1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:09,959 Speaker 1: Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast. That's it. 2 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 1: I've done my job. We're introduced. It's a podcast that's 3 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:20,080 Speaker 1: good work. Thank you. All right, I'm taking the day. 4 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 1: Everybody take five? All right, cool, see you back next week. Okay, 5 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: no talking about bad people, worst one history. He's all 6 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: of that in our space right now, so we can't. Well, 7 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: I guess we might as well talk more about the 8 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:37,520 Speaker 1: John Bird Society with me again. Are Dan in Jordan's 9 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: or George jan and Jordan's or Jordan's hosts of the 10 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 1: Alex Jones focused podcast Knowledge Fight, which I will probably 11 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:48,840 Speaker 1: be listening to when I go on a run right 12 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:55,840 Speaker 1: after this um brag. Hell yeah, hell yeah, someone has 13 00:00:55,880 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: an eyepaw I pod nano motherfucker's somebody is ambulatory. Congratulations. 14 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:10,320 Speaker 1: So we're talking about the JBS. And there's a quote 15 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:12,480 Speaker 1: that opens the book on the John Birch Society that 16 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,320 Speaker 1: I've been using as one of the sources for this episode, 17 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: The World of the John Birch Society, and the quote 18 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,120 Speaker 1: that opens the book is by a guy named Don DeLillo. Uh, 19 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:25,240 Speaker 1: A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It 20 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:26,680 Speaker 1: was a good quote to open a book about the 21 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 1: John Birch Society with because I've been thinking about it 22 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:32,080 Speaker 1: a lot, not just while writing this episode about the JBS, 23 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:34,840 Speaker 1: but in general, while thinking about, you know, everything that 24 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: the Birches wrought on American society, because what was actually 25 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 1: happening during the period of the John Birch Society's rise 26 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 1: to prominence was that a very fucked up world order 27 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: was establishing itself in the wake of all of that 28 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: post war promise. You know, people were broadly speaking kind 29 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:52,800 Speaker 1: of optimistic in sort of the wake of the Second 30 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 1: World War that like maybe mankind had turned a corner, 31 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: and that's why I fucked and had all those babies 32 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: that we have to deal with out. That's yeah, we 33 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:05,480 Speaker 1: the everyone decided to fucking raise the worst generation that 34 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:12,240 Speaker 1: ever existed, right, bunch of for the for if you 35 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,240 Speaker 1: were going to write a new John Birch Society book, 36 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: you could use a quote from me, which is like 37 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:19,600 Speaker 1: a bunch of dicks. Yeah, that's what That's what all 38 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: used to open my book about the John Birch Society 39 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: and about the Papa Sucker. So the era of the 40 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: Birch Society's chief period of relevance was also the era 41 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: in which the new deals started being slowly picked apart. Right, So, like, 42 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:35,400 Speaker 1: you know, we have an economic collapse, we institute this 43 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:39,320 Speaker 1: very robust program of of like a social safety net 44 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,399 Speaker 1: and protections for workers. And then in the post war era, 45 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 1: all these rich guys, many of whom were John Birch 46 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:49,280 Speaker 1: Society donors and sympathizers, dedicate their lives to tearing it apart. Now, 47 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: this period of time was also the period in which 48 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 1: the Cold War was that its most frightening. You know, 49 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 1: the height of the Vietnam War happens during sort of 50 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: the peak of the John Burt Society's relevance. Everything's kind 51 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: of going wrong in America in this period and in 52 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: this period right after things have been going really well, 53 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: at least by the perspective of white people, and a 54 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: lot of white people were like, what the hell happened? Well, yeah, 55 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: exactly like communism. Yeah, you got it. While he's causing 56 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: all of the things that are bad to happen, he 57 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: blames it on communism. Yeah, it's fucking smart, man. So 58 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: because of all this innocence, innocence, it's smart. Yeah, I mean, 59 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:31,960 Speaker 1: being terrible is it is a skill? You know? Definitely, man, 60 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:35,200 Speaker 1: it was turned timestables when he was four years old. 61 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: He's clever. That's why again, you got to slow down 62 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:42,480 Speaker 1: the smart kids. You know, I'm not gonna say smart 63 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: children deserve head injuries, but you know then don't well 64 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: stop just yeah stop, just sort of there no no 65 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: helmets for the smart kids, right? Can I ask? Are you? 66 00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 1: Are you saying that for periods of time you should 67 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: deprive smart children of air? Yeah? Yeah, exactly, exactly. That's 68 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: a nice, not legally actionable way of describing it. Make 69 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,720 Speaker 1: all children deep sea divers and have them deal with 70 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: the bends every now and again. Yeah, don't don't forcibly 71 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: restrict them from air, but make them do wreck diving 72 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:23,800 Speaker 1: and get nitrogen poisons. That's my that's how we fix society. Yeah, 73 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:25,720 Speaker 1: if if you think about it, back during this time, 74 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: they only used to paddle the kids who weren't succeeding 75 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:30,760 Speaker 1: in school. And now where are we if we had 76 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,279 Speaker 1: reversed it around. What if they paddled kids for doing 77 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 1: too well at school? I think anybody would be ashamed 78 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 1: of succeeding. But then that's how we should live. So um, 79 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,120 Speaker 1: because of all this, I actually think that Bob Welch 80 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: was actually a different sort of conspiracy theorist from most 81 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,279 Speaker 1: of his followers. Uh. You know, the bulk of rank 82 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,760 Speaker 1: and file Bircher's were conservative Americans who had been brainwashed 83 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 1: into an irrational fear of communism, and we're willing to 84 00:04:57,880 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: believe that it was the cause of all of their 85 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:03,520 Speaker 1: problems when it, in general was not. Bob Welch and 86 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:05,520 Speaker 1: his inner circle, the guys who got to read the 87 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: politician were the kind of rich and powerful men who 88 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: saw any refusal of the people of the world to 89 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:13,680 Speaker 1: bow to their whims as communism. And when you think 90 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:16,960 Speaker 1: about it that way, Welch's hatred of Eisenhower makes sense 91 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: because I wanted to live in a society and Bob 92 00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: Welch did not. He wanted to be a feudal lord, right, 93 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,040 Speaker 1: like a lot of criticisms about Eisenhower, But Eisenhower wanted 94 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 1: to live in a society that provided benefits for the 95 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: people living inside of it, and Bob Welch said, funck 96 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: that um. And meanwhile, the followers of the John Birch 97 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:38,120 Speaker 1: society were more of the why is our society sucks 98 00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:40,599 Speaker 1: so bad? It must be the communists, not the people 99 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:44,799 Speaker 1: deliberately tearing it apart brick by brick probably like our leader. 100 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,479 Speaker 1: That's good, that would make sense. Yeah, it's the difference 101 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:50,640 Speaker 1: between the like consumer and the producer of the theory, 102 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 1: like that disconnected that isn't clear to the followers necessarily 103 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:58,279 Speaker 1: of like what you're being what path you're actually being 104 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,480 Speaker 1: led down? Yeah. I think that's why Bill Gates has 105 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,080 Speaker 1: a podcast now so he can really clear things up. 106 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:06,799 Speaker 1: My coworker, Bill Gates in the podcast. I am excited 107 00:06:06,839 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: to have him on the episode about Peter Teeal. That 108 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:14,000 Speaker 1: is gonna be some spicy conversation. See. Now, if you 109 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:16,520 Speaker 1: could get him on the episode about him, that would 110 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:18,839 Speaker 1: be a huge get. It would be fun to get 111 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:21,880 Speaker 1: Bill Gates on the podcast and then just scream at 112 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:27,159 Speaker 1: him about like Windows XP for an hour and a half, 113 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: nothing about like the any of the actual crimes he 114 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,840 Speaker 1: committed as the CEO of Migrant just like really hammer 115 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:38,039 Speaker 1: him on XP. This was not intuitive software. Goddamnit. He's 116 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:44,040 Speaker 1: just crying by the end of it. Uh. In nineteen 117 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 1: sixty President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected President of the 118 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:49,640 Speaker 1: United States. I shouldn't have said president was elected president. 119 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 1: You know what? I mean JFK became the president in 120 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:56,200 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty. Yeah, he wasn't that famous. In the years 121 00:06:56,200 --> 00:06:58,920 Speaker 1: before he was gunned down by Bernie Sanders. He enacted 122 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:01,239 Speaker 1: a broadly progressive at genda. Except for all the saber 123 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:05,040 Speaker 1: rattling at communists and hard workhold warrior ship. Most reasonable 124 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: people can look at JFK's legacy and acknowledge that he 125 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:11,200 Speaker 1: did some reckless violent ship in the name of fighting communism. 