Episode 483 – Dissent Into Madness

by Corbett | Sep 16, 2025 | Podcasts, Videos | 34 comments

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What if the delusions of the dissidents are in fact real? What if their paranoid fantasies are not fantasies at all? In other words, what if it's not the political dissidents who are crazy, but the politicians?

You're about to learn about the dark history and the even more disturbing present of political psychopathy.

Prepare yourself for DISSENT INTO MADNESS.

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TRANSCRIPT

JAMES CORBETT: "Insane."

"Deranged."

"Crazy."

In the hands of a tyrant, these aren't mere words, not impartial descriptions of thought or behaviour. They're weapons.

After all, there's nothing more damning, more completely dehumanizing, than to call someone "crazy."

LIZ WINSTEAD: The conspiracy theory thing . . . it . . . I'm just utterly shocked that they could try to make this . . . It's, it's . . . You know how people wear tinfoil hats? I think they're wearing tinfoil condoms. I'm not sure, because they seem so crazy.

SOURCE: The Ed Show MSNBC March 9, 2012 8:00pm-9:00pm EST

DAVID CHAVERN:  There's always been crazy conspiracy theories. I think we've all got uncles [who] over the Thanksgiving dinner [have] told us crazy stuff.

SOURCE: U.S. Senate 10242017 CSPAN October 25, 2017 12:02am-12:30am EDT

GLENN BECK: It started with the 9/11 "truthers". Crazy. Then the "birthers." Crazy.

SOURCE: Glenn Beck FOX News February 3, 2010 2:00am-3:00am EST

LAURA INGRAHAM: That the Bush administration could perhaps have had something to do with 9/11—facilitating 9/11, encouraging the actions that took place on 9/11—that is insane. That is literally insane.

SOURCE: The O Reilly Factor FOX News September 3, 2009 11:00pm-12:00am EDT

But sometimes "crazy" isn't just a figure of speech. Sometimes it's a diagnosis.

And as long as there have been those willing to diagnose others as "insane," there have been those who have sought to use this as a label for their political enemies.

And why not? Once diagnosed as mentally unsound, political dissidents can be treated as we have always treated those we dismiss as "crazy." They can be locked away, drugged, and subjected to all manner of torture in the name of "treatment."

Now, the idea that would-be rulers would cynically use the "lunatic" cudgel against their political enemies is bad enough.

But what if the reality is the complete opposite of what is commonly understood?

What if the "delusions" of the dissidents are in fact real? What if their "paranoid fantasies" are not fantasies at all? What if their inability to fit in is not a sign that they are sick, but that the society they are protesting against is sick?

In other words, what if it's not the political dissidents who are "crazy," but the politicians?

You're about to learn about the dark history and the even more disturbing present of political psychopathy.

Prepare yourself for DISSENT INTO MADNESS.

This is The Corbett Report.