Paranoia Texas Style

Leave it to the high church of right wing stupid! A special forces exercise named Jade Helm is scheduled to take place in Texas, the state where people who drape themselves in the American flag and claim to revere our military are all too willing to believe our military is part of a despotic, Obama, conspiracy. All right, I know that sentence probably makes you think my train of thought was derailed, but I am merely reporting the truth, as implausible as that truth may appear to be. In spite of the fact that similar exercises are taking place in other states, including Arizona and California, a large number of Texans believe the Federal Government is conspiring to declare martial law and take over their state! Governor Greg Abbott is even ordering the national guard to keep an eye on federal troops. Silly me, I thought Texas was already a part of the Union, and that Texans were already afforded all the protections guaranteed by our Constitution.  Did I miss something?  Have they seceded from the Union again?

It is really tempting to react to those absurd allegations of a conspiracy by saying: “Yeah, right, and fluoridation was a communist conspiracy to control our minds, and President Eisenhower was a communist! And I really want to thank you people for making the rest of the world seem so sane and rational.” The whole idea of such a conspiracy is so ludicrous that most people are going to laugh at it the same way we laughed at the John Birch Society.  But the irrational fears that make people believe such conspiracy theories are really dangerous. Furthermore shameless demagogues, such as Governor Greg and Senator Cruz, who are promoting those fears are wittingly or unwittingly validating the hatred spawned by the imagined threats! Thanks to the NRA, the most dangerous of the paranoid lunatics are also well armed!  If this makes you think of paramilitary, right wing militia's and Timothy McVeigh you are not alone.