The boundaries of belief (2)
Yesterday I wrote: “I sometimes think that no belief is too weird that someone somewhere – probably quite thoughtful and intelligent – will hold that belief. I really wonder whether there are any boundaries to some people’s belief systems.”
Today we have yet another example with the BBC web site’s coverage of the ridiculous suggestion that Barack Obama is not eligible to be President of the USA because he is not a US citizen – see here.
I suppose, if Sarah Palin ever became President, someone would query the validity of the sale of Alaska by Russia to the USA in 1867 and claim that she was in fact Russian.
August 4th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Roger,
The more “liberal” media has given the name “BIRTHERS” to the conspiracy nuts trying to make this an issue. I’d laugh if they weren’t having such an effect on public discourse and legitimate news reporting. Some Americans will never accept the legitimacy of anyone other than a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) male in positions of power in the US, let alone in the White House. It’s almost as if they believe that only certain people have a divine right to rule …
But this isn’t the first time that the “foreign birth” issue has been spoken about in US presidential elections. During the early stages of last year’s campaign there was some controversy about the eligibility of John Mccain to run, due to the fact that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, while his father served there as a US Navy officer. The New York Times wrote about it in this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/politics/28mccain.html