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Conspiracy theory mentality can be traced back to the John Birch Society
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Jan 14, 2022 11:00:52   #
slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas
 
by Edward H. Miller

If you’re looking for the roots of today’s bizarre conspiracy-and-anger-driven politics, you need to look further back than the presidency of Donald Trump or even the rise of social media or talk radio — back to the accusatory, inflammatory, wild-eyed rhetoric of the John Birch Society in the 1960s and 1970s.

It’s beginning to fade into history, but the John Birch Society was once the most formidable anti-communist organization of the Cold War era. Named for an American army captain killed by Chinese communists, it was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, a North Carolina-born candy magnate. (His company created the caramel “Sugar Daddy” on a stick.) Most Americans learned of the society after March 20, 1961, when it was widely reported that Welch had called former President Eisenhower a communist.

It was an outrageous and ludicrous assertion, but Welch was just getting started in weaving his tapestry of paranoia. He saw communist conspiracies lurking in colleges, high schools and the government.

Fluoride was being used to enervate Americans in advance of the coming communist occupation, he said.

Welch also called the civil rights movement a communist conspiracy.

Welch’s conspiracies fed postwar America’s growing suspicion of government and its belief in cover-ups in high places. He had particular influence in California, which played an outsize role in the growth of the John Birch Society.

With epicenters in Orange County and Los Angeles, California’s “Birchers” were instrumental in helping to ensure Richard Nixon’s gubernatorial loss in 1962, Barry Goldwater’s Republican presidential nomination in 1964 and Ronald Reagan’s gubernatorial victory in 1966. Several California members of Congress were Birchers, including Reps. Edgar Hiestand and John Rousselot, who both represented parts of Los Angeles County.

As the years passed, Welch’s theories grew wilder. He eventually concluded that communism was just another name for the conspiracy begun by the Bavarian Illuminati in 1776. He also said that the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers (a group that sought to foster dialogue between Europe and North America) were the puppet masters of U.S. foreign and economic interests. The society also called for the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations and for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren.

In the 1970s, the John Birch Society became even more influential. Despite a widespread belief that the “responsible” right of William F. Buckley had purged the conservative movement of the Birchers, Welch was never excommunicated. His style of American conservatism remained potent.

In those years, Welch broadened the society’s focus by opposing abortion, high taxation and sex education — issues that propelled the Reagan revolution. Bircher Lewis Uhler was instrumental in passing Proposition 13 to reduce California’s property taxes in 1978.

All the while, Welch continued to press his extreme theories.

In the 1970s, Americans began receiving some confirmation that perhaps conspiracies weren’t really as rare and nutty as they seemed. In 1973 and 1974, Watergate demonstrated that a president could secretly abuse his constitutional authority. Americans learned that more government officials had spied for the Soviet Union and had worked with mobsters in an unsuccessful effort to kill a foreign head of state. The CIA turned out to have conducted LSD experiments on Americans. After a while, anything seemed plausible. Over the years that followed, the number of people who said they trusted the government plummeted.

Welch is important today because, beginning in the 1980s and continuing on, his world has become ours. The depth of his influence on the transformation of the Republican Party — and therefore on America — has never been fully appreciated. His style of politics remained extremely potent after his death in 1985.

Reagan espoused conspiracy theories, such as his claim that Gerald Ford staged assassination attempts against himself to win sympathy votes. In the 1990s, partisanship became more central, ideology more crucial. On the radical fringe of the far right, private militia members armed themselves to the teeth. Both major parties, they claimed, wanted to end American sovereignty. After the sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco in 1992 and 1993, the militia movement grew even more conspiracy-focused.

It was only a few years later, in 1996, that Alex Jones started his conspiratorial radio show “The Final Edition.” Jones asserted that the government had planned the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995 and had plotted to murder the Branch Davidians in Waco. Rush Limbaugh’s attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton were in a similar vein. Hillary covered up the murder of Vince Foster, Limbaugh suggested.

