What pushed me out were the rationalizations made for story elements that didn't fit the narrative. And conclusions drawn that seemed crazy. Or outlandish behaviors by truthers trying to get their "message" out. Or, the amazing amount of people that would have had to be involved in the conspiracy. And the motives required to pull off such a scheme when there would be easier ways to do it. Or countless other things. But they had me for a little while.
So, there is no mystery--at least for me--as to why conspiracy theories get rolling. At first, it feels like this intensely interesting, secret story. One after another, you discover new "facts," and they are presented in such a way that they come together like a puzzle. When the story (in my case, 9/11) feels like it has holes in it, those puzzle pieces can seem to fit. . .maybe you have to trim it or hammer it into place, but maybe. . . But why is it that some will cling to a story, even after its seams start showing? And in the case of the Birthers, how is it that a story that was always flimsy, whose elements have all been shot down, is so durable?
On Thursday's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, guest host Chris Hayes interviewed two men who have written about this sort of thing (along with things like climate change denialism), and there is a science to it. Turns out conspiratorial thinking is actually a pathology. Surprise!
The upholding of the Constitution is not a conspiracy theory.
ReplyDeleteSince the Constitution does not define "natural born citizen," even the less nutty elements of birtherism can't claim some sort of Constitutional basis.
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