It’s so hard to decide what my favorite moment in wingnuttery was today. Was it this story from the Rachel Maddow show, as reported by Chris Hayes?
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Or was it the Daily Caller, eager to find a new low to sink to, calling the men of Journolist ugly? It’s so hard to decide!
On one hand, the Iowa Republican party declaring that they want to instate what they call the “original” 13th amendment in a sad effort to kick Obama out of office is about as classic as wingnuttery gets:
*It’s winking at racism without coming right out for it—-the actual 13th amendment banned slavery, and so this is a way of suggesting that wasn’t a super important thing to do, certainly not on the level of stopping people from accepting titles from foreign rulers. Playing footsie with racism with plausible deniability firmly intact is one of the top three favorite wingnut things to do.
*It’s about creating implausible schemes to attack the President’s right to hold office for the sole purpose of riling up their followers, giving them more shit to mutter about angrily, particularly after they’ve had a few.
*They get to take a swipe at scientists, intellectuals, and the idea of peace itself without coming out right for it. The scheme is there to suggest that the Nobel prize is the equivalent of taking a title such as “Duke” or “Baron” from a foreign crown. They may play off like it’s just an unfortunate side effect that this would strip the citizenship away from the hundreds of American Nobel prize winners who have been rewarded for science, literature, and peace-keeping efforts, but make no mistake. If this scheme worked out, they would enjoy showing those smarty-pants what for thinking they’re so special.
*This is stupid, ineffectual, and kind of crazy—-much like freaking out over fluoride or black helicopters. Whatever the appeal of that is to wingnuts, it’s obviously there.
But the “men on Journolist are so ugly!” nonsense is also fucking awesome, for many reasons.