126 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:14,120 Speaker 1: One of those reckless violence things would be getting us 127 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: into Vietnam, which didn't work out super well. Some might 128 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:22,320 Speaker 1: say well with the smooth as as Dan likes to say. 129 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:25,840 Speaker 1: You know, Robert Welch looked at JFK, who again brought 130 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: us to the brink of nuclear war and got us 131 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,120 Speaker 1: into Vietnam in order to fight communism. He looked at JFK. 132 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:34,680 Speaker 1: And because JFK was like, I guess we'll will give 133 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:36,840 Speaker 1: the civil rights movements some of what they want, Bob 134 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: Welch was like, that motherfucker's a communist. Time that motherfucker 135 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:46,640 Speaker 1: is a communist. So this is not to say. And 136 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 1: in fairness to Bob Welch, he did not think that 137 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 1: JFK's opponent Richard Nixon was any better to Welch. JFK 138 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:55,920 Speaker 1: was a stooge of Walter Reuther, the leader of the 139 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: United Auto Workers Association, while Nixon was a stooge of 140 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: New Sin Rockefeller, then the governor of New York. Welch 141 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: felt that the nineteen sixty election was just a referendum 142 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: on whether Wreather or Rockefeller would be the boss of 143 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: the United States under a one world international socialist government. 144 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:15,280 Speaker 1: Man that guy did not see Soros coming at all, 145 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:22,160 Speaker 1: swinging in to steal both those Yeah, yeah, Sori sorosn 146 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:28,160 Speaker 1: opening and he just whoa, yeah, it's very funny. It's 147 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:30,560 Speaker 1: very funny how scared people used to be of unions 148 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:36,960 Speaker 1: before they got destroyed. So Welch had organized his society 149 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,600 Speaker 1: into revolutionary cells in order to fight that's international socialist 150 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:43,600 Speaker 1: government he believed was taking over the United States. Their 151 00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:47,160 Speaker 1: primary weapon was the force of perceived public outrage, which 152 00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:50,400 Speaker 1: they wielded in a variety of ways. From the world 153 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: of the John Birch Society quote, Welch had in mind 154 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:56,120 Speaker 1: for how the John Birch Society might resist the depredations 155 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:59,679 Speaker 1: of the communist conspiracy while awakening the apathetic and brain 156 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:02,480 Speaker 1: way American people to what was actually going on around them, 157 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:06,120 Speaker 1: including the use of front organizations, little fronts, big fronts, 158 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: temporary fronts, permanent fronts, all kinds of fronts, he wrote, 159 00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:12,200 Speaker 1: as well as the employment of petitions, massive letter writing campaigns, 160 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:15,600 Speaker 1: and other methods of exposure. It was time, Welsch believed, 161 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:18,680 Speaker 1: for an organization which has the backbone and cohesiveness and 162 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:22,000 Speaker 1: strength and definiteness of direction, to put its weight into 163 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: the political scales of this country just as fast and 164 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,560 Speaker 1: as far as we could in order to reverse the 165 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:31,199 Speaker 1: gradual surrender of the United States to communism. But because 166 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:34,319 Speaker 1: Welch always saw the Birch Society as an educational organization 167 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:36,680 Speaker 1: as much as a political one, he also wanted to 168 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:40,199 Speaker 1: establish a speaker's bureau and a national network of reading 169 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:42,880 Speaker 1: rooms where the best anti communist books, including his own, 170 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:45,560 Speaker 1: could be purchased or consulted, and to expand the reach 171 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:49,560 Speaker 1: of conservative periodicals such as American Opinion, the Dan Smoot Report, 172 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:54,680 Speaker 1: and William F. Buckley Jr's National Review Until later, Until later, 173 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,400 Speaker 1: Yeah until later, Yeah, that's He was also one of 174 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:03,160 Speaker 1: the first backers of conservative radio broadcasters, which in that 175 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:06,440 Speaker 1: period was a guys called named Fulton Lewis and Clarence Mannion. 176 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:09,520 Speaker 1: But like he's very much on the cutting edge of 177 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: like you can you can see what Welch is actually 178 00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:15,680 Speaker 1: doing here as the first organized start of what became 179 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:19,040 Speaker 1: the right wing media sphere that's like now an entire 180 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: galaxy unto itself. Bob Bursch is the first guy that says, 181 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:24,640 Speaker 1: number one, we need this and we need to be 182 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:29,680 Speaker 1: tying like radio broadcasters and conservative magazines and and right 183 00:10:29,679 --> 00:10:32,679 Speaker 1: wing like books together. We need to be building places 184 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:35,520 Speaker 1: where right wing thinkers can gather and people can go 185 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:37,960 Speaker 1: and find their work. Like this is an important part 186 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:42,240 Speaker 1: of actually taking over society and twitter turning it he's 187 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:44,680 Speaker 1: described as turning it away from communism. But like he 188 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:46,720 Speaker 1: he he foresaw what needed to be done, and he 189 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:49,160 Speaker 1: was really the first guy to proceed with doing it. 190 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,480 Speaker 1: It's like, you do all this stuff because you know 191 00:10:51,600 --> 00:10:55,000 Speaker 1: that whatever you're doing wouldn't pass muster at like a 192 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:59,920 Speaker 1: regular place publisher. You have to create your own industries 193 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,240 Speaker 1: because what you're doing is is ludicrous, uh, and you 194 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:06,440 Speaker 1: want to pass off this ludicrous ship. Yeah, and the 195 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:10,000 Speaker 1: right wing always has an inherent advantage there whenever it 196 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: comes to media because the ideas they want to consolidate 197 00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: thought into a single thing, whereas the left wing media 198 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 1: is ostensibly about uh, I guess sharing ideas to see 199 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:23,200 Speaker 1: you who can do well. I don't know, but it's 200 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:27,040 Speaker 1: it's a it's a way of creating a unified thought 201 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:31,080 Speaker 1: process for all of these right wing people's yeah, yeah, 202 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 1: it's good ship. And he's you know, he's a real 203 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:36,160 Speaker 1: good ship. It's either good ship or cult ship of 204 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:40,960 Speaker 1: the Oh you said cult ship. That's what I heard. 205 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:43,800 Speaker 1: It's a trail blazer. You gotta give him that, you know, 206 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:47,720 Speaker 1: he blazes a trail, a bad trail. It's a trail 207 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:49,679 Speaker 1: to like it's a trail to like one of those 208 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:53,559 Speaker 1: like somebody's septic tank has like flooded into a depression 209 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 1: in the earth and created like a little lake of feces. 210 00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 1: Like it's a trail to a ship lake. But it 211 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:02,520 Speaker 1: is a trail that he is blazed. He had machete 212 00:12:02,559 --> 00:12:04,599 Speaker 1: his way through some underbrush to get to that poop. Like. 213 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:06,800 Speaker 1: One of the one of the things I loved about 214 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 1: that quote you just read was the idea that he's 215 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:11,520 Speaker 1: talking about how they have to create all these front 216 00:12:11,559 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 1: groups and you know like that in particular because I've 217 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,520 Speaker 1: read a bunch of John Birch materials and people who 218 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:19,920 Speaker 1: are associated with them, and one of the hallmarks of 219 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,319 Speaker 1: their accusations is that everything is a front group for communism, 220 00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 1: and they never prove any of it. It's always just 221 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:28,360 Speaker 1: everything as a front group. And I think a lot 222 00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:31,120 Speaker 1: of that comes out of the like awareness of yeah, 223 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:33,280 Speaker 1: like this is the mentality that we have. We have 224 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:37,000 Speaker 1: to create front groups of people. Don't associate this with us. Yeah, 225 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:39,360 Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a great ideas. Whenever you're like, 226 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 1: we can't let anybody know about these, it's simultaneously a 227 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:47,280 Speaker 1: tactic and something that I think happens just it happens 228 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,240 Speaker 1: automatically when you're doing that. Like number one, it's a 229 00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 1: tactic because if you accuse people of what you're doing, 230 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:57,800 Speaker 1: it distracts and justifies your actions. But also if you're 231 00:12:57,840 --> 00:13:00,199 Speaker 1: doing that sort of ship, you assume everyone else is 232 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:01,960 Speaker 1: because you don't want to you don't want to have 233 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:06,080 Speaker 1: your are we of the baddies moment, and also you 234 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 1: want to think it's a good idea, so your enemy 235 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 1: has to use the good idea. They can't be doing something. 