Sometimes Mobs Just Get Tunnel Vision
The Birther Think Tank tries to stay away from partisan politics and just focus on the Birther issue. Personally, I am about 60% conservative and 40% progressive. Maybe 55%-45%. Anyway, if I ever did a politically oriented blog, I would have about zero readership. The conservatives would call me a commie, and the liberals would call me a Nazi. Libertarians of both sides would be trying to hunt me down to tar and feather me, or worse.
Sooo, I am reluctant to even get into the whole Trayvon Martin cluster-f*ck at this website. But I feel compelled to say something. Here’s the reason. I often wonder why it is that we Anti-Birthers and Obots are so fascinated by the Birther mindset. The answer I come up with is that we recognize something universal about Humanity in their various mental machinations. It’s like the Cinderella fairy-tale where people relate to the whole evil step-mother archetype and the story gets told over and over. Birtherism is fun because it skulks around the extremes of human foolishness. But it is hardly the only example. I see the same tendencies in the over-wrought histrionics about the Zimmerman verdict.
Let me say from the outset, that I never saw this story as anything particularly special. Without sufficient provocation or threat, Person A jumped on a Person B, broke his nose, and started banging his head on the concrete. Person B shoots him. I am from Texas. If somebody jumped on me, broke my nose, and started banging my head on the sidewalk, I would have shot him, too. Then when I got up, I would have shot him a few more times for good measure. Then, I would have jumped up and down on his head with both feet until the cops got there. Because I have seen too many scary movies where some psycho serial killer comes back to life and starts killing people all over again. It would not have made any difference to me what color the sumbitch was, I would be coloring him DEAD.
That’s my opinion. But I can understand how the less Texan people among us could focus in on the whole Unarmed-Teenager vs. Gun-Toting-Grown-Up aspect of it. And I can see a little bit of the “Zimmerman was a busy-body” argument. I think all that disappears the second Trayvon started battering Zimmerman, but I can see how people could find those arguments germane in the beginning. However, there was a very open trial and a jury found Zimmerman innocent. And now the reactions, from whom I will call the Trayvonites, begin looking more and more Birtherish, and even exceeding them in large degree. It is so ridiculous, I call the Travonites The New Birthers.
First, the whole Birther movement started with SUSPICIONS. Birthers started out suspecting that Obama was born in Kenya, and from those SUSPICIONS rose all the phony COLB claims, and forged long form nonsense. It has gone so far now that otherwise intelligent people believe Obama’s mother wasn’t Stanley Dunham
Similarly, the Trayvonites started off SUSPECTING racism on Zimmerman’s part. This was egged on by a Liberal Lynch Mob who see racists behind every tree. The police and the FBI investigated Zimmerman and from all the reports in the news, he is one of the least racist people around. He dated a Black girl, and he and his wife tutored Black children. He had Black friends who liked him. But, the racist hook was set, and the tug of war to land him in the boat with some race baiting was afoot.
Then, you have the Imaginary Scenario Creations, often constructed from erroneous facts. Birthers sit around and fantasize about Obama’s mama sneaking off to Canada or Kenya or Timbuktu prior to him being born, and then Obama’s grandparents paying a clerk to fake an Hawaiian birth certificate for him. Or, the false assertion that nobody remembers Obama at Columbia.
The Trayvonites do the same thing. For example, they imagine that Zimmerman first threatened Trayvon and maybe even pulled the gun, and then it was Trayvon who fought back for his very life. Another scenario is being advanced that Trayvon thought Zimmerman was a mad homosexual rapist about to molest him. They also keep thumping the completely false assertion that Zimmerman was told by the police to stay in his car, and if he only had obeyed the po po, then none of this would have happened. The problem with both groups’ hypothesized scenarios, and often their facts, is that while the imagined scenario is possible, the available evidence and the real facts don’t tend to support them. The State spent a great deal of time trying to prove that Zimmerman did something wrong, and the evidence just wasn’t there.