On the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, Jones declared that “all terrorism that we’ve looked at, from the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City to Waco, has been government actions.” By 2006, at least one-third of Americans thought their government had either planned the attacks of 9/11 or allowed them to happen. And conspiracy theories began to thrive on new social media sites: Facebook. YouTube. Twitter. Facts went unchecked.

Tea party members argued that a conspiracy of globalists had caused the economic downturn. In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted “an extremely credible source ... told me @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” By 2015, Trump was running for president.

And so it continues. Welch-like logic and Welch-like rhetoric have taken over much of the right with false myths that tempt the weak mind. More than two-thirds of Republicans still don’t believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The QAnon conspiracy theory — which holds that Democrats in the so-called Deep State undermined Trump to cover up their child-sex racket — has at least one adherent in Congress.

Millions of Americans won’t take vaccines to prevent COVID-19 because they don’t trust science.

Today, Americans are stuck on the roller coaster of Robert Welch’s political imagination, and can’t get off.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 11:14:42   #
Sonny Magoo Loc: Where pot pie is boiled in a kettle
 
slatten49 wrote:
by Edward H. Miller

If you’re looking for the roots of today’s bizarre conspiracy-and-anger-driven politics, you need to look further back than the presidency of Donald Trump or even the rise of social media or talk radio — back to the accusatory, inflammatory, wild-eyed rhetoric of the John Birch Society in the 1960s and 1970s.

It’s beginning to fade into history, but the John Birch Society was once the most formidable anti-communist organization of the Cold War era. Named for an American army captain killed by Chinese communists, it was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, a North Carolina-born candy magnate. (His company created the caramel “Sugar Daddy” on a stick.) Most Americans learned of the society after March 20, 1961, when it was widely reported that Welch had called former President Eisenhower a communist.

It was an outrageous and ludicrous assertion, but Welch was just getting started in weaving his tapestry of paranoia. He saw communist conspiracies lurking in colleges, high schools and the government.

Fluoride was being used to enervate Americans in advance of the coming communist occupation, he said.

Welch also called the civil rights movement a communist conspiracy.

Welch’s conspiracies fed postwar America’s growing suspicion of government and its belief in cover-ups in high places. He had particular influence in California, which played an outsize role in the growth of the John Birch Society.

With epicenters in Orange County and Los Angeles, California’s “Birchers” were instrumental in helping to ensure Richard Nixon’s gubernatorial loss in 1962, Barry Goldwater’s Republican presidential nomination in 1964 and Ronald Reagan’s gubernatorial victory in 1966. Several California members of Congress were Birchers, including Reps. Edgar Hiestand and John Rousselot, who both represented parts of Los Angeles County.

As the years passed, Welch’s theories grew wilder. He eventually concluded that communism was just another name for the conspiracy begun by the Bavarian Illuminati in 1776. He also said that the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers (a group that sought to foster dialogue between Europe and North America) were the puppet masters of U.S. foreign and economic interests. The society also called for the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations and for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren.

In the 1970s, the John Birch Society became even more influential. Despite a widespread belief that the “responsible” right of William F. Buckley had purged the conservative movement of the Birchers, Welch was never excommunicated. His style of American conservatism remained potent.

In those years, Welch broadened the society’s focus by opposing abortion, high taxation and sex education — issues that propelled the Reagan revolution. Bircher Lewis Uhler was instrumental in passing Proposition 13 to reduce California’s property taxes in 1978.

All the while, Welch continued to press his extreme theories.

In the 1970s, Americans began receiving some confirmation that perhaps conspiracies weren’t really as rare and nutty as they seemed. In 1973 and 1974, Watergate demonstrated that a president could secretly abuse his constitutional authority. Americans learned that more government officials had spied for the Soviet Union and had worked with mobsters in an unsuccessful effort to kill a foreign head of state. The CIA turned out to have conducted LSD experiments on Americans. After a while, anything seemed plausible. Over the years that followed, the number of people who said they trusted the government plummeted.

Welch is important today because, beginning in the 1980s and continuing on, his world has become ours. The depth of his influence on the transformation of the Republican Party — and therefore on America — has never been fully appreciated. His style of politics remained extremely potent after his death in 1985.

