Black Helicopters over Nashville
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Black Helicopters Over Nashville
P. 1 S. 12-15 “it has become clear to me that the movement is dominated by people whose vision of the government is conspiratorial and dangerously detached from reality. Its more John Birch than John Adams.”
The article “Black Helicopters over Nashville” is written by Jonathan Kay after attending a Tea Party convention in Nashville. The article focuses on the claim that the Tea Party Movement is influenced by conspirators, who believe in a number of conspiracies. He considers it a danger that such an influential movement is dominated by people who believe the worst about their government. Furthermore he makes it very clear that they are not as innocent as they might seem. He says that they are imposing as supporters of the constitutional views and therefore doesnt seem unnerving, dressing up in their costumes and hats. He thinks that they really are, as he calls them, a bunch of “unhinged paranoiacs”. This is the opinion he holds throughout the whole text. What the author Jonathan Kay (JK) focuses on is not the right-winged political views of the organization but the fact that within the movement some of the people in power have what most people would call alternative beliefs.
The way JK argues is by mentioning various conspiracies that rumored about in the movement. The main theme of these being that Barack Obama always is the enemy. He is amazed that so radical opinions are allowed in the forum of the convention. The fact that JK calls the people of the movement unhinged paranoiacs, compares them to The John Birch Society and that he says that they wear tin foiled hats, also shows that he doesnt take them seriously. Not to say that he doesnt see them as potentially dangerous people, but it shows that he can see the absurdity in their statements. Within the article there is a lot of internal references to modern conspiracies, such as;
The Title: Black Helicopters.
The Expression: Tin foiled hats.
The Phenomenon: John Birch Society.
This gives the idea of him being a man who knows what he is talking about. Another interesting thing about the way the article is constructed is the fact that it contains many aspects of the stereotypical right-wing. For example: Climate skepticism, southern location, reenacting of American history and the fear of the anti-capitalists.
In conclusion: I dont think that our democracy is threatened because of this movement. I would argue that they are hurtful to the debate. And the fact that they have become so influential is amazing, but not unnerving.
One thing comes to my mind. What is the real goal of this movement?