Before the Internet, did you know there were so many crazies in the world?

[raccoon]

I didn't.

[hobbit709]

1. I figured that one out 40 years ago.

[madokie]

10. About that long ago for me too

about the time of nixon I realized there is some crazy birds out there and a bunch of 'm

[BlueStreak]

2. Or maybe the Internets have made some of them more crazy

The 'net allows like-minded voices to collaborate in ways that were never possible before. It is definitely a mixed blessing when you look at how it has enabled a whole industry of hate to thrive.

On the other hand, did you know just how corrupt our economic and political system had become? We probably had some suspicions, but the Internet allows us to get real facts out into the open and to connect the dots in ways that the 0.1% never wanted to see in the light of day.

[BlueCaliDem]

3. I sure didn't! I knew there were some (got a nasty response to my LTTE twice)

and those were crazy enough, but I never could've imagined there were this many...although we shouldn't forget that people feel they can espouse the nuttiest things on online MB's with impunity - especially if there isn't a moderator. Also, it isn't that hard for some idiots to make multiple monikers in order to appear as if they are legion.

[graham4anything]

4. Me neither. Conspiracy theory people never crossed my path.

[pipi_k]

5. Me neither...

plus there are so many other things I never knew

[msanthrope]

6. I'm a native New Yorker, so, yes. nt

[Nimajneb Nilknarf]

7. I certainly did.

To learn the prevalence of insanity in the world, one need only go out and meet people.

[HughBeaumont]

8. I'm from SlowHio and experienced it's small towns from all areas, so . . . yes, I did.

Not even NE Ohio is free from the Tea.

[NCTraveler]

9. Family cookouts took care of it for me. nt

[Neoma]

11. Yeah.

I didn't have to look far...

[hfojvt]

12. maybe they just play it on the internet

[Arkansas Granny]

13. I knew there were some, but I never realized how many and how crazy.

What an eye opener.

[smirkymonkey]

22. Yes, I knew there were a lot of crazy people in the world,

but until I started going on line, I had no idea as to the depth and breadth of the situation. It's mind blowing.

[Art_from_Ark]

40. Back in the mid-70s, I had naively believed that they were all concentrated in Arkansas

But once I started traveling to other states on my own, especially by bicycle, I crossed paths with some real loonies, in every single one of those states.

What the Internet has done is show me that there are far more semi-literates than I had imagined out there.

[Arkansas Granny]

41. The semi-literates, IMO, pale in comparison to the willfully ignorant and uninformed.

[Art_from_Ark]

42. I personally think there is a strong connection between semi-literacy

and being willfully ignorant and uninformed.

[Sancho]

14. Yep, we knew there were crazies! Some were my friends and relatives!

When I was burning draft cards and wearing tie-dyes shirts, my parents thought I was completely nuts! Dad wanted to send me to a therapist (really)!

...and there were conspiracy theories too!!! I remember my father almost threw me out because I told him that Nixon had ordered a break-in at a hotel!!!

[Tikki]

15. Yes, I grew up in Crazyville and moved away the day I graduated High School.

Tikki

[stevenleser]

16. Me neither. I had no idea.

Scary and disappointing at the same time.

[Pragdem]

17. The Internet has proliferated crazy.

I never heard some of the insane ideas and theories that persist online, even here in rural Kentucky.

There's nothing I would change about the way the Internet works, but there are some people that would be better off just watching CNN/MSNBC and reading The New York Times for their information.

I get so sick of hearing people parrot bullshit they saw in some low-budget YouTube documentary and tibits of batshit from a blog they found on page 47 of their Google search results.

Being hipsterish about where you get your movies and music is fine, but don't do it with information. Just don't.

[hootinholler]

18. Sort of, what I didn't know...

Was how the crazies were manipulated by those with power.

[Octafish]

19. Crazy

From Winterboy:

One Bush becomes a head of the WWI War Industries Board (enriching his family and friends); a second Bush later brokers weapons investments for Nazi Germany (enriching his family and friends); and a third Bush creates the largest annual defense budget in world history (enriching his family and friends)!

