Jesse Walker’s post on the subject is good (via Ed Driscoll*) – his gist is that the Crazy Tree is not linked to any particular people or group, even the ones that you don’t like – but it’s incomplete. Here’s the Sixth Law of the Crazy Tree: The fruits that you gather from the Crazy Tree are much worse than the ones that I gather. We just saw this Law play out in the Left-sphere, as people tried – and failed – to explain why it was no big deal that an administration official endorsed a malignant conspiracy theory about 9/11. It failed largely because nobody on the Left wanted to say “Well, our nuts are harmless, so we don’t worry about them.”
This is not to say that all conspiracy theories are equally harmless, of course. For example, nobody worries about the folks who believe that the Apollo moon landings were faked, and for good reason: they generally don’t do anything except get punched by Buzz Aldrin**. But it does remain true that it’s always the Other Guy’s fringe who looms larger when doing the subjective threat analysis.
Moe Lane
*Apropos of nothing – say what you like about Rush Limbaugh, but “flat-shoed bird-brained idiot” is probably going to be the best description of Robert Gibbs that you’re likely to read today.
**You’d think that would stop being funny.
Crossposted to Moe Lane.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
But Jane Hamsher *did* try to make that argument, sorta
Jeff Weimer (Diary) Wednesday, September 9th at 9:35AM EST (link)It failed largely because nobody on the Left wanted to say “Well, our nuts are harmless, so we don’t worry about them.”
She did say after all (I paraphrase) “What’s the big deal? 35% of us believe it anyway.”
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
-Voltaire
The Siberia Bill that he talks about
Achance (Diary) Wednesday, September 9th at 11:10AM EST (link)actually became law; passed by either the Territorial or a very early State Legislature. It is called the Alaska Mental Health Trust and it was granted one million acres of land to be developed and the proceeds dedicated to serving the mentally ill. The land wasn’t transferred and the Trust allowed to languish for many years. Some advocacy groups for the mentally ill sued and the AKSC ordered the State to transfer the land and make the Trust functional. It now owns tracts all over the State, some of which produce considerable revenue. Unfortunately, most of the transfers took place in the Knowles Administration and the Democrats got a firm hold on running the trust so to the extent it does any real development, it is of the greenie and leftie approved sort.
In Vino Veritas