About a month ago I overheard some conspiracy theorists complaining that people mocked them. This brought to mind Christine Lavin's old song "Victim/Volunteer." Lavin is better known for writing and singing the funniest song of the 20th century, "Sensitive New Age Guys," but "Victim/Volunteer" has its own profundity. (You can find Lavin's songs on Amazon.com.)
The basic idea is that if you date only people who treat you badly, you aren't a victim of unpleasant people, you're a volunteer. And so on. If you go about claiming that FDR aided the Japanese attack on our fleet at Pearl Harbor or that Clinton murdered Vince Foster or that Obama was born in Kenya or that George W. Bush ordered the destruction of the Twin Towers, you are volunteering for ridicule. You aren't a victim.
It's easy for those of us on the Left to see the damage done to conservative credibility when conservatives pretend that it is sensible for their fringe groups to inquire again and again into Obama's birthplace. The credibility of the Left becomes equally suspect when people like me are silent about our own subculture of fringe ideas. Serious people on the Left have issues they would like the Middle to consider. Credibility is central to the discussion.
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