Matt, you've done it again. Your story here is so thorough, and with so many links (most of which I am truly afraid to open.) I'm glad you're giving the backstory on these people. So many younger folks have an idea but do not really know how bad it was; therefore they may not realize how bad it could get again. I love these blogs for how many intelligent and informed people take part, but I also value them for the same reason the wingnuts do- to disseminate information widely and quickly. The game has indeed changed. We cannot rely on the MSM, especially now that Murdoch owns their souls; TV is a joke, papers going out of business. Thank God we got our internet neutrality reaffirmed. That's another place they'll keep trying to hit us, I believe. The fight is just never over with these guys. If there is a tiny crack they will get in like cockroaches. I'm so glad you're here and once again, I admire your work and ENJOY the HE77 out of everything you write!
msbadger: Matt, you've done it again. Your story here is so
Having lived through so much of this--and in the Deep South, to boot--I can attest to the accuracy of your analysis. And it should give every thinking person who reads it cause for concern. It scares the hell out of me.
Aside: In the mid '70s I was a Sunday School teacher in a South Carolina Lutheran Church. Please note I said "Lutheran Church", not "Southern Baptist". I did a series of lessons for my 12-13 year olds, "Great Christian Leaders in Action". One Sunday my lesson was about Martin Luther King, Jr., passive resistance over violence, equality for all God's children. By the middle of the following week I was called into my pastor's study, reprimanded for choosing Dr. King as an example of Christian action and informed someone else would be taking over my class. Pastor said he hated doing it, but there was a substantial John Bircher element in "our church", who insisted he "do something to stop the communist threat". And they were, it seemed, major tithers.
I'm off to my FB wall, Matt, and taking this post with me.
hp_blogger_Linda Hansen: Having lived through so much of this--and in the Deep
David Koch's father, Fred Koch, was a founding member of the John Birch Society and he served on its National Council. The FBI file on the JBS includes a memo which refers to incoming correspondence from alarmed citizens who attended a speech by Fred in which he claimed our government was complicit in a conspiracy involving U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers who was shot down in 1960.
Koch claimed that Powers was NOT shot down over the Soviet Union and, instead, he was in collusion with the Soviet government. Koch claimed that Powers landed safely and was paid by the Soviet government and our government knew about this because it was part of the conspiracy.
This type of lunatic fringe commentary by Koch caused senior FBI officials to produce memos concerning Koch which contained the following observation:
"The Bureau has, of course, been cognizant over a period of time of the many fanatical right-wing anti-Communist organizations which are presently spreading widely throughout the country and of their utterly absurd viewpoints. For your information, I am attaching copies of letters dated March 6 and 8, 1961 from (names deleted) which typify the absolute confusion and lack of confidence in American institutions and one's fellow man being caused by representatives of such organizations." [3/15/61, D.C. Morrell to C.D. DeLoach].
Thanks, Matt, for pulling the threads together. I've been watching this bunch for over fifty years. I somehow doubt anyone remembers "The Dan Smoot Report", one of the first of the right-wing syndicated TV "news" programs, but that was my first exposure to the poison these guys spread. I grew up in a town where a huge billboard proclaimed that we need to get the US out of the UN and another denounced Earl Warren as a member of the Communist conspiracy.
The modality is simple - define somone as "other", painting them with the tar brush of the day, usually Communism, Socialism, and/or Liberalism. Then you proceed to label anyone you don't like, loudly and frequently. The Big Lie substitutes for any rational discussion of any topic.
These people talk democracy and practice authoritarianism.
Liberals have a handicap going in - they tend to listen to the other side, to consider the other argument. These people don't ever bother with that. They game the system and claim victimhood if their insanity is not heeded. That's why these people are given leeway by the media - they present as the "other side of the argument" even if there is no rational argument.
Keep talking - we're listening - and we'll talk, too.
GreshamGuy: Thanks, Matt, for pulling the threads together. I've been watching
Gresham's comments are accurate except that the Birch Society and similar groups don't "talk democracy". In fact, they propose that the concept of democracy is part of the conspiracy's plot to eviscerate our Constitutional Republic form of government.
With respect to former FBI Special Agent Dan Smoot: just prior to his retirement from the FBI he was censured, placed on probation, and transferred to a small and irrelevant field office as a disciplinary action. For more details see my report on Smoot: http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/smoot
ernie1241: Gresham's comments are accurate except that the Birch Society and
Thank you yet again Matt. I've been saying for some time that these wingnuts are yes, a minority but they are dangerous. Why? They vote. They get out and vote. They work to get other wingnuts out to vote. They all agree, they don't argue semantics and speed of change, they vote their wingnut candidates in. They vote. They don't get mad and stay home and not vote, they vote. If we want to keep them out of office anyone not a wingnut needs to get out and vote, hopefully not for a wingnut.
lyta: Thank you yet again Matt. I've been saying for some
Aside: In the mid '70s I was a Sunday School teacher in a South Carolina Lutheran Church. Please note I said "Lutheran Church", not "Southern Baptist". I did a series of lessons for my 12-13 year olds, "Great Christian Leaders in Action". One Sunday my lesson was about Martin Luther King, Jr., passive resistance over violence, equality for all God's children. By the middle of the following week I was called into my pastor's study, reprimanded for choosing Dr. King as an example of Christian action and informed someone else would be taking over my class. Pastor said he hated doing it, but there was a substantial John Bircher element in "our church", who insisted he "do something to stop the communist threat". And they were, it seemed, major tithers.
I'm off to my FB wall, Matt, and taking this post with me.
Koch claimed that Powers was NOT shot down over the Soviet Union and, instead, he was in collusion with the Soviet government. Koch claimed that Powers landed safely and was paid by the Soviet government and our government knew about this because it was part of the conspiracy.
This type of lunatic fringe commentary by Koch caused senior FBI officials to produce memos concerning Koch which contained the following observation:
"The Bureau has, of course, been cognizant over a period of time of the many fanatical right-wing anti-Communist organizations which are presently spreading widely throughout the country and of their utterly absurd viewpoints. For your information, I am attaching copies of letters dated March 6 and 8, 1961 from (names deleted) which typify the absolute confusion and lack of confidence in American institutions and one's fellow man being caused by representatives of such organizations." [3/15/61, D.C. Morrell to C.D. DeLoach].
91-page report on the JBS based upon FBI files and documents: http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/jbs-1
More info: ernie1241@aol.com
The modality is simple - define somone as "other", painting them with the tar brush of the day, usually Communism, Socialism, and/or Liberalism. Then you proceed to label anyone you don't like, loudly and frequently. The Big Lie substitutes for any rational discussion of any topic.
These people talk democracy and practice authoritarianism.
Liberals have a handicap going in - they tend to listen to the other side, to consider the other argument. These people don't ever bother with that. They game the system and claim victimhood if their insanity is not heeded. That's why these people are given leeway by the media - they present as the "other side of the argument" even if there is no rational argument.
Keep talking - we're listening - and we'll talk, too.
With respect to former FBI Special Agent Dan Smoot: just prior to his retirement from the FBI he was censured, placed on probation, and transferred to a small and irrelevant field office as a disciplinary action. For more details see my report on Smoot: http://ernie1241.googlepages.com/smoot
Their concept of a Constitutional Republic reminds me of a line spoken by John Belushi in the National Lampoon's play, "Lemmings":
"This is a free concert! A free concert, man! Now, that doesn't mean you can do what you want; that means you can do what you're told."
Their concept of freedom is that they should be free and the rest of us should fall in line.