dave's theory

some years ago, my friend dave (joffe – who incidentally was the best man at my wedding), postulated that the weekly world news was most certainly a set-up – a rag written by left-wingers posing as right-wingers with the purpose of making the right look so totally ridiculous that they would be thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the underclass that makes up the weekly’s reader-base. remember ed anger? pig-biting made about everything from the right to kill children to the teaching of evolution in schools… no doubt some of the most inane ramblings to ever reach the printed page. there’s no way that anyone could be that ignorant – right?

dave’s theory often comes to mind these days when i happen to stumble across right-wing blogs, espousing the most baseline and uncompassionate opinions about others – so much so that i can’t imagine these people existing in real life, seeming to be more carciature than honest representation – so rabid, so hateful. most recently i have reflected on this while reading about the vigilante border-patrol group the minutemen who refer to mexican immigrants as “invading forces”, and seek to terroroize those who they see as illegal in their workplaces. unabashedly racist, shotgun-toting, easily excitable and uncomprehending of their own immigrant backgrounds, can these people be for real? are they not just a set-up to expose right-wing america for what it is?

no matter how much i wanted dave’s theory to be the truth (that really there was this seething hotbed of radicalism out there, a secret army of radicals whose only job it was to parody the right), i always knew it wasn’t – and that rather than look ridiculous to its readership, the weekly world news actually makes sense to millions of americans. so does the minuteman project despite its rather hateful and stupid nature – because the bottom line is that some people just aren’t melting fast enough into the pot for those who want whites to remain the dominant force in america. too bad it’s not a parody, because then it might be funny.