October 5, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Jack Welch And The ‘Unemployment Truthers’
After the Labor Department released the September job numbers, revealing the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8% (below 8% for the first time during Obama’s presidency), the right-wing lunatic asylum kicked into full-bore conspiracy mode. First we had “9/11 truthers, ” then we had “birth certificate truthers (birthers),” then just last week we had “poll truthers,” and now this week we have “unemployment truthers,” led by former GE CEO Jack Welch.
It can be summed up like this: When facts do not comport to someone’s understanding of the world or how they want things to be, these facts become evidence of a conspiracy.
It was too scary an idea that 9/11 could happen without our government knowing, that’s why we have 9/11 truthers.
It was too scary or simply unacceptable that someone who looks like Barack Obama could be President of the United States, that’s why we have birthers.
It’s inexplicable that Obama could be leading in the polls because Romney is conservative and Obama is a “Kenyan socialist,” that’s why we have poll truthers.
And it’s impossible or inconvenient to believe the economy is improving under Obama’s policies, that’s why we have unemployment truthers.
Of course all of this is silly. It’s simply nonsense. And most of us can easily spot it. Even if we entertained the idea for one moment that the September job numbers were “cooked,” it begs the question: Why only September? I mean, if the idea was to get the unemployment rate under 8% before the election, why not do it in July, or April or even at the beginning of the year? Why not have the employment rate “cooked” at 6 or 7% by now? Well, we know the answer to that, the numbers are not cooked. But because a piece of evidence was introduced that does not comport with a pre-existing narrative, it is proof to these conspiracy theorists that there is indeed a conspiracy. — That’s why this article is intended only to explain why people think this way, not to convince them they are wrong. I’m afraid nobody has the power to do that.