10 Things I Learned From Eavesdropping on Conservatives Talking About ‘America’ At the Movie Theater

Ring of Fire Radio starring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr ^ | July 9, 2014 | Chauncey DeVega

[2ndDivisionVet]

America: Imagine the World Without Her is the newest propaganda hit piece from confessed criminal and Right-wing operative Dinesh D’Souza.

During my weekly visit to the movies, I saw Deliver Us From Evil. It was a movie with great potential (the connection to PTSD and the “demons” that our veterans carry home with them from war could have been more thoroughly developed) that needed a thorough rewrite and editing. I am a sucker for movies about the supernatural and occult. Therefore, I felt obligated to see Deliver Us From Evil.

Dinesh D’Souza’s new “documentary” “America” was also playing at the same movie theater (I had already suffered through a viewing of that Right-wing tract). Thus, I decided to do some reconnaissance/observational research on the attendees of D’Souza’s newest fairy tale propaganda hit piece.

The actual members of the Right-wing public who are high on the political meth of the Fox News echo chamber are more fascinating to me than the media which is used to create and propagandize them.

While listening to the impromptu debriefing and cult meeting in the lobby that followed a viewing of America: Imagine the World Without Her, I realized that 1) Deliver Us From Evil is far less frightening than D’Souza’s newest creation and 2) “America’s”view of empirical reality and history is also supernatural, existing outside of the realm of normal logic and reality.

Talking in the abstract about the dangerous and noxious civic culture which has been created by the Right-wing media is one thing; actually listening to and observing this public in person is an altogether different experience. There is nothing harmless about the impact of the Right-wing propaganda machine on the thinking and reasoning processes of conservatives in the Age of Obama.

As I learned earlier this week, their warped logic and skewed perception of social and political reality is extremely dangerous and can/will lead to more incidents of Right-wing domestic violence, because how else would a reasonable person deal with a government that is led by “traitors” and under the control of Satan?

What did I observe while listening to the people who went to see America: Imagine the World Without Her?

1. The small group of people who attended America: Imagine the World Without Her here in Chicago skewed older (50s to 70s). It was, surprisingly, a racially integrated group with several black and brown folks mixing in comfortably with the white viewers.

2. “America” seemed like a reverential and defiant experience for the viewers. Interpreting their chatter, it seemed that they were excited to stick it to Obama by seeing America: Imagine the World Without Her in his home town. The Right-wing troglodytes were also worked up about the fact that their–and America: Imagine the World Without Her’s real nemesis–Saul Alinsky, is also a Chicago native.

3. An African-American man, a black conservative, led the sermon/cult meeting in the lobby of the movie theater. Playing the standard role of black conservative in contemporary movement conservatism, his presence gave permission to the other members of the group to talk freely about Barack Obama without the fear of being labeled as “racists”.

4. America: Imagine the World Without Her is a cinematic conduit for standard Right-wing talking points. The power of “America” is rooted in the shared group experience that comes with going to the cinema. The Right-wing echo chamber is a fantastical and bizarre world where the paranoid style and conspiranoid thinking is the norm. This effect is amplified by the face-to-face communal experience of attending the same propaganda film. The insider and special knowledge given to them by “America” can then be disseminated by the “elect” to the “non-believers”.

The idea that D’Souza’s movie has special knowledge–that the viewer is now obligated to share in order to counter “liberal lies” and “bias”–was repeated by several of the people leaving the theater.

5. America: Imagine the World Without Her should be taught in public schools as a corrective to the “indoctrination” of the state and liberal teachers. One viewer enthusiastically suggested to another member of the tribe that “kids” should be given a choice between America: Imagine the World Without Her and their standard history textbook–the latter is supposedly full of lies that will be exposed by D’Souza’s “truths”.

