1 00:00:01,720 --> 00:00:04,920 Speaker 1: Col Zone Media. 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,440 Speaker 2: I'm Michael Phillips, an historian, the author of a book 3 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:11,879 Speaker 2: about racism in Dallas called White Metropolis, and the co 4 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 2: author of an upcoming book about the eugenics movement in 5 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:16,919 Speaker 2: Texas called The Purifying Knife. 6 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:20,880 Speaker 3: And I'm Stephen Monchelli, an investigative reporter and columnist in 7 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:24,280 Speaker 3: Texas who covers political extremism and beyond. 8 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:28,480 Speaker 2: Since the late nineteen nineties, Alex Jones built an extensive 9 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:32,720 Speaker 2: media empire, spreading out landish conspiracy theories from his home 10 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,440 Speaker 2: base in Austin, Texas. A native of the Dallas suburb 11 00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 2: of Rockwall, over the years, Jones has claimed that the 12 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 2: Apollo eleven moon landing was fake, so too, he said, 13 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 2: was the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. He claimed 14 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 2: with stage to justify new gun control laws. According to Jones, 15 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:56,000 Speaker 2: the US government can control the weather has intentionally caused 16 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,600 Speaker 2: floods and other weather disasters to punish Texas and other 17 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 2: concerns of the States. He has insisted that chemicals intentionally 18 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:08,360 Speaker 2: placed in American drinking water are turning frogs gay, part 19 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 2: of an experiment by the American government seeking a way 20 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:15,920 Speaker 2: to undermine the nuclear family. While peddling dubious supplements with 21 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 2: unproven health benefits. Jones began his broadcasting career with a 22 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:23,959 Speaker 2: call in public access cable TV show, before moving on 23 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,399 Speaker 2: to radio and then online. In spite of his outlandish claims, 24 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, Jones was able to set off a 25 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 2: panic in Texas that inspired action from Governor Greg Abbott. 26 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 4: Now to a Texas sized conspiracy theory, sparking headlines across 27 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,440 Speaker 4: the country, including this week in The New York Times, 28 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:48,520 Speaker 4: the theory that an upcoming Pentagon training exercise is actually 29 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:52,360 Speaker 4: part of a plan to impose martial law. To many, 30 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,160 Speaker 4: it's far fetched, but not to some of the top 31 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 4: politicians in the lone star state. 32 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 3: The conspiracy theory Jones described on his Info War show 33 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 3: spun in even wilder directions. The Army troops participating in 34 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:09,040 Speaker 3: the Jade Helm military exercise, panicked, right wingers said, would 35 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:12,880 Speaker 3: turn on the local population. Guns would be seized from 36 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 3: private citizens, and local walmarts would be converted into vast 37 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:20,800 Speaker 3: holding cells where those opposing Obama's plan to seize dictatorial 38 00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:24,799 Speaker 3: power would be imprisoned. According to these sorts of theories, 39 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 3: these accusations went viral and a military spokesman got waylaid 40 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,080 Speaker 3: by angry questions at a Bastrup County Commissioner's Court meeting 41 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 3: held near the Central Texas staging area for jade Helm. 42 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:36,680 Speaker 5: Armed men in. 43 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 3: Trucks patrolled in Bastrup County and surrounding communities, and a 44 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 3: private group called Counter jade Helm spied on the movement 45 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,160 Speaker 3: of troops and military vehicles while they quizzed residents for 46 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 3: any intelligence they may have gathered on the impending alleged 47 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 3: coup d'eta. 48 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:57,079 Speaker 2: The crazier the conspiracy theory got, the more Texas's far 49 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:00,399 Speaker 2: right political leaders were willing to pander toge Jones and Elk. 50 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 2: Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas National Guard to 51 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:06,920 Speaker 2: monitor US Army troops near Austin. 52 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:12,040 Speaker 6: We're playing a pivotal role of government, and that is 53 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,240 Speaker 6: to provide information until people have questions. 54 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 2: Texas Senator Ted Cruz pledged that he would demand answers 55 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 2: from the Pentagon about the military's intentions and said he 56 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:25,400 Speaker 2: completely understood the widespread paranoia. 57 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,359 Speaker 7: You know, I understand the concern that's been raised by 58 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:29,960 Speaker 7: a lot of citizens about jade Hell. 59 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:32,119 Speaker 5: We have seen for six years. 60 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 7: A federal government of disrespecting the liberty of the citizens 61 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 7: and that produces fear. 62 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 2: Suffice it to say, the Obama administration did not overthrow 63 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 2: the state government. The intense outrage and fear generated over 64 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 2: army combat preparations might have seen perplexing to those outside 65 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 2: of Texas, a state that prides itself on being patriotic 66 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 2: and pro military. However, seething distrust of liberal elites is 67 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 2: a lucrative business in alex Jones built a fortune of 68 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:06,120 Speaker 2: two hundred and seventy million with his internet show and 69 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 2: sales of dubious health and survivalist products advertised on those broadcasts. 70 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:14,040 Speaker 2: This is nothing new south of the Red River. From 71 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 2: the beginning of its history, the state has been an 72 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:21,920 Speaker 2: incubator for outlandish and occasionally not completely unreasonable conspiracy theories. 73 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:26,719 Speaker 3: After Texas violently separated from Mexico in eighteen thirty six, 74 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 3: white Texans spent the next decade fearing their southern neighbor, 75 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:34,200 Speaker 3: a nation that saw the Texas Revolution as illegitimate and 76 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:38,360 Speaker 3: wanted to regain control of the breakaway province. Meanwhile, those 77 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:41,359 Speaker 3: same white Texans viewed the African Americans they enslaved with 78 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,280 Speaker 3: suspicion bordering on dread, knowing that their black captives desperately 79 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:49,320 Speaker 3: wanted freedom and might use violence to liberate themselves. This 80 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:53,160 Speaker 3: created an atmosphere of uncertainty and distrust that fed conspiracy 81 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:57,720 Speaker 3: theories of all sorts. After their rebellion against Mexico, Texans 82 00:04:57,720 --> 00:04:59,840 Speaker 3: wanted to become part of the United States, but they 83 00:04:59,839 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 3: were forced to spend almost a full decade as an 84 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 3: independent republic because of well founded suspicions held by American 85 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:09,600 Speaker 3: abolitionists that the Texas Revolution was a part of a 86 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 3: plot to add a slave state to the Union. 