12.19.11
Cult of EMP Crazy: End Times-ism
Because of Newt Gingrich’s momentary popularity — I noticed he’s the cover of Newsweek which must surely mean the bubble’s about to burst — many more people have been familiarized with the mythology of electromagnetic pulse doom.
Right now, it’s not just for the far right GOP missile defense/bomb Iran lobby anymore.
And although Gingrich has tried to make it seem an entirely pseudo-intellectual thing, there’s no escaping its attachment to extreme Christian religiosity and the belief that catastrophic end times are upon the country, trials which will only be survivable through Godliness and the quick adoption of the skills of the deep woodsman and farmer.
A political blog, Maryland Juice, points out Roscoe Bartlett, the ancient Republican Congressman who has been warning of electromagnetic pulse attack for as long as I can remember, is running for re-election.
Bartlett has never been successful in getting any electromagnetic pulse defense legislation passed. He has forever been a minor Congressional nuisance, one who always gets re-elected despite serving his Maryland constituents poorly.
However, at Maryland Juice, Bartlett’s participation in a wacky survivalist documentary called Urban Danger is noted.
There are a number of teasers for Urban Danger, peddled on DVD, posted to YouTube.
Here is the best, if that’s the word to use:
Bartlett is on first.
The script: The US will collapse soon, through an unspecified series of disasters which include (but are not limited to) total electrical grid failure, rampant bioterrorist-spread disease, and the death of money. Only those in the country, on farms with their own fruit trees, vegetable crops, chainsaws for cutting firewood, elevated water supply, and Bible-reading skills will survive. You will have to defend yourself from the hordes fleeing the cities, just like in AMC’s The Walking Dead.
You must view all three Urban Danger teasers to get the full bit. (I jumped on the grenades so you don’t have to.) But watching the one posted, if you can endure it, delivers the general idea. There ain’t no progressives in this bunch. Or children and other young people, it would appear.
This old white Christian paranoid End Times mania is inseparable from the electromagnetic pulse attack story. And the political professional EMP lobby has always nourished it.
These days it’s virtually mainstream due to adoption by significant segments of the country’s dysfunctional and increasingly irrational political class.
Moving along, SA mails in a link to one of the Wall Street Journal’s banner op-eds here.
Excerpted, it reads:
Newt Gingrich’s rise in the polls has brought attention to his various “big ideas,” and plenty of derision from other GOP Presidential hopefuls and the media. Among the most undeserved targets is the former Speaker’s concern about an electromagnetic pulse (or EMP) attack …
The usual media suspects have recently run skeptical stories on his “doomsday vision” and “silly science” … A single nuclear weapon detonated above the U.S. might not kill anyone immediately. But in the worst case millions could subsequently die from a lack of modern medical care or possibly food, since farmers couldn’t harvest crops nor distributors get food to market. Access to drinking water could be cut if many of America’s dams, reservoirs and water-treatment facilities were shut down …
Mr. Gingrich deserves credit for bringing EMP to public attention.
Here’s a real dose of cheer, emblematic of the legion of crazy far right white f—s delivering public service announcements for what to watch out for when the electrical grid goes down.
“Who is going to die first?” asks a nurse named Rosa Klebb.
“This is straight from the heart, here,” she concludes.
If you don’t laugh, you’ll surely have to cry. Particularly if you go out to YouTube and see the audience it garners.
Mike Mcfalls said,
December 19, 2011 at 11:39 am
That’s all well and good but what if there is another solar storm like the Carrington Event?
George Smith said,
December 19, 2011 at 11:46 am
Nurse Kleb furnishes the answer for you. Why, surely all the “brittle diabetics,” “welfare people” and “yuppies and hippies” will be the first to die.
Chuck said,
December 20, 2011 at 12:57 am
I’ve seen the EMP thing creeping into prime-time military/cop/spook dramas as well.
Of course, all of these folks have the necessary education to make these pronouncements. Or don’t we care about the laws of the universe anymore?
Reminds me of a local dustup some years ago between crazy neighbors soliciting contributions to mount a legal defense against building a high-voltage transmission line two miles away. The basis of their challenge was the health danger posed by EM radiation from the wires. My response was that I would certainly agree to contribute to their effort if they’d yank all of the electrical wiring from their homes, as the EM field from that was far stronger than that of a distant transmission line. I’d even volunteer to take measurements if they weren’t convinced.
Lately in town, the crazy anti-EM people are campaigning against the use of “smart” electrical meters because they emit EM radiation (i.e. radio waves). I wonder how many of those good denizens own a cell phone or microwave oven?
Sometimes the stupid hurts so much…
Neil Craig said,
December 20, 2011 at 3:46 am
Are you saying that it is crazy to believe an EMP pulse could wipe out the electrical system & if so why? Or are you saying that the physics is correct and it could do so but it is crazy to concern ourselves about it when it is already politically correct to worry about catastrophic global warming & if so why?
James Bealsage said,
December 20, 2011 at 7:18 am
I really hope the survivalists are wrong. Won’t we feel like awful fools if it turns out they were right? Get all your smug in now because if society does crumble your smug will be worth as much as your dollars.
DD said,
December 20, 2011 at 8:16 am
I’m saying, not suggesting, the variety of people shown in the above videos exhibit various features of an insanity combining perturbed end times religiosity and fanatical political extremism . Which isn’t the same thing at all.
However, you’ll have to spend some time reading the entire Crazy Weapons archive here to get what I’ve spent a number of years documenting.
Maud said,
December 20, 2011 at 8:26 am
Not “end-times” (I hope! …and there are all those awful gadgets) but “end-of-a-way-of doing”, end of an epoch – that’s plausible, indeed at some point sure to happen.
“End” is one way of seeing this time – a useless and stupid way to see it. But “end” implies “commencement”. It may well be useful to look at what the commencement will look like…
David said,
December 20, 2011 at 4:10 pm
There is no God, so the message is shut up and die, OK?
Maj Variola (ret) said,
December 22, 2011 at 4:11 pm
Much easier to blow out a few transformers, knock over some lines in sparse areas, even booby trap some to delay repair. During cold spell or hot spell, depending. Or various hysteria attacks on supply to biz centers like NYC.
Assets can do this relatively easily. Got helium balloons and wire? A little RDX and timer?
Than to produce sufficient dField/dt w/out a nuke, which is geo politically hazardous.
“Electricity is special”
Besides there’s always informatic (not power or ESD) attacks on sewage, centrifuges, etc.
folks in glass empires ought not fly drones.
electronic penis with wings said,
December 25, 2011 at 3:26 am
remote controlled flying penises coming to a town near you! they ejaculate smartdust over entire countries! april foolz cum early this year I mean late..
George Smith said,
December 25, 2011 at 10:13 am
Awesome! I think it needs a T-shirt.