Reagan espoused conspiracy theories, such as his claim that Gerald Ford staged assassination attempts against himself to win sympathy votes. In the 1990s, partisanship became more central, ideology more crucial. On the radical fringe of the far right, private militia members armed themselves to the teeth. Both major parties, they claimed, wanted to end American sovereignty. After the sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco in 1992 and 1993, the militia movement grew even more conspiracy-focused.

It was only a few years later, in 1996, that Alex Jones started his conspiratorial radio show “The Final Edition.” Jones asserted that the government had planned the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995 and had plotted to murder the Branch Davidians in Waco. Rush Limbaugh’s attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton were in a similar vein. Hillary covered up the murder of Vince Foster, Limbaugh suggested.

On the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, Jones declared that “all terrorism that we’ve looked at, from the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City to Waco, has been government actions.” By 2006, at least one-third of Americans thought their government had either planned the attacks of 9/11 or allowed them to happen. And conspiracy theories began to thrive on new social media sites: Facebook. YouTube. Twitter. Facts went unchecked.

Tea party members argued that a conspiracy of globalists had caused the economic downturn. In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted “an extremely credible source ... told me @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” By 2015, Trump was running for president.

And so it continues. Welch-like logic and Welch-like rhetoric have taken over much of the right with false myths that tempt the weak mind. More than two-thirds of Republicans still don’t believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The QAnon conspiracy theory — which holds that Democrats in the so-called Deep State undermined Trump to cover up their child-sex racket — has at least one adherent in Congress.

Millions of Americans won’t take vaccines to prevent COVID-19 because they don’t trust science.

Today, Americans are stuck on the roller coaster of Robert Welch’s political imagination, and can’t get off.
by Edward H. Miller br br If you’re looking for t... (show quote)


You are grasping for something that isn't really there.
Today's JBS is not like you alluded. Leave shills like Alex Jones out of the discussion. And the other wild crazy stuff.
Today's JBS is a defender of the Constitution. A guide post for morality.
And a revealer of truth that would harm America as we know it.
You on the other hand ..

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 11:43:24   #
microphor Loc: Home is TN
 
slatten49 wrote:
by Edward H. Miller

If you’re looking for the roots of today’s bizarre conspiracy-and-anger-driven politics, you need to look further back than the presidency of Donald Trump or even the rise of social media or talk radio — back to the accusatory, inflammatory, wild-eyed rhetoric of the John Birch Society in the 1960s and 1970s.

It’s beginning to fade into history, but the John Birch Society was once the most formidable anti-communist organization of the Cold War era. Named for an American army captain killed by Chinese communists, it was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, a North Carolina-born candy magnate. (His company created the caramel “Sugar Daddy” on a stick.) Most Americans learned of the society after March 20, 1961, when it was widely reported that Welch had called former President Eisenhower a communist.

It was an outrageous and ludicrous assertion, but Welch was just getting started in weaving his tapestry of paranoia. He saw communist conspiracies lurking in colleges, high schools and the government.

Fluoride was being used to enervate Americans in advance of the coming communist occupation, he said.

Welch also called the civil rights movement a communist conspiracy.

Welch’s conspiracies fed postwar America’s growing suspicion of government and its belief in cover-ups in high places. He had particular influence in California, which played an outsize role in the growth of the John Birch Society.

With epicenters in Orange County and Los Angeles, California’s “Birchers” were instrumental in helping to ensure Richard Nixon’s gubernatorial loss in 1962, Barry Goldwater’s Republican presidential nomination in 1964 and Ronald Reagan’s gubernatorial victory in 1966. Several California members of Congress were Birchers, including Reps. Edgar Hiestand and John Rousselot, who both represented parts of Los Angeles County.

As the years passed, Welch’s theories grew wilder. He eventually concluded that communism was just another name for the conspiracy begun by the Bavarian Illuminati in 1776. He also said that the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers (a group that sought to foster dialogue between Europe and North America) were the puppet masters of U.S. foreign and economic interests. The society also called for the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations and for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren.

In the 1970s, the John Birch Society became even more influential. Despite a widespread belief that the “responsible” right of William F. Buckley had purged the conservative movement of the Birchers, Welch was never excommunicated. His style of American conservatism remained potent.