87 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 2: A decade later, the tide shifted and Texas was hurriedly 88 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:20,799 Speaker 2: annexed in eighteen forty five after widespread rumors gripped Washington, 89 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:23,719 Speaker 2: d C Of a British plot to a next Texas 90 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:27,560 Speaker 2: and converted to a haven for African Americans escaping slavery. 91 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 2: In the eighteen fifties, even prominent Texans like Sam Houston 92 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:35,760 Speaker 2: flocked to the American Party, also known as the know Nothings, 93 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 2: that claimed the Pope had ordered Catholics from Ireland Germany 94 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 2: to immigrate to the United States in order to take 95 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:44,760 Speaker 2: the country over and hand power over to the Vatican 96 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:49,920 Speaker 2: Panics O were suspected rebellions by the enslaved, gripped Anglo 97 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:54,200 Speaker 2: Texans in eighteen thirty five, eighteen thirty eight, eighteen forty one, 98 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 2: and in eighteen fifty six went perhaps as many as 99 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:01,360 Speaker 2: four hundred African Americans held in bondage in Colorado County 100 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:05,040 Speaker 2: in south central Texas apparently plotted to rise up against 101 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:08,360 Speaker 2: their white oppressors and battle their way to freedom in Mexico, 102 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 2: where slavery had been abolished. 103 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:15,359 Speaker 3: Eighteen sixty, construction workers carelessly tossed matches into a pile 104 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:18,760 Speaker 3: of wood in Dallas during a hot, drought ridden summer. 105 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:22,279 Speaker 3: The blaze that resulted destroyed much of what was then 106 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:26,560 Speaker 3: only a village. Immediately, suspecting that enslaved arsonists had set 107 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 3: the fire as part of a planned revolution, whites and 108 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 3: Dallas tortured and whipped almost every enslaved person in the 109 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:36,360 Speaker 3: county in search of scapegoats. Eventually, they hanged three African 110 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:38,839 Speaker 3: Americans and set off what would become known as the 111 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 3: Texas Troubles. Fires broke out across the state, and each 112 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:46,479 Speaker 3: got blamed on black suspects and their supposed white abolitionist instigators, 113 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 3: often men from northern States. As one historian put it, 114 00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 3: white Texan enslavers decided it was better to quote hanging 115 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:57,599 Speaker 3: ninety nine innocent men than to let one guilty pass. 116 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:01,680 Speaker 3: Acting on little evidence, mobs lynched as many as eighty 117 00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 3: enslaved African American men and thirty seven accused white abolitionists. 118 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 3: By the time the panic burned out in September. 119 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 2: A wave of labor unrest, including the Great Southwest Railroad 120 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:15,480 Speaker 2: Strike of eighteen eighty six and the rise of the 121 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 2: Populace movement, which called for the government seizure railroads and 122 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,040 Speaker 2: telegraph lines, in addition to a global panic amongst the 123 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,440 Speaker 2: well to do about anarchism after a series of bombings 124 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:28,600 Speaker 2: in Europe and even the United States from the eighteen 125 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:32,440 Speaker 2: eighties to just after World War One convinced economic elites 126 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,760 Speaker 2: in Texas that revolution was in the air. The ku 127 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 2: Klux Klan, which in its original incarnation during reconstruction served 128 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 2: as a goon squad to keep newly freed African American 129 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 2: labor under tight control, came to dominate cities like Dallas 130 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 2: in the nineteen twenties, where one and every three eligible 131 00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:54,160 Speaker 2: men were members of the KKK at its peak, the 132 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 2: KKK charged that both Jews and Catholics were conspiring to 133 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:03,440 Speaker 2: control the world. Texas politicians like Representative John Box of Texas, 134 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:06,800 Speaker 2: in a column in Henry Ford's anti Semitic newspaper The 135 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:11,040 Speaker 2: Dearborn Independent, charged that Jews had manipulated the Congress to 136 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:15,040 Speaker 2: add loopholes to American immigration laws passed in nineteen twenty 137 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 2: one nineteen twenty four in order to let Jewish people 138 00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:21,760 Speaker 2: escaping the Russian Empire into the United States as part 139 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 2: of a scheme to undermine American society. 140 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 3: As oil millionaires and billionaires built their wealth over the 141 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:31,880 Speaker 3: twentieth century, they became a force in conspiratorial faw right 142 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:35,920 Speaker 3: politics in Texas. Starting in the nineteen thirties, they mobilized 143 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 3: against Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which they insisted was a 144 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:42,319 Speaker 3: part of an international communist plan to overthrow capitalism around 145 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:47,120 Speaker 3: the planet. Anti communism, anti Semitism, and hostility. The post 146 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:50,560 Speaker 3: World War II African American civil rights movement blended seamlessly 147 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 3: in the conspiratorial imaginations of the faw right in the 148 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,520 Speaker 3: lone Star state ideas that reached a national audience in 149 00:08:57,640 --> 00:08:59,240 Speaker 3: large part because of oil money. 