It's now abundantly clear that every position on the right can be understood through the single lens of acute paranoia.  Persecution fantasies have always been in the mix, but the right is now verging on a psychotic break.  It looks like Glenn Beck has already had his, and Arizona is obviously halfway round the bend. 


Whether it's the census, gays, or guns;  the oil spill in the Gulf, health reform, or immigration, paranoia's at the fore.  The Tea Party is steeped in it, and right wing celebs like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin (who has been oddly absent throughout the Gulf oil debacle) stoke it for fun and profit every chance they get.

It's never them.  It's always "Them".  Which is to say: us.  The rest of us.  Thus, a movement we all witnessed exploding out of racial animus could handily defend itself against charges of racism after descending on Washington at Fox's bidding for an orgy of hate speech egged on by the GOP by insisting any wrongdoing was the obvious result of Liberals planted in their midst to make them look bad. 

So, is the right actually on the verge of a mental breakdown? 

Yes, and it seems to be working out surprisingly well for them. 

According to polls, the right is on the rise, poised for a comeback in the midterm elections in November.  Paranoia and persecution fantasies as political strategy seem to be paying off.  The more outrageous the claims, the more popular the cause becomes.

It's hard to put the present in perspective.  I mean, consider the 1980s.  We all thought we looked perfectly normal then.  But the danger for the rest of us right now is that we may be tempted to minimize the power of persecution fantasies for those in whose minds they're real.  Because much of the paranoia on the right seems outrageous, we scoff.  It'll sputter itself out, we say.  If you're anything like me, you've got better things to do with your time than poison yourself with other people's delusions.  I mean, I've got delusions of my own to tend to, bitches.

The problem is: they have guns.  Lots of them.  And angry, paranoid people with guns have a tendency to draw others into their delusions, one way or another, whether we like it or not.

The difficulty for reasonable people is obvious, at least to reasonable people.  I mean, can you talk reason to those for whom reason itself is a form of persecution? 

You have to look at it like this: we have a hostage situation here.  You've got a very angry, heavily-armed nutjob who believes he's been wronged.  If you're a hostage negotiator, the last thing you want to do is argue with the guy about what's really going on.  You've got to pretend — without coming off as patronizing, mind you — that you get it. 

Just put down the gun and we'll talk it over.  Nice and easy. 

Fighting other people's delusions can make you feel like you're participating in them.  Thus, we're still arguing with Creationists as if they have a point.  If there's one thing unreasonable people are good at, it's making reasonable people behave unreasonably, too.

But I think it's fair to say, the answer is probably not to make carrying concealed weapons at airports any easier. 

Personally, I think it's in the water.  I say you flush the pipes with Prozac.  Get the PPD under control first, and then work on a talking cure.