The infamous “educate yourself” meme

From time to time, I find myself reading memes on Facebook or exhortations on Twitter to “educate yourself”.
There is a general similarity to those memes. They comprise SHOUTING (usually a mixture of capitalized words or sentences, often followed my multiple exclamation points). They are a form of clickbait, designed to get people’s attention.
Then, when you look at the actual text, overlooking the panic or anger-stricken shouting, it soon becomes clear that you are reading the rant of a fully-signed-up conspiracy theorist. I also tend to realize that not only have I already educated myself, I have educated myself to the point where I concluded that the ideas being promulgated in the meme are a large pile of caca.
The conspiracy theories being peddled usually are predictable. They will be one of more of:

– New World Order! Jewish cabal is in charge! Illuminati are screwing us over!
– Jade Helm was an attempt by the Federal Government to subjugate Texas!
– Agenda 21 is a New World Order plot to make the USA a colony of the United Nations!
– Obama is a Muslim coming for our guns!
– Hillary Clinton murders anybody and everybody!
– Christians are being persecuted on a daily basis in the USA by secularists and atheists!

It’s like playing Bingo. If somebody prevented me from reading a conspiracy theory meme but instead asked me to guess what was in it, I think I would stand a pretty good chance of guessing at least one correctly.

I usually ignore these postings, because I have really nothing to discuss with people who have departed from embracing reality. I learned a long time ago that there are three classes of people I cannot and will not hold discussions with on the internet; conspiracy theorists, Texas secessionists and “end of days” Christians. They are, compared to my value system of respect for argument and evidence, unpersuadeable and unreachable. Life is too short for us to waste each other’s time.
So…if you are going to start posting memes that base their meaning on one or more underlying conspiracy theories, you will get no reaction from me. I have no time to waste on intellectually risible, over-imaginative and paranoid dystopian fantasies.

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A mental profile of a Donald Trump supporter

This article from the Washington Post is a look at the worldview and mind of a Donald Trump supporter.
The most important commentary is this one by JJ MacNabb, who writes about anti-government and Sovereign Citizen groups in the USA. As she points out, there is usually one defining event in the lives of many anti-government supporters that convinces them that The System in its broadest sense is stacked against them, that they are never going to be treated fairly, and therefore the only right thing to do is to work to smash The System. In this case, the overturning of the woman’s $450,000 damages award for harrassment seems to have been the trigger for her becoming a fully invested supporter of smashing The System. Everything after that event is an illustration of how resentful and angry people are vulnerable to all manner of wild ideas and conspiracy theories. They then tend to embrace any and all conspiracy theories that start from the premise that an evil cabal is in charge. Hence the resurgence of ideas that overreaching government programs are a tool to subjugate the citizens (Jade Helm and Agenda 21) and the resurgence in popularity of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. It is a recycling of the whole New World Order/Illuminati/Jewish bankers world control trope, which is older than the 20th century, but persistently popular when nativism and racism become acceptable in public discourse.
UPDATE – for an illustration of what happens when people become fully invested in all manner of New World Order-based conspiracy theories, this guy’s Facebook page is a good illustration. He is pretty representative of the sort of people who signed on to the idea that Jade Helm was a covert attempt by the Federal Government to invade Texas.

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Blake Barnett and the Crimson Tide

Quarterback Blake Barnett, one of the highest-rated college recruits in 2015, has shocked the Crimson Tide by leaving college this week.
Barnett started the first game of the season, but was benched after 2 series in favor of Jalen Hurts, and his only other playing time was 3 series in the game on September 24th. Otherwise he has been holding the clipboard as the #2 quarterback.
Predictably, perjoratives like “quitter” have been ladled out like confetti since the news of Barnett’s leaving college broke on Thursday.
Blake Barnett had three options open to him, given that he had apparently been demoted to #2 quarterback at Alabama.
1. Remain on the program, and try to win the job back
2. Remain this season and try (1) but leave after the season
3. Leave Alabama now and transfer to a junior college

The underlying reason for Barnett leaving Alabama are that there is a rule in the NCAA governing playing eligbility that worked against him remaining with Alabama and the football program. The rule states that transferring players lose one season of eligibility after the date that they transfer.
So, if Blake Barnett transfers immediately to another college, and if he meets specified academic and attendance records, he can play football for another college after the fourth game of next season. If he left Alabama after the end of this season, he would not be able to play for any college team until 2018.
Barnett was not a little-noticed scrub when he was recruited. He was universally regarded as one of the top quarterback prospects coming out of high school. However, he is more a prototypical pocket passer, where Jalen Hurts is more of an athletic read-option quarterback. Alabama’s offensive line is not currently very good – Nick Saban admitted as much at halftime in today’s game. At the moment Alabama is having to use the running flexibility of Hurts to win on offense. The reason why Barnett is not playing may have as much to do with Alabama’s o-line challenges as it does with Barnett’s skills and abilities.
Given the o-line issues, and the decision to cope with them by moving to a playbook based on more running plays and read-option calls, Barnett’s decision makes a lot of sense. Let’s go back and look at his options again:

1. Stay and win back the job
This is less likely than it might appear. If you can’t protect a pocket quarterback, you have to find other ways to put up points. If Barnett wins back the starting job, that might be bad for him. He gets to go out there and run for his life if his o-line protection breaks down. If he suffers a season-ending injury, this will not be good for his college career and could ruin his attempt to make it into the NFL (think Marcus Lattimore and Jaylon Smith).

2. Stay but transfer at the end of the season
If he moves to another college he forfeits a year of playing time. He will not be able to play until 2018.

3. Go to junior college now, transfer to a football college in 2017
If he does this, he can play after four games of the 2017 season.

Lost amidst all of the whining about Barnett being a quitter is one important thing that we have to remember. He is not being paid for playing football. He gets to work hard and then go out on a Saturday and put his body in harm’s way for the official sum of $0. Meanwhile, his head coach Nick Saban pulled down $7m last year.
When you get the hook after one quarter of the firs game of the season, you are on the bench, and you are not being paid, but you want to play, why stay at Alabama? I’ll pass on the whining about him quitting on the team. If he was benched after 2 series, that kind of looks like the coaches quit on him.

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The meeting of the warped minds

One thing that is easy to notice on Twitter is how many proclaimed supporters of Donald Trump, in addition to proudly changing their handle to some combination including the word “Deplorable”, are also anti-semitic.
They could, of course be taking their cue from some of Trump’s supporters. like David Duke. Here he manages to combine both anti-semitism and a racist dog-whistle in the same tweet:

I remind readers once again of the remarkable similarity between tweets like this one and the sort of public comments that the Nazi party made in the early 1930’s when Adof Hitler was consolidating his power in Germany.

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The casualization of eliminationism in the modern USA

One of the processes that was well-documented during the rise of the Nazi Party to power in pre-World War II Germany was its ability to persuade supporters to adopt progressively more extreme and enabling views about out-groups in Germany. The number one out-group was the Jews, but other groups such as homosexuals were also declared to be out-groups.
The process was a progressive one like this:

Criticism –> Demonization –> Dehumanization –> Extermination

This could be seen very easily with the Jews, who, by the beginning of World War II, were being routinely described as filthy animals and vermin by Nazi supporters and in the media. The whole idea was that by re-defining them as animals and vermin, and not humans, the next step, extermination, seemed utterly logical. And so it proved. The demonization was an excellent example of what was once termed “the banality of evil”. People casually and reflexively came to believe that Jews were not entitled to live. No contemplation, no second thoughts that perhaps this might be a Really Bad Thing.
The whole approach in Nazi Germany to opponents was casual eliminationism, the idea that opponents were not even entitled to survive, because they were a threat to Nazi purity and control.
Today we have this delightful news item from the Carolinas. A local political fundraising project for the GOP decided that it would be OK to raffle off an AR-15, 1000 rounds of ammunition and a picture of Hillary Clinton.
The money quote is this one:

“Of course we won’t tell you what to do with the photo, but when we ran a picture of Hillary on the front of our newsletter, we heard that it was VERY popular down at the range”

This, folks is the casualization of eliminationism. It’s just like reading the history of Nazi Germany all over again. The writers of this screed are not only ignorant of world history, they are participants in the casual demonization of a politician that they disagree with. They’re nothing better than enablers of creeping, casual, unthinking eliminationism. In short, the writer of this is a rabble-rousing scumbag. Thinking about it, maybe the right response is to label the author a Nazi, and when they protest, tell them to STFU and go study some history.

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Sinister actions by Donald Trump

Donald Trump is engaging in activities at his rallies that are clearly designed to foster an Us and Them mentality. This tweet will illustrate:

As a student of European history, I know exactly where I have seen this behavior pathology before. It’s not pretty.
If anybody reading this is going to try and make the argument that Donald Trump was joking, or that this is not sinister and threatening…
STOP.
Don’t even go there. I don’t want to have to be the one to tell you in sharp words how utterly un-versed you are in world history.

UPDATE – If you want to see what Trump’s remark triggers on an online forum where the barrier to assholes is non-existent, here we go:

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