150 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 2: Owen Beatty, the longtime chairman of the English Department's Southern 151 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:07,480 Speaker 2: Methodist University in Dallas, in nineteen fifty one, authored one 152 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 2: of the first and perhaps the best selling of all time, 153 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 2: book promoting Holocaust denial, Iron Curtain over America. Beatty claimed 154 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:19,559 Speaker 2: that the Jews of today were not the Hebrew heroes 155 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 2: of what Christians called the Old Testament. Instead, they were 156 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:27,080 Speaker 2: descended from a sinister Asian trot called the Kazars. They 157 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 2: converted to Judaism around the year eight hundred. Too arrogant 158 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:35,559 Speaker 2: to assimilate with Christian Europe, Baty wrote, Kazar's undermined society 159 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,840 Speaker 2: under their stolen identities and caused the Communist Revolution in 160 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 2: Russian nineteen eighteen. After immigrating to the United States in 161 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,400 Speaker 2: large numbers, they took over the Democratic Party, Batty said, 162 00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 2: and moved it to the radical left. Beatty also claimed 163 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:55,120 Speaker 2: that Jews controlled Franklin Roosevelt's administration and pushed it into 164 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:58,600 Speaker 2: war against Hitler's Germany, which Beatty described in his book 165 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:02,400 Speaker 2: as quote the historic bulwark of Christian Europe. A mere 166 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:06,280 Speaker 2: six years after Soviet and American troops that liberated Nazi 167 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:09,800 Speaker 2: concentration camps. Betty claimed that most of the victims there 168 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 2: died from disease and the Holocaust was a fraud used 169 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,760 Speaker 2: after nineteen forty eight to blackmail the West into political 170 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:20,520 Speaker 2: and financial support of Israel. The SMU professor urged the 171 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:23,240 Speaker 2: United States to expel Jews from the United States. 172 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 3: Rather than earning him scorn, Bad's virulently hateful anti Jewish 173 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:31,320 Speaker 3: rants won him a large following. His book, Iron Curtain 174 00:10:31,320 --> 00:10:34,640 Speaker 3: Over America, went through nine printings. By nineteen fifty three, 175 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:39,400 Speaker 3: The Public Affairs Luncheon Club, a women's organization, adopted a 176 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 3: unanimous resolution backing Bad and requesting that SMU investigate alleged 177 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:49,080 Speaker 3: Communist influence on the university's faculty politics and values. Beady 178 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 3: taught at SMU until his retirement in nineteen fifty seven, 179 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:56,080 Speaker 3: two years after a panic over allegedly read art during 180 00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:59,920 Speaker 3: which the conservative Dallas Patriotic Council accused the Dallas Musi 181 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:04,360 Speaker 3: of Art of intentionally promoting quote subversive artists who were 182 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:07,840 Speaker 3: ostensibly part of communist front groups connected to the Soviet 183 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:09,120 Speaker 3: Union after. 184 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:11,600 Speaker 2: World War Two in the establishment of communist regimes in 185 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:15,000 Speaker 2: Eastern Europe and in China. The uber wealthy giants of 186 00:11:15,040 --> 00:11:18,400 Speaker 2: the Texas oil industry, to a large degree, funded what 187 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:22,720 Speaker 2: came to be known as McCarthyism. Clinton Murchison, whose son 188 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:26,360 Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty became owner of the Dallas Cowboys National 189 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:30,239 Speaker 2: Football League team, became one of the largest financial contributors 190 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:34,559 Speaker 2: the red baiting Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin. In Houston, 191 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,199 Speaker 2: hard right organizations like the Minute Women Fought against school 192 00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 2: integration took over the school board, firing the assistant superintendent, 193 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,280 Speaker 2: George eBay because he previously lived in California and Oregon, 194 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:49,199 Speaker 2: where he had nice things to say about Roosevelt's new 195 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:53,160 Speaker 2: deal in the African American freedom struggle. A math instructor 196 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:56,600 Speaker 2: got fired after he carelessly common in a teacher's lounge. 197 00:11:56,760 --> 00:12:00,680 Speaker 2: They supported Adelie Stevenson, the Liberal Democratic part Party nominee 198 00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:03,960 Speaker 2: for president. In nineteen fifty two and nineteen fifty six, 199 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,719 Speaker 2: the Easton School Board yanked books from campus libraries that 200 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:11,280 Speaker 2: said positive things about the United Nations, while right wingers 201 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 2: in Dallas force the City Library and the Museum of 202 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:17,840 Speaker 2: Fine Arts. The demand artists like Diego Rivera and Pablo 203 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 2: Picasso because of their supposed communist sympathies. 204 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:24,079 Speaker 5: But before we get into that, a quick ad break 205 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:35,480 Speaker 5: one Dallas oil. 206 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:38,600 Speaker 3: Magnate who built a mansion intentionally designed to be a 207 00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:42,720 Speaker 3: bigger duplicate of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. He used 208 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:46,200 Speaker 3: his wealth to broadcast extremist fever dreams in the nineteen 209 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,880 Speaker 3: fifties and nineteen sixties. His name was hl Hunt, and 210 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,560 Speaker 3: he was profiled by the BBC in the nineteen sixties. 211 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:55,000 Speaker 8: But as well as being perhaps the most apprugal, the 212 00:12:55,040 --> 00:12:58,400 Speaker 8: most stingy plutocrat of Texas, hl Hunt is probably the 213 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:01,640 Speaker 8: most controversial. He is a fervent advocate of right wing, 214 00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:05,240 Speaker 8: some would say reactionary causes. He is against the UN, 215 00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:09,040 Speaker 8: against the War On Party, against Medicare, against central government 216 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:12,120 Speaker 8: aid of any sort. He would rather Washington didn't rule 217 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,880 Speaker 8: the United States at all, and in his ideal LAMB 218 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:17,439 Speaker 8: votes would be distributed according to the amount of taxes 219 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:21,199 Speaker 8: who paid more than most Texans. Even he is inclined 220 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:24,120 Speaker 8: to see communists under every couch and behind every curtain. 221 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:28,720 Speaker 8: To Hunt, mankind is divided into communists and constructives. His 222 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:32,200 Speaker 8: private word for anti communists, you are either for him 223 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:35,000 Speaker 8: or aganim. He brooks no halfway position. 224 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:39,440 Speaker 3: A health faddist who avoided whitebread and sugar, Hunt believed 225 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 3: his diet of largely raw vegetables might actually allow him 226 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 3: to achieve immortality. He also thought he had psychic abilities, 227 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:50,760 Speaker 3: lived as a secret bigamist, and published pamphlets such as 228 00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:54,600 Speaker 3: Hitler was a Liberal, an early prototype of Rupert Murdoch 229 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 3: and Elon Musk. Hunt tried to create an alternative right 230 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:02,720 Speaker 3: wing media infrastructure, ding a nationwide radio program and pamphlet 231 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:08,000 Speaker 3: subscription called Lifeline that promoted conspiracy theories from coast to coast. 232 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:10,200 Speaker 9: Didn't time for a lifetime. 233 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:13,320 Speaker 5: Is around the world. 234 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:17,240 Speaker 10: Every leftist phrase and cliche of the past half century 235 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:19,040 Speaker 10: now has the hollow. 