Gore. Much of the environmental catastrophe he fears is his personal destruction. Just an educated guess on my part.
Assistant Village Idiot | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 4:23 pm | #

Excellent!!

I had always thought that 'hate fatigue' would set in but it hasn't and I'm saddened.
My momma said, "If you dance with the devil, the devil don't change. He changes you."
How does it feel to wake up each morning angry? Doesn't that become a cancer on their soul? I'm not sure if they can come back from this.
xqqme | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 4:38 pm | #

I will never forget the video of Oswald being escorted by the police, and Oswald saying "I'm just a patsy." Maybe I am delusional and lack critical thinking, but Oswald's sincerity didn't seem faked. Am I looking for a conspiray? You bet. Am I obsessed with it? No. Putting 9/11 and our Lunar landing on par with the Kennedy Assasination is ludicrous. I agree with the main theme of your well written article, but please don't try to put all of these events into the same basket. By the way, am I delusional or misinformed about all of the deaths surrounding the Clinton presidency?
Leo | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 4:51 pm | #

AVI,
1. Are you discussing the same dynamic that affects discarded child actors - a sort of narcissistic supply gone dry? Massive adulation, then suddenly nothing, then depression, then meds, then crazy thinking, and now Rosie needs to re-evaluate her medication?

2. I didn’t mean everything left-of-center, just offering an idea about why compulsive conspiracy theorists get that way - while answering Bill Wittle’s question: "What, in short, is the miserable black hole of self-loathing that drives a person like Rosie O’Donnell and millions like her?”

3. And maybe I’m over-generalizing due to lack of space, but along the same lines of my 3:48 pm comment, I’m betting that Eric Harris had much in common with Cho Seung-Hui. A generally happy kid suddenly encounters some brutal adversity, can’t get whatever his temperament needs to compensate, and flips out. Rosie’s conspiracy craziness may be related somehow.
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 04.17.07 - 5:33 pm | #

Alright, maybe in Cho's case it was temperament plus the onset of paranoid schizophrenia.. At least I was half right.
americafirst | Email | Homepage | 04.19.07 - 12:57 am | #

Garry K:

"There's NO WAY an ordinary schmuck like Oswald could have grouped those shots that close together, that quickly, from that distance, using a bolt-action rifle, that's what I'm sayin'. Now, go and practice shooting some with a bolt-action rifle, preferably at a moving target, then get back to me, OK?"

An "ordinary schmuck" can spend a day or two practicing with a bolt-action rifle and gain the proficiency to aim, fire, reload, aim, and fire again in under two seconds. And Oswald wasn't just "some schmuck" as famously stated in the movie Full Metal Jacket, he did train and qualify with the M1 in the USMC. He is not someone who was unfamiliar with firearms. While the M1 was a semi-automatic rifle, the principles of rifle marksmanship remain the same. All Oswald had to do was learn to operate the bolt.

The shots Oswald made were no great feat of marksmanship either. He was in an elevated position, firing at a target 150 feet away using a scoped rifle in near perfect weather. While the limo was a moving target, it was moving at the speed of a person walking. Professionally trained snipers could have put each bullet into JFK at night in the rain in half the time it took Oswald, probably using iron sights.
SFC B | Email | Homepage | 04.20.07 - 3:10 pm | #

To The Machine:

(Your quote follows my comments)

The problem with Ayoob's using teh USMC southpaw technique for supported fire with a bolt action rifle is simple. . .

Oswald was never taught how to fire a bolt action rifle in the Corps. Never fired familiarization, qualification, nothing. . .

Reason? He was in the Marine Corps in at a time when not only was the Corps fully equipped with semi- and fully- automatic weapons (M1 garand, M1 & M2 carbines, M3 SMG, M1918 BAR, etc. . . Ye Olde M1903 Springfield and M1917 Enfield - as bolt-action line infantry weapons - had left the scene a decade earlier).

The ONLY people using bolt action rifles in the Marine Corps for over ten years were a handful of snipers (M1C and M1D Garands - semiautos - were still the standard issue sniper rifles, and the M40 - bolt action - hadn't even been developed yet).

