05 May 2013

The paranoid style

Driftglass offers a thumbnail sketch of paranoia and deceit entangled in pseudo-libertarian politics.

For them, the world makes only makes sense as a Philip Dick novel in which everything the government does at virtually every level is suffused with monstrous intentions and dark designs. For them, the world is The Matrix: a massive scam built on top of a web of far-reaching and apparently infinite number of conspiracies in which everyone who is not 100% on their side is either a co-conspirator or a somnolent dupe.

Of course, when the mundane realities of the business of government — even government during a crisis — falls short of proving their specific brand of vast and terrible plots, they have to back-fill or pave over all bits that don't fit — all the chuckholes and logic-chasms and tire-shredding facts — with, well, bullshit.

He provides a tidy example in the form of a clip about Rand & Ron Paul.

2 comments:

Chas S. Clifton said...

Nope, nothing to look at here.. Move along, citizen.

Jonathan Korman said...

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

But at the same time, just because they're out to get you, doesn't mean that everything in your paranoid imagination is true ....