Forward

This is the President Obama video that this week got the USA’s increasingly unhinged rightwing into its latest frenzy. It wasn’t because of what’s in the video itself, what the president says or even the facts he discusses; instead, it was all because of one word that appears on screen at the very end: Forward. To the loonies on the right, that word offered proof, PROOF, they shouted with spittle flying from their mouths, that the president is a communist. Seriously. (I did say these people were unhinged!)

This is just so bizarrely bizarre that it almost seems like the rightwing has been consumed by super lunacy from the super moon. The word forward is used for all kinds of organisations, including serving as the state motto of the state of Wisconsin (they put it on their state seal, pictured).

The rightwing hates President Obama and they always have. In truth, they hate pretty much all Democratic politicians at any level, but they have a special hatred for the president. So, the fact that they’d seize on this one word to fuel one of their weirdest conspiracy theories isn’t really a surprise.

Still, normal, mainstream Americans, who don’t frequent the rightwing netherworld of paranoia, self-satisfied entitlement and arrogant hubris probably haven’t even heard of all this, and that, too, isn’t s surprise: Normal, mainstream Americans are simply too busy moving forward.

As it should be.