236 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:15,120 Speaker 1: I mean, it's objectively state exactly. The thing is like 237 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:17,200 Speaker 1: part of why I didn't push back normally when I 238 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:19,720 Speaker 1: read about one of my you know, bastards being a 239 00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 1: child prodigy, I pushed back because they're usually dumb as shit. 240 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: This is a good idea, it works like it took 241 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:29,880 Speaker 1: a long time. It didn't happen in Bob Bocha's lifetime, 242 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:33,760 Speaker 1: but his plan worked very well. That's true. That's true, 243 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,440 Speaker 1: Like you happen to be you gotta give it up 244 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:39,800 Speaker 1: to the Somali pirates. Every ye, you just got to 245 00:13:39,800 --> 00:13:42,160 Speaker 1: give it up to the Somali pirates. He didn't probably 246 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:44,280 Speaker 1: come up with a ton of all of this though, 247 00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:48,600 Speaker 1: like he's yeah, you can figurehead of a lot of it. 248 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 1: But like a lot of those early CEOs from the 249 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:55,040 Speaker 1: National Association of Manufacturers, probably I would suspect had a 250 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,040 Speaker 1: bit more to do with some of the crafting of 251 00:13:57,080 --> 00:13:59,679 Speaker 1: these ideas. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say exact 252 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,000 Speaker 1: because the there obviously secret conversations between men plotting and 253 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:07,200 Speaker 1: secret um. None call that a conspiracy, None would dare 254 00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:11,360 Speaker 1: call that a conspiracy. But I do think, like obviously, 255 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,400 Speaker 1: like the fact that welch, the fact that he got 256 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:18,920 Speaker 1: people together in a he got right wing moneyed interests together. 257 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:22,520 Speaker 1: Two incide in a concerted way. We have to forcibly 258 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 1: tilt this culture right, and it's going to be a 259 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:31,160 Speaker 1: mix of tactics, including creating a propaganda empire that sounds 260 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:36,040 Speaker 1: oddly similar to some country I remember right around, Yeah, 261 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:38,640 Speaker 1: a country that Bob Welch probably would have been pretty 262 00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:43,240 Speaker 1: happy and pretty course, you know, yeah, I don't know, 263 00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:46,200 Speaker 1: you know, it's it's it's hard to say how much 264 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:49,280 Speaker 1: because like, obviously you get the like you look at 265 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:51,960 Speaker 1: Fred Coke, remember the John Birch Society. Fred Coke's kids 266 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:55,000 Speaker 1: go on to do more effectively what Bob Welch tried 267 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,920 Speaker 1: to do his whole life. Were they copying Bob Welch 268 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,480 Speaker 1: or were they copying their fathers? Who the guy who 269 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:02,680 Speaker 1: gave Bob Wot's the idea? We don't. I don't really know. 270 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 1: But also Fred Cooke didn't stay around for all that 271 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:09,880 Speaker 1: long with no he made the best decision of his 272 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:14,560 Speaker 1: life and died. Yeah, yeah, I feel like I made 273 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:16,960 Speaker 1: the best decision of our lives. Yeah, I feel like 274 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,840 Speaker 1: I remembered something of him, like trying to distance himself 275 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:23,640 Speaker 1: at some point. Yeah, a number of Yeah, I believe 276 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:26,440 Speaker 1: he did. When like it became well, we'll talk about that, 277 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:28,960 Speaker 1: like the John Birch Society, you know, reaches its sell 278 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:34,200 Speaker 1: by date. So the campaign against Justice Earl Warren convinced 279 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:36,760 Speaker 1: many pundits and politicos that the John Birch Society was 280 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:40,120 Speaker 1: just as bad as the totalitarian communists they opposed. An 281 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:43,000 Speaker 1: editorial in the Chicago Sun Times described the content of 282 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:46,320 Speaker 1: many letters sent by their followers his evidence of brainwashing, 283 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:49,840 Speaker 1: which it was, you know, they're they're flooding people with 284 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:52,120 Speaker 1: letters that all sound the same, that all include the 285 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:54,320 Speaker 1: same sound bites. And it's not because they're being like 286 00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,000 Speaker 1: a lot of people think like, oh my god, they 287 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:58,920 Speaker 1: must have centralized a letter writing campaign. And I think 288 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:00,960 Speaker 1: it's more that all of these people are reading the 289 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:05,320 Speaker 1: same propaganda. You know. Um. Now, because the United States 290 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:07,240 Speaker 1: has always been the United States, there were those who 291 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:09,080 Speaker 1: are willing to stand up in public and defend the 292 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:12,800 Speaker 1: John Birch Society. South Carolina Democrat Mindel Rivers said they 293 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:15,720 Speaker 1: were justified because the Supreme Court's decision in Brown versus 294 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,280 Speaker 1: the Board of Education was effectively the death knell of 295 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:23,800 Speaker 1: the Constitution. No no, No, I'm just a simple Southan Democrat, 296 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:26,520 Speaker 1: but I think slavery is a great idea. If black 297 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:28,920 Speaker 1: people go to school, do we really have a country? 298 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:35,000 Speaker 1: So Welch was definitely a trail blazer in how to 299 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:38,800 Speaker 1: weaponize far right rage and the moral majority in its successors, 300 00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: like the Tea Party essentially used John Birch tactics in 301 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 1: order to get off the ground. You can see variants 302 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:46,600 Speaker 1: of these tactics and the far right's use of social 303 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,720 Speaker 1: media today. The idea behind it all remains the same. 304 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,800 Speaker 1: You try to popularize a fringe idea by setting off 305 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 1: a blizzard of generated outrage that has the effect of 306 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:58,600 Speaker 1: making your cause seem more popular than it is. You know, 307 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:01,520 Speaker 1: in the nineteen six these it's get thousands of John 308 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,320 Speaker 1: Berger's to write letters to the same handful of politicians. 309 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:08,359 Speaker 1: Nowadays it's flood comments sections and whatnot with like you know, 310 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:12,119 Speaker 1: hot takes and ship It's it's swarmed people on Twitter 311 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:16,160 Speaker 1: or whatever. But it's the same idea, um and if 312 00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:19,080 Speaker 1: you just repeats something loud enough and often enough enough, 313 00:17:19,119 --> 00:17:21,399 Speaker 1: people will believe it's true that you can move forward 314 00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:23,960 Speaker 1: with it. Yeah, it's the reason that human society is 315 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:30,760 Speaker 1: destined to go increasingly better places. Yep, so uh. Welch 316 00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:33,000 Speaker 1: was also a trailblazer when it came to infecting the 317 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 1: minds of children with his nonsense. In September of nineteen 318 00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:38,560 Speaker 1: sixty he started advising his followers to get elected to 319 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,880 Speaker 1: local PTA boards all around the country. That way they'd 320 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:43,760 Speaker 1: have a say in how their children were taught about 321 00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 1: history and politics, and then give them candy. Yeah, hey, kids, 322 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:52,840 Speaker 1: you want to Papa sucker, get on over here. You 323 00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:54,840 Speaker 1: know who's trying to keep the Papa suckers away from you, 324 00:17:56,119 --> 00:18:02,480 Speaker 1: Oh Joe Stalin. In August of nineteen sixty one, Welch 325 00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:06,560 Speaker 1: announced a John Birch Society essay contest open to undergraduate 326 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:09,480 Speaker 1: students around the nation. The author of the best essay 327 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 1: on why Earl Warren should be impeached would win in 328 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:18,239 Speaker 1: price money. Oh yeah, you really can't. And again, the 329 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 1: fact that he hates Earl Warren more than he's hated 330 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,080 Speaker 1: anyone else in his life is just because of Brown 331 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:27,159 Speaker 1: versus the Board of Education. There's a there's a long 332 00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:31,560 Speaker 1: chain and string and recurring theme that you'll always see 333 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:35,480 Speaker 1: throughout all this is like severe opposition to civil rights, 334 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:39,560 Speaker 1: just being created around is against communists. You can make 335 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:43,080 Speaker 1: an extremely strong case that the entire modern right wing 336 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:45,800 Speaker 1: was born out of a desire to stop black people 337 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,440 Speaker 1: from going to write white schools, because the Moral Majority's 338 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:52,600 Speaker 1: primary founding goal was to stop Oral Roberts University from 339 00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:55,280 Speaker 1: having to take black students. Like that was like the 340 00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,440 Speaker 1: main reason that the Moral Majority started. Like it's all 341 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,280 Speaker 1: it all comes back to, why can't we just have 342 00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:07,160 Speaker 1: white people in our rich kids schools? Good stuff. So, 343 00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:09,359 Speaker 1: but Welch told The New York Times his goal was 344 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:11,640 Speaker 1: to quote stir up a great deal of interest among 345 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:14,879 Speaker 1: conservatives on the campuses of the dangers that faced this country. 