Conservative Impostors

I am generally a big fan of the Adam Carolla Podcast, but he has this shtick he has done a few times now where he brings on a guest who says he is Republican Representative Richard Martin from Ohio. I have a strong suspicion that this individual is not a Republican Congressman, but because of Adam's history as an improv comic, he rolls with it. I took 5 years of drama class in high school, B+ average. One of the rules of Improv is no "blocking". If someone says "I am goldilocks" in a sketch, you can't reply with "no you are not goldilocks".

This guy pretending to be a Conservative and never telling people he's not, starts spouting off all kinds of insane nonsense. At one point he even states the claim that ugly women cannot be raped. I listen to this and I can tell 2 minutes in that it is a staged sketch being presented as a real interview between a pundit and a Congressman. I wonder how many normal people listen to something like that and actually believe that is the Conservative position. That the abolition of slavery was a criminal offence because it cost American industry vast sums of money? Does anyone actually buy that? The comedian in this case is advocating and promoting prejudice against Conservative opinion. As Albert Einstein once said:

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."

Then Carolla interviews this guy who is releasing a film of stunts that were done and video recorded. They actually go to some industry conference posing as executives from Halliburton to convince other executives that the cure to global warming are these ultra expensive bubble suits; presenting the thesis that we can purposefully destroy the atmosphere and survive afterwards in bubble suits. There is a whole long list of similar stunts that they have done, all recorded on film. If you ever are at a public place and you see a person or group claiming to represent some form of right wing interest group promoting a product or opinion that is patently ridiculous that 95% of conservatives would never say; call them out.

Block. Tell them they are improv sketch artists performing an improv sketch in a public place claiming to be somebody that they are clearly not. They will generally try to slip blocks by turning it back on you, but hold firm. If you need to, just call them Lady MacBeth. Apparently that is an evil curse against drama nerds. I'm not kidding, in high school drama class if any student said the name "MacBeth" in the auditorium, the teacher would halt class until the offending student left the room, spun in a circle 3 times and returned. I think the story goes that a young actor died backstage on the eve of the release of the play 400 years ago and it stuck. If you yourself are superstitious, just say that this stunt feels like "the Scottish play"...

It is not just a few people; this seems to be quite the fad on the left wing, the hip thing to do. I am also assuming that this extends to some talk radio callers and blog comments. Some of the people who do this are trying to break into Hollywood, others just really believe in Liberalism and see this tactic as a legit strategy to try and trick normal centrist people into thinking the absurd claims are "real Conservative" policy. I almost feel like this should be against the law, depending on specific instances where they really push the envelope too far.

Are these the new rules of engagement? If we allow it on one side, do we have to respond in kind? Do I need to create an alter ego named "Lib Jim" and post insane comments taking aspects of traditional Liberal positions and pushing them to their farthest extreme? Go to PETA's message board and post "ultimately what we need to do is collapse modern civilization as we know it".

Sarcasm and I have a long and storied past. See also; My 8 Iron, a Love Story, Sly Stallone tore down the Berlin Wall.