It is incontrovertibly true that there is no stupider smear of Obama than that which decries him as the Antichrist. It is also incontrovertibly true that this is the smear most likely to help McCain, as nothing rallies the lunatic, evangelical base to a weak candidate like the idea that he’s campaigning against the devil incarnate. To get an idea of how totally retarded the source material the McCain campaign’s working with is, by all means check out Slacktivist’s exhaustive demolition of the first Left Behind book. To get an idea of how stupid the people who believe this “theory” are, fortify yourself with a bottle of Jack Daniels and read the multi-thousand comment thread on Apostropher’s blog, “Is Barack Obama the Antichrist?”
Note, too, that Apostropher’s post is from 2004, whereas the Time article has a somewhat different timeline:
Two months ago, Vanderslice founded a Democratic PAC called the Matthew 25 Network and soon noticed that the negative emails she received from conservative Christians fell into two general categories: abortion, and the assertion that Obama is the Antichrist. The cataloguing of similarities Obama shares with the Antichrist began nearly two years ago. But they picked up steam in February 2008 after he racked up a string of impressive primary victories. A Google search for “Obama” and “Antichrist” turns up more than 700,000 hits, including at least one blog dedicated solely to the topic. A more obscure search for “Obama” and “Nicolae Carpathia” yields a surprising 200,000 references.
Two years ago? Apostropher was on that tip two years before that, stupid Time gaywads. Actually, Apo was on the case so early that his blog was, for a time, the top search result for the phrase “Is Barack Obama the Antichrist” (hence the flock of numbskulls in that thread). Given this, could it be that this meme, now picked up by the McCain campaign itself in a desperate bid to make people forget that he’s an angry old senile asshole who’s bad at thinking, was initially popularized by a liberal blogger? Disturbing(ly hilarious), if true.
… via.
August 8, 2008 at 8:41 am
I hope these folks realize that the End Times, being Biblical prophecy and all, is the will o’ God. Why do Christian evangelicals hate God?
August 8, 2008 at 9:23 am
Just when you think people can’t get any stupider, you find that the stupidest is stupidified by an even stupider.
This election can’t be over soon enough.
August 8, 2008 at 9:31 am
On another note, I’d like to add that there’s certain positive aspects of being either agnostic or an atheist.
For one, you don’t get caught up in all this “Is there a God?” and “Is He about to end humanity?” stuff. For two, either not believing or casually believing saves you from even having to consider something as dumb as “maybe Obama really IS the antichrist!”
As Atrios likes to point out from time to time, people are less likely to vote for an atheist than anyone else. Less likely than if the candidate is gay, or black, or a woman, or a Muslim, or a Catholic, or a six-headed baby-eating cockroach, or a… you get the point. On the flip side, I think an atheist would be more capable of understanding and interacting with the world than a theist, simply because he wouldn’t be so bogged down with a bunch of superstitious jazz.
Anyways, now I sound like a whiney teenager making trite arguments. Thanks, Sifu! How am I supposed to articulate this sort of stuff without sounding like a basement dweller?
August 8, 2008 at 9:50 am
Based on the accompanying illustration, it Looks to me like the Antichrist was Klaus Kinski. He’s already been and gone, though, so no problem!
August 8, 2008 at 9:56 am
Wilhelm von Homburg, actually.
August 8, 2008 at 11:07 am
The Four Horsemen are the Budweiser Clydesdales of Liberal Fascism.
August 8, 2008 at 11:16 am
of all of the movies about apocalypse, sifu chose ghostbusters II.
August 8, 2008 at 11:19 am
To wit:
Did the Left Behind books model their antichrist figure on the bad guy from Ghostbusters II? Signs point to yes.
August 8, 2008 at 11:20 am
Obama, the Anti-Christ? Well, duh! That’s why I’m voting for him.
August 8, 2008 at 11:31 am
I’m terribly sorry, everyone. It seemed really funny four years ago.
August 8, 2008 at 11:37 am
So if Obama is the anti-Christ, voting against him for President will achieve what now? Wouldn’t the anti-Christ fix the election anyway?
August 8, 2008 at 11:40 am
If he (or she) does it successfully, it won’t be Barack Obama in the White House.
August 8, 2008 at 11:41 am
(Ideo)Logically, the Obama as Anti-Christ message should coax Evangelicals to vote for Obama. But, perhaps, the McCain campaign is betting that deep down are scared of their own Final Judgment? Come to think of it, that’s probably not a bad bet.
August 8, 2008 at 12:13 pm
sifu has an amusing thesis, but i suspect the carpathian connection goes back to bram stoker. all the same, i would like to think of klaus as the antichrist.
anyone else think its a neat trick that the xtian whackos decided to make the antichrist resemble a charismatic leftist?
