The “vast right-wing conspiracy” machine is alive and well in America today.
Unless you’ve been buried under a rock since this weekend, you’ve probably seen an interview or two with a former Army soldier who served with Sargent Bowe Bergdahl, the POW who was released this week after being held in captivity by the Taliban for five years.
From CNN to Fox News to the pages of our nation’s largest newspapers, former colleagues of Bergdahl’s have been popping up, and accusing Bergdahl of being a deserter and a weak soldier.
Well, it now turns out that many of those interviews have been arranged by Fox News contributor and former Bush administration official Richard Grenell.
According to Buzzfeed, Grenell’s public relations firm, Capitol Media, has, “played a key role in publicizing” critics of Bergdahl.
And, The New York Times reported on Monday that “Republican strategists” had arranged for that paper to speak with former soldiers who had served with Bergdahl and who have anger towards him.
In fact, one of the former soldiers who was interviewed by the media, Cody Full, sent a tweet out, thanking Grenell for the role he played in, “helping get our platoon’s story out.”
So, it now looks like these former soldiers who have come out against Bowe Bergdahl and his release are just part of yet another Republican-fueled conspiracy theory intended to tarnish the Obama presidency.
But should we really have expected anything else?
After all, ever since President Obama was first elected president back in 2007, the “vast right-wing conspiracy” machine that Hillary Clinton first pointed out way back in 1998, has been churning out conspiracy after conspiracy, no matter how bizarre or outlandish they may be, all intended to take down President Obama.
The folks over at Mother Jones have compiled an amazing list of just about every conspiracy about President Obama that’s ever hit the Internet.
The sheer volume of conspiracies out there about our Commander-in-Chief is pretty astounding.
Of course there are the more well-known conspiracies, like President Obama doesn’t have a U.S. birth certificate, he was actually born in Kenya, he’s repeatedly faked job numbers, and he wants to create a one-world government that will take away all of America’s guns.
Similarly, there are the conspiracies that say that President Obama is secretly a Muslim, who decorated the Oval Office in “Mideast Style” and who was sworn in as President on the Koran, while being an ally of Al Qaeda.
Then there are conspiracies that say President Obama is actively trying to bring 100 million Muslims to the United States, and that he’s gay and married to some Pakistani guy.
But as crazy as all of these sound, the conspiracies only get crazier.
There are conspiracies that say he faked Bin Laden’s death for political gain, and was behind the BP oil spill, the Aurora shooting tragedy, and Hurricane Sandy.
There are conspiracies that say President Obama was “trained” to overthrow government, that his campaigns were funded by drug money, and that his real dad was Malcom X.
And finally, there are conspiracies that say President Obama refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance, that he removed the U.S. flag from Air Force One, and that he’s actually the Anti-Christ AND a lizard person.
Basically, the “vast right-wing conspiracy” machine has churned out just about every President Obama conspiracy imaginable.
When it comes to all of these conspiracy theories that have been floated around over the past six years, what we really need to be asking ourselves is, “Who benefits from these outlandish and absurd beliefs? Where is the money behind these ideas coming from?”
The answer, of course, is that it’s coming from the billionaires and economic royalists who are in control of our country.
By floating around anti-Obama conspiracy theories, and by using Republicans in Washington to do their dirty work, America’s billionaires and economic royalists know that they’re weakening and disempowering the Democratic Party.
And while a weak and disempowered Democratic Party is bad news for you and me, it’s great news for the billionaires and economic royalists. It means they can stay in power a lot easier.
Ever since President Obama became president, Republicans and their allies have been doing everything possible to tarnish the Obama legacy, and floating continuous conspiracy theories is a great way to do that.
So, if you see more of Sargent Bergdahl’s former colleagues being interviewed by the media in the days and weeks to come, don’t be fooled.
It’s just another Republican-fueled conspiracy theory, meant to destroy the Obama presidency, and keep the billionaires and economic royalists in power.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.