A few days ago, Bill Whittle responded to a mindless minion of the BushitlerCheneyChimpyMcHalliburton crowd in my comments section. Some of you may have seen it at the time. He took it and made it into a blog post, with comments.

Thanks for pointing that out, I had missed it.

Next assignment: why does something like the "fourteen common threads" list get so much traction? In other words, what does it tell you about human motivations?

Hey,I'm a redneck,not a hillbilly!

There is a difference.

Exactly! All Hillibillies are Rednecks but there are plenty of flatland Rednecks.

Jay, I'd guess that it fulfills a persecution fantasy and helps the believer feel better about themselves. Ie, the believer isn't treated seriously is because they're fighting extremely powerful forces who have blinded or intimidated society, not because they are nutcases.

Karl -- That's a good start. I think the idea can be generalized to helping the believer feel better by appearing knowledgable and adopting a role as a soi-disant incisive critic of society's shortcomings. Needless to say, the critique itself need not be especially relevant or accurate. What counts is how superior it makes the person proclaiming (or plagiarizing) it feel. If they can work up a persecution fantasy to go along with it, well, that's just the icing on the cake.

For another current example, see: Ron Paul supporters.