Watching the spectacle of wingers hurling talking points that no longer have a direct relationship with reality on Capitol Hill has an interesting parallel in news coming out about the French game show that inspired otherwise everyday people to commit incredible acts of bestiality.

In the Jeu de la Mort, a game show on French TV, contestants were egged on by hosts to give lethal shocks to their victims. In the case of the French show, the host was a rational-appearing and attractive youngish woman, instead of the ranting pantheon from hell we have on U.S. TV, but the object was the same. With proper urging and a camera involved, a mob psychology sets in that removes boundaries of control and unleashes the criminal element in many of the addled participants in the game.

The controversial ‘Le Jeu de la Mort’, or Game of Death, showed 80 people taking part in what they thought was a game show pilot.

As it was only a trial, they were told they wouldn’t win anything, but they were given a nominal €40 fee.

Before the show, they signed contracts agreeing to inflict electric shocks on other contestants.

One by one, they were put in a studio resembling the sets of popular game shows.

Under the impression that they were on camera and part of a game show, the participants went on to the ‘death’ of their victim. Is it really a surprise that in the light of cameras and handed lurid signs and slogans, there are still deluded participants in this big show acting out in public the talking points that have been so thoroughly debunked in rational circles?

Who are these people? who forms the content of news and results for polls?

At CNN:
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The right wing has taken a page out of televangelism, and used all of its attractions of spouting rabid slogans to inflame the crowd. This has all the attraction of the revivals of early rural North America and all the attractions are there; rabid converts, snake handling (okay, I haven’t actually seen the kind that slither around), and the extremism of the central figure spouting over-the-top colorful rhetoric that sends the followers into ecstasies. It’s a show, and they’re part of it. So ‘Kill the Bill’ comes easily to their chanting ranks, drowning out the simple truth of the fact – that they’re fighting against their own interests.

Warning; don’t trust this bunch with any live wires. They’re what they say they are, armed and dangerous.

Update; Make that vicious beasts. Rep. Ryan of Ohio just rose on the floor to deplore that teabaggage unleashed in the halls of congressional office buildings spit on Rep. John Lewis and called him ‘nigger’. These people act under an evil influence, and display the evil of their instigators.