And I do wonder if there if there is some form of mental illness involved.
Or maybe something in the food or water?

Can this really be simply a lack of education combined with a generation of propaganda, making these people's brains into mush? Is it just "software" or is there also a problem with the "hardware"?

facts. They won't believe it. We have to beat them in Nov and shove Obamacare down their throats until the realize that Obama is really trying to help them. Otherwise they are just plan stupid to get it on their own. We all have to lead the way. If we wait for republicans to lead we should dig our graves because they don't care about democratics for poor people in general.

If they win there will be riots in the streets. People need to feel they belong and the republicans don't make us feel that way. They want the white to rein forever and it isn't going to happen. Life goes on and am white I realize it.

At this point, it sounds like they're all just trying to one-up each other on the lies, distortions and hyperbole.

REALLY bad example kind of kills your metaphor, regardless of how crazy they are.

I've known far too many people who have had some government agency listening, or crawling in their window, or annoying their neighbors, to think it paranoia without concrete evidence of paranoia.

Being a Republican, on the other hand, is irrefutable proof of insanity.

that this was in Texas? I believe I recognize these people as coworkers

Not mentally ill...
Not stoopid...
Not dupes...
not ignorant...
not uneducated...

These people have been systemically brain washed through known and patterned techniques of psychological conditioning (psyops)
They truly have no control anymore over what they know, vrs what they have been told to believe. You might think of them as delusional but in reality they are...

PROPAGANDIZED

If it is not, then it should be, a recognized disease in the DSM Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.

These are the same techniques used by Cults...wait check that...all Religions to indoctrinate and make followers believe they are something special and know hidden truths that no one else is privy to.

I really think that a lot of people--older people, especially--believe that the FCC would go after any "news" media that lied, because standards used to be higher. By their reasoning, if it's allowed to be on the tee vee machine, it must be true.

I also think that older people remember when the evening news was trustworthy and less biased. I'm thinking specifically of Walter Cronkite on CBS because that's who we watched when I was a kid, but I bet the other networks were just as good, too. And people who watch FOX would be in the demographic who grew up trusting their news media.

So, yes, I think that many Tea Partiers' out-of-control anger would suggest an emotional imbalance, but it could also just indicate their gullibility. Maybe that gullibility is deliberate (because they're hearing what they want to hear), but it could also be naivete in some cases.

I mean, even if (when!) Obama is re-elected, he will still be gone 4 years after that. Who would be "in charge" of all of our health care decisions then?

"epistemological crisis" (epistemology being that branch of philosophy concerned with what we know and how we come to know it).

On one side of the yawning chasm are believers in the scientific method (broadly put, hypothesis, experiment and conclusion) as a means of determining knowledge, while on the other side are believers in faith-based knowledge systems, whereby what is known depends upon the belief and the degree of fervor in that belief.

How do you bridge that gap? I just can't see it. Believers in the scientific method will always admit they were in error should data falsify their hypothesis. But for faith-based knowledge there exists no set of facts such that they would falsify the knowledge claimed.

This is a very tentative hypothesis on my part and one I have not fully fleshed out. A problem with it is that many faith-based adherents enjoy their cars and refrigerators (products of the scientific method and its knowledge base).

There is no hope for these kind of people..no matter how much or how little education they have, no matter how much or how little money they have, no matter how much or how little power they have. They are hopeless humans. AND they have to live with the reality that Barak Obama has achieved something that they never will: He is President of the United States. Period. They may be able to erase it from their history books but they will never be able to erase it from their minds. It's the stuff that sends folks like Hannity and Limbaugh over the cliff sanity, makes folks like the Koch brothers throw away billions of dollars. It keeps them awake at night. It makes them angry at their spouses and children and beat their mistresses. All for naught because Mr. Obama is President...something that less than 100 Americans have achieved. And even if he is not re-elected...they still won't be able to erase it from their minds. Ahhhh....sweet, sweet reality!

These are the same right wing hardliners who appear everytime a Democrat wins. Once the Democrat is out of power, they become cheerleaders for the Republican in power.

Next time you encounter them, and Obamacare seems like as good an issue as any, do something unexpected: Agree with them. Tell them you think they're 100% right. But let us not dabble in generalities, let us get down to brass tacks: When is this going to happen? Date? How will doctors and patients be monitored so that only Obama-approved medical consults occur? What will be the penalty? Jail? A fine? How long or how much?

Write it all down. Have everyone sign or initial it. Then bet any or all of them $10 it won't happen by the date they said. But being the sporting type you are, you'll double the bet for every month it's delayed. So, if they lose $10 in January 2013, they can win $20 in February. Or $40 in March. If you have a particularly stubborn bunch, you can probably finance a very nice vacation next summer.