346 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: And you can see this as essentially a precursor to 347 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:20,920 Speaker 1: something like turning point USA right. He felt that US 348 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:24,160 Speaker 1: colleges were filled with Marxists and he wanted to try 349 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,280 Speaker 1: and encourage conservative thinking among young college dudes. So he 350 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,240 Speaker 1: started like giving people thousands of dollars to write essays 351 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 1: about white Earl Warren as the devil. So it's a 352 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:36,159 Speaker 1: racist to the bottom. If you only if only he 353 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:42,280 Speaker 1: hadn't got Frankfurter, if I like, everything could have been 354 00:19:42,280 --> 00:19:44,280 Speaker 1: different if you just had a different professor that he 355 00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:47,320 Speaker 1: didn't fight with a man. Another reason. Hot dogs make 356 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:51,239 Speaker 1: me feel sick. Come on, now, come on, here we go. 357 00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: So do you have a rimshot sound? She wouldn't even 358 00:19:56,640 --> 00:20:03,520 Speaker 1: give me air horns anymore. So, uh yeah. The good 359 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:06,680 Speaker 1: news about Welch's plan to infect the minds of college 360 00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:08,880 Speaker 1: students is that back in the nineteen sixties at least 361 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:11,639 Speaker 1: a few things about America were actually better. And he 362 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:14,280 Speaker 1: was met by stiff resistance from all sides for trying 363 00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,360 Speaker 1: to infect the minds of impressionable children. So that's nice 364 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,719 Speaker 1: he actually push back on that's uh. I presume whenever 365 00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:23,240 Speaker 1: they were like, well, we should not send our kids 366 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:25,639 Speaker 1: to colleges at all anymore and we should a home 367 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,200 Speaker 1: school them. Yeah, I think a lot of that has 368 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,359 Speaker 1: its genesis, and this to be honest. The president of 369 00:20:31,359 --> 00:20:34,880 Speaker 1: the Bar Association condemned Robert Welch for the contests personal 370 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:37,680 Speaker 1: vilification of one of the chief officers of our government. 371 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:41,880 Speaker 1: Roscoe Drummond, and nationally syndicated columnist called the society radical 372 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:45,800 Speaker 1: and reckless. The early nineteen sixties were also a period 373 00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,600 Speaker 1: in which the mainstream media increasingly turned its eyes towards 374 00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:52,040 Speaker 1: the John Birch Society. Maybley's investigation had sort of opened 375 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,080 Speaker 1: the floodgates. In early nineteen sixty one, the Santa Barbara 376 00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:59,119 Speaker 1: News Press published an investigation. The reporter Hans Eng wrote 377 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:01,199 Speaker 1: that the group had started at a cell in Santa 378 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,679 Speaker 1: Barbara the previous year, operating in semi secret existence and 379 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: creating several chapters. Because most reporters have always been somewhat 380 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,880 Speaker 1: derivative things piece mostly focused on the politician and Welch's 381 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:14,320 Speaker 1: wacky theories about Eisenhower, because that was the stuff that 382 00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:17,159 Speaker 1: was easiest to mock. Meanwhile, the more insidious work the 383 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:19,840 Speaker 1: John Birch Society did drew little attention to his credit. 384 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:22,480 Speaker 1: Ang did report that in September of nineteen sixty Welch 385 00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:24,920 Speaker 1: advised his members to take over local p t A 386 00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:27,959 Speaker 1: s The Post News as editor, A guy named Thomas 387 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:30,200 Speaker 1: Stork spent the next several months authoring a series of 388 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,160 Speaker 1: damning editorials about the society, stating that democracy suffers when 389 00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: fear of communism leads to irresponsible, unsubstantiated charges of treason 390 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:42,520 Speaker 1: or evil connivance against our political, religious, educational, or cultural leaders, 391 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:44,679 Speaker 1: and that traders should be dealt with by the courts 392 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:48,159 Speaker 1: not by vigilante groups. That's good. Did he end that 393 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:52,119 Speaker 1: with which we learned from ten years ago when McCarthy 394 00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:55,440 Speaker 1: did it. We just did this guy, and we'll still 395 00:21:55,480 --> 00:22:00,280 Speaker 1: be learning in twenty will go. Let's talk to John 396 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:03,960 Speaker 1: Birch Society members and let them loudly and lengthily explain 397 00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:07,679 Speaker 1: their beliefs without any pushback. Yeah, yeah, let's pretend we 398 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:10,560 Speaker 1: haven't done this already. Put him on Rogan. Yeah. At 399 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:13,359 Speaker 1: least at this point in time, journalists were like, you know, 400 00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:20,280 Speaker 1: critical of fascists. So so, Mr Welch, you you let candy. 401 00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:26,480 Speaker 1: That's all you're known for, right, candy candy? Yeah? Yeah, 402 00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:31,800 Speaker 1: so I offer you a junior mint. Time magazine wrote 403 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,200 Speaker 1: the most damning article about the Society in the early 404 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:37,360 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, claiming that it operated under the hard boiled, 405 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,720 Speaker 1: dictatorial direction of one man, and pointing out that due 406 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,199 Speaker 1: to the Society's proven ability to organize its members and 407 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:45,840 Speaker 1: push them to considered action, they could not simply be 408 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:49,760 Speaker 1: dismissed as some sort of comic opera joke. Time magazine 409 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:53,120 Speaker 1: dubbed the politician Welch's mind comp and noted with fear 410 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,680 Speaker 1: that it's militant words and thoughts are barely a goose 411 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:59,160 Speaker 1: step away from the formation of goon squads. Time used 412 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,920 Speaker 1: to be Good magazine named Hitler man of the year. 413 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: So what will come on, man? I mean he was 414 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:09,280 Speaker 1: the man of a couple of years. Like, let's be 415 00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:15,159 Speaker 1: fairy here he was on the cover. The time is 416 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:21,600 Speaker 1: basically nazis. Yeah, so they should like the politician. Maybe 417 00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:23,359 Speaker 1: they were saying this in a positive It is the 418 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:25,440 Speaker 1: politician the man of the year back in this time. 419 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:29,919 Speaker 1: Maybe they're saying that it's here in a complimentary way. 420 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:39,280 Speaker 1: Is the best seller? Finally the new mine cop Uh. 421 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,080 Speaker 1: While the campaign to impeach Earl Warren fizzled out without 422 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:45,200 Speaker 1: any sort of success, around nineteen sixty two, Fewer Over 423 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,679 Speaker 1: the John Birch Society sparked calls in Congress for an 424 00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:54,840 Speaker 1: investigation into the group over fur over there, come on, now, 425 00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: get that get that sound effect, a little little, little, 426 00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:02,280 Speaker 1: little fewer joke there. So this actually led several of 427 00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:05,399 Speaker 1: uh like the fact that like all of this, you know, 428 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,160 Speaker 1: media comes out about the society forces several of its 429 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:10,439 Speaker 1: members who were highly placed in government, to go public 430 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,000 Speaker 1: basically to get ahead of news cycles, revealing that their 431 00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:15,960 Speaker 1: secret John Birch Society members. One of these guys is 432 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,320 Speaker 1: Representative Edgar high Stand, Republican from California. Uh. He identifies 433 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:22,520 Speaker 1: himself as a member of the society in March thirty, 434 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,000 Speaker 1: and he outs one of his fellow Californians are Republican 435 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: congressman named John Russelo as a member as well. Both 436 00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:32,280 Speaker 1: men say that they're like because there's also calls to 437 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:34,679 Speaker 1: investigate the society in this period because a lot of 438 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,560 Speaker 1: people are freaked out, and rightfully so, and we as yeah, 439 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:40,560 Speaker 1: they're weird as hell, and both of these guys are like, 440 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: we would love to be investigated. Please investigate us. Um. 441 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:46,720 Speaker 1: I think one of them actually jumped out of a 442 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:48,960 Speaker 1: window whenever he was caught at a twenty four person 443 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:51,960 Speaker 1: communist orgy. I'm pretty sure that's Isn't that how that 444 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:56,960 Speaker 1: one went to a h getting it in there? Dad, 445 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:01,040 Speaker 1: Like I would love this, Like there's hey, we're fine, 446 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:03,439 Speaker 1: anybody can investigate us, but I should tell you that 447 00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:07,200 Speaker 1: anybody who does is probably going to be called a communist. Yeah, 448 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:09,440 Speaker 1: and it's it's fun because like a lot of people 449 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:11,560 Speaker 1: are like, we should investigate these people, and the John 450 00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,240 Speaker 1: Birch Society is like, yes, please investigate us. And then 451 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:16,800 Speaker 1: like the Rabbinical Council of America is like, they should 452 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,679 Speaker 1: be investigated, but not publicly because all you're gonna do 453 00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:21,879 Speaker 1: is give them a big court platform to like let 454 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:26,920 Speaker 1: them ran to the country. Done, they will they remembered, 455 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,159 Speaker 1: let's say they remembered some ship that had happened like 456 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:34,800 Speaker 1: fifteen years ago ago. Hey, you know that thing that 457 00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: just finished happening. Maybe not, maybe we shouldn't let that 458 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:43,240 Speaker 1: happen immediately again. And thankfully, you know, there's not massive 459 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,879 Speaker 1: like they don't get their gigantic national platform in the 460 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,440 Speaker 1: way that they kind of hope there. So at that point, again, people, 461 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: we're smarter about some things back then. Now, Throughout this 462 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:54,800 Speaker 1: whole period of time, the John Burt Society grew and grew, 463 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,040 Speaker 1: signing up thousands of new members each year. All the 464 00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:01,080 Speaker 1: sunlight of attention did not eradicated. Interestingly enough, not the 465 00:26:01,119 --> 00:26:03,000 Speaker 1: best disinfectant. After all, I thought it was going to 466 00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,280 Speaker 1: do that to scientology, and here they still are. Huh, 467 00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:09,119 Speaker 1: it turns out sunlight's actually not a very effective disinfectant. 