Where right-wing lies are born: The wingnut Web, WorldNetDaily and how conservative nonsense infects America

The lunatic right discovered the Web after Barack Obama's election, and promptly poisoned democracy and fair debate

John Avlon

Harry Truman used to say that “the only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.” Harry Truman never met the Internet.

The Internet is a force multiplier for Wingnuts, empowering them to reach far broader audiences faster than ever before. It is the best breeding ground for every imaginable conspiracy theory. It provides a national megaphone for what in earlier years might have been just a whisper campaign. It enables likeminded individuals to ignore their isolation and come together as an opinion army.

While the right was dominating talk radio, the left rallied its partisans through the Internet. Within a few years, groups like MoveOn.org and blogs like Daily Kos went from being outside agitators to inside players. Their fund-raising powers and ability to fire up activists were too impressive for the Democratic establishment not to forgive and forget their outbursts of radicalism: MoveOn’s infamous “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” ad and the comments of Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas after the killing of four military contractors in Iraq. (“I feel nothing over the death of mercenaries . . . They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.”)