MORE PROOF THAT CONSERVATIVES & THE FACTS, JUST DON”T MIX

…Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood had to appear before a bogus Congressional Committee

 

“Urban Legends” can be both funny and highly destructive.

 

Many Urban Legends are just humorous stories that are just that….they are untrue, ”Legends”.

 

As an example, there is a long-time legend about the true origin of the 4-letter “F” word in American language.

 

That legend says that there was a time when all criminal attorneys had a file for their victims of “Rape”, and those clients were identified as those that had been subjected to: "Forced Unconditional Carnal Knowledge," or some other functional variation of that phrase.

 

That being the case, the lawyer’s offices always had a file drawer for their: F.U.C.K. client files.

 

Therefore, this is the urban legend for the origin of this famous four-letter word.

 

But, there are other “Urban Legends” that are not so humorous and are in fact, cruel and outrageous falsehoods.  In addition, these untruths are continually being promoted by the far-right wing of the Republican Party.

 

The “Birtherism” legend about President Obama is one “Legend” that may be somewhat behind us today.  But this bizarre conspiracy theory that the president faked his American citizenship is still going strong in some areas.  This is especially again true since Donald Trump decided to run for president.  In fact, today Obama’s birtherism has become even more ingrained in the GOP.

 

As an example, a recent poll by Public Policy Polling found that when asked about Obama’s religion, only 14% of Republican primary voters correctly said that the president is a Christian. A majority of those that call themselves Republicans, 54% claimed he is Muslim, while another 32% say they are unsure.  Fewer than a third of Republicans will say the president was born in America

 

Now, President Obama released the full version of his birth certificate four years ago.  Yet the constant drumbeat of cranks claiming to have new arguments and evidence (which they are never able to produce) say that he is hiding his true identity, this has since done its magic. Now birtherism, which is based completely on lies and wishful thinking is an ignorant mainstream "Legend" and view of some inside the GOP.

 

As a recent example of how these “Legends” start, recently a Texas cowboy named Scott Lattin told the local police that Black Lives Matter activists vandalized his pick-up truck. It didn’t take very long for the police to figure out that Mr. Lattin had vandalized his own truck and then used social media like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to raise money off of this fraud.  Mr. Lattin has since been arrested for filing a false police report, and other charges are being considered.

 

But as nothing on the internet ever truly disappears, this “Legend” is still cruising across the net.

 

The latest disgusting “Legend”, is also being promoted by a Republican candidate for president, Ms. Carly Fiorina, the former H/P CEO.

The same people that put out the original hoax that caused the demise of the volunteer voter registration organization, ACORN, they have now made a big splash over the summer by using a disgustingly edited video on YouTube.  The video claimed, with zero evidence, that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal body parts for profit. 

 

But these people really know their audience.  That lie quickly became a truism in the Republican Party that every political candidate now repeats as if it were scripture, even though it is undeniably false.

 

What makes the entire thing so amazing is that these claims are being made by a false organization named, the Center for Medical Progress.  This is a front group launched only to perpetrate this abortion hoax.  They have since been “Red Flagged” as a bogus right-wing operation, but the story just continues to grow.

 

This “Legend” continues just as did the conservative Christian accusations decades ago that my then young son’s game of Dungeons and Dragons was a secret plot to lure teenagers into committing suicide.  And let’s not forget the hoax where Procter and Gamble was supposedly trying to convert people to Satanism with the power of their soap products.

 

But apparently this is the garbage that the conservative voters want to believe.  Therefore, the Republican politicians just act like they believe all this crap.  In fact, some really do believe it and they even use it to hustle the voters.  (Donald Trump is doing that exact thing as I write this article.)

 

So here are a couple of other recent stories that are or have become new Urban Legends.

 

First, have you ever hear of the military term “Jade Helm”?

 

Well, the same conservative base that’s attacking Planned Parenthood is also spewing that Jade Helm was a military conspiracy.  And they have been saying this for months.

 

Jade Helm is the code name for a US military training operation in the South Eastern area of Texas. The US military conducted these training operations over this last summer, and the local right wingers across Texas went totally nuts in claiming it was a conspiracy. The general gist of the conspiracy was that some in Texas believe that Obama, being a secret Muslim, is setting up operations across the country to eventually impose martial law and to turn the country into a dictatorship under Sharia Law.

 

It’s the same old, black-helicopter "coming-to-get-your-guns" madness, started by the GOP, during the Clinton administration.  It was this kind of unbalanced thinking of government conspiracies that led Timothy James McVeigh into becoming the Oklahoma Federal Building bomber.

 

However, that kind of paranoia about Jade Helm is now becoming mainstream in the Republican Party. A lengthy list of Republican politicians have lent credence to the Jade Helm conspiracy by claiming their need to investigate it.  Those Republicans include the current Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Texas Senator, Ted Cruz, and Kentucky Senator, Rand Paul.  Of course, the investigation has been dropped, but the legend remains.

 

Finally, we have the latest “Legend” regarding the 14 year old Muslim Texan, Ahmed Mohamed. 

 

The young Ahmed was arrested and handcuffed after he brought his technology project,  a homemade clock, to school.  A clock that two of his teachers mistakenly decided looked like a bomb.

 

However, due to all the local Islamo-phobia in Texas, this event caused the right-wing media to swing into action.

 

Their first move was to claim the clock looked like a bomb, because it had lose wires “and stuff” inside.  Of course, none of the “stuff” had any resemblance to being explosives. 

 

But let’s not let the facts get in the way. Therefore, the right-wing’s bogus internet news operation called, “Breitbart”, began accusing that this is a coordinated campaign organized by the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR).  Breitbart say CAIR is trying to make conservatives look bad for their purpose of “Islamic supremism.”  Already conservatives online are accusing the 14 year-old Muslim of conducting a “dry run” for his intended future terrorist attacks.  They are also nicknaming Ahmed:  “Jihad Junior” on Twitter. 

 

Ahmed’s parents have taken Ahmed out of his Texas school where they say he was continuingly being taunted for being a Muslim.  No one knows where Ahmad will end up, but I would suggest it should not be in a bright Red state like Texas.

 

And the Republican bazaar hits just keep on coming…….

 

Copyright G.Ater  2015