Wow.
I don’t know if I have seen the merging to two distinct sets of conspiracy theories before…but it looks like I am watching it right now.
President Obama released his long form birth certificate, and within hours internet cries of “Fake!” began. You can go to Youtube for tutorials purporting to tell you exactly how it was faked. Something about Abobe and layers and lots of technical stuff I don’t have a handle on.
Meanwhile, the death of Osama bin Laden is being denied by what should be an entirely different set of alternate history buffs. Some say he has been dead for years and stored like a fine wine to uncorked at an appropriate time.
The two themes are merging because some of the original “birthers” now claim the death of Osama was staged in some fashion to draw attention awy from the storm over the birth certificate.
That implies that a certain number of “truthers” who felt President Obama was the man to break the wall of silence and “out” the previous administration’s complicity in 9/11 now think he is just another member of the grand conspiracy. Or has one of his own and can’t release his documents because…well, up to you.
Where will this line of thinking end?
I have noted for some time that most Americans seem to accept some form of alternate history theory – you can probably name 100 on your own. Conspiracy, alternate history and fanciful history/myth are meat and potatoes for Hollywood and always have been. Think a moment about The Dirty Dozen, Inglourious Basterds (I’m not sure I misspelled that correctly) or even to go way back The Birth of a Nation and you will see what I mean. I watched a little of the recent Sherlock Holmes movie last night and it was British history cast through a prism of dark secret conspiracies led by men in power with ill intents. About the same as the narratives being pushed today in some quarters about birth certificates and special ops.
We are becoming a country that doesn’t have an agreed narrative of its own past and no agreement on its present narrative. I hope that this recent change isn’t as damaging as I suspect it is.
bearroombrawl 