"The Storm"

[_EAllusion]

"The Storm" is a ultra-crazy conspiracy theory peculating on the far right at the moment that I just learned about from this article:

http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/12/qano ... ained.html

It's being written about now because Rosanne Barr tweeted some references to her belief in it that made no sense unless you were conversant with the culture. That's how it made its way to me.

From there, I poked around and as hard to imagine as it is, it's nuttier than even what that article is able to capture. It's a good reminder of how much worse the conspiratorial culture this burns in can get. If the walls close in on Trump at some point, there's no telling where the bottom of this will go.

[_subgenius]

what did that judge rule on Jan 8th about that whole Bundy situation?

[_DarkHelmet]

Do these nutjobs have anything better to do with their lives? The good news, as scary as these crazies may seem, they are a tiny minority. As the article points out, you have to go to "the grimiest parts of the internet" to learn about these crazy conspiracy theories. As loud and obnoxious as the alt-right is, it's estimated to only be about 50,000 people. They need to constantly amp up their craziness to get attention.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Oh, thank god. For a second I thought we were going to be treated to an article on Leftist Anarchism.

Phew!

- Doc

[_MeDotOrg]

As Steve Jobs said Picasso said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal". Q has stolen many great elements of great story telling. "The Storm" has many fathers. Elements of the Jihad Against Barney The Dinosaur, and Jon Lovitz's Pathological liar, with a dash of Left Behind come to mind.

The Jihad Against Barney was one of my favorite parodies when I first discovered the internet. It turned genocidal rage against the Purple Pestilence of PBS, and as any parent of preschoolers knew back then, after 1,000 listenings the Barney Song was Satan's Jingle. But if was all in good fun, clearly a parody.

"The Storm" reads like a nihilistic wish to seen the land washed clean. At the end of WWII, Hitler supporters watched the battle lines retreat closer to the fatherland. They couldn't reconcile this with their belief that the Fuhrer was invincible, so they began to create fancies to show he was winning. All of the retreats were strategic, drawing the enemy into a trap only the Fuhrer could see. Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and Production, tells the story in his autobiography of a man telling him that death rays had been invented. Not one to waste time, Speer made the man 'Commissioner of Death Rays' and sent him on his way.

But the conspiracy nuts of 1945 didn't have the internet. And the frightening unknown to me not how many, but how few nuts it would take this to be an exhortation to help the revolution along, and turn this story into PizzaGate on a much larger scale.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

MDO,

We're closer than I want to believe:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/01/media/s ... index.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... cast_Group

It's funny the loudest purveyors of the charge of false news, well, is the largest purveyor of false news, lies, and propaganda.

- Doc

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Welp. Speaking of the Devil. Sinclair made John Oliver tonight.

- Doc

[_EAllusion]

That Sinclair story is getting heavy coverage, as it definitely should, but one thing that bothers me is the insistence that the anchors who went along should've quit in protest. I get the impulse and there are plenty of times I've shared the sentiment. The thing is, local TV news people don't make a lot of money. I know, because I know several who have to keep part time jobs. And their skills don't make for a great job transfer resume. Asking them to quit is asking them to throw away their livelihood that likely hasn't built up much in the way of a savings cushion. That's a tough ask.

Instead, they should unionize. Non-Sinclair stations should start trying to leverage the fact that they aren't a sinister propaganda network as part of their marketing strategy.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Who's saying they should quit? Quite a few of them had a sort of hostage look on their faces. The video montage of them all reading the 'fake news' message is Orwellian.

Anyway. I'm derailing. Last thing on thjs Sinclair thing:

https://np.reddit.com/r/politics/commen ... y/dwmv8pg/

It's a decently sourced post on Sinclair's collusion with Trump's campaign. Between them and Cambridge Analytica, wow.

- Doc

[_Hawkeye]

I'm traveling and on my phone so I can't produce any links right now but I just read a piece from Newsweek where they ran an article detailing how Sinclair hired a Russian journalist who work for RT and Gorka was involved also and they were instrumental in running these "deep State" segments for all of their local news stations