In those years, Welch broadened the society’s focus by opposing abortion, high taxation and sex education — issues that propelled the Reagan revolution. Bircher Lewis Uhler was instrumental in passing Proposition 13 to reduce California’s property taxes in 1978.

All the while, Welch continued to press his extreme theories.

In the 1970s, Americans began receiving some confirmation that perhaps conspiracies weren’t really as rare and nutty as they seemed. In 1973 and 1974, Watergate demonstrated that a president could secretly abuse his constitutional authority. Americans learned that more government officials had spied for the Soviet Union and had worked with mobsters in an unsuccessful effort to kill a foreign head of state. The CIA turned out to have conducted LSD experiments on Americans. After a while, anything seemed plausible. Over the years that followed, the number of people who said they trusted the government plummeted.

Welch is important today because, beginning in the 1980s and continuing on, his world has become ours. The depth of his influence on the transformation of the Republican Party — and therefore on America — has never been fully appreciated. His style of politics remained extremely potent after his death in 1985.

Reagan espoused conspiracy theories, such as his claim that Gerald Ford staged assassination attempts against himself to win sympathy votes. In the 1990s, partisanship became more central, ideology more crucial. On the radical fringe of the far right, private militia members armed themselves to the teeth. Both major parties, they claimed, wanted to end American sovereignty. After the sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco in 1992 and 1993, the militia movement grew even more conspiracy-focused.

It was only a few years later, in 1996, that Alex Jones started his conspiratorial radio show “The Final Edition.” Jones asserted that the government had planned the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995 and had plotted to murder the Branch Davidians in Waco. Rush Limbaugh’s attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton were in a similar vein. Hillary covered up the murder of Vince Foster, Limbaugh suggested.

On the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, Jones declared that “all terrorism that we’ve looked at, from the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City to Waco, has been government actions.” By 2006, at least one-third of Americans thought their government had either planned the attacks of 9/11 or allowed them to happen. And conspiracy theories began to thrive on new social media sites: Facebook. YouTube. Twitter. Facts went unchecked.

Tea party members argued that a conspiracy of globalists had caused the economic downturn. In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted “an extremely credible source ... told me @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” By 2015, Trump was running for president.

And so it continues. Welch-like logic and Welch-like rhetoric have taken over much of the right with false myths that tempt the weak mind. More than two-thirds of Republicans still don’t believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The QAnon conspiracy theory — which holds that Democrats in the so-called Deep State undermined Trump to cover up their child-sex racket — has at least one adherent in Congress.

Millions of Americans won’t take vaccines to prevent COVID-19 because they don’t trust science.

Today, Americans are stuck on the roller coaster of Robert Welch’s political imagination, and can’t get off.
by Edward H. Miller br br If you’re looking for t... (show quote)


What science, Fucci? Don't ware mask, ware mask, these aren't good enough ware n95. Vaccines protect you from covid-vaccines don't protect you from covid but lighten symptoms. Anti vaxers spread covid, everybody spreads covid but its anti vaxers fought, blah, blah, blah!

Reply
 
 
Jan 14, 2022 11:49:26   #
slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas
 
Sonny Magoo wrote:
You are grasping for something that isn't really there.
Today's JBS is not like you alluded. Leave shills like Alex Jones out of the discussion. And the other wild crazy stuff.
Today's JBS is a defender of the Constitution. A guide post for morality.
And a revealer of truth that would harm America as we know it.
You on the other hand ..

...can handle the truth.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 11:50:31   #
Simple Sam Loc: USA
 
slatten49 wrote:
by Edward H. Miller

If you’re looking for the roots of today’s bizarre conspiracy-and-anger-driven politics, you need to look further back than the presidency of Donald Trump or even the rise of social media or talk radio — back to the accusatory, inflammatory, wild-eyed rhetoric of the John Birch Society in the 1960s and 1970s.