468 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: You know, it's a good disinfectant, yeah, four oh nine machetes, 469 00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:16,360 Speaker 1: no yeah, is this podcast brought to you by four 470 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,399 Speaker 1: oh nine. I mean, you know, at the end of 471 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,280 Speaker 1: the day, right hard day, long day, working working hard, 472 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,119 Speaker 1: kind of stressed out, you pour yourself a nice hot 473 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:26,119 Speaker 1: glass of four oh nine, squeeze a little bit of 474 00:26:26,119 --> 00:26:29,960 Speaker 1: living in there. It really just cleans you out. Anyway, 475 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:38,560 Speaker 1: we we accept all legal responsibility for this advice. Yeah, no, 476 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:46,240 Speaker 1: I think Sophie's fine with us. So yeah, that's why 477 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,440 Speaker 1: I think we're gonna get We're going to get that 478 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:54,040 Speaker 1: that big four oh nine endorsements. So they're gonna they're 479 00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:55,960 Speaker 1: gonna give us the big box. Because that's the thing 480 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:57,680 Speaker 1: I noticed the other day when I was in the 481 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:02,000 Speaker 1: grocery store, like four for nisles of beverages, like one 482 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:07,720 Speaker 1: different ale of solvents. So interesting, why don't you drink 483 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,840 Speaker 1: solvents and increase their profitability at least fourfold? First of 484 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:16,880 Speaker 1: all your grocery stores, actually stalked. Oh yeah, nobody lives 485 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,280 Speaker 1: up here, and a lot less people live out here 486 00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:25,200 Speaker 1: since they all started dying, um nine, since two thousand nineteen. Oh, 487 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:27,840 Speaker 1: I got quite a stockpile. I'll mail you some, but 488 00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:31,560 Speaker 1: you gotta drink some of it. No, it's good for 489 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:35,280 Speaker 1: you cleans out your insides. No, you're you're you're getting 490 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:38,760 Speaker 1: trumpy on me right now. Oh no, that's bleach. Bleach 491 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,040 Speaker 1: is totally different from four oh nine. It doesn't stain 492 00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:46,520 Speaker 1: your clothes when you vomited up. It is am on 493 00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:51,160 Speaker 1: your show? Is the four o nine gas lighting? Pick 494 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,360 Speaker 1: a winner? Is that one gonna stick around? A recurring bit? 495 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,200 Speaker 1: That's gonna It's not a bit, that's just life advice. 496 00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 1: People people enjoy lifestyle it vice from podcasters. Like if 497 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:03,880 Speaker 1: a lot of people are willing to take a podcaster's 498 00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:05,919 Speaker 1: advice on what pill you can take for your brains, 499 00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:09,000 Speaker 1: why not what sort of solvents you should drink? You're 500 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,520 Speaker 1: already you know, Like it's it's interesting that we've evolved 501 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:17,960 Speaker 1: from machettison onto uh cocktails. The key with a nice 502 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 1: cup of four o nine is you want a hot 503 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,600 Speaker 1: glass and you pour room timp four o nine into 504 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:24,960 Speaker 1: a hot glass, squeeze a little bit of lemon in. 505 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:32,720 Speaker 1: We call that a high ball. Also, yeah, Robert will 506 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:34,840 Speaker 1: not have I will tell you abola will not be 507 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 1: on your mind as a concern once you drink your 508 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:42,760 Speaker 1: first highball. Robert Evans never found a hole that didn't 509 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:45,680 Speaker 1: need to be dug deeper. Just can we just go 510 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,320 Speaker 1: to an ad brict while we call the podcast? Yeah, 511 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,880 Speaker 1: let's let's see what the fine people at Johnson and 512 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:53,160 Speaker 1: Johnson have to say about what kind of solvents you 513 00:28:53,240 --> 00:29:04,240 Speaker 1: can drink. Ah, we're back and I just took a 514 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:12,280 Speaker 1: nice lukewarm sip of four oh nine. So back to 515 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,960 Speaker 1: the John Birch Society. Uh So Yeah, they they, you know, 516 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,840 Speaker 1: blow up in the media and like the early nineteen sixties, Um, 517 00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:22,520 Speaker 1: they start getting all sorts of attention. Congressmen come out 518 00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:24,920 Speaker 1: saying there with the John Birch Society, and suddenly they're 519 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,720 Speaker 1: kind of like on the verge of breaking into the 520 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,760 Speaker 1: main stream. And this is very exciting to the worst 521 00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:33,280 Speaker 1: people on the right who suddenly have I feel like 522 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,520 Speaker 1: they have an excuse to be even shittier. Uh and 523 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: it's very frightening for people on the left. One of 524 00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:40,440 Speaker 1: those people is a little guy you might have heard 525 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,640 Speaker 1: of named Bob Dylan. In May of nineteen sixty three, 526 00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 1: he wrote a song about the John Birch Society titled 527 00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,840 Speaker 1: Talking about John Birch Society Blues. He planned that play 528 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 1: the song on the Ed Sullivan show, which was going 529 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:56,880 Speaker 1: to be his first televised appearance anywhere, so like a 530 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,200 Speaker 1: big stone. Yeah, he was gonna be on and he this. 531 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: He decides, I'm gonna play a song about how bad 532 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:06,280 Speaker 1: the John Birch Society is for my first moment Nirvana 533 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:11,320 Speaker 1: raped me on SNL moment. Yeah yeah, But CBS Standards 534 00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:14,160 Speaker 1: and Practices worried that the song was controversial, and they 535 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:16,800 Speaker 1: told Bob Dylan he could know what. We don't know 536 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:20,280 Speaker 1: what offend the fascists. Yeah, we don't don't these guys 537 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:23,000 Speaker 1: who were basically Nazis. And I will say this for 538 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:25,880 Speaker 1: Bob Dylan, in an act of actual courage, he refused 539 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,120 Speaker 1: to go on the Ed Sullivan Show at all rather 540 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:31,440 Speaker 1: than be censored. Um, so that's fun. Yeah, he turns 541 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:35,320 Speaker 1: down his first TV appearance because they're not probably worried 542 00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:39,000 Speaker 1: about insulting or offending the fascist as much as they're 543 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,840 Speaker 1: aware that these people are also the heads of industry. Yeah, 544 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:48,200 Speaker 1: their boss is a member of the fascist in a way, yeah, 545 00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:52,160 Speaker 1: in a way. So for years after this point, Bob 546 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:54,560 Speaker 1: Dylan would play the song every time he did a concert, 547 00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:57,040 Speaker 1: just as like a Now that's less. I don't think 548 00:30:57,080 --> 00:30:58,800 Speaker 1: he does it anymore because most people be like, who 549 00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:01,760 Speaker 1: the hell are you talking about? And He's like, the 550 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:05,280 Speaker 1: people who are running things now, you morons. Never like 551 00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:06,960 Speaker 1: the title of that song. I thought it was a 552 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:09,440 Speaker 1: little clunky, but it is. It's not a great song. 553 00:31:09,640 --> 00:31:12,200 Speaker 1: Like look, Bob Dylan has had an arc to his 554 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:15,480 Speaker 1: career and he was not his you know, yeah, yeah, 555 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:17,920 Speaker 1: there's I'm not a giant Bob Dylan fan, to be honest, 556 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:21,080 Speaker 1: but I would prefer a Gordon Lightfoot cover of the 557 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:36,320 Speaker 1: John app That'd be a fun eleven minute interlude just 558 00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:40,720 Speaker 1: singing the entire the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald instrumental 559 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:46,880 Speaker 1: breaks well. The story begins in China. Later, as money 560 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,280 Speaker 1: and members flowed into the John Birch Society, Bob Welch 561 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:51,800 Speaker 1: continued to experiment with new ways to make use of 562 00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,560 Speaker 1: the instrument he had so successfully built. The letter writing 563 00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,040 Speaker 1: campaign hadn't achieved its goal, but it had proven to 564 00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,480 Speaker 1: him that he could effectively mobilize his followers to real 565 00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:01,880 Speaker 1: world act, and following in that vein, he decided to 566 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: embark on his most ambitious project yet, a massive crowdsource 567 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:08,760 Speaker 1: list of every communist agent in the country. He told readers, 568 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 1: making lists of names is a great idea, crowdsourcing real 569 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,680 Speaker 1: democracy ship right there. You really don't want to vet 570 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:19,840 Speaker 1: any one of those names? Well, it's I mean, it's 571 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,280 Speaker 1: how you create the best list. Yes, it is also 572 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,720 Speaker 1: echoes of Bill Cooper in this, you know, echoes of 573 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:27,600 Speaker 1: his like a Caddy or whatever he called it, the 574 00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:31,560 Speaker 1: citizens and Cadgy, the Citizens Intelligence, echoes of Alex Jones 575 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,040 Speaker 1: in this. Yeah, Welch told readers in the bulletin, we 576 00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,480 Speaker 1: wished to build up and have available for all future 577 00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 1: research needs, the most complete and accurate files in America 578 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:44,440 Speaker 1: of the leading com simps communist sympathizers, socialists, and liberals 579 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:46,520 Speaker 1: on those who are trying to change the economic and 580 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:48,480 Speaker 1: political structure of this country so that it could be 581 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:52,240 Speaker 1: comfortably merged with Soviet Russia in a one world socialist government. 582 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,200 Speaker 1: And since we do not yet see any chance of 583 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,560 Speaker 1: putting a sufficiently sizeable staff to work on this job, 584 00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,600 Speaker 1: we have decided to make use of the energy, knowledge libraries, 585 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:05,040 Speaker 1: pamphlet collections, determination and dedication of our members instead. So smart, 586 00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:07,720 Speaker 1: that's so smart with these right wing conspiracies like you 587 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,520 Speaker 1: turn it into that augmented reality game like a game 588 00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:15,280 Speaker 1: before they had any idea. Now we've got citizens Sleuth's 589 00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,600 Speaker 1: dealing with the true crime podcasts. But it's fucking anti 590 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:22,200 Speaker 1: communist liars. So yeah, it's fucking awesome. And he estimated 591 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,040 Speaker 1: there about three hundred to five d thousand actual communists 592 00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,480 Speaker 1: in the country and another million dupes, allies and sympathizers. 