With both groups, there seems to be some underlying preconception or preoccupation that provides the fertile soil for the Seeds of Suspicion. Many think the “Scary Black Man” Archetype is what lies beneath the Birther subconscious. That it wouldn’t matter who the President was, if he was Black, there would be Birthers. I personally don’t agree with that, but I do admit the possibility. Similarly, the Trayvonites seem to be motivated by an underlying “Oppressed Black Man” Archetype. That it doesn’t matter what Trayvon did, the mere suspicion that Zimmerman profiled him tells the whole story for them. GUILTY! As for me, if an upset reader should wish to break my nose and bang my head into the concrete, I respectfully request that you profile me instead.
The mob mentality of the Birthers is encouraged by their active fantasy life. They seem to be living back in the 1950/1960s era where they play the role of anti-commie, anti-Marxist Patriots keeping America safe and secure. Therefore, the “Scary Black Man” Archetype plays right into their Foreign Invasion Fantasy.
The Trayvonite mob is no different. They seem to be living back in the 1950/1960s era where they play the role of Freedom Riders and civil rights pioneers rushing in to save the poor black folks from the KKK. Therefore, the “Oppressed Black Man” Archetype plays right into their Saving The Poor Black Man Fantasy.
Both groups are stupid and silly. The Commies aren’t even commies any more. If the Birthers want to keep America safe and secure, then please, set up some Citizen Grand Juries and guillotines over on Wall Street. Pretty please. As for the Trayvonites, most harms suffered by Blacks in 2013 are self-inflicted wounds arising out of extremely poor personal choices. Like fantasizing you’re a gangsta, and going around trying to whup up on people. Here is a link to one interesting article I read today on this subject:
Both groups are encouraged to some degree by their respective parties as a means to energize the base. And I do mean base. As in ignoble and without moral virtue. Here the Democrats are far more culpable. For just one example, Eric Holder and Hillary Clinton are both egging on all the unjustified hand wringing and p*ssing and moaning. Holder is trying to involve the DOJ in this mess, when the FBI has already cleared Zimmerman.
Hillary Clinton, who I actually like, came out with this bunch of crap: “No mother, no father, should ever have to fear for their child walking down a street in the United States of America.” Sure, but maybe if you encourage your kids not to jump on strangers, break their nose, and beat their heads against the concrete, they would be a little safer, too. Funny how that part gets left out. There are more examples here than I can list. I am sure there will be books written.
The Republicans are far behind the Democrats on this particular point for just one reason: Birtherism is so nutty and crazy that the silly crap tends to splash back up on the people who encourage it. Then you got to send your clothes off to the dry cleaners, and the smell tends to linger. If Zimmerman had been found guilty, then the Republicans would be pushing the hell out of the story. But, he won.
Whereas, the idiotic Democratic racial sob story hooey is part and parcel of their political strategy. Which is why the race card and race baiting are so prevalent in the party. Even a harmless prank about the names of the Asiana pilots is racist to these people. Ho Le Fuk! Sum Ting Wong there!
Moving on to the next area of similarity, the Birthers are completely incapable of accepting either electoral or judicial losses. They are still trying to overturn the 2008 election, and make null and void the laws passed during Obama’s presidency. Birther leaders stir up the Birther mob. The Trayvonites are up to the same thing. Rev. Al Sharpton, the proud heir to the legacy of George Wallace and Lester Maddox, is in Cat Heaven over this. He is planning Trayvonpalooza’s in a hundred cities to stir up the Trayvonite mob. They want to overturn the verdict, rather than accept it. Oh Pretty Pleeeeaasse! Give us a do-over! Just ignore the JURY behind the curtain!
Both groups are lobbying like the dickens to get Washington to step in and pull a deus ex machina victory out for them. Zullo and his bunch are meeting with Very Important Officials in Washington, to get the eligibility issue before Congress. Same with the Trayvonites. Except, they are making some headway with Eric “Oblivious” Holder. He has actually set up a DOJ website to take email tips on this.
You know things are really bad in Fake Partisan Investigation Land when Attorney General Eric Zullo, I mean Sheriff Joe Holder, oh what’s his name, ERIC HOLDER makes Sheriff Joe and The Cold Case Posse look smart in comparison. Once again, the Trayvonites are way ahead on the Government Officious Inter-Meddling Event with it being so blatantly, stinking bad that Alan Dershowitz is calling for Prosecutor Angela Corey to be disbarred. I suspect (pray? hope?) calls for Holder’s resignation will begin to snowball.
