Questioning Authority Of The Presidential Flat Earth Society

Eric Renderking Fisk | Feb. 5th, 2014

Here’s the problem that I’m having with a lot of my fellow students specifically and American’s in general; it’s the misnomer that you have the right to your own opinion. As the Great Harlan Ellison said in the documentary about his life, “Dreams With Sharp Teeth,” you’re not entitled to your own opinion – you’re entitled to your own educated opinion. What that means is that unless you’ve heard all sides there are some opinions that you should keep your opinion to yourself.

I’ll take this one step further: even if you are an “authority” it’s in everyone’s best interest (especially yours) to actually keep an open mind in an effort to actually listen to what someone has to say on important subjects. Once and only then when you’ve actually listened or read what the other side has to say take a moment to differentiate if what you’re hearing is true, false, or mere conjecture.

One fine example is the shape of the Earth; once upon a time it was an established “fact” that the Earth was flat and it took a couple of number crunchers with high-power state of the art abacuses to figure out that our planet is roundish. It’s not even a perfect ball thanks to some of our neighbors (The Moon and The Sun) are constantly tugging away at this planet keeping the ocean tides and our molten core humming along.

This is a scientific fact, provable time and again, but because such knowledge would shake the very foundation of our society and the authority societies leaders it was kept a “secret.” What’s worse, the for generations of religious and political leaders prosecuted “Rounder’s” and society in general went along with it. Normal, average, and even intelegent citizizens (or subjects) went along with the establishment just to protect or cover their own asses.

I’m sure that folks thinking “Of course I’m keeping an open mind, cause I sure don’t want to be remembered as the modern equivalent of the pope who wanted to burn Galileo at the stake with Joan of Ark!” Not so fast; there have been many circumstances in the recent past that have caused otherwise intelligent people to simply shut down and demand that others do the same. Educated Opinions need not apply.

Best local example I can think of is the local group in the Town Of Rindge who simply asked; “are we beholden to a government agency if we take this grant money?” with the follow up question “are we mandated to change the way we run this town and have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to appease the residence on the ivory towers in Washington DC for taking a mere few tens of thousands of dollars from them the first time?”

Sounds like an honest question; if we take federal grant money from HUD does the town have to change our ordinances and allow things we neither want nor can afford to comply with their rules and regulations? But from the reaction from the Town Government’s loyalists you would have thought this was an uprising of the Fourth Riche!

The people who are simply asking questions have been labeled atrocious things like bigots and racists who just can’t stand the idea there’s a half-black man in the White House, to being members of The John Burch Society, to being backwards luddites who would rather spit in the eye of Uncle Sam than take “free money” all the while forgetting that the people who are asking questions about the “strings” that are attached to the money.

It’s a simple question: If we take “free” grant money are we required to change zoning laws? Merely asking the question leads to people (in leadership roles) vilifying others.

There are many folks who simply have questions about “Common Core” and want to know what’s in this nationalized curriculum. Who wrote it and what’s in it. And those people are being labeled horrible things like crazy conservative conspiracy theorists. All we want to know is the answers to some simple questions…

For those who are thinking that’s just one example there’s one controversy that’s global then you’re obviously forgetting the one controversy that’s in the headline’s recently: “The ‘Affordable’ Health Care Act” or – “ObamaCare” for short. When I asked my congressman back in 2009 if he read the bill he said he did and it was a good bill. I asked him about this alleged “Death Panels” – also known as “End Of Life Cycle counseling” and he said there was no such thing… until I reached in to my pocket and showed him the pages of that specific bill that I just printed off.

Oh, but aren’t I the villain by entrapping my congressman (at the time) The Honorable Paul Hodes! For doing such a horrible thing I was “outed” as being an operative for the other political party!

Simple questions; who actually wrote this bill, what’s in it and how will it affect people who already have heath care? The mere asking of those questions means that people are mean spirited, want people of color, poor, and elderly to die! Then the original trope of “you’re just racist and you can’t stand the idea of a half-black man in the Oval Office!” for simply asking questions about this program that’s turned into a disaster in the short week’s since the mandate date passed.

What’s even more atrocious is the notion that 5 or more years ago what George W. Bush was doing with the power of The Patriot Act was disparaged as “War Crimes” against the American people but now that those powers have been expanded under Barack Obama are excused. As of this writing the German Prime Minister charges this current President with the most personal type of espionage: Tapping and monitoring her personal cell phone.

Were this 2008, then Senator and Presidential Candidate Obama would have demanded Congressional Hearings and Impeachment proceedings against George The Second. Since its President Obama we “automatically” believe it’s ‘a lie.’ It can’t be true! Not this man who ran on the campaign of Hope And Change! This was supposed to be the most transparent Administration in the history of The United States! Somehow… this is all George W. Bush’s fault… No! No! I got it… it’s the ghost of Nixon cause we all know how much he loved break-ins and wiretapping! (Do a Google search for “Watergate” if you’re too young to remember!)

Obviously, since German Prime Minster Angela Merkel is critical of Obama, she must be racist and can’t stand the notion that a half-black man is in the Oval Office!

See what’s wrong with this picture yet?

What gives? Decades ago young people carried on with the “Question Authority” mindset. That specific two word phrase was everywhere during the years of Nixon, Ford and to a smaller extent Carter and roared back to life during the years of Reagan and Bush Sr. The phrase “Question Authority” was ubiquitous during rough times when folks thought (or knew) that “We The People” were either being lied to or manipulated. Whomever was the authority could be complicit; police officers, teachers, principals and school administrators. Colleges Presidents and those in under them weren’t immune.
Like Abby Hoffman said (who was around 31 or 32 at the time) – Don’t trust anyone over thirty!
What happens when the young people of decades ago who chanted, spray painted and adorned themselves and the bumpers of their cars with the words “Question Authority” finally becomes The Authority and they are practicing the same ‘evil’ tactics they railed against decades ago?

Questions are suddenly a socially unacceptable and seemingly intelligent and educated people are going along with “the program.” Because we now have leaders who ran under the facade of being “out for the common man” and have hearts in the right places we “must” turn a blind eye to the horrible things that our leaders are doing now because they don’t belong to the horrible party over their on the right!
The news organizations who took the roles of government watch dogs have now become the nanny’s as they are giving us spoonful’s of sugar to make the medicine of poisonous lies go down easier. They’re feeding us indoctrination that the world is becoming flat again and we must change our way of thinking and act accordingly to the new GroupThink.

This is becoming a genuine scary time when it’s now fashionable for our leaders and their Kool-Ade drinkers vilify people for merely asking intelligent questions while those in authority are doing questionable things. They are gobbling up control by plunging our society back to the era when the world was flat – if you say otherwise, there are dire consequences. When the side that used to stand on the moral high ground are able to bully people with the fact that they came from that moral high ground and they’re above scrutiny and that’s left unchallenged things are going to get worse before people wake up and realize what’s going on before it’s too late. 

When “The Government” says “We don’t care about your opinion, no matter how much facts you have on your side,” it’s a slippery slope into tyranny.