What is the most ridiculous right wing conspiracy theory?

[The Night Owl]

Poll question: What is the most ridiculous right wing conspiracy theory?

[greendog]

1. The liberal media. n/t

[stuntcat]

2. right..?

it's pure whiney to say it's anything but a bought-out product anymore.

[The Night Owl]

4. Good one! (EOM)

[Richard Steele]

12. You read my mind. nm

[SoxFan]

3. The Fringe-on-the-Flag conspiracy

When I served in the NH House, there was a somewhat eccentric Republican member who fiercely objected to the presence of an American flag with gold fringe around the edges. According to the distinguished gentleman from Hooksett, such a flag is an admiralty flag, and its presence indicated that the House was operating under martial law, not the Constitution.

After a while, it was easier to just use a non-fringed flag in the House chamber than to listen to another go-around about admiralty courts. The House staff also tried to make sure that the flags in this guy's committee rooms were of the fringeless variety.

[The Night Owl]

5. Weird!

Conspiracy theories aside, I think the American flag looks really tacky with fringe.

[mikeargo]

26. So he was with the lunatic fringe, right?

I think I know who you mean.

[terrya]

6. Same-sex marriage will destroy marriage.

People are opposed to same-sex marriage equality because they hate gay people. Why don't they just be honest about it?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. I see the FEMA internment camps thing here in DU all the time. Is it really rightwing?

[The Night Owl]

8. The conspiracy theory about FEMA maintaining internment camps...

The conspiracy theory about FEMA maintaining internment camps has its origins in right wing circles such as militia movements.

Black helicopters... CFR... Trilateral Commission... New World Order... and all that jazz.

[otherlander]

9. Black helicopters?

Go on...

[The Night Owl]

10. Yes...

Black helicopters... A right wing conspiracy theory. Not a very good one, but there it is...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_helicopters

[otherlander]

11. For enforcing the Endangered Species Act?

:rofl:

[ghostsofgiants]

13. I've heard all that stuff from left wing conspiracy theorists as well.

[The Night Owl]

20. True...

Some conspiracy theories have subscribers on both sides of the political spectrum, but the ones I've listed have their origins in right wing circles.

[havocmom]

19. Turns out the 'loonies in the boonies' had some valid fears

Always wondered if the powers that be didn't set those clowns up to be ridiculed so rational people would not see the grains of truth in their paranoid rantings.

edited for typo

[treestar]

14. I think it's the one about how environmentalists are advancing

a totalitarian state.

If you want to do that, terra is far more effective, and works better.

[Jade Fox]

15. That the Right has a clue how to run a government...

or be leaders in any capacity. They're too scared, jealous, unimaginative, corrupt and whiny to handle any kind of power.

[tinfoil tiaras]

16. defenently the "Clinton-as-murderer" stuff...

[The Night Owl]

21. I just remembered that I forgot a really funny conspiracy theory...

The conspiracy theory that President Clinton bombed the pharmaceutical factory in Sudan to distract the public's attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal is pretty ridiculous when one considers that distracting the public's attention for a few days would have done nothing to stop the legal and political process Clinton was facing at the time. Also, Clinton had no reason to do something risky to distract the public's attention from the Lewinsky scandal because his approval numbers were quite high all through it.

[BlueIris]

31. Yeah, there's that persistent RW urban legend that Bill & Hillary ordered like, 80 murders.

If you believe certain right wing crazies, they were running their own private assassinations bureau out of the Oval.

[The Night Owl]

33. The Clinton Body Count

The Clinton Body Count conspiracy theory. Funny stuff. A lot of people on the right believe it too...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14583

[SoxFan]

17. The "Lost" 14th Amendment

This one is a real doozy. According to some of the right's tinfoil hatters, there was an original 14th amendment, different from the Civil War era one we all know and love. This amendment (which was actually proposed but never ratified) barred the acceptance of titles of nobility by American citizens and stripped citizenship from anyone who accepted such a title. Some militia types claim that when a lawyer uses "Esquire" after his or her name, that constitutes accepting a title of nobility from the Queen of England. Thus, any prosecutor who ever used "Esq." wasn't a citizen, couldn't hold office, and thus couldn't prosecute assorted wingnuts for tax fraud and the like.

A few Republicans in the NH House actually sponsored a resolution calling on NH to recognize the legitimacy of the lost amendment. At the committee hearing, I decided to have some fun. I reached into my briefcase and pulled out a piece of mail that I had picked up on the way to Concord that morning, addressed to me with "Esq" after my name (I'm a lawyer in my non-political life). I explained to the sponsor that both of my grandfathers had fought alongside Michael Collins during the Irish fight for independence, and that one of them was thrown in jail by the British authorities, and that somehow I doubted that my family was on the short list for any titles of nobility.

That pretty much ended the whole episode in its tracks!

[BlueIris]

32. Holy shit.

[havocmom]

18. The Warren Report

[Radical Activist]

22. Liberals like welfare because it keeps people dependent on the government.

That's the supposed motivation behind all of welfare but oddly enough you can't find a single liberal making that argument anytime, anywhere. We must be communicating with secret decoder rings found in cereal boxes!

Nevermind that Nixon is the one who centralized welfare and created many of the destructive provisions.

[The Night Owl]

23. Excellent! (EOM)

[Arugula Latte]

24. I WISH we were waging war on frickin' Xmas...

The older I get, the more Scroogelike I become ... Bah! Humbug!

[ghostsofgiants]

25. "If elected president, Hillary Clinton will install socialism in America"

That always makes me laugh, but I think it's more a fundamental ignorance of what socialism actually is more so than a conspiracy theory.

[mentalsolstice]

27. Same-sex marriage destroys families...ack!

I keep getting a recorded phone message from a "concerned mother of three" about same-sex marriage and her concerns that it will destroy her family, and to press "1" if I'm for a constitutional amendment banning such. I can't believe "they" are still trotting out that old, tired argument! We live in a historic neighborhood, and have a high concentration of gays interested in historic preservation of houses. Since we've lived here (8 years) we've been surrounded on three sides by gay couples for neighbors. So far our marriage has stayed intact, no threat yet. All of the gay couples I've lived in close proximity to, have been no different than our heterosexual neighbors. They mow their grass, go on trips, we watch their pets, they watch ours, etc. In fact, in my 46 years, I haven't lived in a better place.

[datasuspect]

28. the interagency cooperation between all levels of government is interesting

FEMA is problematic.

what i think is most compelling is the implementation of programs by state and local "emergency management" organizations wherein indigent evacuees and evacuees without vehicles will be fitted with RFID wristbands to track their movements in the event of another katrina-like disaster.

9/11, katrina, and rita as training scenarios and practice runs or object lessons?

dunno, but all levels of government have compiled numerous data from these disasters.

i take a more probative approach: read the published documents from the agencies. state and local agencies are rich sources of information, because the federal government doesn't have the direct control over them as they do FEMA; therefore, data slips out that might not be mentioned in highly controlled, rehearsed, and edited federal communications.

that's not to say that i believe they are building naziesque concentration camps, but there is ample evidence that many minimum security state jails and prisons can be converted to high security federal lockups within 48 hours.

[WindRavenX]

29. Flat Earth Society

I thought it was a joke...but you should read the forums...

[SPKrazy]

30. The gay marriage thing destroying families

I've never understood how that works.

Is it if it becomes legal, heterosexuals are going to leave their spouses so they can enter into a gay marriage? :P

It is totally illogical, yet it is something that will get the rank and file right wing fundie into a snit in no time flat.

:shrug: