http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2009/09/13/the-paranoid-style/ The personal blog of P. Kerim Friedman. Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:00:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2009/09/13/the-paranoid-style/comment-page-1/#comment-9248 Kerim Friedman Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:44:20 +0000 http://keywords.oxus.net/?p=2844#comment-9248 Yes, not very anthropological to call people crazies... but I think Gary Younge's point, on which I end, is saying roughly the same thing as what you are advocating? Yes, not very anthropological to call people crazies… but I think Gary Younge’s point, on which I end, is saying roughly the same thing as what you are advocating?

]]> http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2009/09/13/the-paranoid-style/comment-page-1/#comment-9247 Jeremy Sun, 13 Sep 2009 04:44:23 +0000 http://keywords.oxus.net/?p=2844#comment-9247 Interesting post, Kerim. I have a third theory that I've not heard too much of on the left. That is, the folks we see at town hall meetings or calling for Obama's birth certificate and such are not "crazies" - they are your ordinary American, moderately right-wing republicans. Instead of being composed of some vague lunatic fringe, these are ordinary people who have been driven farther to the right by a combination of insecurity, resentment and a fertile media climate. I'm not 100% certain that this is the case, and I don't know exactly how they could have been driven to sometimes very extreme points of view. However, if it is the case, then calling them "crazies" is likely to be counter-productive. Interesting post, Kerim. I have a third theory that I’ve not heard too much of on the left. That is, the folks we see at town hall meetings or calling for Obama’s birth certificate and such are not “crazies” – they are your ordinary American, moderately right-wing republicans. Instead of being composed of some vague lunatic fringe, these are ordinary people who have been driven farther to the right by a combination of insecurity, resentment and a fertile media climate. I’m not 100% certain that this is the case, and I don’t know exactly how they could have been driven to sometimes very extreme points of view. However, if it is the case, then calling them “crazies” is likely to be counter-productive.

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