August 8, 2008 at 1:07 pm
What the fuck do they care even if he is the anti-christ? Aren’t they going to be raptured before the shit hits the fan?
Heck, we could even use it as a selling point: “Vote Obama, get raptured sooner!”
August 8, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I’m terribly sorry, everyone. It seemed really funny four years ago.
Oh, it’s still funny
August 8, 2008 at 1:43 pm
superstitious jazz
Is that anything like fusion?
August 8, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Wehwell, since George Dubya Bush actually IS the Antichrist, I mean, isn’t there some sort of exclusion principle we’re forgetting here?
August 8, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Google is awesome. I didn’t know they could tell you whether Obama was the antichrist.
What the hell do we need a Large Hadron Collider for. Stupid scientists should just Google the Higgs Boson.
August 8, 2008 at 4:20 pm
The Sadlys linked to some douche calling himself “big jerre” (second video down) who put up a crappy powerpoint presentation of “Is Obama the Antichrist?” My favorite part of it was when, after stating that there are only 4 verses in the Bible that mention the antichrist and showing said verses on his crappy powerpoint while reading them aloud, he then went on to show more crappy slides about how the Antichrist would be into nanotechnology and all this other happy crappy, none of which, of course, appeared or even could be wildly inferred from the “only 4 verses in the Bible” he had just shown and read aloud.
Bonus douche points for the fact that he couldn’t put up the powerpoint directly but rather videoed the powerpoint as it was showing on his computer monitor. Douche-y goodness all around!
August 8, 2008 at 4:46 pm
“Vote Obama, get raptured sooner!”
Exactly. Just as the End-Times Christian’s “support for Israel” is but thinly-disguised enthusiasm to round up all the Jews and send them to their (biblical) destiny, bringing the Antichrist to power must be the duty of every Christian Soldier.
Lord knows, they’ve had enough tries at this, from Ronald Wilson Reagan (6-6-6) to George W. Bush.
August 8, 2008 at 5:29 pm
These drooling goobers don’t think he’s the “Anti-Christ;” they can’t even picture what the fuck that means. It’s their way of pretending that they don’t hate him for being a nigger.
August 8, 2008 at 8:38 pm
If I recall correctly, the Antichrist is only supposed to show up *after* the Rapture. Why are the evangelicals still here bothering us?
August 8, 2008 at 9:42 pm
If I recall correctly, the Antichrist is only supposed to show up *after* the Rapture. Why are the evangelicals still here bothering us?
Not a bit of this is biblical, but your average End Times consumer is a Pre-Wrath person. This exegesis dates back to the early 1990′s, but they think they are going to be around long enough to be persecuted but not long enough to really get snuffed. They have nailed down the honey spot of the tribulation for themselves.
August 9, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I remember when certain evangelical Republicans were calling Bill Clinton the Anti-Christ, and that was pre-Monica Lewinsky. Did Clinton automatically lose his Anti-Christ status when Dubya was sworn in? Did the Anti-Christ then immediately take possession of Barack Obama, or did he try out a few other people in between? Can the Anti-Christ be female? Can there be more than one Anti-Christ at the same time?
All those years of Catholic schooling and I learned absolutely nothing except that I should kiss the pope’s ring should the occasion ever arise.
August 12, 2008 at 7:03 am
Silly Grace… the Antichrist became Hillary Clinton after Bill was no longer Prez.
Then he/she/it became Barack, sometime in February this year, I believe.
August 12, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Now, I hate to argue with the IMDB, but Janosz Poha is not obnoxious, or at least he isn’t until taken over by Vigo. Janosz just really wants to get busy with Sigourney Weaver. That just makes him a normal guy. I’m sure he remembered her in that red dress in the first movie and just wanted to hear her whisper those magic words, “Take me now, subcreature!”
Now, I suppose it could be argued that his advances are inappropriate in the workplace, particularly because he is in a supervisory position but….
What? Wouldn’t everybody prefer to discuss Ms. Weaver’s charms rather than the nutbags who claim Obama is the antichrist?
August 12, 2008 at 4:40 pm
[...] Oh, and finally, just for good measure, he’s the Antichrist. [...]
August 13, 2008 at 3:12 am
“Feh, you are all just the buzzing of flies to Vigo!”
I recognized the Scourge of Carpathia, the Sorrow of Moldovia, right away. Not a bad pick at all.
August 16, 2008 at 11:38 am
“Everything what you are doing is very bad — I want you to know this.”
October 26, 2008 at 1:03 am
I also think that Obama is the AntiChrist… Is up to you fellow americans to stop him! Don’t put that beast in the “throne”. Don’t vote him!
December 29, 2009 at 6:57 pm
[...] Oh, and finally, just for good measure, he’s the Antichrist. [...]