It’s beginning to fade into history, but the John Birch Society was once the most formidable anti-communist organization of the Cold War era. Named for an American army captain killed by Chinese communists, it was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, a North Carolina-born candy magnate. (His company created the caramel “Sugar Daddy” on a stick.) Most Americans learned of the society after March 20, 1961, when it was widely reported that Welch had called former President Eisenhower a communist.

It was an outrageous and ludicrous assertion, but Welch was just getting started in weaving his tapestry of paranoia. He saw communist conspiracies lurking in colleges, high schools and the government.

Fluoride was being used to enervate Americans in advance of the coming communist occupation, he said.

Welch also called the civil rights movement a communist conspiracy.

Welch’s conspiracies fed postwar America’s growing suspicion of government and its belief in cover-ups in high places. He had particular influence in California, which played an outsize role in the growth of the John Birch Society.

With epicenters in Orange County and Los Angeles, California’s “Birchers” were instrumental in helping to ensure Richard Nixon’s gubernatorial loss in 1962, Barry Goldwater’s Republican presidential nomination in 1964 and Ronald Reagan’s gubernatorial victory in 1966. Several California members of Congress were Birchers, including Reps. Edgar Hiestand and John Rousselot, who both represented parts of Los Angeles County.

As the years passed, Welch’s theories grew wilder. He eventually concluded that communism was just another name for the conspiracy begun by the Bavarian Illuminati in 1776. He also said that the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers (a group that sought to foster dialogue between Europe and North America) were the puppet masters of U.S. foreign and economic interests. The society also called for the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations and for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren.

In the 1970s, the John Birch Society became even more influential. Despite a widespread belief that the “responsible” right of William F. Buckley had purged the conservative movement of the Birchers, Welch was never excommunicated. His style of American conservatism remained potent.

In those years, Welch broadened the society’s focus by opposing abortion, high taxation and sex education — issues that propelled the Reagan revolution. Bircher Lewis Uhler was instrumental in passing Proposition 13 to reduce California’s property taxes in 1978.

All the while, Welch continued to press his extreme theories.

In the 1970s, Americans began receiving some confirmation that perhaps conspiracies weren’t really as rare and nutty as they seemed. In 1973 and 1974, Watergate demonstrated that a president could secretly abuse his constitutional authority. Americans learned that more government officials had spied for the Soviet Union and had worked with mobsters in an unsuccessful effort to kill a foreign head of state. The CIA turned out to have conducted LSD experiments on Americans. After a while, anything seemed plausible. Over the years that followed, the number of people who said they trusted the government plummeted.

Welch is important today because, beginning in the 1980s and continuing on, his world has become ours. The depth of his influence on the transformation of the Republican Party — and therefore on America — has never been fully appreciated. His style of politics remained extremely potent after his death in 1985.

Reagan espoused conspiracy theories, such as his claim that Gerald Ford staged assassination attempts against himself to win sympathy votes. In the 1990s, partisanship became more central, ideology more crucial. On the radical fringe of the far right, private militia members armed themselves to the teeth. Both major parties, they claimed, wanted to end American sovereignty. After the sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco in 1992 and 1993, the militia movement grew even more conspiracy-focused.

It was only a few years later, in 1996, that Alex Jones started his conspiratorial radio show “The Final Edition.” Jones asserted that the government had planned the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995 and had plotted to murder the Branch Davidians in Waco. Rush Limbaugh’s attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton were in a similar vein. Hillary covered up the murder of Vince Foster, Limbaugh suggested.

On the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, Jones declared that “all terrorism that we’ve looked at, from the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City to Waco, has been government actions.” By 2006, at least one-third of Americans thought their government had either planned the attacks of 9/11 or allowed them to happen. And conspiracy theories began to thrive on new social media sites: Facebook. YouTube. Twitter. Facts went unchecked.

Tea party members argued that a conspiracy of globalists had caused the economic downturn. In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted “an extremely credible source ... told me @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” By 2015, Trump was running for president.

And so it continues. Welch-like logic and Welch-like rhetoric have taken over much of the right with false myths that tempt the weak mind. More than two-thirds of Republicans still don’t believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The QAnon conspiracy theory — which holds that Democrats in the so-called Deep State undermined Trump to cover up their child-sex racket — has at least one adherent in Congress.