236 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 6: Ring of mythology. 237 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,840 Speaker 10: This is freedom Talk number fifty three Brendan cupp is 238 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:25,960 Speaker 10: all available at the rate of three for twenty five 239 00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:30,240 Speaker 10: cents from Lifeline, Dallas, Texas seven five two o six. 240 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 6: I'll be back after this message from our sponsor. 241 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 2: The Lifeline show was hosted by a former FBI agent 242 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:40,360 Speaker 2: named Dan Smoot and broadcasts on more than eighty television 243 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:44,600 Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty radio stations. Hunt believed that democracy 244 00:14:44,680 --> 00:14:47,320 Speaker 2: was the instrument through which wealth would be seized from 245 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:51,800 Speaker 2: billionaires such himself and redistributed to the lazy and the worthless. 246 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:55,920 Speaker 2: Hunt once rage at Smoot when the Lifeline hosts claimed 247 00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:59,280 Speaker 2: on air that democracy was a political outgrowth of the 248 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:04,440 Speaker 2: teachings of Jesus Christ. Hunt corrected smooth, condemning democracy is 249 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:07,920 Speaker 2: the handwork of the devil. In a phony liberal form 250 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:11,640 Speaker 2: of watered down communism. Hunt innovated in number of ways 251 00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:14,360 Speaker 2: to alarm audiences about far left plots. 252 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 8: During the last two years, hl Hunt has added another 253 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:21,560 Speaker 8: emotive missile to his armory, his league of so called 254 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:25,760 Speaker 8: youth freedom speakers, engaging young teenagers drilled to deliver three 255 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:29,600 Speaker 8: minute burst of his propaganda to rotary clubs and Bible classes. 256 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:33,760 Speaker 11: Many people in the United States really don't believe that 257 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 11: communism is a serious threat. Well, these people are in 258 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 11: for a big shock, because the communists have every intention 259 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:46,080 Speaker 11: of doing exactly what they've said they'll do, and they 260 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:49,800 Speaker 11: do not hesitate to use force and violence anytime they 261 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:53,600 Speaker 11: think that it will further their cause. Now, I don't 262 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:57,360 Speaker 11: pretend to know all the answers, but I do know 263 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:01,720 Speaker 11: that it is our duty to get out and warn 264 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:05,480 Speaker 11: others of the serious threat that we are facing. We 265 00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:07,560 Speaker 11: have got to get out and tell others of the 266 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:10,560 Speaker 11: subversive movements that are going on right here under our 267 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 11: very own noses. It's time to do away with this attitude. Oh, 268 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:20,640 Speaker 11: it can't happen here. Will communists bury us? Will we 269 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:23,640 Speaker 11: face fine squads as in Cuba? And will our little 270 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:30,920 Speaker 11: bitty children become slaves? Ladies and gentlemen. The answer rests 271 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:34,040 Speaker 11: in the hands of you and others like you. 272 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:35,800 Speaker 2: Thank you. 273 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:41,320 Speaker 3: For much of the twentieth century, Dallas had built up 274 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:45,640 Speaker 3: a reputation as a clean, dull, modern, and efficiently run city. 275 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 3: By the nineteen fifties, however, it had also acquired a 276 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:53,080 Speaker 3: reputation as the capital of crackpots and conspiracy theorists, a 277 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:57,800 Speaker 3: development that historian Edward H. Miller would describe in his 278 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:02,360 Speaker 3: book Not the Country. In nineteen fifty four, Dallas elected 279 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 3: a far right House representative, Republican Bruce Alger. Less than 280 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,320 Speaker 3: a week prior to the nineteen sixty presidential election between 281 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:13,000 Speaker 3: John Kennedy and Richard Nixon, a pro Alger mob assaulted 282 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,320 Speaker 3: in spat on the Democratic vice presidential nominee and then 283 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:20,560 Speaker 3: Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson and his wife Ladybird as they 284 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 3: left the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas, alger joined the 285 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:28,800 Speaker 3: protesters who held signs with slogans that said LBJ sold 286 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:32,719 Speaker 3: out to Yankee Socialists. Soon thereafter, Major General Edwin Walker, 287 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 3: who inspired the deranged fictional character General Jack d Ripper, 288 00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:40,879 Speaker 3: the person responsible for global nuclear holocaust, in the nineteen 289 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:44,160 Speaker 3: sixty four film at Doctor Strangelove called Dallas Home. 290 00:17:44,600 --> 00:17:49,280 Speaker 12: I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, 291 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:59,760 Speaker 12: communist in doctrination, communists subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy 292 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:05,680 Speaker 12: to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. 293 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:10,600 Speaker 3: Before filmmaker Stanley Kubrick turned Walker into an unforgettable caricature. 294 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:15,000 Speaker 3: The real life Walker achieved infamy commanding an infantry division 295 00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:19,080 Speaker 3: in what was then Western Germany. President Kennedy pressured Walker 296 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,400 Speaker 3: to resign because he repeatedly lectured soldiers under his command 297 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:25,680 Speaker 3: to vote for far right wing political candidates. He also 298 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:29,720 Speaker 3: distributed among the troops literature from the conspiracy theory promoting 299 00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:32,840 Speaker 3: far right John Birch Society, and he encouraged them to 300 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:36,920 Speaker 3: join the John Birch Society, formed in nineteen fifty eight, 301 00:18:37,359 --> 00:18:40,800 Speaker 3: opposed American membership in the United Nations, which it claimed 302 00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:44,720 Speaker 3: was part of a global communist conspiracy to enslave free 303 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:49,320 Speaker 3: peoples around the world. The fringe organization, established by former 304 00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:54,240 Speaker 3: candy manufacturer Robert Welsh, accused all American presidents from Franklin 305 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:58,080 Speaker 3: Roosevelt to Kennedy of being secret communists under the command 306 00:18:58,119 --> 00:18:59,280 Speaker 3: of the Soviet government. 