SOURCE via Way Bac: http://web.archive.org/web/20040315023134/http://www.winterboy.com/dejavu.html

PS: Those interested in preserving history before it is scrubbed by the good folks at your local data collection center should download their own copy of the 520 page e-book.

PPS: The sample above was from before a fourth Bush lied America into a war (enriching his family and friends)!.

[Major Hogwash]

37. That's a great quote by Crazy George Dubya at that site.

Look, our strategy is to create chaos, to create a vacuum...We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation.

President George W Bush, 2002.

Yup, they created a vacuum all right, they sucked everything they could in to a black hole called the "War on Terrorism"

[HappyMe]

20. No.

I never realized just how many extreme nutbars there are.

[raouldukelives]

21. Nope. But I bought all that of, by and for the people stuff hook, line and sinker in school.

I just naturally assumed that was how most people felt. Quite the wake-up call.

[LeftInTX]

23. Nope

Had no idea
I thought they were confined to the backwoods or something

[burrowowl]

24. YES!!!!

[zappaman]

25. NO!

And those shows like MY CRAZY ADDICTION don't help either!

[temporary311]

26. Yes.

I figure pretty much everyone is crazy. You, me, the voices in my head. Everybody.

[bigwillq]

27. Yes

But now there's proof.

[Marrah_G]

28. nope

[Zoeisright]

29. Nope. Not even a little bit.

I thought this world and this country were getting better. I don't see that at all; it seems like the deliberately ignorant and hateful numbers are increasing. And the internet gives those assholes a platform.

[HERVEPA]

30. Yes. When Reagan was elected and re-elected

[dballance]

31. Unfortunately, Yes. I was a regular newpaper reader - not just the Enquirer.

Although reading the Enquirer for its entertainment sake did lead me to believe there were tons of crazies out there who believed it was real news.

I think people just read more news now because it's so much easier. We used to actually have to subscribe to a paper and then pass it around the house if everyone wanted to read it. We also only had three TV channels. ABC, CBS, and NBC. On a good day we could get PBS over our rabbit ears antenna.

Now we're so barraged by content (I can't call it news anymore) coming at us it's easy to see how people are just now realizing how crazy, screwed up some people are.

[Silent3]

32. As it turns out, quite a few crazies here at DU

It's a form of crazy that's much generally easier for me to put up with than what you find in Freeperland, of course, and we Democrats don't keep voting our craziest menbers into elected office to anywhere near the same degree that the Republicans/teabaggers do.

[Poll_Blind]

33. The internet was actually pretty cool until AOL got on it. Then things went fucking downhill fast.

Real fast.

PB

[Warpy]

34. I'd lived in the south, so yes I did.

I'd also lived in the midwest.

The SDS didn't appreciate my telling them what the rest of the country was like. They all thought it was like NYC and points north.

I'm afraid they found out I was right in fairly short order.

[Egalitarian Thug]

35. Yes. What I never guessed was just how horrible the "sane" people are. n/t

[Notafraidtoo]

36. opposite for me.

Before the internet i had to rely on hyperbole from TV,Newspapers and magazines for my media now the Hyperbole hasn't gone away but the internet has a way of telling the truth and cutting through BS if you have a decent filter and check original sources which is 1000 times easier with the net.

In my youth i thought the world was more crazy cause of the hyperbole.

Now i not only think the world is less crazy then i had thought but i also think it is smarter then it was in the 80's and early 90's the opposite of what most people seem to think.

[Warren DeMontague]

38. Wrong. There is only one.

He just has a lot of sock puppets.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

39. How many of you think you come over at *your* best on the internet?

I think that what the internet has demonstrated is mostly that people say really dumb things when they know there are no possible consequences.

[VOX]

43. Had my suspicions, but didn't figure on them finding each other, which WWW access has accomplished.

I always knew there were crazies out there, but pre-Internet, they were isolated, and taken one at a time, they really stood out in an unflattering way. They were, after all, **crazy** by most standards (back then).

Unfortunately, the Internet has given lunatics a voice; Rove and the Kochs routinely take advantage of these very loose cannons, knowing cynically that they make the best water-carriers. They are tenacious as hell, they don't evolve on any position or learn from bitter experience, and they keep bouncing back.