Millions of Americans won’t take vaccines to prevent COVID-19 because they don’t trust science.

Today, Americans are stuck on the roller coaster of Robert Welch’s political imagination, and can’t get off.
by Edward H. Miller br br If you’re looking for t... (show quote)


Wild thing about what some labeled 'conspiracy theories' some have been proven to be true. It would be unwise to discount beliefs that you may not want to be true.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 11:57:20   #
slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas
 
Simple Sam wrote:
Wild thing about what some labeled 'conspiracy theories' some have been proven to be true. It would be unwise to discount beliefs that you may not want to be true.

True 'nuf, Sam To paraphrase: Even a deaf, dumb and blind squirrel can find an acorn on occasion.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 12:04:46   #
Simple Sam Loc: USA
 
slatten49 wrote:
True 'nuf, Sam To paraphrase: Even a deaf, dumb and blind squirrel can find an acorn on occasion.


More often than not.

Reply
 
 
Jan 14, 2022 12:05:26   #
Strycker Loc: The middle of somewhere else.
 
You only need to look at the democrat's conspiring to disrupt or destroy the Trump presidency using the Russia collusion hoax to see a far reaching modern conspiracy that took years and millions of tax payer dollars to dispel the blatant lies.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 12:06:35   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
slatten49 wrote:
by Edward H. Miller

If you’re looking for the roots of today’s bizarre conspiracy-and-anger-driven politics, you need to look further back than the presidency of Donald Trump or even the rise of social media or talk radio — back to the accusatory, inflammatory, wild-eyed rhetoric of the John Birch Society in the 1960s and 1970s.

It’s beginning to fade into history, but the John Birch Society was once the most formidable anti-communist organization of the Cold War era. Named for an American army captain killed by Chinese communists, it was founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, a North Carolina-born candy magnate. (His company created the caramel “Sugar Daddy” on a stick.) Most Americans learned of the society after March 20, 1961, when it was widely reported that Welch had called former President Eisenhower a communist.

It was an outrageous and ludicrous assertion, but Welch was just getting started in weaving his tapestry of paranoia. He saw communist conspiracies lurking in colleges, high schools and the government.

Fluoride was being used to enervate Americans in advance of the coming communist occupation, he said.

Welch also called the civil rights movement a communist conspiracy.

Welch’s conspiracies fed postwar America’s growing suspicion of government and its belief in cover-ups in high places. He had particular influence in California, which played an outsize role in the growth of the John Birch Society.

With epicenters in Orange County and Los Angeles, California’s “Birchers” were instrumental in helping to ensure Richard Nixon’s gubernatorial loss in 1962, Barry Goldwater’s Republican presidential nomination in 1964 and Ronald Reagan’s gubernatorial victory in 1966. Several California members of Congress were Birchers, including Reps. Edgar Hiestand and John Rousselot, who both represented parts of Los Angeles County.

As the years passed, Welch’s theories grew wilder. He eventually concluded that communism was just another name for the conspiracy begun by the Bavarian Illuminati in 1776. He also said that the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderbergers (a group that sought to foster dialogue between Europe and North America) were the puppet masters of U.S. foreign and economic interests. The society also called for the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations and for the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren.

In the 1970s, the John Birch Society became even more influential. Despite a widespread belief that the “responsible” right of William F. Buckley had purged the conservative movement of the Birchers, Welch was never excommunicated. His style of American conservatism remained potent.

In those years, Welch broadened the society’s focus by opposing abortion, high taxation and sex education — issues that propelled the Reagan revolution. Bircher Lewis Uhler was instrumental in passing Proposition 13 to reduce California’s property taxes in 1978.

All the while, Welch continued to press his extreme theories.

In the 1970s, Americans began receiving some confirmation that perhaps conspiracies weren’t really as rare and nutty as they seemed. In 1973 and 1974, Watergate demonstrated that a president could secretly abuse his constitutional authority. Americans learned that more government officials had spied for the Soviet Union and had worked with mobsters in an unsuccessful effort to kill a foreign head of state. The CIA turned out to have conducted LSD experiments on Americans. After a while, anything seemed plausible. Over the years that followed, the number of people who said they trusted the government plummeted.

