Saturday, July 25, 2009

Right-Wing Extremism, Left-Wing Extremism

I've been meaning to comment on this for a few days now:



It's one of the silliest arguments I've ever heard. And, unfortunately, some mainstream media pundits have picked up on it. Various fact-check sites have debunked the claims against President Obama's citizenship. But these kinds of conspiracy theories rarely succumb to facts.

I still find it interesting how easily we fall prey to conspiracy theories. And I really wish we could have a longer discussion about the psychology of extremism, without all the partisan rhetoric over which political party is more likely to cater to its lunatic fringe.

1 comment:

MediaMaven said...

You're being so nice by not naming names.

This story is silly and is also prey to the slow news cycle of the summer. When people need stuff to report on, they pick up things like this.

The Psychology of Extremism sounds like a really interesting class.