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July 05, 2006
Mainstreaming Conspiracy
I mentioned a column by Kevin Barrett a few weeks ago in this post where he claimed the events of 9/11 were carried out by the Bush administration. Now Barrett will be teaching the Introduction to Islam course at the University of Wisconson at Madison and will be including his conspiracy theories in the course work. Barrett also compares Bush to Hitler. I wonder if the University of Wisconson offers a Tinfoil Hats 101 class as well. WKOW reports:
Barrett says the Bush Administration is fooling the American public with the Adolf Hitler 'Big Lie Technique'... ''Tell them a little lie and they'll wonder about it - weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was a relatively little lie - and people are getting called on it.'' Barrett says. ''Tell em a big lie like 9/11 and they have a huge resistance to questioning it.'' Barrett quotes from Hitler's book ''Mein Kampf'' in which he writes ''In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths and they would not believe that others would have the impotence to distort the truth so infamously.'' That theory is now part of the curriculum for an Introduction to Islam class Barrett will teach this Fall at the UW. He says 14 of the 16 weeks will have nothing to do with politics, but in the remaining two weeks, he will cover what he calls the ''so-called war on terror''. ''And I will present different interpretations of the war on terror, In I think a pretty detached way and encourage students to debate those interpretations and to support whichever one they personally find most persuasive and let them make up their own minds.'' Barrett says. Governor Jim Doyle questioned whether someone with 'this total irrational idea'' should be teaching students at UW, and Rep. Steve Nass called for Barrett to be fired, but Barrett says his students don't have to agree with his theory about 9/11.
If I were a Wisconson taxpayer I would wonder if funding this university is a good way to spend my tax dollars.
Posted by Pete at July 5, 2006 10:19 AM
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