A recent Pew Survey produced some pretty remarkable findings. Evidently, the number of people who believe that President Obama is a Muslim, or not a Christian, has been growing over the past few years. As well, and less surprising, those who buy the falsehood already have a poor opinion of the president.
What explains what must be willful ignorance, the insistence on believing the innuendo and misinformation? Given the correlation between people's opinion of President Obama and their belief regarding his religion, it must be that people feel the need dress up their dislike of him and his policies with spurious attributes. It's not enough to disagree, they must demonize. It's an embarrassing aspect of our political culture--that people would dress up a political leader they oppose in the robes of a Muslim or non-Christian because that somehow confirms his supposed vileness.
I can understand why people might oppose President Obama. It's depressing how some of them are framing that opposition in bigoted terms.
2 comments:
This whole issue really boggles my mind. I've been so surprised by friends that appear well adjusted and informed to be so out of balance when it comes to slanted information about Obama.
When I first heard these conspiracy theories I had to investigate for myself. I suppose The Oregonian, Time magazine and 60 minutes could possibly slanted too, but I look at them as more intelligent choices to get history on Obama then some websites or radio talk show with a reputation for radical or bigoted viewpoints.
My question is this: We can shake our heads in dismay. But is there anything that can turn the tide on this kind of slander? Is there anything a person can do to educate these ignorant people? Or is this a pattern that has been and will always be part of the political climate?
Thanks for the comment, Julie. Yes, I've been thinking a lot about that, too. How to take the next step beyond criticism. Right now I'm thinking all we can do is keeping talking about it, challenging the various 'big lies' in tempered ways, perhaps more often with questions than assertions (the 'socratic method').
I'm also thinking that one reason behind this mischaracterization of Obama is that we all have tendency to think the worse of people we dislike, and perhaps the more distant the object of dislike, the more grandiose the caricature.
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