593 00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:32,040 Speaker 1: Those numbers are not at all made up. He did 594 00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:35,760 Speaker 1: not just pull them completely out of his asshole. As 595 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,400 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four came, the John Birch Society was at 596 00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:40,640 Speaker 1: the apex of its power and influence. It was still 597 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:44,920 Speaker 1: widely reviled and condemned by most mainstream Democrats and Republicans, 598 00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:47,280 Speaker 1: as well as basically all of the media, but its 599 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:49,200 Speaker 1: first six years of life had proved that there was 600 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,480 Speaker 1: a strong hunger for the outright fascist politics and violent 601 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 1: anti left rhetoric of Bob Welch, and in the nineteen 602 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,000 Speaker 1: sixty four elections, the nascent far right was about to 603 00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:00,640 Speaker 1: get its first viable presidential camp at it in a 604 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:05,920 Speaker 1: fella named Barry Goldwater. He's good, he's good, he is 605 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:08,360 Speaker 1: a good dude. Well, I mean, what's wild is that 606 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:10,600 Speaker 1: he's basically a Democrat today but we'll talk about that 607 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:16,719 Speaker 1: at the right. Goldwater No, Barry Goldwater was an arch 608 00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:19,600 Speaker 1: conservative senator from Arizona. He was elected for the first 609 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:21,800 Speaker 1: time in nineteen fifty two, and for an idea of 610 00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:24,320 Speaker 1: the kind of spot he occupies in the conservative canon. 611 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,920 Speaker 1: Goldwater was directly succeeded in his job by John McCain, 612 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,360 Speaker 1: who praised Goldwater as the man who transformed the Republican 613 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,520 Speaker 1: Party from an eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground 614 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,360 Speaker 1: for the election of Ronald Reagan. I like that he 615 00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:41,480 Speaker 1: uses credit to John McCain ground makes it sound as 616 00:34:41,680 --> 00:34:44,879 Speaker 1: creepy and terrible as it is. Like I don't think 617 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,279 Speaker 1: he meant to use the right word there, but he 618 00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:50,239 Speaker 1: didn't convey the right feeling. I want to. I want 619 00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:53,040 Speaker 1: to congratulate this man on creating a cesspool of the 620 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:57,000 Speaker 1: best pa. He really, he really made like a bacterial 621 00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:01,160 Speaker 1: tide pool of filth that Ronald Reagan congeald out of 622 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:04,120 Speaker 1: and vomited his way into the national consciousness. And I 623 00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:08,279 Speaker 1: think that's great. I'm John McCain. I've crashed so many 624 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:13,480 Speaker 1: more planes than most people ever fly on and wives 625 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:17,960 Speaker 1: all right, Hey, So one thing that's important to keep 626 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:19,560 Speaker 1: in mind when we talk about the Republicans of the 627 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,279 Speaker 1: nineteen fifties and sixties is that the Deep South used 628 00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:25,080 Speaker 1: to be a Democratic stronghold. It started to switch during 629 00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:27,480 Speaker 1: lbj's time in office, and one of the reasons why 630 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:31,320 Speaker 1: it switched was old Berry g When he announced his 631 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:34,560 Speaker 1: campaign in January of nineteen sixty four, Goldwater was literally 632 00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:38,240 Speaker 1: in crutches from a recent bonespur operation. He made headlines 633 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:40,399 Speaker 1: for being one of the first, if not the very first, 634 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:43,640 Speaker 1: modern presidential candidates to launch a campaign from his house. 635 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,080 Speaker 1: The New York Times spent most of the page spade 636 00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:48,440 Speaker 1: of its article of this discussing how his wife had 637 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:50,760 Speaker 1: prepped for the big day to give you an idea 638 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,320 Speaker 1: of where Barry stood on the issues. On October sixteenth 639 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:55,000 Speaker 1: of that year, he gave a speech in the Midwest 640 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:57,759 Speaker 1: where he stated, in his first major talk on civil rights, 641 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:02,560 Speaker 1: forced integration, it's just as raw misforced segregation. Hey, here 642 00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:07,520 Speaker 1: we go, all right, what's really great is kind of 643 00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:11,240 Speaker 1: lightly ignored segregation. That's the sweet spot in the middle. 644 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,040 Speaker 1: Right there, we have segregation, and removing it would be 645 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,000 Speaker 1: as bad as having it. So let's just keep having it. Yeah, 646 00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:21,200 Speaker 1: don't throw the baby out with the racist bathwater. Come on, 647 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:23,440 Speaker 1: It's like showing up at the site of like a 648 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:26,120 Speaker 1: shooting while a paramedic is putting on a tourniquet and 649 00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:28,000 Speaker 1: being like, hey, man, putting that tourniquet on the same 650 00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:33,440 Speaker 1: as shooting a man. So from the New York Times quote, 651 00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:35,920 Speaker 1: he called the busting of school children and other measures 652 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:38,920 Speaker 1: to in de facto segregation morally wrong and said that 653 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:46,520 Speaker 1: busting was an example of doctrinaire and misguided equalitarianism. I 654 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:51,359 Speaker 1: love the misguided you know, misguided equalitarian These people think 655 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:53,719 Speaker 1: that they want equality and they're just crazy about it. 656 00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:58,840 Speaker 1: They're just those misguided fools. Their hearts are in the 657 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:03,640 Speaker 1: right place, I swear, Yuh. I know how Barry Goldwater 658 00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:08,360 Speaker 1: made a bunch of his money. He invented underpants that 659 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:11,600 Speaker 1: had ants on them, called ants in my Pants. And 660 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:17,719 Speaker 1: I do know that. I actually do know that. I 661 00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:22,759 Speaker 1: read that mark you did, but I I it's how 662 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,920 Speaker 1: can you think that that's true? Yeah, he invented novelty 663 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:29,799 Speaker 1: underpants in his younger days and made a whole bunch 664 00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:31,560 Speaker 1: of money on him. And now I can't just say 665 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:33,839 Speaker 1: Trump is a psychopath because he's got a whole rule 666 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:38,160 Speaker 1: named after him. That's amazing. Yeah, the Goldwater because you 667 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:40,879 Speaker 1: can't psychoanalyze someone because they all called him crazy, which 668 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,799 Speaker 1: he was not. Um, he was just a piece of shit. 669 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,640 Speaker 1: It's just all the things he believed were no Like, yeah, 670 00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:49,640 Speaker 1: they're not. Though. If you're the kind of guy who 671 00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:52,480 Speaker 1: got rich selling ants in your pants, the things like 672 00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:55,200 Speaker 1: Barry Goldwater's country is going to make things better for 673 00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:58,799 Speaker 1: you know, it's fair, it's just worse for everyone who 674 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:03,239 Speaker 1: didn't get selling ants pants. God, that's so fucking I 675 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:07,160 Speaker 1: know all of the people who like are the most 676 00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:09,919 Speaker 1: gung ho about the free market are also the ones 677 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:13,799 Speaker 1: who have contributed the least impressive things to it. Right, 678 00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:15,680 Speaker 1: But I mean you think it was it was a 679 00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:19,600 Speaker 1: different time. Novelty underpants back then might have been revolutionary. 680 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,960 Speaker 1: That's possible. That's actually why nineteen sixte had so many 681 00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 1: protests and revolutions. It was ants pants. Maw never would 682 00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:35,080 Speaker 1: have come to power without those underpants. It was I'm sorry, 683 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:36,839 Speaker 1: I just had to look this up just to be sure. 684 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:44,920 Speaker 1: It was antie pants. Was Jesus fucking Christ? Okay, as 685 00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:51,560 Speaker 1: cute as very Goldwater Sophie God, I want I want 686 00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:58,360 Speaker 1: visual No, I hate all these immediately. I want to 687 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,640 Speaker 1: see novelty underwear. Wait, no, I don't think that's a 688 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:04,200 Speaker 1: good idea. So I'm gonna quote now from Politico. Even 689 00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:07,000 Speaker 1: though Welsh understood racism and bigotry would hurt his cause, 690 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,000 Speaker 1: the John Birch Society's opposition to the Civil rights movement 691 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:14,200 Speaker 1: attracted Americans sympathetic to racist paranoia. For example, it consistently 692 00:39:14,239 --> 00:39:17,680 Speaker 1: published reports accusing civil rights leaders of communists aversion and 693 00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:20,160 Speaker 1: alleging that people of color were plotting to divide the 694 00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:25,920 Speaker 1: country and control the world. So, yeah, that Goldwater. He 695 00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:27,879 Speaker 1: has to like thread a little bit of a needle 696 00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:30,239 Speaker 1: here because the John Bird Society is too controversial even 697 00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:32,640 Speaker 1: among Republicans for him to embrace them. But they have 698 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:39,000 Speaker 1: created an incredibly organized and effective like way of terrifying 699 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:41,719 Speaker 1: people on the right about communism and about civil rights, 700 00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,839 Speaker 1: and so he can't ignore them either. Um, you don't 701 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,320 Speaker 1: want to become their enemy and then be called a communist. 