Scoobie FAQ

FAQ

How did you get interested in politics?

I actually became interested in politics through my study of fringe culture. When I was young I read comic books and I eventually got into underground comix. I eventually came across Jack Chick’s work. Chick has a worldview that is a bit off base, to say the least. It is essentially the conspiratorial worldview—the perspective that sinister forces are controlling events. This led me to the offbeat writings of Robert Anton Wilson. Wilson writes about various conspiracy theories in a tongue-in-cheek fashion and I have always been amused by his work. However, what got me to get interested in politics is that in the 1990’s, many of the fringe conspiracy theories that Wilson wrote about were getting serious treatment in the mainstream.

Oh, really?

Yes. Let me give you one example: Pat Robertson and his paranoid conspiratorial view of history in his book, The New World Order—which is nothing but a rehash of the theories of previous crackpots like Nesta Webster and Eustace Mullins. What I found amazing about this is that a kook like Robertson was not repudiated by the Republican mainstream. In fact, when a former contributor to National Review, Michael Lind, exposed Robertson’s lunatic writings, it was Lind who became a pariah in the GOP. Go figure.

What’s more: Robertson isn’t the only example of the mainstreaming of whacko conspiracy theories. The Vince-Foster-Was-Murdered theory was a staple of the American right throughout the 1990’s. It was spread by Rush and the rest of hate radio, Joseph Farah, Christopher Ruddy, as well some members of Congress such as William Dannemeyer and Bob Dornan—there must be something in the Orange County water. Also, there was the Clinton body count—the idea that Clinton was responsible for the deaths of dozens of people; this was a favorite of Richard Mellon Scaife and his beneficiary Farah. Let’s also not forget the notorious Clinton Chronicles hoax. In kind of a way these conspiracy theories were entertaining. On the other hand, a lot of good people were hurt. It’s bad enough for the Foster family that Vince Foster committed suicide; what was worse was that these vampires would feast on his body for political gain. For instance, Ted Olson told David Brock that he didn’t believe any of the Foster conspiracy theories but he encouraged the right to play them up to hurt the Clinton administration. This man has no soul.

However, what was particular noxious about the right’s smear machine of the 1990’s was that they were able to get away with these ugly lies—mostly unscathed. The mainstream media was out to lunch when it came to the right’s smear machine.

Do you think this trend will continue?

No, in fact, I have many reasons for optimism. For instance, Carville and Begala are now on Crossfire and the right is running scared. What pussies. They love for a pushover like Alan Colmes to ask them questions but when there’s someone like Carville or Begala—guys who know how to debate—they talk about boycotting the show. Also, there are a slew of web sites that hold the right accountable: MediaWhoresOnline, The Daily Howler, ConWebWatch, Buzzflash, and Spinsanity.

How can people take seriously a surfer named Scoobie?

I purposely changed my name to my nickname and I let people know I’m a surfer. I aim my blog site at people who look beyond surfaces and who are interested in substance. American culture and politics is full of posers who create an air of credibility when in fact they are the biggest hacks on God’s green earth. I am who I am. We are inundated with people who talk the talk, who act the part of thoughtful observer, but who don’t walk the walk.

Examples?

Well, look at George Will. This is a guy who cultivates an image of a restrained and rational observer—a real intellectual. I use the word image because Will is one of the biggest hacks in American politics. A case in point, during the 2000 election aftermath, Will’s column pretty much consisted of GOP talking points--ditto for Will’s fellow Washington Post columnists Michael Kelly and Charles Krauthammer. They are an utter disgrace to journalism. Let me give you another example: we have a news network--Fox News--that throws out slogans like, “We report; you decide.” The implicit message is that the other news networks are biased and that they are straight shooters. Give me a fucking break! Pardonez-moi. I get a little emphatic whenever I hear this undiluted bilge that doesn’t pass the giggle test. To claim that Fox News strives for objectivity is a joke. The media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting [FAIR] did a good report on the Fox News’s flagrant bias. And they have this guy O’Reilly who claims to be an equal opportunity skeptic. Once again FAIR did content analyses that found this to be gnarly crapola (click here and here).

