Loughner was a Tax Protester?

[Famspear]

.....Hucksters of all stripes offer unsupported assertions as established fact, mischaracterize the positions of opponents, and employ fallacious reasoning. The Glen Beck and Michael Moores talk to us as though we're dull children, incapable of distinguishing between a reasoned argument and a snake oil pitch. And they do that because IT SUCCEEDS! Many Americans, it seems, truly cannot make that distinction. They buy claims about "death panels" (from the right) and "cop killer bullets" (from the left) because they're too lazy to check out whether those claims have any merit.....

(emphasis added).

Good points. For another report on the snake oil, see the thread regarding the hoax email (this one, apparently from a GOP or right-leaning person or group) about a supposed federal "sales tax" on the gross proceeds from sale of your house:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6785

This blatantly phony story -- about a supposed "sales tax" provision of the Health Care laws enacted last March -- has been bouncing around the internet, in emails, etc., since last spring.

[Pottapaug1938]

Quite aside from the political angle, this story is a perfect example of why so-called "urban legends" are so popular. All too many people are less willing to believe a faceless, unknown person -- especially if he or she is an expert on the subject, and the point of view does not resonate with their own; but they will readily believe such persons if the viewpoint presented matches their own, or if the viewpoint is relayed to them by a friend.

In my years in the financial services industry, I can remember countless times where I've seen people make financially stupid moves because they "heard it was a good idea" during an encounter at the supermarket/bar/beauty parlor/kids' sporting event, or whatever. Any idea to the contrary is distrusted, even if it comes from someone with expertise in the field; and a wonderful range of excuses is offered to explain this attitude (the experts were wrong on thus-and-so an occasion, the experts are all in the pockets of Wall Street, the experts don't have any more "common sense" than we do when it comes to investing, and so on).

[Pottapaug1938]

And don't forget all the financial pornography that is out there in print, on TV, and on the internet. Why should they listen to you? You're not on TV, or pimping yourself on some web-cast, therefore how can you have credibility. Remember, if Money magazine were broker-dealer, it would be looking at counts of twisting, churning, malfeasance, and mopery with intent to gawk.

It's also why I am no longer on the sales side of the industry.

It's why I never wanted any part of the sales side.

This is also part of a corollary to Charlie Pierce's Three Great Premises of Idiot America. If it doesn't sell books, soak up ratings or move units, and doesn't appear on television (or some other medium), it can't be true or worthwhile.

[Judge Roy Bean]

...
This is also part of a corollary to Charlie Pierce's Three Great Premises of Idiot America. If it doesn't sell books, soak up ratings or move units, and doesn't appear on television (or some other medium), it can't be true or worthwhile.

In media, you either:
Entertain
Inform, or
Offend.
If you just entertain, there are too many to compete with and too fickle an audience - you'll usually wind up forgotten.
If you just inform, you wind up on small-market radio news.
If you offend, you can get a lot of attention but advertisers will eventually shun you into quasi-celebrity status.

The people who make the most have a staff, producers and publicity agent to help them do all three well enough to get advertisers to pay.

[Pottapaug1938]

I was just remembering an incident in my college days, when I was walking through one of the academic buildings and heard a group of the school's radical contingent hard at (ahem) work. There were maybe a dozen in all. As I walked past, I heard one woman earnestly proclaim, "we've got to get to work and find other groups with whom we can proclaim our solidarity!"

If this group of radical lefties, feeing small and insignificant, could try to pump their own sense of self-importance by Becoming Part of Something Bigger, certainly I can understand Loughner seeking to pump himself up in the same way -- if not with TDers, then with some other fringe group.

BTW -- one of those radical lefties ended up making a ton of money as a software developer, some years later.