Welch is important today because, beginning in the 1980s and continuing on, his world has become ours. The depth of his influence on the transformation of the Republican Party — and therefore on America — has never been fully appreciated. His style of politics remained extremely potent after his death in 1985.

Reagan espoused conspiracy theories, such as his claim that Gerald Ford staged assassination attempts against himself to win sympathy votes. In the 1990s, partisanship became more central, ideology more crucial. On the radical fringe of the far right, private militia members armed themselves to the teeth. Both major parties, they claimed, wanted to end American sovereignty. After the sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco in 1992 and 1993, the militia movement grew even more conspiracy-focused.

It was only a few years later, in 1996, that Alex Jones started his conspiratorial radio show “The Final Edition.” Jones asserted that the government had planned the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995 and had plotted to murder the Branch Davidians in Waco. Rush Limbaugh’s attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton were in a similar vein. Hillary covered up the murder of Vince Foster, Limbaugh suggested.

On the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, Jones declared that “all terrorism that we’ve looked at, from the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City to Waco, has been government actions.” By 2006, at least one-third of Americans thought their government had either planned the attacks of 9/11 or allowed them to happen. And conspiracy theories began to thrive on new social media sites: Facebook. YouTube. Twitter. Facts went unchecked.

Tea party members argued that a conspiracy of globalists had caused the economic downturn. In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted “an extremely credible source ... told me @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” By 2015, Trump was running for president.

And so it continues. Welch-like logic and Welch-like rhetoric have taken over much of the right with false myths that tempt the weak mind. More than two-thirds of Republicans still don’t believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The QAnon conspiracy theory — which holds that Democrats in the so-called Deep State undermined Trump to cover up their child-sex racket — has at least one adherent in Congress.

Millions of Americans won’t take vaccines to prevent COVID-19 because they don’t trust science.

Today, Americans are stuck on the roller coaster of Robert Welch’s political imagination, and can’t get off.
by Edward H. Miller br br If you’re looking for t... (show quote)


Maybe so, but who knows. By the way, the Covid vaccines don't prevent Covid and it was Senator Blumenthal, working with the Hillary Clinton campaign who first made the claim that Obama wasn't born in the US.

And getting back to your premise of conspiracy laddened society and the Covid vaccines, it is clear that the misinformation about Covid disease and the vaccines is wrought with huge inconsistencies and falsehoods. That builds distrust, especially when "scientists" like Fauci denigrate equally qualified scientists without so much as explaining why; a Fauci trait in his claim that HE is the "science." It's not so much that people theink there is a conspiracy going on but rather, they just don't trust the messengers.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 12:06:59   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
Strycker wrote:
You only need to look at the democrat's conspiring to disrupt or destroy the Trump presidency using the Russia collusion hoax to see a far reaching modern conspiracy that took years and millions of tax payer dollars to dispel the blatant lies.


Huge conspiracy theory!!

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 12:09:43   #
microphor Loc: Home is TN
 
Strycker wrote:
You only need to look at the democrat's conspiring to disrupt or destroy the Trump presidency using the Russia collusion hoax to see a far reaching modern conspiracy that took years and millions of tax payer dollars to dispel the blatant lies.


Absolutely true but you ever hear a Democrat call it that

Reply
 
 
Jan 14, 2022 12:28:48   #
slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas
 
From Chrysaor Jordan, an American citizen

Was the Trump-Russia collusion theory a hoax?

It wasn’t a hoax. Robert Mueller proved that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election.

If anyone else had been in the Oval Office at the time, there would have been a *bipartisan* investigation. Given that Trump’s followers believe the worst of Hillary Clinton, despite an exhaustive investigation, we can be sure that if Biden had been in office at the time they would have called for his impeachment.

Some of them would have called for him to be hanged.

What actually happened? They made death threats against Robert Mueller. They refused to investigate any further. And they keep repeating “hoax” as if that makes any difference.

