Do you personally know someone who's been to a Tea Party or yelled at a town hall?

[Captain_Amazing]

@ElvisL1ves

What “organization” did you see in them? Hell, what awareness did you see among any of the millions upon millions of participants of those people’s role, to the extent that there was any? And what difference would it have made anyway?

I don’t fully understand your questions. The vast majority of people protesting the war were undoubtedly sincere, just like the vast majority of the people at the tea parties are sincere. The motivations of the participants at a protest are independent of the motivations of the organizers.

And I’m not saying that the tea parties aren’t astroturf, but they’re not Fox News astroturf. They’re Freedomworks, which is a separate astroturf organization.

[ElvisL1ves]

@Captain_Amazing

I don’t fully understand your questions.

You had some reason to make the point about the so-called “organizers” of the peace rallies. What reason could that have been?

And I’m not saying that the tea parties aren’t astroturf, but they’re not Fox News astroturf. They’re Freedomworks, which is a separate astroturf organization.

Separate in what relevant aspect?

[Captain_Amazing]

@ElvisL1ves

You had some reason to make the point about the so-called “organizers” of the peace rallies. What reason could that have been?

You asked of another poster, “Do you really believe they [ANSWER] were behind it all?” I was confirming the other poster’s statement that ANSWER was one of the organizers of the peace rallies.

Separate in what relevant aspect?

In 1984, executives at Koch Industries set up the think tank “Citizens for a Sound Economy”, which was funded by it and other industry groups. In 2004, the group merged with Empower America to become FreedomWorks. FreedomWorks organized the tea party protests, not FoxNews. FreedomWorks and Fox News/NewsCorp are two separate groups.

[furt]

@Cat_Fight

Yeah yeah, everyone’s a Hitler. I’m still waiting for Dubya as an African witch doctor.

And I’m still waiting for Obama as a chimp. That’d be a no-brainer if these people were the racists some claim them to be.

I have an idea. How about we just say that both sides have people on the fringe that are fond of over-the-top rhetoric, and that neither the birthers nor the truthers nor the Freepers nor the Code Pinkers should distract those of us who are reasonable from the hard work of honestly debating our ideas. Eh? What say?

Tune out the right-wing nuts the same way you’d tune out a nut carrying a “free Mumia” sign at an anti-war rally?

[Ludovic]

@furt

Tune out the right-wing nuts the same way you’d tune out a nut carrying a “free Mumia” sign at an anti-war rally?

I can’t tell you how many times I 've seen people ranting and raving about Freeing Mumia at my workplace! Not to mention on national television! Wow! The right is so oppressed and underground!

[sethness]

Astroturfing

You’ve got to look for the Tupperware maker in these “tea parties”: Who’s going to benefit from whipping up an “astroturf” (fake grassroots movement)?

The obvious answer is insurance companies, who have a sweet deal at the moment charging more for healthcare and delivering less healthcare than we see in any other industrialized country.

The less-obvious answer is “any neocon who wants to bring down Obama and non-neocons in general”. This includes the Faux (Fox) News Network, who should be sued for false advertising when they claim “fair and balanced reporting”.