{"id":2584,"date":"2013-07-05T07:52:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-05T14:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/?p=2584"},"modified":"2013-07-05T16:35:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-05T23:35:48","slug":"the-great-tea-party-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2013\/07\/05\/the-great-tea-party-conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Tea Party Conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

     The left have for years now had a rabid drive to “prove” that the Tea Party was “astoturf” (i<\/em>.e<\/em>. a fake grassroots movement) that they have fallen to peddling insane conspiracy theories.\u00a0 In order to give the illusion of solid fact to these flights of fantasy, they have even gone to the lengths of publishing<\/a> in a “peer reviewed” journal, “Tobacco Control.”<\/p>\n

     A professor at the University of California, San Fransisco’s Department of Medicine has published a paper entitled “‘To quarterback behind the scenes, third party efforts’: the tobacco industry and the Tea Party.”\u00a0 It paints a dark conspiracy about how the Tea Party, as well as various anti-tax and small government groups, are somehow nothing more than schemes to protect “Big Tobacco” from the righteousness of the people.<\/p>\n

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     First, let us dispense with the notion that just because a journal is “peer reviewed” it somehow is a neutral scientific record of absolute accuracy.\u00a0 Phrenology<\/a> has its own journals (the American Phrenological Journal being a prominent example).\u00a0 And with a title like “Tobacco Control,” they are not exactly neutral.<\/p>\n

     What are the “scientific” conclusions?\u00a0 Simply that advocates for freedom are actually stooges of the tobacco companies:<\/p>\n

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“Rather than being a purely grassroots movement that spontaneously developed in 2009, the Tea Party has developed over time, in part through decades of work by the tobacco industry and other corporate interests. It is important for tobacco control advocates in the USA and internationally, to anticipate and counter Tea Party opposition to tobacco control policies and ensure that policymakers, the media and the public understand the longstanding connection between the tobacco industry, the Tea Party and its associated organisations.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

     What evidence do they have?\u00a0 They first off note that many smokers rights groups had close connections with tobacco companies.\u00a0 No big surprise there.\u00a0 But then they start connecting these groups to the Tea Parties by noting that noting that some of the consulting firms the smokers rights groups used were also used by… the Tea Party!<\/p>\n

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What? No mention of the Gnomes of Zurich?<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

     Furthermore, they note that some of the campaigns to support the freedom to smoke used imagery of the Boston Tea Party!\u00a0 Because, of course, any one who referenced that historical American event has<\/em> to be conspiring together, right?\u00a0 Why, some of the tobacco companies even wanted to create “a movement” that resembled<\/em> what would decades later be the Tea Party.\u00a0 Clearly, a dark forces must be involved if “freedom” is being promoted.<\/p>\n