RWW’s Paranoia-Rama takes a look at five of the week’s most absurd conspiracy theories from the Right.
Old conspiracy theories about gays and lesbians preying on children and President Obama confiscating guns and targeting white people live on in right-wing circles. The same goes with fears about marijuana, as exorcist/GOP politician Gordon Klingenschmitt has his own feelings about “Reefer Madness.”
5. ‘The Brown Shirts Are Next’
Latching onto the right-wing conspiracy that President Obama is using health care reform to create his own army modeled after Adolf Hitler’s Brown Shirts, South Carolina US Senate candidate Lee Bright alleged that Obama is turning the IRS into a paramilitary force to implement Obamacare.
The Republican state senator seems to be unaware that the IRS practices of training certain agents in law enforcement operations didn’t start under Obama but in the 1920s. File this under Obama Derangement Syndrome.
4. Obamacare Is Coming For Your Guns
In a totally not-crazy email entitled “All Hell is Breaking Loose!,” Gun Owners of America warned members that “Obama’s war on individual privacy” is lurching into doctors’ offices through Obamacare.
“[T]he ObamaCare program sets the stage for compiling a national health database which could be trolled by the FBI and could strip tens of millions of Americans of their Second Amendment rights,” the message reads, adding that an extension of emergency unemployment insurance should be tied to the gun lobby’s agenda: “Contact your Senators. Ask them to continue objecting to any Unanimous Consent request which would allow Obama's unemployment bill (S. 1845) to be passed, unless Senators are granted the right to vote on the anti-gun ObamaCare mandate.”
As we have noted earlier, the Affordable Care Act has a provision barring the creation of a possible gun owner database and prohibiting discrimination against gun owners, and the president’s executive actions similarly do not compel doctors to ask about gun ownership.
The gun lobby is now all but admitting that it uses conspiracy theories to encourage “fear buying” during election season.
3. ‘Disgusting Racist’ Obama ‘Despises’ White People
Former congressman Allen West is furious that the Obama administration is cautioning schools against using a “zero tolerance” disciplinary policy, a failing program that contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline. But according to West, this is all part of the Obama administration’s supposed “insanity” and anti-white racism.
“This is my clear and succinct message to white Americans. How long will it be before ‘you people’ realize you have elevated someone to the office of president who abjectly despises you — not to mention his henchman Holder,” West writes. “Combined they are the most vile and disgusting racists — not you.”
2. Anti-Gay Rhetoric Sweeps Russian Media
As the Religious Right’s love affair with Russia continues, it is no surprise to see Russian media using similar anti-gay rhetoric as US-based activists. The BBC reports today that Russia’s new laws targeting the gay community has “led to an upsurge in homophobia,” much of it encouraged by the pro-government media.
“Almost all [news reports on homosexuality] displayed an attitude that was either outright hostile or else noticeably negative towards homosexuals,” including claims linking homosexuality to child abuse and terrorism, or “gay jihad.” One prominent talk show host even warned that “Russia was in danger of being engulfed by a ‘homosexual sodomite tsunami’” while a Russian actor said he hopes to “shove all gays live into an oven.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin just today suggested that gay people are likely to prey on young people, telling gays and lesbians that they should visit Sochi for the Olympics but “just leave the kids alone, please.”
1. Demons Are In Your Pot
Religious Right activist Gordon Klingenschmitt recently launched his bid for the Colorado State House, and is already angry about the state’s legalization of marijuana following a successful 2012 voter referendum.
“There is a demonic spirit of drunkenness and it’s not just alcohol,” Klingenschmitt says, arguing that smoking pot “invites” demonic spirits into you. “Why do you think you have hallucinations? These spiritual visions that you have are not just biological; they’re actually demonic.”
