A note on “Teh” and the trademark symbol: “Teh” is a widespread internet meme used deliberately here to portray the slapdash logic of wingnuttia. The trademark symbol lends gravity to these common terms used in this specific context.
Time to put my hypothesis to the test!
Need I justify the subheading? Granted, mental illness is a social construct, but she’s a blithering loon. “Crazy” is an unpopular term in the mental health field, but here I use it in its proper sense of a person who seems disconnected from reality. And I’m not even talking about her ideas yet, only her obvious issues.
A telling moment in this video is when the host asks her about the taxi ride to the NBC studio in Israel. Taitz’s immediate defensiveness speaks volumes; so does her reluctance to answer the question of motivations: why would Obama’s family go to such extraordinary lengths to give him citizenship?
Taitz has developed a systematized, static, Manichean world-view in which Obama represents the summation of monolithic evil in the universe. She is, to risk a cliché, a true believer. “In what” does not matter. As I will explain below, Taitz’s particular religious preference is only a factor in what variety of Wacky™ she produces; scriptures, dogmas, and doctrines are flavor, not substance.
That her level of conviction admits no possibility of error, absorbing and perverting all new data into proof of that conviction, is the only important thing for us to examine. Psychology has a word for this phenomenon: cognitive dissonance. Her Crazy™ creates that dissonance.
Teh Stupid™
Since all new information is processed through her Crazy™, Taitz has a psychological dilemma to solve whenever contradictory information arrives (like, say, a Hawaiian birth certificate).
Her brain resolves these discrepancies by discounting evidentiary leads away from her goal (“proving” Obama is not a US citizen), seeks discrepancies that lead toward her goal (such as the redacted ID number on Obama’s birth certificate), enlarges those discrepancies into scenarios (“the birth certificate might be forged”), and finally presents those scenarios as evidence (“Obama forged his birth certificate!”).
The process begins with choice blindness and ends with false memory. Repeating myself for clarity:
- Discounting unhelpful information
- Obsessing on details
- Enlarging those details
- Confusing theory with evidence
To make matters worse, Taitz lacks enough legal education to correct herself. She got her law degree from a correspondence school that isn’t recognized by the American Bar Association. Thus we hear Taitz adopt a common misconception about citizenship law, arguing that Obama cannot be American because one of his parents was not an American. As David Hart explains, this is just not true:
According to US code, a natural born citizen is a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. There are other criteria for determining citizenship in the alternative, not in addition to being born in the USA. (Emphasis his)
Taitz is not unique; miseducation is a hallmark of wingnuttia. Campuses like Liberty University, Regent University, and Oral Roberts churn out biologists with no background in evolution, artists with no ability to draw nudes, and lawyers with no comprehension of constitutional law.
One important point must be made: the hypocrisy inherent in this process is a cognitive action — that is, people choose to believe Teh Stupid™. Taitz is no victim. She has fooled herself on purpose.
Teh Wacky™
Which brings us, at last, to the “sharing” phase of wingnuttery: spreading Teh Stupid™ to encourage Teh Crazy™ in others. What comes out of Taitz’s mouth sounds, well, wacky — thus, Teh Wacky™.
A caveat: wingnuts often engage in Teh Wacky™ without even passing through the other two; they simply pick up someone else’s Wacky™ and integrate it into their belief system. Sometimes, public figures will adopt and propagate Teh Wacky™ with malice and deliberation when even they don’t believe in it. When Newt Gingrich told Rock Church in Virginia Beach that America is “surrounded by paganism,” he was channeling a belief system he likely does not have.
But Taitz is the trifecta. She is out to spread a self-generated birther gospel, and I use that term in its correct sense; she’s encouraging Obama haters with “good news” that Obama isn’t really the president.
The reason birthers hold this belief so dearly is its power to dispel their own cognitive dissonance. These are, after all, righteous and patriotic Americans. If you simply asked them to engage in sedition and subversion, they wouldn’t do it. They need an excuse for their disloyal opposition; birtherism provides it.
I have no way of proving it, but my suspicion is that a close study of birthers would reveal two things: (1) a statistically significant correlation with the eight percent of Americans who still think Obama is a Muslim, and (2) an extremely high correlation with racism. Not that most birthers would admit to being racists, mind you; that in itself is a cognitive dissonance.
Indeed, the essential problem for wingnuts since November of 2008 has been the moral quandry of opposition to a black person: they cannot admit to their racism. Birtherism is a perfect solution for minds that need a more “respectable” reason to hate Obama. This is a self-perpetuating cycle.
One final point about Teh Wacky™: it differs from audience to audience, culture to culture. Perhaps no place on Earth is more fraught with conspiracy theory than the Middle East, for example; Islamic extremists and Zionist zealots can invent the most bizarre, convoluted narratives. Wrapping your head around some of them isn’t easy. So while the specific Wacky™ can vary, the process of reaching it is forever and always the same.
