Opinion

Conspiracy theories used to be relegated to the fringes of American political discourse. Not so much anymore, now that one of the major political parties is itself pretty fringe. When the notion that the government itself is out to get the people and needs to be dismantled and shut down is the position of one of your party’s frontrunners, you’re pretty far gone.

This article originally appeared at The Washington Spectator

Before he was Speaker, before he grew the Hugh Jackman beard, before we knew he was a Rage Against the Machine fan and that his playlist “starts with AC/DC and ends with Zeppelin,” Paul Ryan was a budget wonk.

Just days after the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, the iconic mask of Guy Fawkes appeared – again – in two videos released in French by the hacktivist techno-social collective Anonymous. This time, they declared a total war on the Islamic State, or ISIS, continuing a campaign sparked by the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

“The end of television” is a headline that’s been liberally thrown around for the past 15 years.

On the opening night screening of The Force Awakens, every seat is occupied well before show time. Many in the audience proudly don Star Wars t-shirts (but not the Vader masks, light sabers and blasters, which have been banned due to security concerns). The energy spills over to the previews; even average-looking animated comedies are greeted with laughs and cheers.

There has never been a war on Christmas, but the war over Christmas is now very real. What began as a bit of conservative self-parody has now leaked into the larger culture, and a bogus grievance conjured up by the charlatans at Fox News has been almost universally embraced by the right. It's now a legitimate front in the culture wars. And the irony is that ordinary people who wouldn't think twice about offering a cheery “merry Christmas” just a few years ago are now hesitant to do so for fear of offending people who would never have even thought to take offense.

Television news has gone off its rocker and turned our politics into the equivalent of a freak show’s hall of mirrors.

From the recent attack on Planned Parenthood to the shooting in San Bernardino, extremists of all stripes are revealing the ugly side of religion. The confluence of these events and election season demagoguery is generating fear and outrage.

Thousands of people all over the world took part in the recent “Buy Nothing” movement, but as Christmas approaches, is it really possible to buy nothing?

Finding a Las Vegas native in the Venetian resort-hotel-casino is like the old line about Floridians at Disney World: go find an employee. Everyone else is not from here, which is just as well, because this isn’t a here. Tessellated floors and mock Italian Renaissance halls – arched doorways and frescoed ceilings like Vasari by way of Pier One Imports – usher you to and from rooms divorcing you as fully from the passage of time, forces of nature and the discomfort of reality as possible.

Hannah Hawkes, a Louisiana photographer, posted a family Christmas photo on her Facebook page which depicted a family of five celebrating “Peace on Earth” with Mom and two daughters with green duct tape over their mouths and their hands tied up with Christmas lights.

Don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but there’s a new Star Wars film out this week. They’ve tried to downplay it, but news still leaked out there subtly via all possible media platforms and product tie-ins . Of course, this being such a major cultural event means there’s a lot of associated traffic revenue to be generated . Tying an article, however remotely, to a popular subject matter is just one of many tactics to increase online traffic , so of course there have been countless articles tenuously linked to Star Wars churned out. This has caused a great disturbance in the web, as if millions of search algorithms cried out in terror, and were suddenly… silenced.