Monsters under the Bed 0
Hofstadter was correct (if you’ve not read the article, do so now).
The common thread of rightwingnuttery is fear.
Witness this (indirect) quotation from an organizer of the “Agenda 21” (see Note Below) conference in Valley Forge, which reveals far more than the speaker intended (emphasis added):
In other words, everything a local, state, or federal government might do becomes evidence of conspiracy.
The right wing never fails to find fear, for, if it can’t find it, it makes it up. It seems to find gratification in quavering with fright.
Fearfulness is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the philosophy of cowardice. As I write this, it occurs to me that this explains conservative war mongering: those who are always looking for enemies, well, they always find them.
It is the politics of three-year-olds, the politics of monsters under the bed.
Note Below:
Agenda 21 is a fairly innocuous UN program, meaning that the members of the UN agreed to create it, signatories to which promise to promote a sustainable environment.