307 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:03,359 Speaker 2: The John Birch Society also saw the African American civil 308 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 2: rights movement as part of a Bolshevik conspiracy to divide 309 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,359 Speaker 2: the country, and argued that efforts of towns and cities 310 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:13,359 Speaker 2: after World War II to add fluoride to public water 311 00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:16,840 Speaker 2: supplies was part of a sinister scheme to weaken men 312 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,760 Speaker 2: physically and make them less able to resist the radical 313 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:24,480 Speaker 2: takeover the United States. That particular Bircher conspiracy theory made 314 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:28,639 Speaker 2: a long lasting impact on the American psyche. Cities across 315 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:32,639 Speaker 2: the United States banned fluoridated water today. That John Birch 316 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 2: Society is still active in North Texas, where recent gubernatorial 317 00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:40,560 Speaker 2: candidate and car dealer Don Huffines has published anti fluoridation 318 00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:44,560 Speaker 2: essays on the Dallas Express, a right wing website that 319 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:47,400 Speaker 2: repurposed the name of the historic black newspaper that went 320 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:49,200 Speaker 2: defunct in the nineteen seventies. 321 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:52,760 Speaker 3: Edwin Walker's devotion to the John Birch movement cost him 322 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 3: his military career. Under pressure from Defense Secretary Robert mcmara, 323 00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:01,400 Speaker 3: Walker retired and moved to Dallas, where he found a 324 00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:05,159 Speaker 3: friendly political environment. The national far right saw him as 325 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,679 Speaker 3: a martyr to Kennedy's supposedly out of control leftism, and 326 00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:12,320 Speaker 3: he received financial support from fellow devotee of the John 327 00:20:12,359 --> 00:20:17,240 Speaker 3: Birch Society hl Hunt. In nineteen sixty one, Walker made 328 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:20,000 Speaker 3: the cover of Newsweek as a leader of the New Right, 329 00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,280 Speaker 3: and in nineteen sixty two he entered the race for 330 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:24,240 Speaker 3: Texas Governor. 331 00:20:24,760 --> 00:20:29,040 Speaker 6: To all victims of communist tyranny throughout the world, I 332 00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:33,399 Speaker 6: send this word the hour of your deliverance is approaching. 333 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:38,879 Speaker 6: To patriots in every land Korea, China, the Ukraine, the 334 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:44,560 Speaker 6: Baltic Nations, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, the Congo, Cuba, and 335 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,440 Speaker 6: every other land strickened by the monster of communism. I say, 336 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:53,680 Speaker 6: for the time lie low, preparing your hearts for liberation. 337 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:57,720 Speaker 6: Do not expose yourselves to the brutal requital of a 338 00:20:57,800 --> 00:20:59,960 Speaker 6: monster temporarily in power. 339 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,239 Speaker 2: Walker was a painfully dull public speaker. In the end, 340 00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 2: he couldn't bring his version of deliverance to his own state, 341 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 2: finishing a distant sixth in the nineteen sixty two gubinatorial race. 342 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:14,639 Speaker 2: That would not prevent him and his allies from creating 343 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:18,399 Speaker 2: Mayhem over the following months, he got arrested and was 344 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,200 Speaker 2: ordered to be psychiatrically evaluated by Attorney General Robert Kennedy 345 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:25,520 Speaker 2: after he incited racial violence during the integration of the 346 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:31,000 Speaker 2: University of Mississippi in September nineteen sixty two. Adelaide Stevenson, 347 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:34,719 Speaker 2: John Kennedy's ambassador of the United Nations, would confront Walker 348 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:37,760 Speaker 2: and a model of his followers when the diplomat visited 349 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:42,199 Speaker 2: Big d on October twenty sixth, nineteen sixty three. Stevenson 350 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:44,760 Speaker 2: was shouted down as he attempted to deliver a un 351 00:21:44,840 --> 00:22:00,880 Speaker 2: day's speech to Dallas Council on World Affairs. 352 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,000 Speaker 6: Shall we get on with the business. 353 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 2: Of the meeting? Surely, surely, my dear friend, I don't 354 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,800 Speaker 2: have to come here from Illinois to teach Texas. 355 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:20,080 Speaker 8: Manors, do I? 356 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:26,840 Speaker 3: Outside Memorial Auditorium Theater, where Stevenson delivered his speech, Walker 357 00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:29,480 Speaker 3: had gathered a furious gang of middle and upper classmen 358 00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:33,080 Speaker 3: and women who rocked his limousine back and forth while 359 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 3: it waited to whisk him away to safety, and surrounded 360 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,719 Speaker 3: the ambassador when he stepped outside. When he finally returned 361 00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:43,280 Speaker 3: to Washington, D C. Stevenson warned the administration about the 362 00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 3: intense and extremist atmosphere in Dallas, where President Kennedy was 363 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 3: planning a visit meant to heal a rift between the 364 00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:53,840 Speaker 3: conservative and liberal wings of the Democratic Party in Texas. 365 00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,359 Speaker 2: On the morning in November twenty second, nineteen sixty three, 366 00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,600 Speaker 2: Kennedy and his entourage felt for voting as they prepared 367 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,880 Speaker 2: for a short airplane draft from Fort Worth to Dallas. 368 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:07,639 Speaker 2: The president just examined a full page ad in the 369 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,920 Speaker 2: far right Dallas Morning News that featured a bold face 370 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:16,560 Speaker 2: headline welcome mister Kennedy to Dallas. The advertisement, paid for 371 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,560 Speaker 2: in part by H. L. Hunt's son, Nelson bunker Hunt 372 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:23,639 Speaker 2: and the future owner of the Dallas Cowboys, HR bum Bright, 373 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:28,399 Speaker 2: featured accusations that Kennedy was soft on communism around the 374 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:33,920 Speaker 2: world and radicals at home, while persecuting conservatives who criticized them. 375 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,359 Speaker 2: The same morning, a group distributed leaflets designed like a 376 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,760 Speaker 2: wanted poster with front and side photos of the President 377 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:45,040 Speaker 2: with the caption wanted for treason. How can people say 378 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:48,400 Speaker 2: such things? The President said to First Lady Jackie Kennedy, 379 00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:52,040 Speaker 2: We're heading into nut Country. Soon. The Kennedys would make 380 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,520 Speaker 2: their faithful flight to Dallas, and the President would die 381 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,359 Speaker 2: from an assassin's bullet shortly after noon. 382 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:02,040 Speaker 3: The President's murder spawned a cottage industry of conspiracy theorists. 