The Hiding Places Of Insane Ideas

Pivoting off of the fundamentalist speculation about Syria’s potential role in the apocalypse, Amanda Marcotte details the influence of crazy Christian beliefs and how they spread:

The rule of thumb with bizarre Christian right beliefs, such as the belief that Syria’s conflict is a sign of the end times, is that by the time it percolates up to a Google search or a website like the Blaze, it’s been flying around in lower-profile venues such as Internet forums, Facebook posts, books sold in Christian bookstores, in-person meetings in churches, sermons and presentations, and email forwards for a long time now. The fact that these points of view are concealed from prying liberal eyes doesn’t mean that they don’t have a huge impact on right-wing communities—and that includes Republican politicians.

The Bush administration in particular provided some strong examples of how Christian right folk beliefs and conspiracy theories can percolate up…