Anyone else you would like to rant against?

Hate radio. Limbaugh, Hannity, Liddy, and now O’Reilly.

Others?

We can also look at the paranoid billionaires who are funding this crap. It’s kind of a daunting task to speak truth to power when you have Sun Myung Moon and Richard Mellon Scaifes’s deep pockets. But I’m not discouraged: someone who seeks the truth and has few financial resources has a big advantage over someone who doesn’t have the truth. Look, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon spends 100 million dollars each year to keep The Washington Times afloat and it’s still a crappy newspaper. That much money doesn’t do any good if the foundation is inherently flawed.

Why?

Well, for the reason that Moon represents a total ideology. A total ideology is a primary stifler of creativity. To give another example, about twenty years ago, God supposedly told Moon to make a film. So Moon spent close to $50 million and hires Lawrence Olivier, and other top stars mucho dinero to make a film. The result was the egregious Inchon that was one of the worst films of all time. Total ideologies create what social psychologist Irving Janis called groupthink which can be disastrous for any creative venture.

Now we know what you’re against. What do you stand for?

I believe that my ideas represent a logical continuation of the ideas of progressive movement of the twentieth century. I’m big into transpersonal politics. I'm into fun.

Could you elaborate on that?

Each period of social reform dealt with the pressing issues of the day. A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Croly, Samuel Gompers and the muckrakers addressed issues such as child labor, voting rights for women, industrial safety, political corrupt urban machines, and unionization. The New Deal reforms were a logical outgrowth of these progressive ideals. The issues had changed because of the pressing needs of the Great Depression. In the 1960’s, the civil rights movement, feminism, and the consumer movement played a big part of progressivism.

You seem rather harsh on Republicans.

Actually, the Republicans are rather harsh on real Republicans. Look at how they trashed John McCain. I grew up in a Republican family but it was old-fashioned Republican values that caused me to leave the Republican Party.

Say what?

Let me elaborate. I’m a young man but I’m old enough to have been alive when one could credibly call the Republican Party the party of Lincoln. But during my short lifetime, there has been a drastic change in the parties. In the 1960’s, the national Democratic Party adopted a permanent civil rights platform. The dixiecrats no longer had a home in the Democratic Party, so many of them became Republicans. The GOP aggressively courted the George Wallace voters as part of their “Southern strategy.” Trent Lott, Jesse Helms, and Strom Thurmond used to be Democrats. It was a great thing for the Democratic Party to have them leave. Good riddance to bad rubbish. My Republican parents taught me to turn my back on people like that. Now we have a situation in which the formerly Republican New England states are mostly solid Democratic and the formerly Democratic South is GOP territory. In the Red Versus Blue struggle, I’m Mr. Blue.

How do you go about telling the world about your thought?

I try to do it creatively through media hacking and culture jamming. Media hackers, according to Gareth Branwyn, are "amateurs who produce various forms of media, making use of available technologies and resources and trying to overcome limitations, in much the same way that computer hackers do." The media hacking I can remember was on a short-lived TV talk show by Cal Thomas and Jerry Falwell. It was a call-in show on usually one topic. One day, a caller--who purportedly told the call screener that he would address the show's topic, got on live TV and confronted Falwell about a claim that Falwell made that he met and upbraided then President Carter but how Carter mentioned in his memoirs that the conversation never occurred because Carter never met Falwell. This caused a jolted Falwell to do a song and dance about how he was being metaphorical about the imaginary conversation with Carter. It was great.

I think calling up hate radio and challenging the hosts is a fun example of media hacking such as when I confronted Rush Limbaugh about his lies about Al Gore.

You describe yourself as a surfer?

I'm a surfer. Not a competitive surfer. In fact, I'm not a very particularly good surfer at all. That makes my surfing all the more fulfilling. When I’m able to ride on top of a wave, I experience unity consciousness—the loss of subject/object differentiation. Aum.