Published on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

The Gullible Dittoheads

by Guy Reel

Did you hear about the guy who was driving his Winnebago, set the cruise
control after getting on the freeway, then calmly left the driver's seat to
fix himself a cup of coffee? The RV crashed, so he sued Winnebago for not
informing him in the owner's manual that he wasn't supposed to do this. He
won $1.7 million and a new Winnebago.
Outrageous, isn't it? Argues for tort reform, right?

Not really. You see, it isn't true. Not the story, not the lawsuit, not the
award.

Yet, even though it seems that those who might see such a thing in their
inboxes might be a tad skeptical of its truthfulness (psst - some emails
contain misleading information!), the story is swallowed whole by a certain
class of people who might be said to be, um, gullible when it comes to the
right-wing's talking points and their accompanying agenda. That's right:
They are not aware that some things that their talk show hosts, politicians
and various apologists say AREN'T TRUE!

The Winnebago story is just one example. It's circulated every so often as
part of the "Stella" awards, named after the woman who sued McDonald's after
burning herself with a McDonald's coffee. These urban legends are meant to
justify the urgency for tort reform, because you know, everyone's getting
rich by suing each other for no reason and the danged Democrat lawyers are
getting all those legal fees!

By the way, the vilified Stella Liebeck, for whom the Stella awards were
named, suffered third-degree burns over 6 percent of her body, including her
inner thighs, buttocks, and genital and groin areas; her lawyers proved
McDonald's had ignored other, sometimes serious complaints of blistering
coffee, and it refused to settle with her before she sued.

But facts don't matter to those who want to believe what they want to
believe. Walter Williams famously wrote a column about the outrageousness of
the Winnebago story (he wrote this five years ago, people); the next week he
half-heartedly apologized for lack of "due diligence to fact-checking." But
Williams used the "sounds-like-it-could-be-true" defense, what with all the
outrageous lawsuits there are going around. He then cited four examples,
including that of Stella Liebeck, and in at least another one of those
cases, the jury award was thrown out on appeal. Another was decided on the
basis of percentage of fault, and the victim was found to be partially at
fault. Kind of sounds like the system works, doesn't it?

But that's not the only urban legend that clogs the brains of the
dittoheads. Some examples:

1. "Ronald Reagan cut taxes." Well, yes. But a year after his huge tax cut
that mostly helped the wealthy and ballooned deficits, Reagan signed a huge
tax increase that hit the middle class. He also hiked gasoline taxes. And,
by the way, even after the current tax cuts for the wealthy expire, taxes on
the richest will still be less than they were under Reagan.

2. "Obama's spending makes Bush look like a piker." Really? Obama's budget
projections look so alarming because of the retirement of baby boomers and
the growth in entitlement programs. Oh, and he doesn't lie about how much
things cost the way George W. Bush did - i.e., taking the cost of an
optional war and placing it off budget.

3. "Global warming is a fraud." Well, it's cold outside now, you know?

4. "Evolution is a religion." Have you heard that one? It's funny because
some of these same people believe deeply in their religions, but think it's
an insult to call evolution a religion.

5. "Death panels."

These beliefs just scratch the surface. "Obama is a secret Muslim and was
born in Kenya." "Welfare queens are stealing our tax money!" "Liberals
control the media." "Saddam Hussein was linked to 9-11." For a while now,
Rush Limbaugh has been saying that Obama wants destroy the capitalistic
system and replace it with socialism. This is the same guy who has Goldman
Sachs rescuer Tim Geithner as his Treasury Secretary.

In his book "The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American
Right," David Neiwert argues that it is no accident that lies are believed
by the extreme right wing. In fact, for them it doesn't really matter
whether an assertion is true; any belief, whether it is based on fact or
not, is legitimized as long as the left is demonized by it. That is because
the goal, for many of the extremists, is to eliminate the left as political
opponents. Neiwert says that in America, this impulse to exterminate the
opposition is almost uniquely confined to the right.

Thus, lies become part of the narrative of the authoritarian thinker. One
would think that those in the Republican Party would discourage lying by
their talk-show and Fox News brethren. When their assertions are repeatedly
exposed as false, one tends to disbelieve everything they say. That means
that even good arguments and true assertions may be dismissed by casual
listeners - not a good way to build a political base. Are you listening,
Republican leaders?

In response to this habit of indiscriminately believing and spreading
falsehoods, as long as they are aimed at liberals, I would propose the
"Winnebago Awards" to catalogue the ridiculous distortions, frauds and
whoppers perpetrated by the extreme right. Trouble is, someone would take
that list of falsehoods, copy it into an email, and distribute them as
truth. It's hard to counter those who just don't care about the truth.

Guy Reel is an associate professor of mass communication at Winthrop
University. He may be reached at re...@winthrop.edu

--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107

"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike,
that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in
this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud
of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing
of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to
which we are committed today at home and around the world.
"
-John F. Kennedy, 1961

They repeat the jolt by reciting their newfound wisdom here!

If you get an email that sounds goofy type urban legend and a few key
words from the story and you'll find out if it's true.

I typed "urban legend RV crashed, so he sued Winnebago" at Google
without the quotes and found out the story is in fact not true.  But,
I'd bet a majority of republicans fell for it and I'd bet that 99.99%
of ditto heads and fox viewers fall for such nonsense.

We live in a society where some people spend an enormous amount of
time and effort lying to people and through those lies telling them
it's ok to be an idiot.  I have yet to meet a liberal who passes these
emails on to others. In all cases, conservatives fall for them and
send them to their friends.

Conservatives have become dysfunctional.