6. The black conservative suggested to his congregation that Obama is the devil and a tool of Satan. I was unsure how those two figures are related to one another in his cognitive schema. He also said that the movie was powerful for showing in clear terms how Saul Alinsky–a “communist America hating traitor”–met with Hillary Clinton at some point decades ago and has been orchestrating the destruction of America from behind the scenes.

In playing his role as black gatekeeper who grants permission to his fellow conservatives to be racists, the black conservative cult leader used the rhetorical strategy of “code switching” where he adopted “black” affected speech to talk about how he works “in the ‘hood” and that black Americans–unlike him–are brainwashed and controlled by Obama and the Democratic Party.

Of course, the obligatory talking point, that the Democratic Party is the party of Jim and Jane Crow was referenced as part of his performance.

7. I also learned that Margaret Sanger was in cahoots with Charles Darwin’s brother, and that they were all eugenicists who pioneered abortion in America as a “racist” tool for “liberals” to kill black babies.

8. America was apparently a “Christian Nation” at the Founding and the United States has been ruined by godless liberals led by Barack Obama. The United States will apparently be destroyed unless the Bible and “biblical values” are renewed and made the center of public and private life.

9. There were white indentured servants in the American colonies. This is an important part of “America’s” narrative as that fact somehow makes chattel slavery a less unique and less vicious social institution as practiced for centuries in the United States.

10. What did the lone white conservative do during this cult meeting/debriefing? He was quiet. He nodded enthusiastically when the black conservative would speak. The lone white conservative also smiled and seemed very pleased when his black conservative pet said that “black people have been tricked and brainwashed” by Obama and the Democratic Party.

America: Imagine the World Without Her’s oeuvre is not new. It is a cinematic version of the Right-wing talking points and lies that are circulated on a daily basis throughout the Fox News echo chamber.

Epistemic closure is a real phenomenon. America: Imagine the World Without Her is a helpful reminder of how the use of technical and social scientific language often masks the real human experiences that underlie and are spoken to by theory and research.

To point. The audience members who I observed after their viewing of “America” were enjoying the sense of community that comes with encountering like-minded people…a feeling that is amplified if you have been told that you are somehow “oppressed” or “marginalized” by “the system”, “liberals”, “big government”, “atheists”, etc..

America: Imagine the World Without Her’s lies and disinformation are poisons to our civic culture. However, I was most disturbed by seeing living and breathing examples of the people who have been brainwashed by the Right-wing media. Interacting with online trolls is tedious. Seeing online trolls made real, in person, alive, and not as ephemeral digital representations, is a reminder of how serious these political matters actually are.

Contemporary movement conservatism is a cult and religion. Its believers are immune to normal appeals to logic and fact. America: Imagine the World Without Her is a crystallization of Right-wing fantasies and distortions presented through the cinematic imagination. It is an artifact of the Tea Party GOP’s madness. Consequently, the movie’s real social value is how it serves as an insight into the paranoid style and conspiranoid fantasies that have possessed the Right-wing’s foot soldiers and public–and which are a threat to all Americans’ safety, security, and prosperity.

[ozzymandus]

Chauncey De Vega?? I love it when gay guys make up their own names.

[Gefn]

The book is still selling like hotcakes on Amazon, and now you can pre-order the movie as a DVD on Amazon as well. (Which I did).

[mulligan]

Another ignorant racist fool.

[IronJack]

Notice that not even the meagerest attempt was made to refute any of D’Souza’s assertions. This would be the equivalent of an attorney cross-examining an opposing witness by saying “Is it or is it not true that you are a big poop-head dingleberry butt-face?”

[nathanbedford]

Well said.

This article is unintentionally revealing of the pathology which is rife in the African-American community. Can you imagine how this would sound if the writer had the ability to tone up his bigotry and express it with oh so plausible language?

There is an article on a companion thread which describes the negative influence of Valerie Jarrett on the President of the United States and many FReepers have offered up their theories as to why she should have such power over Obama. I tend to think of it as not so much a power that Jarrett enjoys over Obama but a common worldview they mutually possess and mutually reinforce.

