Not too long ago, I was posting back and forth with montanabill here. I started realizing at one point that we were talking about completely different events even though we were discussing the same thing. It became clear to me that we were living in alternate realities and there wasn’t much point in continuing on. He may have been thinking the same thing. When there’s no basis for dialogue, that’s not good for democracy.

Last weekend Obozomustgo repeated the elaborately constructed fantasy of the right that 1977′s Community Reinvestment Act was wholly responsible for the meltdown of 2008. As though some poor folks defaulting on their mortgages in America could take down the financial system of the United States of America and other countries throughout the world. Derivatives? What’s that? Just a little insurance policy I tells ya.

For a long time, I couldn’t figure out why this “fast and furious” was a banner story every day on Fixed News, the right wing internet, and conservative talk radio. It was started by Bush and was well intentioned even if it didn’t exactly work out too well. It was a story but not a big one. It deserved some press coverage but not a lot. It deserved to be questioned, but not that circus. Even by their standards, I didn’t know how they could milk it that much. Then I finally heard the conspiracy theory. A militia blogger in Alabama started a rumour that Obama purposely walked guns to mexico to increase gun violence there and, thereby, make Americans more susceptible to having their second amendment right taken away due to creating ill will toward gun violence. Yea I know, it’s coocoo for cocoa puffs but here’s the thing: my jaw dropped when I became aware of Fixed News contributors and many Republican politicians (including Darryl Issa) repeating this conspiracy on air.

I’m showing my bias, but I blame this entirely on the conservative media. There’s no false equivalency here.