383 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,720 Speaker 3: Some said the President had been murdered by the mafia, 384 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:08,920 Speaker 3: angered because they had been investigated by the President's brother, 385 00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:13,560 Speaker 3: Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Others blamed Teamster's president Jimmy Hoffa, 386 00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:16,439 Speaker 3: who also had been the subject of criminal probes by 387 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:21,320 Speaker 3: the Justice Department. Others suspected assassination plotters included Cuban leader 388 00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 3: Fidel Castro, who had himself been targeted for assassination attempts 389 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:30,200 Speaker 3: by the Kennedy administration, exiled Cubans in Florida, angered because 390 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:33,320 Speaker 3: the President had not fully supported the attempted overthrow of 391 00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:36,920 Speaker 3: Castro during the nineteen sixty one Bay of Pigs invasion, 392 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:41,040 Speaker 3: and even the Soviets. One of the more elaborate theories 393 00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:45,239 Speaker 3: involved an alleged plot hatched by American military leaders and 394 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:50,400 Speaker 3: CIA agents, angered that Kennedy supposedly wanted to end American 395 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:54,720 Speaker 3: involvement in Vietnam. Finally, others, said Lyndon Johnson, order to 396 00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:58,040 Speaker 3: hit on the chief executive because he wanted to grab power. 397 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 3: Or maybe others said, Kennedy die because of combination of 398 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,399 Speaker 3: some or all of the above, having made enemies with 399 00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:09,359 Speaker 3: the intelligence agencies under his command, who he had said 400 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:12,560 Speaker 3: he would dash to the wins if they continued to 401 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 3: do things that were against what he saws in the 402 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,160 Speaker 3: best interests of the United States. Quote President shot one 403 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:23,119 Speaker 3: hundred twenty nine times from forty three different angles. A 404 00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:25,200 Speaker 3: satirical headline from The Onion later. 405 00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:31,800 Speaker 2: Asserted sometimes conspiracy theories have deadly consequences. William L. Pierre 406 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:35,560 Speaker 2: spent his teen years attending a military academy in Dallas 407 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:40,040 Speaker 2: as a city student, anti communist dread and any Semitic hatred. 408 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 2: As a young adult, he had joined the John Birch Society, 409 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:47,119 Speaker 2: but grew frustrated because there wasn't racist enough it. Became 410 00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:50,000 Speaker 2: a leading figure in the American Nazi Party at the 411 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:53,480 Speaker 2: age of forty one formed the Neo Nazi National Alliance. 412 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 2: Beginning in nineteen seventy five, he published in serial form 413 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,920 Speaker 2: one of the most influential examples of white supreme literature, 414 00:26:01,359 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 2: The Turner Diaries, a novel which told the story of 415 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,920 Speaker 2: white nationalist revolution in the United States in the near future. 416 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:11,800 Speaker 2: This revolt is sparked by a Jewish authored law outlying 417 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:16,679 Speaker 2: private ownership of guns. The hero, Earl Turner, joins an 418 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:21,280 Speaker 2: underground terrorist army, the organization which battles a Jewish plot 419 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:24,639 Speaker 2: to destroy America not just through gun control, but also 420 00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:28,800 Speaker 2: through uncontrolled non white immigration and by using rock music 421 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:33,040 Speaker 2: and drugs to encourage interracial sects. At one point, to 422 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:35,960 Speaker 2: save the white race, Turner blows up the FBI National 423 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,840 Speaker 2: headquarters in Washington, d C. With a truck bomb. 424 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:43,120 Speaker 3: In the novel, racist revolutionaries then take over Vandenberg Air 425 00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:47,000 Speaker 3: Force Base in southern California and sees its nuclear missiles, 426 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:51,200 Speaker 3: which they later use on cities across the nation. While 427 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:55,160 Speaker 3: ethnically cleansing California of non whites. They hang sixty thousand 428 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,640 Speaker 3: so called race traders during the Day of the Rope, 429 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,320 Speaker 3: a phrase you may find familiar if you've ever looked 430 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,639 Speaker 3: at white supremacist posts online. In the end the books, 431 00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:08,480 Speaker 3: heer Earl Turner finally defeats the system by flying a 432 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:12,000 Speaker 3: crop duster armed with a small nuclear weapon into the Pentagon. 433 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,920 Speaker 2: White nationalists have since seen the Turner Diaries as both 434 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,840 Speaker 2: an accurate description of the modern world and as a 435 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,439 Speaker 2: manual on how to win a race war. From nineteen 436 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:25,240 Speaker 2: eighty three to nineteen eighty four, The Order, a white 437 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:29,119 Speaker 2: supremacist terrorist group that took its name from the Secret Circle. 438 00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:34,440 Speaker 2: The fictional Earl Turner joins, robbed a pornography shop, banks, 439 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,879 Speaker 2: and armored cars, hoisting more than eight million dollars. They 440 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 2: later distributed to several white supremacist groups with the intent 441 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,200 Speaker 2: of funding a white revolution. Along the way, they assassinated 442 00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:49,320 Speaker 2: Jewish radio talk show hosts Alan Berg. The Turner Diary 443 00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,320 Speaker 2: became the favorite novel of Timothy McVeigh, a bitter, disgruntled 444 00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:56,359 Speaker 2: veteran in the nineteen ninety one Gulf War who saw 445 00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,240 Speaker 2: the deadly confrontation between the FBI and the Bureau of 446 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,000 Speaker 2: Alcohol to back firearms and the gun totting branch Davidian 447 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:06,840 Speaker 2: religious sect in Waco, Texas. On April nineteenth, nineteen ninety 448 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,520 Speaker 2: three as a major step and a government plan to 449 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,480 Speaker 2: seize firearms from law abiding Americans. 450 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,160 Speaker 3: McVeigh had spent years selling copies of The Turner Diaries 451 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,440 Speaker 3: at gun shows. He retaliated against what he saw as 452 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,879 Speaker 3: his government oppressors by blowing up the Alfred Murrah Federal 453 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,280 Speaker 3: Building in Oklahoma City on the second anniversary of the 454 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:30,000 Speaker 3: Waco configuration. He used a truck bomb, facing his attack 455 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,480 Speaker 3: in part on the fictitious bombings of the FBI headquarters 456 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 3: in William Pierce's novel The Turner Diaries also depicted a 457 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:41,120 Speaker 3: deadly attack on the US Capitol. Some of the pro 458 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,880 Speaker 3: Trump rioters who assaulted the Capitol on January sixth erected 459 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:49,160 Speaker 3: gallows and livestreamed their crimes as they joked about hanging politicians, 460 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:52,200 Speaker 3: comparing it to the day of rope, Pierce described in 461 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:55,040 Speaker 3: his pro Nazi work of fiction, Stay. 462 00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:59,480 Speaker 5: With Us through This ad Break to learn more. 463 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,840 Speaker 2: Kennedy was a classic Cold War liberal in support of 464 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:14,280 Speaker 