A Tale of Two Paranoias

The world is full of crazy conspiracy theories and phobias. But not all conspiracy theories and phobias are created equal. It all depends on whether your craziness demonizes the right people, you see. Then it's no longer craziness, but "a chilling specter of America's future," or something.

Consider first the wrong kind of paranoia, coming from one Orson Scott Card. You may know him as the author of the sci-fi book "Ender's Game," a movie version of which will be coming out this fall. Card has attracted a lot of negative attention recently, since, as a Mormon (itself quite a knock in Hollywood), he has made it known that he opposes gay marriage. Given that such sentiments are already becoming de facto illegal, one hardly need imagine how many indignant young liberals declared that they would never go watch the "Ender's Game" movie, the distancing from Card's views by all those connected with the film, blah blah blah.

So the author was already in some hot water. But then a few weeks ago, he did something even less forgivable--speculating on Obama as dictator. Specifically, what he did was to post on a what-if blog--which, by the way, is specifically titled "Unlikely Events"--a scenario in which Obama becomes a "Hitler- or Stalin-style dictator" who uses a new national police force and a revision of the Constitution to become President-for-life, a la Robert Mugabe or another Third World thug.

Silly? Well, yeah. It comes off as rather paranoid, and I suppose other comments from Card about how the media gives TOTUS a pass on everything could persuade leftists that he really believes Obama wants to be the next Hitler. Despite his repeated disclaimers that this is entirely fictional and would never happen in reality, that is. So it should come as no surprise that Card made the press again in a very bad way, with his essay described as "bizarre" at best. Online, the comments were much worse--and highly revealing. One asked Card to "tell us more about the magic golden plates next" (well, that didn't take long), and amazingly, another as good as said that this stuff only made sense of you applied it to Republicans: "It would be far more plausible if Card put Dubya in that spot (or more realistically the power behind the Oval Office...Dick Cheney)."

The lack of self-awareness from the Left is mind-boggling, I tell you. Apparently they're the only ones who get to have conspiracy theories, because theirs are more "realistic" and not just dreamed up. Which is a real shame, because some of their own are really inventive.

I refer to the recent publication Christian Nation, courtesy of one Frederic Rich. If you're familiar with subtext, the title should tell you all you need to know, but the book posits a future where bombings of our largest cities by radical Muslims provoke an angry backlash by Christians (especially white Christians) that sweeps everyone's favorite mama grizzly into power, who in turn quickly establishes herself as dictator. America is re-created as a land where conservative Republicans hold all political power, Fox and its affiliates control the networks, and deviation from Christian norms is banned. Which is not the definition of a theocracy, but whatever.

My own thoughts on this are 1) Is this an alternate reality I can somehow transport myself to? and 2) Give me a break. Talk about your paranoia. Plus, it's not a particularly well-written book, and in fact reads like something Aaron Sorkin would write, if Aaron Sorkin had sustained a concussion, gotten coked up, and then started writing in a fit of rage over The Newsroom being canceled. And I'd put 100-to-1 odds that the book's "twist" will be that the bombings were actually carried out by evil fundamentalist Christians who then framed good peaceful Muslims to make Palin dictator.

So, yeah, this is pretty ridiculous. But that hasn't stopped liberals from loving it. Although mainstream reviewers have been fairly negative, noting how its political moralizing submerges other elements like, you know, characters and a plot, those less afraid of making fools of themselves have praised it as "riveting," "the best book I have read in a long time," comparable to "The Handmaid's Tale," "so alarming I immediately barricaded my door with stale hummus and copies of Darwin," etc. Okay, I might have made up one of those, but you get the idea.

Any moral here? Not really; I'm not telling you anything you don't already know about how liberals think. Just a reminder that, every time you let yourself believe they can't be any more idiotic or hypocritical, they go and surprise you. Every time.

Any particular double standards from the Left you can think of?