Monday Musings: January 31. 2011

Now a few words about lies, untruths, factual misdirections. As you watch this video … think TeaParty, think FoxNews:

(sorry for the teeny picture - click to watch it BIG on Youtube)

There are a number of possible cognitive mechanisms that could explain this dogged resistance to new information, but we all know it when we see it. It’s what we observe each time a well meaning friend sends us the umteenth viral hoax email PROVING THAT OBAMA IS AN ISLAMO FASCIST TERRORIST WITHOUT A BIRTH CERTIFICATE, and we again patiently show them that they’ve been mislead by false information … Then they send you another nearly identical email. Certainly the second email must be true. Right?

Wrong. One of my longtime neighbors sends this stuff out regularly. He should know better, or at least know how to know better … the man has a Ph.D in engineering. But you’d never guess based on the number of ‘evil Obama’ emails.

To better explain this complex cognitive phenomena, I defer to my English colleague, the esteemed Dr. J. Cleese:

The next time you see that glazed over look on your TeaParty/evangelical neighbor’s face as you patiently explain and offer verified evidence contrary to their deeply held beliefs, just understand that what they are actually hearing is similar to what you just heard Dr. Cleese say.

“The liviating duds immediatly lubberdutch making contaste and togethatee slip temperance and expandasutatity … “

The psychologist/alert reader in my kitchen this evening told me, over a damned decent glass of Sicilian red, that there is one other possibility. They’re just stupid.

Here is what the TeaParty neighbor is currently in high dudgeon over - the White House piano recital by pianist Lang Lang in honor of the Chinese presidents’ visit.  The paragraph preceding the video came in the same email:

“Only under Obama. During Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit, the two presidents were serenaded by pianist Lang Lang, who was born in China. His selection was the song “My Motherland,” the theme song to the 1956 anti-American film Battle on Shangganling Mountain, produced as China was killing American soldiers in the Korean War.”

Well, of course. An American trained concert pianist, who performs throughout the United States, would offer this as a career killing political statement. Right? After all, the little Commies can’t possibly have any national pride or heroes to celebrate. That’s reserved for US. And some of those Europeans, maybe. Not the Socialist ones, of course. If we followed the ‘logic’ of this newly ginned up Fox Nation hysteria, the Star Spangled Banner could never be played in England. That would be a very bad thing.

The site that generates this claptrap is ExposeObama. It sucks as a website, but manages to hold considerable appeal to those who stand ready to be swayed. It’s run by a investment flack (Floyd Brown) and a tax dodge attorney (James V. Lacy). You’ve seen Floyd Brown’s work before. He crafted the Willie Horton ad, and is a co-founder of Citizens United. He’s also had roles in the Whitewater conspiracy and practically every other slimy underhanded maneuver the GOP has come up with in the last couple of decades, Karl Rove notwithstanding.

“He has given conservatism a rank smell for two decades —and if there is a racist odor to the coming general election campaign, it is likely to emanate from his vicinity.” (Salon: April 25, 2008)

“Floyd Brown is a slimy thug for hire.” George Stephanopolus

“I’m not a big fan of Floyd Brown…He gave us the Willie Horton ads that the Republican Party has had to eat for two election cycles now.” Mary Matalin

Brown’s partner at Obama Exposed, James Lacy is one of those shadowy operatives that are continually found floating around the perimeter of anything with the keywords: GOP, Reagan Foundation, Bob Barr, American Conservative Union …

But I digress. What Brown and Lacy forgot to mention in their references to the little known Korean War battle of Shangganling (AKA The Battle of Triangle Hill) is that the Chinese forces suffered more than 11,500 casualties. Far more than the UN or American forces. The Chinese managed to be horribly out gunned, yet still managed to hang on until the other side gave up and quit.

If you were Chinese, you just might be proud of that.

I think there’s more than a little bit of racism and xenophobia at work here. No? So, I could say to my nice white-haired, WASP TeaParty neighbor - “hey, what’s up with the racist, political thugs you’re hanging with these days?” But that would be a mean, cheap shot. And he wouldn’t have any idea of what I was talking about … even after I spelled it out in alphabet blocks.

Sigh. On to the battles we can fight, and have some hope of winning.

-maven