702 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:49,239 Speaker 1: But at the same time, you don't want people to 703 00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:52,680 Speaker 1: think you're their champion. Yeah, you don't want to be 704 00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:55,000 Speaker 1: Steve King. Yeah, you don't want to be You don't 705 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:58,919 Speaker 1: want to go full Steve King even at this point. Yeah. 706 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:01,800 Speaker 1: So Goldwater wrote a best selling book called The Conscience 707 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:03,840 Speaker 1: of a Conservative, and it can be seen is basically 708 00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:06,920 Speaker 1: the blueprint for Reagan style conservatism, even Trump is um 709 00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:13,040 Speaker 1: travelty book. If it was just empty, Yeah, it would 710 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:16,040 Speaker 1: be a great thing to give for Christmas gift. Yeah, 711 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:18,800 Speaker 1: I mean it is. It is very vacant the actual morality, 712 00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:21,800 Speaker 1: like for an example of the conscience that Barry Goldwater 713 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:25,239 Speaker 1: like says. One of the reasons how Barry Goldwater like 714 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:27,480 Speaker 1: one of the reasons why he explains that like civil 715 00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:30,760 Speaker 1: rights laws are immoral is because the government shouldn't infringe 716 00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:34,520 Speaker 1: on the right of free association, um, which is the 717 00:40:34,719 --> 00:40:39,680 Speaker 1: right to discriminate. You know, yeah yeah now uh yeah. 718 00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,640 Speaker 1: So Goldwater publishes this book, it's like a surprise bestseller. 719 00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:46,080 Speaker 1: Mainstream Republicans like start falling in love with this guy's rhetoric, 720 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:50,560 Speaker 1: which is basically just ten calmed down John Birch society rhetoric. 721 00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:57,239 Speaker 1: Um and yes, yeah, yeah exactly. Um. And you know, 722 00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:00,960 Speaker 1: Goldwater is really kind of like the he's kind of 723 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:04,479 Speaker 1: like the typhoid Mary of of of of John Birch 724 00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:08,800 Speaker 1: society philosophy. He brings it into the mainstream, um, cloaked 725 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:12,719 Speaker 1: in you know, ethical conservatism or whatever the fuss, you know, 726 00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:16,320 Speaker 1: it's it's great, And there were, in fairness to some 727 00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:19,200 Speaker 1: of the Republicans at this time, there were Republicans in 728 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:21,680 Speaker 1: the period of time who like recognized what Goldwater was 729 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:25,440 Speaker 1: doing and condemned it openly. The Republican governor of Pennsylvania 730 00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:30,000 Speaker 1: described him as having a crazy quilt of dangerous positions, uh, 731 00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:33,600 Speaker 1: including the use of tactical nuclear weapons for basically any reason. 732 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:37,279 Speaker 1: Why would anybody think that was crazy? Yeah, he was. 733 00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:40,200 Speaker 1: He was a big like like Goldwater's big thing was 734 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:43,840 Speaker 1: that generals should be allowed to deploy nuclear weapons in 735 00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:47,520 Speaker 1: the field. Um, because because if they can't, then everyone 736 00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:52,239 Speaker 1: knows they can't make that decision and then where are Yeah, yeah, 737 00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:54,800 Speaker 1: like we should he like Goldwater like, one of the 738 00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:56,320 Speaker 1: things he would say about nukes is that they're just 739 00:41:56,480 --> 00:42:04,080 Speaker 1: another weapon. They are not Barry, I'm sorry, did you 740 00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:07,920 Speaker 1: miss everything that happened the last twenty years. No, I've 741 00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:10,200 Speaker 1: got this button that sets off every volcano in the 742 00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:11,960 Speaker 1: world at the same time, and that's just a normal 743 00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:14,920 Speaker 1: everyday weapon, like a handgun. Yeah, you just have it 744 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:22,640 Speaker 1: right there. It's like a stick. Yeah, there's the caveman 745 00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:24,560 Speaker 1: could have exploded all the volcanoes on the plane at 746 00:42:24,640 --> 00:42:28,080 Speaker 1: the same time. They would have done. Okay. So, like Trump, 747 00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:32,759 Speaker 1: Goldwater you know, comes in like like swings onto the 748 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:37,040 Speaker 1: political stage saying very very fringe and extreme things and 749 00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:40,160 Speaker 1: gets condemned by a bunch of Republicans and everybody who's 750 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: not a Republican. And also, like Trump, none of this 751 00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:46,279 Speaker 1: stops his him from succeeding politically, and he defeats all 752 00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:50,640 Speaker 1: of his more traditional conservative rivals, including Nelson Rockefeller um, 753 00:42:50,920 --> 00:42:54,200 Speaker 1: and becomes the nominee in that year's Republican Convention. I 754 00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:56,520 Speaker 1: put him on the like sort of the scale of 755 00:42:56,680 --> 00:43:00,520 Speaker 1: like more successful than Ron Paul, but not as successful 756 00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:06,279 Speaker 1: as Trump. Not as successful as Trump, but definitely and 757 00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:08,920 Speaker 1: he's critical. He's the key to both Trump and Reagan 758 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:12,239 Speaker 1: having space. I think Bush both Bushes probably would have 759 00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:14,080 Speaker 1: been able to win an election either way because they're 760 00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:17,360 Speaker 1: kind of more traditional conservatives, which isn't a compliment but no, 761 00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:21,400 Speaker 1: just kind of a fact about them both. Um, Goldwater 762 00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:27,080 Speaker 1: is really a Reagan slash fucking um Trump style politician. Um. 763 00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:29,400 Speaker 1: And you know the reason he beat all of his 764 00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:31,800 Speaker 1: more traditional conservative rivals is that he was able to 765 00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:35,120 Speaker 1: build a coalition of working class people. Uh. Most of 766 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:38,799 Speaker 1: his voters were Southerners, Midwesterners, and Libertarians who felt left 767 00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:42,800 Speaker 1: behind by the GOP. He railed against Eastern elites, saying 768 00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,320 Speaker 1: at one point, sometimes I think this country would be 769 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,360 Speaker 1: better off if we could just saw off the eastern 770 00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:50,719 Speaker 1: seaboard and let it float out to sea, which you 771 00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:53,799 Speaker 1: know is the same thing here today. Yeah. Yeah. They 772 00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:56,239 Speaker 1: also add the West coast too, though, Yeah, they do. 773 00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:58,439 Speaker 1: They add the West coast, And I would only say 774 00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:03,920 Speaker 1: do that to Florida and like bugs bunny. Yeah, but 775 00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:07,000 Speaker 1: a little start on start on the east side and 776 00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:09,759 Speaker 1: moved west and one of the Carolinas. But we can 777 00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:12,319 Speaker 1: let him fight it out. One of you can stay. 778 00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:18,160 Speaker 1: I just feel like we only need one Carolina. Raleigh's great. Yeah, yeah, 779 00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:21,120 Speaker 1: so well I know which side here? Backing then, no, 780 00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:29,799 Speaker 1: I'm not so very Goldwater. Yeah yeah, So Goldwater succeeds, 781 00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:33,120 Speaker 1: you know, more than any other extreme right politician ever 782 00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:36,080 Speaker 1: had up to that point in American political history. And 783 00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,200 Speaker 1: he was only able to succeed because the John Birch 784 00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:41,520 Speaker 1: Society had paved the way. Um, he owed a lot 785 00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:43,440 Speaker 1: of his early success in the fact that he won 786 00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,160 Speaker 1: the party nomination to the machinery that the Society had 787 00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:49,719 Speaker 1: put in place. Um yeah. Rick Perlstein, in a two 788 00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:52,640 Speaker 1: tho one book on the Goldwater campaign, explained that Goldwater 789 00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:55,440 Speaker 1: would take the line that Robert Welch was a crazy extremist, 790 00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:57,960 Speaker 1: but that the society itself was full of fine, upstanding 791 00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:02,160 Speaker 1: citizens working hard and well for cause of Americanism. The 792 00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:05,359 Speaker 1: Goldwater Campaign made liberal use of the Society's large pool 793 00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,239 Speaker 1: of dedicated and disciplined manpower, which now numbered more than 794 00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:11,440 Speaker 1: ninety thousand. In effect, Robert Welch had spent years creating 795 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:15,719 Speaker 1: a nationwide grassroots movement for Barry Goldwater. The Society spent 796 00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:18,920 Speaker 1: millions of dollars buttressing Goldwater support and spreading his and 797 00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:22,279 Speaker 1: their ideas to whole new segments of American society. It 798 00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:24,640 Speaker 1: worked to win Barry the nomination over men like Nelson 799 00:45:24,719 --> 00:45:27,960 Speaker 1: Rockefeller the Jeb Bush of his age from Politico quote 800 00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:30,920 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, Backing from the John Birch Society 801 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,759 Speaker 1: and Republican primaries such as California, secured the right wing 802 00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:37,879 Speaker 1: backed candidate Barry Goldwater's Republican presidential nomination, all those little 803 00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:39,839 Speaker 1: old ladies and tennis shoes that you called right wing 804 00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:43,680 Speaker 1: nuts and cooks. Goldwaters organizational head reportedly told him about 805 00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:46,560 Speaker 1: the campaign volunteers who appeared to be Birch sympathizers. They're 806 00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:50,120 Speaker 1: the best political organization that's ever been put together. So 807 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,480 Speaker 1: for a few years, I think I think Rockefeller actually 808 00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:56,680 Speaker 1: lost it immediately whenever he came out with his new slogan, 809 00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:59,640 Speaker 1: which was just rock with an exclamation point. That was 810 00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:07,400 Speaker 1: the one that got him Nelson. So Goldwater was a 811 00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:11,360 Speaker 1: sensation on the right. His rallies drew unprecedented numbers of people. 