Barack Obama's Birth Certificate and the Destruction of FreeRepublic.com

[hexola]

Looks like ANOTHER DOS attack this morning...why do Freepers keep donating to this site? It's become pretty obvious the people running the technical side are not up to snuff. What the heck is JimRob doing with all that money? Nice job hacker people!

As for the Birth Certificate Conspiracy...

Someday - SOMEONE - someone very smart, has to come forward and take credit for planting the seeds of delusion - and promoting and feeding what has turned into a fairly massive conspiracy theory. Genius.

I truly believe this conspiracy was somehow dreamed up, seeded and fostered by someone on our side. It's been truly amazing - from an "internet culture" point of view to watch this story play out. I think there are some smart cookies out there who understand how information (or dis-information) circulates on the internet and have been feeding this BC issue all summer. Who ever is behind this is proving themselves as master of manipulation. They have gotten inside the minds of some of these freaks and are able to control what they think.

This BC issue has totally divided the Freeps - they don't trust ANYONE who is critical of the BC issue. Paranoia is running high - they think every new member is an "infiltrator" Every once in a while, one of the smart ones trys to criticize the BC "research" and ends up being eaten alive by his own. I would think new members are very wary of participating due to the "climate" at FR.

With the poor technical performance, attacks on newbies, and general discord...can FR last much longer?

[cali]

1. i think it's completely ridiculous to posit that someone from our side

started the birth certificate bullshit.

and sadly freeperville will not be going away any time soon.

[Gman]

2. There will always be a place on the Internet for these nuts

because they can be crazy someplace that it is OK to be crazy and consort with others who are batshit crazy. RW'ers relish being anonymous when they are being crazy in the public place of the Internet. When they do it in the breakroom at work people just role their eyes and change the subject. To the RW nut, these are "sheeple" who don't see their distorted version of "truth" Safely hidden away on the Internet, they can be as crazy as they want and people agree.

[jobycom]

6. Exactly. They created the place just so no one can tell them when they sound stupid.

In real life, once a person's mind starts drifting too far into fantasy land, people pull them up short. When the requirement for belonging is belief in the fantasy to start with, no one can tell them they are wrong, and they feed each other's psychosis.

Truly a cult.

[Gman]

9. Re the birth certificate

even when someone points them to factcheck.org that has high quality pictures of the original including closeups of the raised seal, they attack factcheck.org itself. They claim it is a liberal website. When someone pointed out that people from both sides often cite factcheck.org for truth, they dismiss it. When someone pointed out about McCain citing factcheck.org (calling it factcheck.com), they slam McCain who they universally despise. When someone points out that factcheck.org is run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center they dismiss it. When someone pointed out that Walter Annenberg was a prominent Republican and that his Wikipedia page has a picture of him and his wife being greeted by Ronald Reagan himself they dismiss it saying that the Annenberg organization has been taken over by liberals including William Ayers.

There is no reaching these people.

[nxylas]

13. And their trump card: "it's only a short form birth certificate"

"Obama could silence his critics immediately by producing the original long form birth certificate" - except he couldn't because the State of Hawaii doesn't allow you to request original documents, or even copies of the long form certificate. Which is enough to satisfy the crazies' inflated definition of "reasonable doubt".

[mwb970]

15. If you took them back in a time machine and *showed* them his birth,

they'd say "That was no time machine! You just took me to an alternate, liberal universe!"

[mwb970]

14. That's a really good analysis.

I think that's exactly what's happening on FR, with immediate tombstoning for anyone who strays from the fantasy.

Meanwhile, many of the comments, sig lines, etc. are about how liberals "don't tolerate dissent"! Crazy, man.

:shrug:

[elocs]

8. It's ironic that I am sure they think the same thing about us here at DU.

I am guessing we have a few cashews here too, but we can comfort ourselves with the fact that we are always right being left.

[crispini]

11. Oh, we've definitely got our odd thinkers.

But we've also usually got someone around to call them a :tinfoilhat:

[pecwae]

19. Good post.

[Changenow]

3. The place has a value

I'd hate to see it go.

What is the bottom line to the birth issue? I don't have the time or interest to sift through it. The last major quandary was whether Obama is Malcolm X's illegitimate son. Has that one been settled? If he is, how does that disqualify him to be President?

Why do they think Hawaii is falsifying the Birth Certificate? Other than their suspicion, is there even a trace of proof that Obama wasn't born in the US?

[Lerkfish]

7. tempest in a teapot: even if he weren't born in the US, neither was McCain

nativity and citizenship are two different questions.

[crispini]

10. Actually, I think the deal is that he was supposedly born in KENYA. (gasp!)

Of course, being the son of an AMERICAN CITIZEN he would be an american citizen no matter where he was born, so, end of story. But they don't get that.

[Justyce]

4. They'll survive. After all, this place survived the primaries. nt

[jobycom]

5. Normal cult behavior. Not sure there has to be a genius behind it.

The whole BC thing seemed to me to start right after the discussion about McCain's eligibility flared up. Because McCain was born in Panama, there was a discussion over whether he fit the "natural born citizen" requirement. The Obama BC thing started as a response to that, in typical Republican fashion of defending a legal argument with whining and name calling. Sort of "I know you are, but what am I?" mentality stuff.

Now it's just a cult. If you don't believe in their gods, you don't belong, and they don't trust those who don't belong. Like the Branch Davidians, they'd rather run back into their burning compound than face the big world outside where all of their beliefs are revealed as insubstantial.

And don't feel too smug, it happens around here. Visit the 9-11 dungeon, or start an argument on Oswald/JFK. You'll get some well-reasoned arguments on both sides, using evidence (not always true evidence, but evidence). But you'll also see a lot of that finger-in-ears-lalala response, where you dump paragraphs of facts with documentation to back it up, and get a return argument of "That's right, keep following the herd, don't question anything" from the very people following a herd and not questioning.

What's unique about Freeperland is how universal their delusions are. Over here, the delusions happen (I'm sure I've got my own) but overall posters can disagree and still remain part of the group. Over there, you either drink the Kool Aid, or you are out.

[crispini]

12. Probably not even a Democrat, actually.

Probably just an Anonymous who wanted to punk them.

[Franco72]

16. All Freepers with a little bit brain left, left freerepublic

even before the Election. These poor Shitheads that are still there are Jimbo and other disfuncional, life-long Losers with no Job, no Family, nothing to do. Poor bastards.

[Brewman_Jax]

17. Par for the course

to them (and too many others) POC aren't true Americans, so they don't deserve to live the American dream. If they do figure out how to live the American dream, it's not because of their own merits and hard work, it's because they stole it from some really deserving true American.

Convoluted freeper logic. :crazy:

[Boudica the Lyoness]

18. They think his white mother flew to Kenya to give birth

It really doesn't make sense, neither does their freeper web sight. I went there last night and read some of their 2000+ post thread about Obama's BC. Not only are they as loony as ever but the thread is so hard to follow I gave up. They reply to other posters but I couldn't find the posts they were replying to. It's madness I tell you.

[JoMama49]

20. Michael Savage is still talking about this issue.

[TrogL]

21. ...and that's different from us how??

You want to start a food fight here, just say "Wellstone" or "controlled demolition"...

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...and no, I don't want to get into it.