:: dazed look of stunned enlightenment ::
My word! That could explain a lot.
If there are any Dopers smarter than General Franks or General Schwarzkopf, I haven’t heard from them yet.
I just need to add that no one should be allowed out of high school without reading Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. That would at least cut down some on the number of nutjobs out there.
While I agree with your basic premise, I must point out a problem (or two). Merely requiring that HS graduates read said book (or something similar) will not cut down on the nutjob population; but requiring that they comprehend it will cram our high schools with 45 year old knuckledraggers.
The sad truth is, sometimes you just can’t win. But that doesn’t mean that the good fight shouldn’t be fought—which is why we’re here. isn’t it?
I was in the grocery checkout line and saw the WWN headline, “November elections cancelled, voting machines made in FLORIDA!!!” I got a chuckle from it and hear the guy behind me state the headline. I was about to turn and say something like, “they reall come up with some whoppers.” when he said “yeah, them Bush brothers are something else. It’s all because of the hurricane you know.” I realized he was dead serious and believed the headline. We’re doomed.
The following day I saw one of those refrigerators with a TV built into the door. $3,000 at Fry’s. That clinches it. This is why the Roman empire fell.
This? Anyone familiar with the DC Sniper case knows that witnesses are not entirely infallible. White van? What white van?
About twenty or twenty-five years ago, it was people who accepted the Warren Report who were largely considered by “critical thinkers” to be the ones wearing the tinfoil hats. The current trend to dismiss other possibilities is probably an over-reaction to Oliver Stone’s junk movie that threw in every possibility as if it were true.
If you put the possibility that someone else was involved besides Oswald into the same category as we-really-didn’t-land-on-the-moon thinking and the belief that an airplane didn’t hit the Pentagon, then your hat needs some fine tuning also.
Young whippersnappers… 