BIRTH OF A RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY THEORY

From the Houston Chronicle:

UN takeover of the Alamo 'horse hockey'

A decision on the missions' nomination by a committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is expected in 2015. One report criticizing the nomination said leaders of other countries such as China or France could oversee and influence Alamo operations. It also said a blue United Nations flag would fly over the Alamo.

A release by the Texas General Land Office, Alamo custodian, called the rumors “spectacular and erroneous.”

“The people of Texas own the Alamo now and in the future. Nothing is going to change that,” Patterson said.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a leading proponent of the nomination, dismissed the rumors as “scare tactics” driven by politics. The Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore are among the 21 World Heritage sites nationwide that have met UNESCO standards for integrity, completeness and other criteria of the designation, Wolff said.

“These are scare tactics that I think are political and playing out in some places,” he said.

More here.

This is how this shit starts.  I mean, all of it.  Sharia law imposed on the US, the Ground Zero Mosque, FEMA camps, death panels, world government, and on and on and on ad infinitum.  Some conservative gets hold of a piece of information, usually something pretty obscure, and either consciously twists it unethically to serve political goals, or genuinely misinterprets it due to ignorance or laziness or deeply held bias, resulting in severe freak out, which is contagious to other conservatives.  

This business about the UN taking over the Alamo is simply the latest in a long, long, long list of the right wing jumping at their own shadows.  Or successfully convincing the right wing to do so.  Whatever.  Same difference.  We end up with a percentage of the population going into hysterics over something stupid.

Fortunately, this one doesn't seem to have gained much traction.  I guess it hasn't made it onto Alex Jones, which is apparently a pipeline to Glenn Beck, which continues to be a pipeline to mainstream conservatism.  That's a good thing because I have absolutely no desire to find myself in conversations where my first sentence is "No, the UN is not going to take over the Alamo."  I feel a bit humiliated even contemplating it.

But really, that's what the conservatives these days would have us all do, humiliate ourselves as a nation by engaging in psychotic claptrap.  As if there weren't enough legitimate differences between the left and the right.  These liars and/or nuts feel like they need to invent shit just to up the confrontation.  So they fiddle while Rome burns.  And there's hell to pay when we don't dance to the tune they're playing.

But yeah, that's all now a major aspect of American public discourse.  Wrangling with total bullshit instead of tending to our national responsibilities.  Damned shame. 

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