ACORN denies knowledge of "tea parties". Ergo, they must be planning to sabotage them

As previously discussed, someone claimed without providing any evidence whatsoever that ACORN was planning on infiltrating and sabotaging the tea parties. This rumor has now spread to Neil Cavuto on Fox News; they might have actual sources, or they might have just been relying on the original unsubstantiated claim.

Over to Adam Serwer at TAPPED (link):

I called up ACORN Executive Director Steve Kest and asked him about it. "I saw some mention of this on a blog, I have no idea even what the tea parties are," Kest said. He then asked me to explain to him what the tea parties were having only just heard about them yesterday. When I laughed, Kest said, "Seriously, do you know more about what the deal is here?"

Despite that, ACORN might in fact be doing something. However, it's beyond idiotic to go from one completely unsourced claim to actual accusations, and things like that can and will backfire and make ACORN look if not better at least not as bad as they could look if people would just concentrate on the things about them that are true. This is reminiscent of how some people spread false stories before the election when telling the truth would have been far more effective. We see how that worked out.

Unfortunately, getting through to these people (at least by me) is impossible. Any criticism is met with the accusation that you're on ACORN's side. And, perhaps it would be best if that wing were discredited. Their underlying philosophy is malign: they only care about themselves and have little interest in what's good for the U.S. as a whole. After the tea parties completely fail to have any impact, let them go off and form their own political party in Galt's Gulch or something.

Wed, 04/08/2009 - 09:32 · · Importance: 4