2: an aggressive military intervention to stop Communist expansion abroad, and 465 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,520 Speaker 2: with varying degrees, a commitment economic and civil rights reforms 466 00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:22,240 Speaker 2: at home. But because of his assassination by the twenty 467 00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:25,200 Speaker 2: first century, many on the far right saw as a 468 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:29,480 Speaker 2: martyr to the liberal deep state. Beginning in twenty seventeen, 469 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:33,760 Speaker 2: a very online far right conspiracy theory arose that centered 470 00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:37,600 Speaker 2: on cryptic messages first posted on the four chan message 471 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,760 Speaker 2: board and then on eight chan by an anonymous person 472 00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:44,840 Speaker 2: who identified themselves as Q. The pseudonym was a reference 473 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:49,160 Speaker 2: to the Q Clearance, which gives government officials access to 474 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:52,920 Speaker 2: high level security secrets. Kennedy would be central in the 475 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,800 Speaker 2: imagination of what came to be known as the QAnon movement. 476 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:00,320 Speaker 3: Q or Q and on developed a huge following that 477 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:05,600 Speaker 3: interpreted these confusing and often contradictory posts as actually revealing 478 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,960 Speaker 3: a secret global cabal that included top Democrats like Hillary 479 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:13,959 Speaker 3: Clinton and liberal celebrities like Tom Hanks. These people were 480 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,440 Speaker 3: all accused of being a part of a child sex 481 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:20,440 Speaker 3: trafficking ring in which the young victims were molested and tortured, and, 482 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,160 Speaker 3: in some interpretations of the theories, had their precious bodily 483 00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:29,760 Speaker 3: fluids harvested to manufacture a drug known as adrenochrome, a 484 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:34,560 Speaker 3: drug that produces hallucinations and supposedly grants eternal youth. These 485 00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:39,400 Speaker 3: stories resembled anti Semitic legends about Jews kidnapping Christian children 486 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,920 Speaker 3: before passover in order to use their blood in Monza bread, 487 00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:47,240 Speaker 3: a trope or canard really that has become known as 488 00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:51,600 Speaker 3: blood libel in the QAnon mythology. Donald Trump plans to 489 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:56,480 Speaker 3: conduct mass arrests and executions of these Satanic child molesters 490 00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 3: in an event called the Storm. Trump has wing and 491 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,600 Speaker 3: nodded to the q and On movement, encouraged believers, and 492 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,760 Speaker 3: even incorporated some of its key slogans in imagery in 493 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,640 Speaker 3: speeches and posts online, such as where we go on, 494 00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 3: we go All and as I've reported for Rolling Stone, 495 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,080 Speaker 3: a cult like spinoff group of q and On believers 496 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,520 Speaker 3: have repeatedly gathered at Daley Plaza, the site of JFK's murder, 497 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:25,840 Speaker 3: to wait for the prophesied return of JFK and his son, 498 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:31,600 Speaker 3: JFK Junior, who both are dead but these believers think 499 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:36,200 Speaker 3: were either miraculously resurrected or never actually dined, and have 500 00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:40,360 Speaker 3: been secretly working with Trump to take down the aforementioned 501 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:45,920 Speaker 3: global Satanic pedophile cabal. Some believe that when JFK and 502 00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:48,800 Speaker 3: JFK Junior finally reveal themselves, a sort of Kingdom of 503 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,680 Speaker 3: Righteousness will reign and good will ultimately prevail over evil. 504 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:55,720 Speaker 2: Q and On believers were a heavy presence during the 505 00:31:55,720 --> 00:32:00,840 Speaker 2: Capitol Insurrection in January sixth, twenty twenty one, and banners 506 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:05,440 Speaker 2: competed with Trump and Confederate battle flags for attention. And 507 00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:09,920 Speaker 2: November that first year, we saw the first of series 508 00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:12,760 Speaker 2: rallies that Steve just referred to. They went to a 509 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:16,120 Speaker 2: Daley plaza where President Kennedy had been murdered fifty eight 510 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:20,360 Speaker 2: years earlier. Over the course of many months, QAnon disciples 511 00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:24,200 Speaker 2: kept returning to the site of JFK's death, some staying 512 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:26,760 Speaker 2: at a local hotel so they could be nearby when 513 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:30,880 Speaker 2: the Kennedy return happened. This was covered by Dallas ABC 514 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:36,160 Speaker 2: affiliate WFAA in November twenty twenty one. Reporter Kevin Reese 515 00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:39,880 Speaker 2: interviewed some of the ones gathered at the Kennedy assassination site. 516 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:46,240 Speaker 9: Word on the street is that Junior JFK Junior will 517 00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:48,440 Speaker 9: show up and introduce his parents. 518 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:50,640 Speaker 5: You're expecting JFK Junior. 519 00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:53,040 Speaker 8: Absolutely, Okay, how is that going to happen? 520 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,040 Speaker 6: It never does. Are we going to see him today? 521 00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:58,160 Speaker 5: JFK Junior? 522 00:32:58,320 --> 00:32:59,880 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's whatever, we're hell of me. 523 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:02,400 Speaker 5: We're hope and to hope and pray, and then after 524 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:04,840 Speaker 5: that he'll probably be the vice president with Trump. 525 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:10,080 Speaker 2: Conspiracy theorists often pay a high personal price for beliefs 526 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,520 Speaker 2: that marginalize them from family, friends, and mainstream society. 527 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:18,400 Speaker 7: There was one real truth several of these people agreed 528 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:20,480 Speaker 7: to talk about. But you got to understand that most 529 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:22,920 Speaker 7: of the world is going to think that's just crazy. 530 00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:25,520 Speaker 9: That's why half my family won't talk to me anymore. 531 00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:29,880 Speaker 9: Then one my girlfriend thinks I've lost my mind. 532 00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:32,400 Speaker 2: With the return of Donald Trump to the White House 533 00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:36,520 Speaker 2: on January twentieth, conspiracy theories will move from the fringe 534 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:40,440 Speaker 2: to the seat of power. JFK Junior won't emerge and 535 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 2: grab the reins, but a different Kennedy will. Bobby Kennedy Junior. 536 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 2: Bobby Kennedy Junior has insisted that Wi FI causes cancer 537 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:53,440 Speaker 2: and that AIDS might not be caused by HIV vaccines. 538 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:59,400 Speaker 2: He claims against overwhelming evidence, cause autism, antidepressants caused school shootings, 539 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,880 Speaker 2: and micals and water lead to gender dysphoria. One of 540 00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,920 Speaker 2: these chemicals, RFK Junior insist might be an old obsession 541 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:09,319 Speaker 2: of the conspiratorial right. 