The technique wasn't taught after WWII (no need to, all those "old fashioned" bolt action rifles were being replaced with semiautos), and wasn't being taught DURING WWII (too busy, AND they were re-equipping with Garands; why waste WEEKS teaching kids to be good with a VERY UNLIKELY SKILL with an obsolete weapon they won't likely see in combat?).

It was a skill of the pre-WWII Corps, known to the old salts who were, by and large, pre-1938 enlistees. These guys were (due to wartime promotions) pretty much all far too senior (Sergeants Major, etc) to be teaching Basic Marksmenship to recruits (a CORPORAL'S job).

While an Old Corps Marine WOULD be willing and able to find range time, duty time, and ammo to teach a substandard (Hell, flat out "marginal") marksman (Oswald) how to shoot like a Marine should, he ISN'T going to screw around teaching teh kid advanced techniques of obsolete weapons when Oswald is having trouble passing his basic Annual Qualification with a Garand!

And Oswald certainly didn't teach himslef how to shoot accurately using an obscure advanced technique between shooting at Brigadier General Whatshisface (and MISSING a clearly visible and STATIONARY target, at absurdly short distance) and the JFK shooting.

Oswald had no opportunity to LEARN the technique Ayoob discusses. And he damned sure wasn't good enough to employ it.

There is also the PHYSICAL evidence (not witnesses, or memos filed years later, but Oswald's US medical records, both government and civilian) that establish that somehow when Oswald was in the USSR, he got magically shorter by several inches, and magically regenerated a chunk of his mastoid bone in a fashion not known to medical science.

Which leads me to the belief that the Warren Commission thought the evidence might implicate a foreign power armed with nukes, and decided to tell a lie to prevent a nuclear holocaust. If so -- I'm cool with that. That would be the RESPONSIBLE and LOGICAL thing for a government to do (which is the biggest obstacle to this theory -- that a large collection of bureaucrats and politicians COULD do the logical and responsible thing when, years later nd threat passed, they could score cheap political points by blabbing ).

Rick

******************

"Look up Massad Ayoob's work on that before you go off the deep end.

All centers around how the Marines used to teach a southpaw to use a bolt action rifle supported at the fore-end, in which the lefthand is on the trigger and never leaves it, right hand is on the bolt and never leaves it.

Lt. Ayoob was able to recreate the same exact firing sequence of timing and accuracy repeatedly once the technique was known. "
Rick Randall | Email | Homepage | 04.20.07 - 3:40 pm | #

"There's NO WAY an ordinary schmuck like Oswald could have grouped those shots that close together, that quickly, from that distance, using a bolt-action rifle, that's what I'm sayin'. Now, go and practice shooting some with a bolt-action rifle, preferably at a moving target, then get back to me, OK?

This has been debunked, but I guess anything short of Oswald himself being resurrected and pronouncing "I did it alone!!" will not convince the nut jobs out there who still believe this crap. He MISSED one of three shots. Only the second and third shot hit. That's a hit ratio of 66%. Any good rifleman in the Marine Corp at the time could've made those shots. Heck, I could do it back when I used to target shoot. Kinda easy with a SCOPE, target less than 200 yds and a SLOW moving vehicle.
Rich | Email | Homepage | 04.21.07 - 6:45 pm | #

How many of these conspiracy whacks actually believe, and I mean that they KNOW, that what they are spouting is fact? The reason I ask is that if the 9-11 truthers were correct, and our government murdered 3,000 of our fellows in order to start a war for profit, the only reasonable reaction by a reasonable person would be to gather an army, march on Washington, overthrow the government, and execute those responsible after some semblance of a trial. It would be a legitimate use of violence for self defense, and constitutionally and historically appropriate. And yet we have seen none of it. No armies, no push to overthrow, in fact not even a potshot taken at W or Cheney. No action at all has been taken. So I have to ask; do they really believe it? Or is utter cowardice to act on one's beliefs itself a symptom?
HerrMorgenholz | Email | Homepage | 04.22.07 - 8:11 am | #

Great article.
TXMarko | Email | Homepage | 04.25.07 - 2:29 pm | #

HerrMorgenholz, you make a good point. If truthers are absolutely convinced, then why do they not take a more aggressive or even violent stance against the perpetrators?

