Emerging Culture of Paranoia

[PainRack]

no they did that alright, they called his pursuit after the first WTC attack, the embassy bombings in Africa, and speedboat scuicide bombings of our warships, "Wagging the Dog".

Then were obstinate against doing anything against AQ until 9-12-01.....

You forgot restrictions on Clinton wiretapping powers which miracalously resurrected in a revamped form post 9/11 in the Patriot Act. There's also the whole anti-Homeland Security bit until post 9/11, or restrictions on big government and FBI spending on counter-terrorism with comments such as the President should use more efficiently the money Congress has allocated rather than ask for more.

And of course, the whole Clinton lied vs Bush lied angle.....

[Darth Wong]

Anyone else remember the furor over the Clipper Chip?

The right-wing went from "absolute privacy is an essential human right" to "if you don't want the government to see what you're doing, then you must have something to hide."

[Samuel]

Well, I'm only 22. So, even though I was an avid news reader since elementary school, I probably don't recall Clinton-ear news that well. I do recall some obnoxious right wing-nuttery accusing Clinton of using Al Qaeda as an attempt to distract from the whole Lewinsky BJ fracas. But it never really seemed up to the same level as the right wing crap now.

Then again, my recollection is likely pretty faulty. Although, it does seem to me that I'm hearing the crazy rightwingers' banal opinions much faster now than back then.

Whitewater was beyond bizarre. I'm younger than you and only read about it, but essentially they accused the president of being hooked on cocaine and killing hundreds of people in the US as part of a massive conspiracy.

[Darth Wong]

There's a common exchange that you hear in a lot of movies, and it goes like this:

"He's going to do this."
"How do you know?"
"Because that's what I would do."

You've heard that in movie after movie after movie. But think about it: isn't this precisely what the Republicans are demonstrating now? Their fears of fascism and concentration camps for political dissidents only reflect what they would do if they had the power.

[Patrick Degan]

There's a common exchange that you hear in a lot of movies, and it goes like this:

"He's going to do this."
"How do you know?"
"Because that's what I would do."

You've heard that in movie after movie after movie. But think about it: isn't this precisely what the Republicans are demonstrating now? Their fears of fascism and concentration camps for political dissidents only reflect what they would do if they had the power.

Classic case of projection.

[Lord of the Abyss]

I don't think the accusations are crazier now, but I do get the impression that they are less top down. I recall the Clinton era as being one where various right wing media figures would make wild accusations and the True Believers would lap it all up. Now, the craziness seems to be spreading a lot more from nut-to-nut rather than from blowhard-to-nut.