While Mueller’s report did not prove that Trump was directly connected to this interference, neither did he exonerate Trump. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Trump was connected. Unless and until the matter can be further investigated without Republican interference, we cannot put this one to bed.

Final note: Mueller’s report made it clear that Trump obstructed his investigation. That is circumstantial evidence pointing to Trump’s guilt. And it was an impeachable offence. That Trump was not impeached for obstruction of justice is telling about Republican hypocrisy.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 13:14:37   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
slatten49 wrote:
From Chrysaor Jordan, an American citizen

Was the Trump-Russia collusion theory a hoax?

It wasn’t a hoax. Robert Mueller proved that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election.

If anyone else had been in the Oval Office at the time, there would have been a *bipartisan* investigation. Given that Trump’s followers believe the worst of Hillary Clinton, despite an exhaustive investigation, we can be sure that if Biden had been in office at the time they would have called for his impeachment.

Some of them would have called for him to be hanged.

What actually happened? They made death threats against Robert Mueller. They refused to investigate any further. And they keep repeating “hoax” as if that makes any difference.

While Mueller’s report did not prove that Trump was directly connected to this interference, neither did he exonerate Trump. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Trump was connected. Unless and until the matter can be further investigated without Republican interference, we cannot put this one to bed.

Final note: Mueller’s report made it clear that Trump obstructed his investigation. That is circumstantial evidence pointing to Trump’s guilt. And it was an impeachable offence. That Trump was not impeached for obstruction of justice is telling about Republican hypocrisy.
From Chrysaor Jordan, an American citizen br br ... (show quote)


What Mueller proved was the the collusion with Russia was being done by the Hillary Clinton campaign with the full knowledge of the democrats, including Obama. And although not "exonerated" as you say, the wording of Mueller was, in fact telling, the he, Mueller, did not find any evidence the Trump "did not" collude with Russia; an unprovable negative no different than saying that on cannot prove God doesn't exist.

I find it interesting how the leftists and democraps can ignore the involvement of the Clinton campaign in the Russian activities during that election. They even defend lying to the FISA judge. Astounding. This is why Mueller stopped the investigation and would not go further. To go further would have brought down the Clinton campaign.

https://republicaninsider.org/indictment-proves-it-was-hillary-who-colluded-with-russia/ Keep this in mind as you contemplate the upcoming Russian take over of eastern Ukraine.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 13:15:29   #
nwtk2007 Loc: Texas
 
slatten49 wrote:
From Chrysaor Jordan, an American citizen

Was the Trump-Russia collusion theory a hoax?

It wasn’t a hoax. Robert Mueller proved that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election.

If anyone else had been in the Oval Office at the time, there would have been a *bipartisan* investigation. Given that Trump’s followers believe the worst of Hillary Clinton, despite an exhaustive investigation, we can be sure that if Biden had been in office at the time they would have called for his impeachment.

Some of them would have called for him to be hanged.

What actually happened? They made death threats against Robert Mueller. They refused to investigate any further. And they keep repeating “hoax” as if that makes any difference.

While Mueller’s report did not prove that Trump was directly connected to this interference, neither did he exonerate Trump. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Trump was connected. Unless and until the matter can be further investigated without Republican interference, we cannot put this one to bed.

Final note: Mueller’s report made it clear that Trump obstructed his investigation. That is circumstantial evidence pointing to Trump’s guilt. And it was an impeachable offence. That Trump was not impeached for obstruction of justice is telling about Republican hypocrisy.
From Chrysaor Jordan, an American citizen br br ... (show quote)


By the way, Trump resisted the investigation, but he didn't obstruct it.

Reply
Jan 14, 2022 13:36:17   #
Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio
 
Sonny Magoo wrote:
You are grasping for something that isn't really there.
Today's JBS is not like you alluded. Leave shills like Alex Jones out of the discussion. And the other wild crazy stuff.
Today's JBS is a defender of the Constitution. A guide post for morality.
And a revealer of truth that would harm America as we know it.
You on the other hand ..


Are you saying the JBS is also filled with
Liars?
Still selling the Big Lie ?
In the name of trombones, tubas, saxophones ?

Reply
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