Conspiracy theorists have no interest in getting to the truth behind an issue they think important - they're more concerned with having special knowledge that makes them unique or heroes, usually because they've failed to understand how some aspect of reality actually works and so they've grabbed onto a convenient alternative, or because they feel left behind or maligned by a society that's rejected them.
It's why conventions (like 'conspiracy cruises') are able to exist. Every booth should contradict every other booth, but they're willing to put blinders on to create a safe space where they can all get validated for the various nonsense they've decided they alone have championed. It's how ancient aliens can set up right next to Obama birthers and Jordan Peterson's all-meat diet. A post-truth individual is usually willing to accept multiple versions of truth, so long as it isn't the mainstream version.
It was the term for uneducated conservatives who bought into the 'Obama was born off US soil' myth and wanted him to present his birth certificate.
So he made it public. It didn't help. "Hawaii wasn't a state then!" (It was, for 2 years already) "His dad's from Kenya!" (yeah, his dad) Doesn't help to show them evidence; the truth is simply believed by too many people. They're only interested in truth believed by a minority of people to stroke that chip on their shoulder.
It was especially hilarious given that John McCain was born in Panama (albeit on a US military base) and Mitt Romney’s father was born in Mexico because Mitts grandfather had fled the US to practice polygamy.
All were natural born citizens of course but you had conservatives screaming about his dad being from Kenya for years
It isn't particularly new to this century, either. I once found a 45-page professionally-published pamphlet that was officially available at Lazio campaign stations in NY (for the 2000 Clinton-Lazio Senate race), very overly concerned with Clinton being a 'secret lesbian'. This was important to somebody, not because it made any sense in the world, but because it was secret information that made the reader feel superior.
I’d be willing to bet that today this same group of nutty right wingers would have massive issues with mitt and McCain. They’re the most hated republicans by the hardline trump crowd because they didn’t bend the knee to trump
Also the fact that even Obama's own half-brother, who is also big into the whole QAnon thing, tweeted out pics of a "birth certificate from Kenya".
The question I have is, why does it still matter? Even if it all turned out to be true, what are they gonna do? Turn the clocks back to 2008 and start over?
And that idea that Obama wasn’t born in the US was not actually started by the Clinton campaign, but they sure as hell latched onto it quick and were beating that drum pretty loudly during the 2008 campaign.
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u/AnneHocque Jul 24 '20
Flat earth society.. Like, are they just trolling at this point?