Obama is very articulate and he's very clever, as most narcissists are, and he is smart enough and wary enough not to betray himself often but I think he shares everyone of the preposterous notions outlined in this article but he is too clever and too articulate to be caught out often.

This article illustrates for me a pathology which confounded white observers when we looked at the facts of the George Zimmerman trial and found no evidence of Zimmerman's guilt and plenty of evidence of Martin's aggression. When the author of this piece says that logic makes no headway with conservatives, he is clearly projecting and it is this article, the George Zimmerman affair, and Obama's actions in the White House which make that clear to me.

This writer is obviously obsessed by race but I submit that Obama is equally obsessed by race but an obsession shaped by a Marxist worldview.

[kevkrom]

Epistemic closure is a real phenomenon

I learned one thing about the author, which is all I need to know - he's so blinded by his own "epistemic closure" that all he can do is to frame dissonant information to his worldview into narrow, convenient stereotypes.

[Timocrat]

Is this satire or is he serious ?

[Raycpa]

Perfect example of attacking messenger rather than issues.

[WashingtonSource]

My God what delusional thinking and writing!

[sphinx]

9. There were white indentured servants in the American colonies. This is an important part of “America’s” narrative as that fact somehow makes chattel slavery a less unique and less vicious social institution as practiced for centuries in the United States.

Chattel slavery was unique to the United States? Who knew?

Certainly slavery in the U.S. was "unique" with regard to any number of local particularities, but as a broad proposition ... one of the most important distinctions is that the slave population in North America survived and grew. Far more slaves were sold from Africa north to the Arab world, yet there is no African disaspora in the middle east. Do American lefties really need someone to connect the dots for them?

Apparently, yes.

[Ohioan]

A pathetic diatribe by a writer who apparently avoided the discipline of good writing by being "passed through" by English teachers who were either themselves incompetent, or unwilling to come to grips with their subject matter.

In place of rational argument, the writer simply relies upon the overuse of adjectives with abusive connotations. He is impressive as a name caller, but offers no logic; justifies none of his basic premises, while demonstrating an almost pathological hatred of Americans who do not accept his hatred of America.

William Flax

[MrB]

Daleks"Liberals" are an extraterrestrialconstitutional race of cyborgs created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals Satan when he promised "you will be gods". His final modification was to remove their ability to feel pity, compassion, or remorse. The Daleks"Ligerals" soon came to view themselves as the supreme race in the universe and began a conquest of universal domination and extermination. Various storylines portray them as having had every emotion removed except hate, leaving them with a desire to purge the Universe of all non-Dalek"Liberal" life. They are popularly known for their catchphrase "Exterminate!".

[cuban leaf]

I thought it was a funny article.

But I argue with liberals on the internet all the time. Their primary tools are projection and ad-hominem. This was pretty standard stuff.

To me, it was a little like a Nazi belittling the comments of Jews outside the theater after an anti-Nazi movie.

[Ohioan]

You are right on the mark.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I love it when liberals get their panties in a wad! So he was the creepy guy skirting the edge of a group of people who paid their own hard earned money to watch the movie of their choice then wanted to discuss it. I guess in Chauncey's world "blacks and browns" aren't smart enough to think for themselves and aren't worthy of respect if they don't stay on the dem plantation.

And for the record, D'nesh did NOT downplay slavery in the least, but he did point out there were more indentured servants and many many MANY black slaveowners

[jonno]

I feel “stoopider” for having read this drivel.

Thanks for posting this, I think...

[GeronL]

I am a sucker for movies about the supernatural and occult

Well, that explains a lot about his politics.

[GeronL]

OMG - The conservative cult is led by black people!!!

This is shocking!!!

lolol

[GeronL]

Following a black man makes a conservative a racist.

Following a black man makes a liberal enlightened.

Imagine that

[Albion Wilde]

...the Tea Party is 110% white...

Is that like 57 U.S. states?