I've read somewhere (wish I could find it) the opinion that true conspirazoids are not only the alleged victims but that they believe themselves to be totally helpless against it. To take direct action against the perpetrators would require of them to believe that they are not indeed helpless. Now this is all actually quite convenient as well because it requires of them to do nothing about it; in their belief system there is virtually no cost to themselves or requirement for sacrifice.

So the answers to your questions Herr Morgenholz are: yes and yes.
JDN | Email | Homepage | 05.02.07 - 11:03 pm | #

I just found this post on a Hat Tip from my fellow blogger, Dueler88, regarding a Bill Whittle piece that references this one. How's that for networking?! The conspiracy crowd is fascinating at least, and frustrating to be certain, especially as their absurdity creeps beyond the tinfoil tent and into the mainstream via the Sheens and O'Donnels. But, I hardly realized just how disturbing it can be until engaging in debate with a 'true believer' commenting at a recent blog post.

http://mysandmen.blogspot.com/ 20...l.html#comments

The depths of evasion and rationalization are truly frightening.
Mr.Atos | Email | Homepage | 05.04.07 - 6:53 pm | #

I do not believe in the Loch Ness Monster, Chemtrails, Apollo Moon Hoaxes, or that there was any conspiracy surrounding 9/11 except for a shameful failure to protect NYC residents from harmful air conditions, which is filed under garden-variety asskissing.

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool liberal and I think Rosie and Michael should be put on a rocket and fired into the sun.

And I find it deeply ironic that you have to resort to Conspiracy Theorizing and Armchair psychology to explain why a majority of people in this country believe differently than you.
Derrick Billings | Email | Homepage | 05.06.07 - 12:27 pm | #

I call these people GIGO's. Garbage in, garbage out. If people choose to read Fortean Times & The Secret without reading any thing else to balance it then their external world view simply reflects the nonsense they ingest.

It's the same as those that choose nothing but oprah and gerry, or watch no other news than FOX, or those that choose to read nothing but the bible. The further your inputs are from reality, and the narrower they are, the further the external world view drifts into fantasy.

There will be plenty of FOX viewers that believe the official version and call all conspiracy nuts idiots, but they're not arriving there by critical thinking, simply reflecting their input of right wing propaganda.
Reg Spyder | Email | Homepage | 05.17.07 - 9:12 pm | #

Most of the facts in your article I wholeheartedly agree with -- I subscribe to no conspiracy theories. But unfortunately you fall prey to the same denial and distortion that you point out. Liberals are not evil either, and your deriding the whole group as dangerous rings desperately similar to the very conspiracy theories you're railing against. I would self identify as a liberal, but I respect rational conservatives like Ron Paul. I'm sure I lose him a handful of votes just by mentioning him; sorry bud.

The main denial that I'd like to see eradicated from the American psyche is that we did not motivate 9/11. That's not to say we are to blame, any more than I would be to blame for getting mugged while wearing a gold watch in Johannesburg. But it would be stupid of me to deny I was asking for it. Blowback is real. Let's stop the denial and figure out a practical way to live in this world given the facts. It's not our freedom they hate; if it was, they'd be bombing Amsterdam first. I love America as much or more than you. That does not mean that America can do whatever it wants without consequence. Get over it.

Cheers to you all.
Jonathan Field | Email | Homepage | 05.26.07 - 4:26 pm | #

Mind if I blog this excellent peace of writing? see above let me know and I'll remove link.
Gianni Wise | Email | Homepage | 05.31.07 - 12:31 am | #

A few things.

While it's true that one runs into psychotic defense mechanisms in the hysterical left, if one spends time debating Muslims one sees much more insanity. That should be no surprise as there are Muslim countries where both a majority denies that Muslims are responsible for 9/11 and a majority celebrates the people who committed them as heroes. Polling by the Pew center implies that sort of craziness.

When one argues with believing Muslims, one almost universally runs into crazy defenses of various sorts. It may not be possible for most people to believe a religion that makes all outsiders an enemy and remain sane when dealing with outsiders. Eventually the dilemma caused by the horrible choice between enmity and moral panic of sinning by refusing enmity causes insane reactions. And, frankly those insane reactions are deliberately encouraged.

Also, as I said in the thread on Arab shame, I think you have misunderstood the reason for Arab shame in comparing themselves with the Jews and the west.

