Obama Conspiracy Theories - Manufactured Distraction

I have to admit right off the bat, I am not a strong supporter of President Obama, but I think that many of the Obama conspiracy theories that are floating around are ridiculous. The mainstream Obama conspiracy theories are a manufactured distraction to keep people from evaluating the real consequences of this Administrations domestic and foreign policies. By providing the public with an easy to understand and easy to spread conspiracy, the public becomes unable to look at long term policy effects and instead focuses intensely and passionately on manufactured disinformation. Here is a breakdown of what I consider the top six Obama conspiracy theories:

1. Obama Is Not An American Citizen - Everyone has probably heard of the Birthers by now. There is a large group of people in the United States that think Obama is Kenyan and some think he is British. They charge that Obama has a forged birth certificate and fake social security number. 
2. Obama The Facist/Socialist/Communist - Many people have been comparing Obama to Hitler and the Nazi Party. Also popular is the comparison to Stalin and the Communist Party. Followers of these conspiracy theories often use the terms Socialism, Fascism and Communism interchangeably and incorrectly. 
3. Obama The Radical Muslim - The claim is that Obama is a Muslim and a supporter of Islam. People also claim that Obama wants Iran to develop a nuclear weapon to attack Israel. 
4. Obama Is The Anti-Christ Or A Satan Worshiper - Some Christian's have made the claim that Obama is the Anti-Christ. Many quote scripture and try and connect passages to Obama life and presidency. Some use backwards audio of his speeches as evidence that he is secretly praising Satan. 
5. ObamaCare - Many claims about the new Health Care bill have been incorrect or exaggerated. The most popular were the claims that Obama wanted death panels that would equal euthanasia for the elderly and that new laws would require people with public health insurance to be implanted with a microchip. 
6. Obama Concentration Camps - Conspiracy theorists claim that Obama is using FEMA to build concentration camps to detain or imprison political activists. Some claim that he will declare Martial Law and many people will be systematically arrested and placed in these camps. 

Obama's rise to presidency was driven by a modern day cult of personality. Obama's campaign and the mass media managed to brand Obama as a paradigm changing hero or savior. Before Obama was elected I wrote a long essay on his stated policies and how I thought they would be twisted or completely ignored when he was elected. So far much of those warnings have come true. Obviously Obama did not pull our troops out of the Middle East, end the U.S. use of torture, close the Guantanamo prison or end domestic surveillance. Many of the Bush administrations policies have been continued by the Obama administration, including an extension of the Patriot Act and a continuation of the War On Terror.

The problem is that many people seem to be ignoring concrete evidence that the Obama administrations policies reflect the Bush administrations policies. Democrats and Republican's tend to take different approaches in policy implementation and media coverage, but the left arm always works a little different than the right arm. The completely ridiculous Obama conspiracy theories do nothing more than distract people from seeing the long term goals of the Republocratic body. The party that does not hold the presidency always works with the other party to reverse the pendulum's swing. Switching back and forth between Republican and Democratic parties is necessary to maintain the illusion of real choice.

Let's Address the Obama Conspiracy Theories:

1. Obama is not an American Citizen
More than a quarter of Americans think Obama was not have been born in the U.S. Many of the claims circulating the media, email chain letters and website have been discredited or proven to be false. Sure, there may be a possibility that Obama's documents are forged, but even if they are, the Birther movement is a dead end path. Not only can nothing be done to prove Obama isn't an American citizen, focusing on this aspect is a waste of resources and time. Obama is already in office and isn't going anywhere, so regroup and refocus. The Birther movement really just makes more legitimate conspiracy theorists look crazy and does a lot of damage to real conspiracy researchers.

2. Obama the Facist/Socialist/Communist
Everyone from mainstream media pundits to tea-party protesters throw out political terms such as Fascism, Socialism and Communism when attacking Obama and his administration, without regard to the actual meaning of these political terms. These terms are distinct political movements and can not be used interchangeably. They are being used merely for shock value, without any intelligent argument to back up the claims. Painting a Hitler mustache on a photo of Obama is nothing but a shock tactic. Once again, this approach makes people look crazy, out of touch and ignorant. Obama does have some socialist policies, but he is not a socialist.

3. Obama the Radical Muslim, Satan Worshiper and Anti-Christ
It wasn't long ago that conspiracy theorists were claiming that George Bush was the Anti-Christ. There has always been a connection between the secretive Skull and Bones organization, Bohemian Grove and the theory of Satan worshiping people in power. The Satanic Panic of the 1980's turned out to be media-hyped hysteria with claims that playing certain music records backwards would unveil hidden messages and playing games like Dungeons and Dragons could lead to recruitment into Satanic circles.

The backwards audio claim today is that Obama's slogan "Yes We Can" is "Thank You Satan" when played backwards. Backwards audio claims are one of the crazier conspiracies out there. "Yes we can" is basically the English equivalent of "Sí, se puede," a United Farm Workers motto reportedly created by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. There is also no proof that Obama is a radical Muslim, attends mosque, studies the Koran, prays to Mecca or observes any Islamic holidays. Obama was not sworn into office using a Koran instead of a Bible. Obama appears to be a religious pluralist, which scares any fundamentalist because religious pluralism is, generally, the acceptance of various religions.

Religious conspiracy theories are some of the worst because they blatantly make-up "evidence" to support their claims. There is a major difference between looking at facts and concluding that there is the possibility of a conspiracy and fabricating entire scenarios to support a conspiracy theory. Religious conspiracy theories are mostly based around lies and false statements being used to manipulate people through their religious views.

4. ObamaCare
At the height of the ObamaCare craze there were a lot of blatantly false accusations circulating the internet, mostly propagated by the far right. End of life counseling turned into death panels that would murder senior citizens or forcefully pull the plug on life support systems. A registry for implanted medical devices like pacemakers and hip implants turned into the forced micro-chipping of anyone who had public health care option with fears of RFID chips with GPS tags. There were claims that the new law would require hiring 16,500 new IRS agents who would be armed to enforce mandatory health insurance laws. A provision that required fast food chains to disclose real nutritional information, including calorie counts turned into a law that would dictate what we could and could not eat. These were just a few of the far fetched conspiracy theories that were proven false. What no one seemed to bother doing was to read the parts of the bill being referred to, such as the "death panel" section, and see for themselves what the bill was trying to do. These days it seems to be easier to believe the fear being propagated by the media and the social meme's, than to do a little research on your own.

5. Obama Concentration Camps and Martial Law
There seems to be a persistent theory that Obama is using FEMA to set up concentrations camps that will imprison American citizens when he decides to declare martial law and become dictator. I remember similar claims when Bush was president and he never declared martial law and didn't become a dictator. There are other things that we should be focusing on, like how Obama has authorized the assassination of U.S. citizens. This is just a continuation of a policy that president Bush implemented, but maybe we were too focused on the FEMA concentration camps to realize it at the time.

Fear of unconfirmed possibilities, which are purposefully being stoked by the mainstream media, distracts us from the actual policies that have been approved and implemented. When we focus on far-fetched conspiracy theories we become blind to the the real conspiracies that mold our foreign and domestic policy. Its time to stop spreading manufactured meme's and dig deeper into the confirmed attacks on our constitutional rights, our liberty and what it really means to be free.