A Ron Paul Convert (The Paranoid Style in American Politics)
The Paranoid Style in American Politics:
He had read and reread the 1970s book None Dare Call It Conspiracy, about international banking magnates and the loss of civil liberties, which, he said, totally relates to today. He had become steeped in the details of monetary policy, economic bubbles and national security issues, all of which for him add up to an increasingly bleak picture of America which helps him understand the increasingly trying circumstances of his own life.
Once you see the truth, it cant be unseen anymore, Way likes to say. And these days, he is trying to figure out what he is supposed to do about that, about the overwhelming prospect that American civilization is crumbling.
He had already bought a 9mm semiautomatic Springfield for protection. He had started stockpiling canned food. And now in the morning mail had come a more immediate reality: a foreclosure notice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-ron-paul-convert-questions-how-to-play-a-role-in-a-future-he-sees-as-bleak/2012/01/09/gIQA964nlP_story.html
reACTIONary
(5,788 posts)From Harpers Magazine, November 1964, pp. 77-86.
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/conspiracy_theory/the_paranoid_mentality/the_paranoid_style.html
PDF, Might be an expansion of the origninatl Harper's article:
http://studyplace.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/files/courses/reserve/Hofstadter-1996-Paranoid-Style-American-Politics-1-to-40.pdf
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)at some point next year or so, that guy's neighbors will be describing him to reporters as "a loner, kind of quiet ... never thought he'd go on a killing spree".
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)I say that as a Loner myself. Schizotypal Personality Disorder, prehaps?
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Why do "Libertarians" think that being able to get health care is difficult because of the government? Put another way, does he really think if we don't have any laws, he'll suddenly be able to afford his house payments and health care for his 3-yr-old? And why did he spend his mortgage and medicine money on a 9mm?
I believe conservatism to be a mental illness.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)a paranoid one at that led around by his easily stoked fears -- Exactly the type of demographic the talk radio types love...How much money he can't afford to spend do you think he's already donated to Paul's campaign?? Instead of maybe trying to get a second job or doing something, anything to save his family home, how much time has he spent following Paul around like a Phish groupie and spamming countless internet message boards??
In another time or place, this is the type of guy emptying his savings account and cashing in early retirement to donate to the local church while the good reverend drives a custom Bimmer, and after hours is fucking the dude's wife and groping his kids...
You can't make the blind, fanatical or ignorant see, especially when they are so desperate in their lives to believe in SOMETHING...So, true to form, in a few months when Paul is an afterthought and the sheriff evicts him, the local white separatist yokel militia will be ready to recruit him and his family to some shack in the woods as he drops out of society...Or as others have noted, he'll put bullets through the wife, kid and himself...Or pull a Travis Bickle on the nearest Democratic pol/Federal building/Abortion provider/Activist judge/Family of dark-skinned immigrants/etc...