Diuretic
Permanently confused
Just asking questions ed, just asking questions
Rhetorical questions, Di?
Seriously, I don't know because I try not to assume I understand anything about a person's position on subjects other than what a person actually posts himself
So either you were attempting to be ironic (and I missed it because I don't know your basic position on this subject) or you were serious, in which case my response was my ironic answer to your agent provocateur theory.
Incidently I DO believe thatboth parties make use of agent provocateurs.
Few of them aren't sincerely as crazy as they seem however. They are unwitting dupes.
Were I in charge of the DNC or RNC, I would certainly encourage the craziest of my opposition to get as much media time as possible, just to discredit my opposition's constiuents.
And, if you think about it, the media nearly always is looking for the most extreme of the extreme (of either sid of every issue) because those people make for the most dramatic news.
Hence the nuttiest members of both sides of neqrly every issue end up appearing to be the spokepersons of each side.
Sad, really, but that's the world we live in.
And modertes of both sides end up forgotten and neglected while the fruitcakes seem to get all the press.
This might be entire unplanned and organic, but then too it certainly does work wonders to keep American fearfiul of conservatives and liberals, doesn't it?
I often wonder if rhetorical questions are really questions or if they're just rhetorical tricks. Are they really of any use?
Now, to the point. Agents provocateur? I don't see them as such. I actually thought they were people who might post here at USMB or other similar forums, people with more than an average interest in current affairs but who are driven by their own convictions and aren't interested in objective inquiry. And that goes for both sides. The point was made that the clips were edited to present the most gross (and I don't mean "yuk, gross!" examples of right wing partisanship almost to the point of caricature. No, definitely not agents provocateur, more like people who genuinely believe what they were saying.