They're not so much ashamed because we're more materially successful, they're ashamed that they have failed to fulfill their religion's expectation that they be masters and conquerers of the (literally) damned people of the inferior religions.
Joshua Scholar | Email | Homepage | 06.02.07 - 3:17 pm | #

Dr. Sanity,

If you want people to face reality, why didn't you bring up the fact that Osama Ben Laden was once a CIA asset and the the United States had helped Saddam Hussein gain power and the U.S. supported him stategically and financially when he was commmitting his worst atrocites?
RandallJones | Email | Homepage | 06.03.07 - 11:33 am | #

I’ve had this discussion with an apostate before. I think you can’t take this literally. They don’t actually believe that 7/7 wasn’t committed by a Muslims.
What they believe is:
1. Anyone who ever sides with the infidels against the Jihadis will go to hell. This is specific theology. “God will deny his blessing” 2. They can not allow criticism of Islam, even implied criticism, even in private. Among themselves some will even celebrate 7/7. Certainly many will be in awe of the holiness of the terrorist who committed it. But the very same people will even deny that Muslims had anything to do with it if confronted by another Muslim who seems to disapprove. 3. They will quell their own tinges of humanity by believing the lie whenever they have to. Truth isn’t important to them. Avoiding hell by hating the infidel and siding against us is In short, pretending to deny the reality of what they do is a defense mechanism that allows them to remain good Muslims by always blaming and hating and siding against the infidel. Islam does not create sane people.
Peyter Angel | Email | Homepage | 06.06.07 - 5:38 am | #

7/7...was Britain's own 9/11!
Peyter Angel | Email | Homepage | 06.06.07 - 5:40 am | #

I actually disagree with this article. It's a bit of an extreme reaction to something that at best may cause people to waste resources trying to examine these cases thoroughly. By and large I think most people just get irritated with conspiracy theorists, but I don't see them as a threat to society in the way discussed. However, I think the thing most people should ask themselves is not whether these people are sane or not, but why does a society in general have to spin any type of catastrophic event? This isn't just one or two people creating an elaborate story but millions who actually believe something else is going on. What causes such a massive perspective change? What causes people to be so fearful and paranoid? If it were one or two people claiming a few things I think it's a whole other ballgame, but it's millions. Let's not just lump all of these people into one big pot and call them crazy or you're just as bad as the people who threw stones at the Witch Trials. If you want to talk about responsibility each and every one of us is responsible for this mass hysteria that seems to be on the rise. I think this touches on a part of why school shootings are so prevalent but I don't think sitting around pointing fingers and calling people names is any type of solution. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. So may I ask each and every one of you what are you doing to confront such things as school shootings and mass hysteria? And if you really believe conspiracy theorists are a threat, what are you doing to stop them? I tend to think finger pointing and name calling just adds fuel to the fire.
Larry | Email | Homepage | 06.17.07 - 3:44 pm | #

"Dr. Sanity,

If you want people to face reality, why didn't you bring up the fact that Osama Ben Laden was once a CIA asset and the the United States had helped Saddam Hussein gain power and the U.S. supported him stategically and financially when he was commmitting his worst atrocites?"

Perhaps Randall, it is because almost everything you have stated are easily refuted myths repeated ad nauseum to attempt to instill them with the illusion of truth.

The problem, in a nutshell, is your 'fact' you accuse the Dr. of ignoring just does not stand up o even the most cursory of scrutiny.
Mike Puckett | Email | Homepage | 11.23.07 - 5:22 pm | #

nice read until everybody started being put into buckets - finally, when you started railing against liberals, I lost interest.
Michael | Email | Homepage | 01.11.08 - 3:18 am | #

Fascinating essay! I'm going to read more of your blog. You might be interested in this humorous debunking of 9/11 Truthers at http://www.pointlesswasteoftime....m/ 911truth.html
Moselle_Green | Email | Homepage | 01.14.08 - 11:19 am | #

The political categorization in this piece was rather poor. Alex Jones is certainly not a part of the Left. Now I'm not saying that InfoWars & PrisonPlanet don't carry some nutbar items, but they most assuredly are not from the Left. This author simply evinces a personal political bias when choosing to categorize as "Left" anyone who fell outside of a certain designated domain, even if their actual ideology is quite far from the Left.
PatrickSMcNally | Email | Homepage | 05.29.09 - 4:08 pm | #