542 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:15,400 Speaker 6: I think fluoride is a poison becauses loss IQ in 543 00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,160 Speaker 6: our developmental injuries. I think florid is. 544 00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:22,719 Speaker 3: On the way up. RFK Junior mind You is the 545 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,799 Speaker 3: nominee for the head of the Department of Health and 546 00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 3: Human Services and in a recent interview claimed that he 547 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:34,160 Speaker 3: was aided in his schoolwork through the recreational self medication 548 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:39,680 Speaker 3: of heroin. Trump has himself obsessively promoted his own sinister 549 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:43,040 Speaker 3: tales of the deep state that supposedly stole the twenty 550 00:34:43,080 --> 00:34:45,759 Speaker 3: twenty election from him, and as we have said, has 551 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:48,440 Speaker 3: co opted some of the slogans of the QAnon movement. 552 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:52,320 Speaker 3: None of this, obviously, was disqualifying to a plurality of 553 00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:56,080 Speaker 3: voters this past November. So why are people drawn to 554 00:34:56,120 --> 00:35:01,480 Speaker 3: conspiracy theories? First off, they provide convenient explanations that can 555 00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,920 Speaker 3: be broken down into sort of simple logics for people 556 00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:08,480 Speaker 3: who may not have frameworks for understanding a complex world. 557 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 3: And they also provide believers sort of new family and 558 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:17,400 Speaker 3: friends as they become increasingly alienated from their original family 559 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:21,440 Speaker 3: and friends, regardless of whatever plots they believe they have revealed. 560 00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:26,160 Speaker 3: It's clear that conspiracy theorists of this sort. They don't 561 00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:29,759 Speaker 3: believe that history is a product of class conflict, or 562 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:36,200 Speaker 3: imperialism or the global scramble for natural resources, not ahing 563 00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:40,600 Speaker 3: like that. It's not shaped by political and economic alliances 564 00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:46,120 Speaker 3: between elites, or irreversible transformations and technology that render old 565 00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:51,240 Speaker 3: job skills irrelevant. There's no material analysis. All of this loss, 566 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,640 Speaker 3: all this fear, all this terrifying disruption of what is 567 00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:59,520 Speaker 3: comfortably routine, they view, stems from a sinister plot, a 568 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:05,440 Speaker 3: plan that is hidden tightly by a small circle of elites, 569 00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:09,520 Speaker 3: sort of cartoon villains with near superpowers that control the world. 570 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,840 Speaker 3: And if only the right people, the sort of heroes 571 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:16,279 Speaker 3: of the story of the movie that they think that 572 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,239 Speaker 3: they're watching, if only those people would step forward and 573 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:22,439 Speaker 3: pull off the mask of the villains, then everything would 574 00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:23,200 Speaker 3: be set right. 575 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:28,000 Speaker 2: These enemies of freedom somehow pull all the strings in 576 00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:32,080 Speaker 2: sight unseen, manipulate every aspect of the world's politics, culture, 577 00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:38,680 Speaker 2: and finance, manipulate elections, engineer depressions, urban riots, and even hurricanes. 578 00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:42,920 Speaker 2: Yet for all their cleverness, they leave just enough clues 579 00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:46,240 Speaker 2: so that amateur sleuths, if they are just smart enough, 580 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:51,320 Speaker 2: can crack the code. Conspiracy theories make history and understandable 581 00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:55,480 Speaker 2: contests between ruthless bad guys and intrepid heroes, who then 582 00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:59,560 Speaker 2: feel superior because they've unveiled the master plan. As they 583 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:04,480 Speaker 2: discover kindred spirits, they find community otherwise lacking in their lives. Perhaps, 584 00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,800 Speaker 2: if just enough people know about the conspiracy, they hope 585 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:11,280 Speaker 2: the bad guys will fall and the millennium will follow. 586 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,800 Speaker 2: That fantasy offers a simpler, more emotionally satisfying vision of 587 00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:19,799 Speaker 2: the future than planning on how to dismantle capitalism or 588 00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:23,280 Speaker 2: figuring out how to persuade white people, for instance, surrender 589 00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:28,120 Speaker 2: their privileges that come with skin color. Conspiracy theories are 590 00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:32,799 Speaker 2: mostly a distraction, but unfortunately they are often from Oklahoma 591 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,920 Speaker 2: City to the US capital, a call for deadly action. 592 00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:39,880 Speaker 3: And while figures like hl hunt and their operations like 593 00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:42,600 Speaker 3: Lifeline may be in the past, we have our own 594 00:37:42,719 --> 00:37:47,040 Speaker 3: contemporary versions of this with roots in Texas. We now 595 00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:51,400 Speaker 3: have Elon Musk who controls x formerly known as Twitter, 596 00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:54,840 Speaker 3: in which he has used his platform with millions of 597 00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:59,680 Speaker 3: followers to promote dangerous conspiracy theories like the Great Replacement theory, 598 00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,080 Speaker 3: which we recorded a previous episode of this podcast about. 599 00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:06,759 Speaker 3: Ultimately we are living in a culture that swims with 600 00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:10,439 Speaker 3: conspiracy theories, and for us to make our way out 601 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,239 Speaker 3: of the rabbit hole, we're going to need some sort 602 00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,879 Speaker 3: of framework for understanding the world, something that can help 603 00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:20,680 Speaker 3: us better understand how we got here and where we're going. 604 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:24,120 Speaker 3: And no matter what that is, it certainly won't be 605 00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:28,480 Speaker 3: something as simple as believing that we just have to 606 00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:31,680 Speaker 3: pull off the mask of some villain and then everything 607 00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:33,000 Speaker 3: will be set straight from there. 608 00:38:33,680 --> 00:38:35,600 Speaker 2: This is Michael Phillips and. 609 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:36,680 Speaker 3: This is Stephen Monticelli. 610 00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:38,000 Speaker 5: Thanks for listening. 611 00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:43,800 Speaker 1: It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. 612 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,200 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website 613 00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:50,520 Speaker 1: or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 614 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:53,880 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts. Can now find sources 615 00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:56,520 Speaker 1: for It could Happen Here, listed directly in episode descriptions. 616 00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:57,680 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.