#958: Jason "Molotov" Mitchell

Jason “Molotov” Mitchell is the president of something called Illuminati Pictures, and his specialty is creating videos for the WND featuring himself ranting (segments “For the Record” and “News! News!”), often on topics on which he has scant knowledge and no understanding. (One also suspects that Mitchell is less than fully aware of who the guy from whom he has taken his nickname actually was.) WND and Mitchell seem to agree that Mitchell is very smart, but to the rest of us Mitchell embarrassing ignorance is coupled with the kind of confidence arrogance that is the hallmark of the Dunning-Kruger lowermost quartile. If you were ever in doubt, you can check out his arguments about religion.

… or his views on science. According to Michell “Darwinian evolution is a theory. No one insists that it’s a law, people act like it’s a fact but we all know it’s not a scientific law, it’s a theory. And the problem that I have with it, the biggest contention, is that we cannot apply the scientific method to it, we cannot test the theory. Ray Comfort has a great question that he asks people on this topic and I decided to pose it to Mike. I asked him if he, or anyone else for that matter, has ever witnessed a KIND of animal turn into another KIND, i.e. a cat turn into a monkey … [note that this latest claim blatantly contradicts the claim in the previous sentence, that (Mitchell’s misunderstood caricature of) evolution is untestable, but never mind].” Hence, Darwinism is “a cult masquerading asscience. They’re basing everything on faith … Macroevolution is all about belief, it’s all about faith.” That’s a pretty impressive PRATT density there. Of course, for WND this counts as cutting-edge scientific insight. But that’s the WND.

Mitchell has also argued in favor of the Ugandan law making homosexuality a capital crime, citing the familiar commandment in the book of Leviticus as his reason. The fact that he himself has a tattoo, which according to Leviticus also requires the death penalty, is something he overlooks. With regards to biblically based legal system, Mitchell has indeed pointed out the hypocrisy involved in standard wingnut attacks on sharia laws insofar as many of the draconian rules found in Islamic law are also found in the Bible, which many wingnuts want to use to craft civil law. Of course, as a self-proclaimed “zealot,” who “avoid[s] the pitfalls of American, effeminised Christianity,” Mitchell doesn’t use the observation to make a case for classical liberalism or a secular government. Instead, he argues that the government should impose laws according to the Bible, including apparently executions for breaking the Sabbath, blasphemy, homosexuality, adultery, sex before marriage (for women), and so on. According to Mitchell, however, Old Testament law is preferable to Islamic law because it does not require “amputating hands,” which is false (Deuteronomy 25:11-12). As for abortion, Mitchell is a proponent of the “black genocide” conspiracy.

Mitchell’s views of politics seem, accordingly, to be relatively simple. According to Mitchell Obama is trying to create “Obamaland” and a “culture of effete snobs” by effacing religion, undermining the Constitution, and concealing records of his birth certificate (oh, yes, Mitchell is a hardcore, hardcore birther). So when instance Christina Aguilera forgot the words to the Star-Spangled Banner during the Super Bowl, for instance, Mitchell knew where to put the blame: President Barack Obama.

There is a fine, if slightly old, portrait of Mitchell here.

Diagnosis: How close your views match those of Molotov Mitchell is a fine way of measuring your own lunacy, at least. That’s probably the most positive anyone can say about Molotov Mitchell, and it is not particularly positive.