Trig-trutherism and the American political conspiracy hall of mirrors.
Trig-trutherism has then been dealt a death blow. For those unfamiliar with another corridor in the American political conspiracy hall of mirrors, a tiny number of influential individuals on the commentary circuit managed to all but convince themselves that Trig, Sarah Palin's fifth child, was not in fact sired by her at all. Instead, possibly to show just how strong Palin's adherence to pro-life causes was, she happened to acquire a baby with Down's syndrome to demonstrate she wasn't a potential hypocrite, or alternatively, phenomenally embarrassed by her eldest daughter Bristol becoming pregnant in spite of promoting abstinence before marriage, and worried also by the effect it could have on her political career, she covered up for her and claimed the child was in fact hers.
As is usual with the more out there theories, like how the controlled demolition junkies among the 9/11 truthers contend that the WTC was built with the explosives already in the building waiting to be set off decades later after the planes had already flew into the towers, or alternatively that somehow the tens of thousands of people who worked in the buildings were so inattentive that they failed to spot how their floors were being rigged with masses of thermite, the obvious problems are obscured in favour of the wider narrative and unmitigated evil and wickedness of the plot being pulled off. Trig-trutherism ignores simple things like photographs showing Palin almost certainly with child, or how Bristol Palin must have been really damned stupid to get pregnant again despite causing her mother such hassle the first time round, or indeed the even more devious trick of how Bristol managed to give birth while already being pregnant again, as Salon's timeline has now documented.
The main reason why Trig-trutherism was always so bizarre was because it provided precisely the evidence as to just how almost other-worldly Palin is. Without wanting to fall into the trap addressed by Megan Carpentier of demanding gynaecological records when I have no knowledge whatsoever of what it's like to have a womb, what hasn't been denied is that having thought her water had broke, Palin not only went on to give a speech, she then flew from Texas all the way back to Alaska, and even then, rather than going to a hospital in the state capital Anchorage she was driven back to Wasilla, a "city" with a population of less than 10,000, to give birth, 25 hours after first thinking that some amniotic fluid had leaked. This, even more astonishingly, was under advice given by the family doctor, who if didn't exactly advise Palin not to do what she did, also didn't tell her to get her damn self to a hospital. Indeed, she didn't think it was unreasonable for Palin to fly in such a condition, when most airlines understandably advise against or don't allow women who are over 8 months pregnant to travel. Even taking into account that Palin, having had four children, was entitled to be relaxed about giving birth, her behaviour wasn't just insouciant, it was potentially dangerous to the child's health and to her own.
When the fiction is only slightly more sensational than the truth, it's understandable that some are willing to go just that little bit further. Trig-trutherism was though such a complete dead-end: yes, there would be some staggering cynicism involved in such a cover-up, and it would have made Palin completely unfit for office to have carried off such a deception, yet it's hardly Whitewater. It's not Bush stealing the 2004 election, bombing the levees in New Orleans, or creating a vast network of prisons in which kidnap victims were tortured before being detained indefinitely on an island off the coast of America. Oh, that last one happened. Sorry. And it's most certainly not Obama having managed to commit the ultimate crime of becoming President when he wasn't a US citizen, something which a potential presidential candidate has spent the last few weeks promoting across the American news networks. Conspiracies have to be massive and involve hundreds, if not thousands of people, often with a uncanny inkling for what's going to happen dozens of years into the future. Pretending a baby's yours when it isn't, even if for nefarious political purposes, just isn't thinking big enough.
As is usual with the more out there theories, like how the controlled demolition junkies among the 9/11 truthers contend that the WTC was built with the explosives already in the building waiting to be set off decades later after the planes had already flew into the towers, or alternatively that somehow the tens of thousands of people who worked in the buildings were so inattentive that they failed to spot how their floors were being rigged with masses of thermite, the obvious problems are obscured in favour of the wider narrative and unmitigated evil and wickedness of the plot being pulled off. Trig-trutherism ignores simple things like photographs showing Palin almost certainly with child, or how Bristol Palin must have been really damned stupid to get pregnant again despite causing her mother such hassle the first time round, or indeed the even more devious trick of how Bristol managed to give birth while already being pregnant again, as Salon's timeline has now documented.
The main reason why Trig-trutherism was always so bizarre was because it provided precisely the evidence as to just how almost other-worldly Palin is. Without wanting to fall into the trap addressed by Megan Carpentier of demanding gynaecological records when I have no knowledge whatsoever of what it's like to have a womb, what hasn't been denied is that having thought her water had broke, Palin not only went on to give a speech, she then flew from Texas all the way back to Alaska, and even then, rather than going to a hospital in the state capital Anchorage she was driven back to Wasilla, a "city" with a population of less than 10,000, to give birth, 25 hours after first thinking that some amniotic fluid had leaked. This, even more astonishingly, was under advice given by the family doctor, who if didn't exactly advise Palin not to do what she did, also didn't tell her to get her damn self to a hospital. Indeed, she didn't think it was unreasonable for Palin to fly in such a condition, when most airlines understandably advise against or don't allow women who are over 8 months pregnant to travel. Even taking into account that Palin, having had four children, was entitled to be relaxed about giving birth, her behaviour wasn't just insouciant, it was potentially dangerous to the child's health and to her own.
When the fiction is only slightly more sensational than the truth, it's understandable that some are willing to go just that little bit further. Trig-trutherism was though such a complete dead-end: yes, there would be some staggering cynicism involved in such a cover-up, and it would have made Palin completely unfit for office to have carried off such a deception, yet it's hardly Whitewater. It's not Bush stealing the 2004 election, bombing the levees in New Orleans, or creating a vast network of prisons in which kidnap victims were tortured before being detained indefinitely on an island off the coast of America. Oh, that last one happened. Sorry. And it's most certainly not Obama having managed to commit the ultimate crime of becoming President when he wasn't a US citizen, something which a potential presidential candidate has spent the last few weeks promoting across the American news networks. Conspiracies have to be massive and involve hundreds, if not thousands of people, often with a uncanny inkling for what's going to happen dozens of years into the future. Pretending a baby's yours when it isn't, even if for nefarious political purposes, just isn't thinking big enough.
Labels: conspiracy theories, politics, Sarah Palin, Trig-trutherism, US politics
| Permalink
I still think more than one individual was involved in the J.F.Kennedy assassination.
Bring on the straightjacket.
Posted by
Jemmy Hope |
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 11:20:00 am
Post a Comment