Conspiracies in the Time of Dial-Up

A piece at Media Matters called “The Return of The Clinton Crazies” reminded me that it used to be a lot harder to learn about the Clintons’ treachery and villainy. 

Eric Boehlert draws a connection between the suspicion and derision surrounding Hillary Clinton’s recent hospitalization and the frothing conspiracy theorizing of the 1990’s:

“The unhinged concussion response seemed to mark the unofficial return of the Clinton Crazies, that marauding mindset among conservatives who spent the 90's launching endless attacks against the Clintons; vicious and wildly personal attacks that went far beyond partisan debate. (i.e. Accusations of killings and mass murder.)”

The thing is, people who wanted to hear Clinton murder accusations in the 1990’s had to put some effort (and money) into it. “The Clinton Chronicles,” for example, was a conspiracy-theory-laden “documentary” videotape available by mail order.

Mail order!

There was, of course, Rush Limbaugh in the 1990’s, but in general this kind of politically motivated nonsense had to be sought out, or you’d need to put yourself in the right (wrong ) crowd. Even with the beginnings of the web at home in the 90’s you’d need to seek out a Clinton site at Geocities or sign into a chatroom, whereas today you might unintentionally read comments on Facebook or Twitter about Secretary Clinton faking a head injury to avoid congressional testimony. 

The modern media landscape thus makes it a lot easier to spread misinformation about a birth certificate or taxes or death panels or whatever. And just wait until Clinton 2016.