most likely you’ve heard of the ‘birther’ movement. essentially the birthers are angry republicans who don’t believe that president obama was born in the united states, and thus shouldn’t be eligible to be president.
it’s hard to talk about them and not use terms like ‘delusional’ and ‘nutty’, especially as: a-obama has a hawaiin birth certificate and b-every related agency in hawaii has certified that he was born in the united states.
people in the birther movement keep asking, ‘why won’t he provide his birth certificate?’ which is odd, as his birth certificate was provided ages ago. here it is:
in addition to this there were also announcements of his birth in hawaiin newspapers, naming the parents and the hospital.
the birthers claim that this is all a fraud, that 48 years ago his family faked his american birth so that 48 years later he’d be elected president. um, i mean, how do you answer that? when there’s documentation and fact proving people wrong, but when people still hold on to their beliefs, i mean, what do you do? like creationists. they believe the world is 10,000 years old, even though there’s no evidence that the world is less than 4,000,000,000 years old. but when people cling to beliefs with no supporting facts, what do you do? how do you talk to someone whose beliefs are delusional?
it reminds me of an encounter i had in 2005. i was talking to a bush supporter from oklahoma about the war in iraq. i basically said, ‘well, the war should never have been started, because iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 and there were no weapons of mass destruction found there.’ to which this person said, ‘oh, you’re wrong, iraq started 9-11 and they definitely had weapons of mass destruction.’ to which i said, ‘every news outlet and even president bush has admitted that iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 and that they didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. there’s literally no evidence that iraq had anything to do with 9-11 or that they had weapons of mass destruction.’ to which this person said, ‘oh, you can’t trust the facts. and they’re not telling you everything.’ i mean, again, what do you do? when someone has a belief (like that obama was born in kenya) that has absolutely no factual support, but yet they refuse to change their mind?
i understand that people want the world to be different from how it is (creationists want a world that is 10,000 years old, flat earth society members want a world that is the center of a small universe, ‘birthers’ want a world where obama isn’t president, republicans want a world where saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction, etc). but the world is at is, and it rarely conforms to our narrow and specific hopes for what it will be. holding on to an ethical belief (women should be allowed to vote, blacks and whites should be able to drink from the same water fountain, etc) in the face of unethical circumstances is noble, as the circumstances can be changed. but holding on to beliefs that are factually incorrect and can never be changed (as much as the birthers dont like obama, he did win the election and he is a united states citizen) is quixotic and delusional. it’s kind of baffling.
moby