You've seen them before: Screaming spit-flecked nonsense at town hall meetings. Waving protest signs calling people "Morans." Blubbering inanities like, "I want my country back." Talking to them doesn't seem to help; they react violently to logic and reason. In fact, attempts to reason with them merely make their symptoms worse.
These are not healthy people. Clearly they have a sickness, and now that sickness has a name: Rupert's Dementia(tm).
Named for the man that built a media empire specifically to spread the disease, Rupert's Dementia (RD) has now infected the minds of millions of hapless Americans, causing them to react with fear and hatred to anything dubbed "liberal" or "progressive."
Others have speculated that RD is some form of "schizophrenia," as if RD were limited to Republicans. Sadly, this is not the case.
http://crooksandliars.com/...
In fact, RD can be contracted by anybody with sufficient exposure to Fox News, other Murdoch-owned media or related right wing media. Even supposedly "liberal" media can be seen adopting the modus of RD vectors, which seek not to inform, but rather to traumatize their audience.
Rupert's Dementia is shockingly widespread in America, having first infected many aspects of politics and the media to achieve a high infection rate among the general populace.
The result is a tragic blend of ignorance and a stubborn refusal to either seek or acknowledge evidence that is easily available from reliable sources.
Let me be quite clear: Rupert's Dementia is a manufactured illness. Its namesake, Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, sought to induce widespread paranoia and political disillusionment among Americans by creating an alluring, action-packed, colorful network to disseminate an incessant barrage of inverted morality, smarmy cynicism and intentional misinformation. He called his new network "Fox."
To that end, Murdoch hired Roger Ailes, one of the most effective Republican propagandists, to be head of the network. To push the required memes, Ailes hired a group of right wing wackos including Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and lately the wackiest wacko of wack, Glenn Beck.
Ailes created a "news" department to relentlessly push memes of fear and paranoia onto the American psyche. It has been amazingly successful. Murdoch and Ailes used "Fox News" propaganda to help defeat two American presidential candidates, Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry.
The propaganda campaign to destroy Gore focused on manufacturing an impression that Gore was a liar and a flake. The campaign to destroy Kerry claimed that he wasn't really a war hero, that he lied to get his medals. The campaign to destroy Obama was (and is) that he's secretly a Muslim, that he wasn't born in America, that he's black (duh), etc.
Medicare is not a government program.
Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim.
Barack Obama wasn't really born in the United States.
Government Death Panels will euthanize old, infirm and unproductive citizens.
President Obama will raise taxes on working people.
Losing an election equals tyranny.
A Democratic public health care plan would deny medical treatment to GOP voters.
Carriers: In the media you have Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, etc. They get paid by Rupert to blame Democrats and liberals for every bad thing real or imagined.
In politics you have the Republican party, Blue Dog Democrats, etc. Just like media talking heads, they get paid (by corporations that fund Rupert) to accuse Democrats and liberals of everything bad, real or imagined. But they can also pass nasty legislation, or block the good stuff, like public health care.
Vectors: Fox News, Wall Street Journal, New York Post
Mild Carriers: CNN, broadcast networks