The Wackadoodle Demographic

[realisticphish]

This is a fun, if somewhat depressing, article:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118021075.html?categoryId=1682&cs=1

snip

"Time Warner's basic channel TruTV took an early lead in wackadoodle TV thanks to "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura," featuring the former wrestler-turned-Minnesota-governor in his latest guise, as a tireless campaigner against nefarious government and corporate schemes. Variety's negative review of the show unleashed a deluge of wackadoodle invective, insisting it was another example of mainstream media shilling for The Man.

But History -- having dispensed with the shackles of history as a niche -- has also been an early adopter, yielding programs like the self-explanatory "Nostradamus Effect," "Armageddon" and "Apocalypse Island" (no relation to "Temptation Island"), a special about Mayan predictions of cataclysmic events occurring in 2012.

Needless to say, these are not ideal vehicles for ads about long-range financial planning, except (as in the case of Beck's show) for bottom-feeding sponsors like precious metals and "survival seeds" -- the latter to be used to grow "crisis gardens" for use in the event of an apocalypse."

[Behind the Aegis]

1. I am not at all surprised.

In this day and age, when information travels almost as fast as someone can say "boo!", it isn't surprising that conspiracy theories has become the new "religion" to some. There have always been and will always be conspiracies and cover-ups. This does not mean every event is. What I find so disappointing is the bigotry infused into so many of the theories. Why, today, I just learned that all prominent Jewish Americans are dual citizens of Israel. Who knew?! I guess since I am not a dual citizen, but am Jewish, I am not prominent. May explain the shabby state of my bank account.

Besides the bigotry angle, the historical revisionism and "opinion as fact" type reporting has only added to the problem. What used to be called "yellow journalism" is now considered "investigative." (Yes, I know, that is an opinion.)

[salvorhardin]

2. I just have to point out that a conspiracy is not a conspiracy theory

They're two different beasts, and just like High Fructose Corn Syrup is rather unfortunately named (it's not really high in fructose), conspiracy theories aren't really about conspiracies so much as they're about scapegoating. It's rare to find a conspiracy theory where some out group or another (or several!) aren't being blamed. The two primary ones of course are secret societies (populated by whomever people hate) and Jews but Catholics, the Irish, Blacks, drug companies, agrabusiness, liberals, conservatives, etc. have all been blamed for some kind of omnipotent secret machination sometime.

[TZ]

3. Can we lock him in a room

with Jenny McCarthy and make them watch each others idiotic shows? Or would that be cruel and unususal punishment?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. They'd probably reproduce

We definitely don't want that.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

5. I'm depressed

Really fucking depressed...

[Warpy]

6. The problem being, of course, that the Mayans didn't predict anything

beyond the closing of one age and the opening of the next, the only immediate change being the prefix on their calendar.

I will never understand why dimwits feel it necessary to scare the hell out of themselves over nothing.

There are so many legitimate things to be frightened of, not the least of which is the sheer number of dimwits out there.

[realisticphish]

7. I think the one thing about 2012

that just flat out pisses me off more than anything is: WHY DON'T YOU JUST FUCKING ASK THEM. They are still fucking alive.

I heard one person talking about how the Mayans vanished without a trace. No, their traces are all over Yucatan, because AFAIK they were never conquered, and still live there.

now, I know that they may not read ancient maya, but there is NO tradition of a vast apocalypse in their mythos, again AFAIK

[Warpy]

9. Some of them are still literate in it

and they did manage to save a few copies of their sacred texts. In fact, the intact language is what gave archaeologists their first clues as to what the glyphs on all their ancient sites meant.

They're pretty amazing people and I have the utmost sympathy for them because you know every woohead with money and time to spare is going to descend upon them over the next two years.

[TZ]

11. Yes, thats always made me wonder about the latent racism of this "disappeared culture" nonsense

There are still Egyptians today even if they no longer build pyramids are tombs like the Valley of the Kings. But no one ignores their existence. Why is it people don't understand that there are plenty of modern day descendents of the Mayan, Incan and Aztecs in Central and South America.

[onager]

8. Argh! It's... "Actuality Television!"

:puke:

Formerly Court TV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TruTV

I'll stick to my beloved true-crime shows, like "Snapped" and "48 Hours." They make me feel smart.

"So...you didn't think it would look a tad suspicious when your spouse turned up dead after 3 months of marriage and 5 secret life-insurance policies?"

Sort of on-topic, just this weekend I was introduced to former "youth pastor" Sean Barclay Goff. He's sitting in prison for killing one of the 2 wives he conned into marrying him. Yes, at the same time. He told them having 2 simultaneous wives was "the will of Gawd."

He decided to kill the "junior" wife when she got too independent. Obviously a fan of true-crime shows like myself, Goff cut off her fingertips and removed all her teeth. One of the cops on the show commented: "He had been watching too much 'CSI.'"

While being interviewed in prison, Goff said something like: "I'm exactly where Gawd planned for me to be!"

That caused a non-professional double-take even from the TV interviewer, who sputtered: "God planned for you to KILL YOUR WIFE AND BURY HER IN THE DESERT?"

SAN DIEGO -- A former youth pastor was convicted of fatally stabbing one of his two wives, mutilating her body, then burying her in the Arizona desert, was sentenced with 26 years to life in state prison.

Sean Barclay Goff, 38, was convicted July 27 of first-degree murder in the Sept. 19, 2003, death of Joy Risker, the mother of two of his three sons...

According to court testimony, Risker, 25, illegally married Goff in 1997 and lived with him and his first wife, Sheila, along with their children in Kensington.

http://www.10news.com/news/9858440/detail.html

[SemiCharmedQuark]

10. I still like Forensic Files, but it's only on late at night.

Now it's a bunch of bullshit like "REPO MEN" and that show which shows people falling down a lot.