Both sets of mobs want to change the laws. The Birthers don’t like all that 14th Amendment stuff, because well, you know just anybody who is born here gets to be a citizen, and maybe even a natural born citizen if they are honest enough to admit it. Which most aren’t. Currently,the Trayvonites are fixated on the Florida Stand Your Ground law, even though that defense was not used at the trial. There is an interesting article at Wiki on Stand Your Ground Laws:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-your-ground_law
From that link we find, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. declared in Brown v. United States (1921) (256 U.S. 335, 343 (16 May 1921)), a case that upheld the “no duty to retreat” maxim, that “detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife”. I would submit that detached reflection cannot be demanded in the case of Mr. Head vs. Mr. Concrete!, either. The law is colorblind, and had Zimmerman been black, and Trayvon white, I expect the verdict would have been the same.
However, both Birthers and Trayvonites seem convinced that when the outcome is not what they wish, it must be the law that is wrong. Because it sure can’t be them or their expectations that are messed up. I would not be surprised to see the Trayvonites attempt to replace the jury trial with Trial By Press. They have already made a darn good start.
Both groups have their martyrs. For the Birthers, one of them is poor old Terry Lakin, who chose to deploy not to Afghanistan, and spent six months in Leavenworth. Trayvon has become the poster child of innocent victims of gun violence. I suspect both groups would like the Post Office to honor their man with a first class postage stamp. Maybe it can be part of the Cowards and Batterers series???
And, both groups have their nutty signs. The Birthers have their idiotic “Where’s The Birth Certificate?” signs, when the darn thing is plastered all over the Internet. Not to be outdone in stupidity, the First Baptist Church University Park, in CHICAGO, of all places, has, “It Is Safe To Kill Black People In Amerikkka.” What a complete frigging joke. Yeah, killing black folks is pretty safe in CHICAGO. But it ain’t the KKK. It’s other young black thugs. See the ChicagoNow article linked above.
Speaking about killing people, there are numerous Birthers who openly contemplate assassination, The Secret Service has paid quite a few of them a visit. Some are locked up. Most of us here are in complete agreement with that, and we feel little sorrow for those folks, or the Walter Fitzpatricks and Darren Huffs. We are not afraid to criticize them for any violent tendencies, even though most of it is only Keyboard Commandoing. That sort of stuff is just plain wrong.
Here, the Trayvonites imitate and exceed the Birthers. Death threats are common against Zimmerman and his family. There is even violence in some cities, something neither the Tea Party nor Birthers have ever resulted to. Yet, I have seen no investigations into the Trayvonites whatsoever. Where is Operation Vigilant Eagle when you really need it?
Finally, and this is only finally to keep this article from becoming way too long, there is all the idiotic Plea de’ Hyperbole that gets thrown around in the complete disregard of the legal and factual underpinnings. How many times have we seen a Birther come out with:
But if being born in the United States is all it takes, then the son of Osama Bin Laden can be President!!!
Oh Noes! Quelle Horreur! Meanwhile, the Trayvonites are just as silly. The Guardian, not just some random Birther nut, actually ran:
Open Season On Black Boys After A Verdict Like This!!!
I suspect someone there at the Guardian must have had his head banged against some concrete, or suffered some other form of Traumatic Brain Injury. I could fill this website up with the other over-the-top statements I have seen on this subject. Which is why this whole article is relevant. The Birthers jump straight to the Parade of Horribles and ignore all the intermediate steps like elections, and judicial hearings. The Trayvonites do the same. Poor little black kids with a handful of Skittles will be shot down in the street like dogs by hordes of psychotic creepy ass crackers. And let’s just ignore that whole intermediate jumping on somebody and beating them thingie, OK! Rah, rah, siss boom CRAP!
The delusional and mob mentality qualities of Birtherism do not stop with that issue alone. Nor do hysterical conspiracy theories built on groundless suspicions. Part of the inherent fun in reporting on Birthers, and laughing at them, is the morbid joy of gawking at obvious fools and charlatans. And rejoicing that we aren’t that stupid and mendacious. Sometimes we all need to take a little personal inventory to make sure that is still true.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
The Birther Think Tank 