812 00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:15,000 Speaker 1: His followers were more like fans than political supporters. At 813 00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:17,960 Speaker 1: one point, a supporter in Georgia famously created a soft 814 00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:21,480 Speaker 1: drink based on the candidate, Goldwater, the right drink for 815 00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:25,520 Speaker 1: the conservative tastes. Barry, a very blunt man, drink it 816 00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:27,920 Speaker 1: in front of a crowded a rally and spit it out, saying, 817 00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:33,799 Speaker 1: this taste like piss. All right, Now, there's one thing 818 00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:37,560 Speaker 1: that I like about him. Five Yeah, that is pretty great. Great, 819 00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:42,320 Speaker 1: that's pretty great, gold Water. I don't know, that's impolite. 820 00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:47,400 Speaker 1: This guy made a soft drink for you. Barry just 821 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:51,760 Speaker 1: have the grace to be like it's good. Yeah, doesn't 822 00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:54,560 Speaker 1: take like piss at all. That's why they like him. 823 00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:56,400 Speaker 1: He tells it how it is, Dan, Do you know 824 00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:58,640 Speaker 1: how much work goes into making a soft drink and 825 00:46:58,920 --> 00:47:05,000 Speaker 1: a lot of that one not that much sugar. Goldwater 826 00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:07,959 Speaker 1: regularly packed in a dozen rallies per day, flying around 827 00:47:07,960 --> 00:47:11,000 Speaker 1: the country. In his Boeing seven seven, he framed himself 828 00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:14,000 Speaker 1: as a law and order candidate, telling supporters something must 829 00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,040 Speaker 1: be done and done immediately. To swing away from the 830 00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:19,440 Speaker 1: subsessive concern for the rights of the criminal defendant, he 831 00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:22,360 Speaker 1: told another audience that in order to defeat lawlessness, he 832 00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:26,799 Speaker 1: would redress constitutional interpretation in favor of the public, presumably 833 00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:30,480 Speaker 1: by appointing judges who didn't believe defendants had rights. One 834 00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:32,640 Speaker 1: of Goldwater's more famous quotes can be seen as a 835 00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,840 Speaker 1: precursor to both the kind of sociopathic libertarianism practiced by 836 00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:39,600 Speaker 1: Charles Coke and the ideology of Ronald Reagan. Quote. I 837 00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:42,640 Speaker 1: have little interest in streamlining government or making it more efficient, 838 00:47:42,719 --> 00:47:44,800 Speaker 1: for I mean to reduce its size. I do not 839 00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:49,080 Speaker 1: undertake to promote welfare, for I wish to extend freedom Oh, 840 00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:51,080 Speaker 1: I was assuming that your quote was going to be 841 00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:53,759 Speaker 1: something along the lines of like the thirteenth Amendment in 842 00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:57,920 Speaker 1: the law all slavery. Guys. Come on, you know what 843 00:47:58,040 --> 00:47:59,879 Speaker 1: that means. You know what I'm saying, Come on, guys. 844 00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:03,880 Speaker 1: Slavery is really just an arrangement between an employer and 845 00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:07,040 Speaker 1: an employer. When you think about it, and when the 846 00:48:07,120 --> 00:48:12,160 Speaker 1: government doesn't allow that, that's the real slavery. Yeah, that's 847 00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:14,600 Speaker 1: what it is. Yeah, because that makes the would be 848 00:48:14,719 --> 00:48:19,600 Speaker 1: slaves and the would be a person who's enslavers. Yeah, 849 00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:26,400 Speaker 1: exactly to think about it. Ye. So you know, Goldwater 850 00:48:26,719 --> 00:48:29,239 Speaker 1: didn't give Welch everything he wanted because he didn't like 851 00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:32,320 Speaker 1: endorse that Eisenhower was a dirty communist, But he was 852 00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:35,439 Speaker 1: basically the best candidate that the John Birch Society could 853 00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:38,279 Speaker 1: have possibly had. He even offered qualified support of their 854 00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,279 Speaker 1: campaign to impeach Earl Warren, and best of all, he 855 00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:44,360 Speaker 1: was willing to new communists. So, you know, really like 856 00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:48,200 Speaker 1: a great, great dude. Now, doesn't feel like you should 857 00:48:48,239 --> 00:48:52,320 Speaker 1: only need one policy if your entire philosophy is just 858 00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:56,040 Speaker 1: anti communism, shouldn't your one philosophy just be like new communists? 859 00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:58,200 Speaker 1: And then we'll then we'll sort everything well, I mean 860 00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:03,640 Speaker 1: literally and then metaphorically. That's kind of what this policies were. Yeah, 861 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:09,640 Speaker 1: it's it's it's good stuff. Um. Yeah. So Goldwater energizes 862 00:49:09,719 --> 00:49:12,239 Speaker 1: a new Republican base that had never particularly felt like 863 00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:14,880 Speaker 1: it had a voice in politics before, which was not 864 00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:17,200 Speaker 1: really a good thing, and it terrified a lot of 865 00:49:17,440 --> 00:49:20,879 Speaker 1: you know, the more intelligent observers at the time. One 866 00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:23,399 Speaker 1: of the people who was fucking horrified watching the rise 867 00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:26,479 Speaker 1: of Barry Goldwater was a young Hunter S. Thompson. Hunter 868 00:49:26,600 --> 00:49:28,320 Speaker 1: was there at the nineteen sixty four R and C 869 00:49:28,520 --> 00:49:31,719 Speaker 1: on assignment as a stringer together quotes from Republican politicians. 870 00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,080 Speaker 1: It wasn't even like writing articles at this point. It 871 00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:35,719 Speaker 1: was like that early in his career. He was just 872 00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:38,480 Speaker 1: gathering quotes for his editors to use. But Hunter had 873 00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:40,200 Speaker 1: an old friend who had got an attempt job as 874 00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:43,000 Speaker 1: a pinkerton who was we're doing security for the convention, 875 00:49:43,360 --> 00:49:45,719 Speaker 1: and Hunter's buddy gave him security credentials. So he was 876 00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:48,160 Speaker 1: basically like hanging out in v I P Rooms drinking 877 00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:58,400 Speaker 1: Barry Goldwater's liquor. Um. Uh, now he was he was 878 00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:05,640 Speaker 1: pounding dexidrin at that point, Hunter was terrified. Hunter. Hunter 879 00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:07,840 Speaker 1: was terrified of Goldwater, who he saw us a fascist 880 00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:09,759 Speaker 1: with a real chance of winning election and you know, 881 00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:13,080 Speaker 1: killing a lot of people. Thompson was well versed in 882 00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:15,160 Speaker 1: the John Birch Society's talking points, and he was one 883 00:50:15,200 --> 00:50:17,320 Speaker 1: of a few people in the country to foresee the 884 00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:20,120 Speaker 1: dark right word lurch that the Republican Party was beginning 885 00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:22,799 Speaker 1: to take. He was also mainlining huge doses of speed 886 00:50:22,840 --> 00:50:26,120 Speaker 1: every day, and so he was pretty paranoid, uh, which 887 00:50:26,239 --> 00:50:29,600 Speaker 1: is why he writes the next thing, uh that he 888 00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:32,600 Speaker 1: writes about this. Yeah, so Thompson, you know, is there 889 00:50:32,640 --> 00:50:34,760 Speaker 1: when Barry Goldwater gives his a speech, and his speech 890 00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:38,760 Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixty four um RNC includes the quote 891 00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:41,960 Speaker 1: I would remind you that extremism and defensive liberty is 892 00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:45,120 Speaker 1: no vice. That's like the most famous Barry Goldwater quote. 893 00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:49,320 Speaker 1: And he just has this like pounding, unreal effect on 894 00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:53,279 Speaker 1: the audience. Um. Thompson writes later quote, uh, that he 895 00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:55,799 Speaker 1: was actually feeling afraid because I was the only person 896 00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:58,239 Speaker 1: not clapping and shouting, and I was thinking, God, damn 897 00:50:58,280 --> 00:51:00,560 Speaker 1: you Nazi bastards. I really hope you win it, because 898 00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:03,000 Speaker 1: letting your kind of human garbage flood the system is 899 00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:04,919 Speaker 1: about the only real way to clean it out. Another 900 00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:07,040 Speaker 1: four years of I would have brought on national collapse, 901 00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:12,279 Speaker 1: but one year of gold Water would have produced a revolution. Uh, we've, we've. 902 00:51:13,040 --> 00:51:14,960 Speaker 1: That might not be the Yeah, no, I think he 903 00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:17,799 Speaker 1: was optimistic. Yeah, that might not do it. That might 904 00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:19,719 Speaker 1: not do it. It might just turn out a lot 905 00:51:19,800 --> 00:51:22,000 Speaker 1: of people are fine with fascism. I remember a lot 906 00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:26,440 Speaker 1: of people saying that the lead up to that election. Ye. No, 907 00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:29,160 Speaker 1: I think the sad story about all this is that 908 00:51:29,239 --> 00:51:32,359 Speaker 1: Thompson was right about the danger of bury gold Water, 909 00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:37,960 Speaker 1: but optimistic about Americans. Yeah. It's not something you usually 910 00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:44,239 Speaker 1: hear about. No, optimistic to a fault. Uh you know 911 00:51:44,560 --> 00:51:51,319 Speaker 1: who isn't optimistic to a fault? Do tell the good 912 00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:54,600 Speaker 1: people who make four oh nine my new favorite happy 913 00:51:54,680 --> 00:51:59,600 Speaker 1: time beverage. Four oh nine. Grab a glass of relaxation. 914 00:52:00,200 --> 00:52:11,360 Speaker 1: Oh boy, we're back. So Hunter S. Thompson was not 915 00:52:11,520 --> 00:52:14,560 Speaker 1: accurate about Americans, you know, getting horrified at a glimpse 916 00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:17,120 Speaker 1: of fascism, But he was was right about the fact 917 00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:20,439 Speaker 1: that Goldwater was not an outlier. Richard Nixon, the next 918 00:52:20,480 --> 00:52:23,040 Speaker 1: Republican president, would turn out to be the most liberal 919 00:52:23,080 --> 00:52:26,799 Speaker 1: Republican of the modern era. Every other Republican president who 920 00:52:26,840 --> 00:52:29,600 Speaker 1: followed him was cut out of Barry Goldwater's mold, which 921 00:52:29,640 --> 00:52:31,600 Speaker 1: means they were in fact cut from the same mold 922 00:52:31,640 --> 00:52:34,640 Speaker 1: as the John Birch Society. Ronald Reagan, of course, gave 923 00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:37,480 Speaker 1: a massively popular speech at the nineteen sixty four convention 924 00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:40,840 Speaker 1: providing a full throated endorsement of Goldwater's foreign policy and 925 00:52:41,040 --> 00:52:43,480 Speaker 1: his promise to shrink government. During his own run for 926 00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:46,920 Speaker 1: president in nineteen eighty, Reagan directly aped Goldwater by stating 927 00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:49,399 Speaker 1: that the most terrifying words in the English language were 928 00:52:49,600 --> 00:52:52,239 Speaker 1: I'm from the government and I'm here to help. As 929 00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:54,880 Speaker 1: a write up in history dot Com notes quote. By 930 00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:57,120 Speaker 1: the dawn of the New Century, Tea Party members drew 931 00:52:57,120 --> 00:53:00,720 Speaker 1: heavily on Goldwater's libertarian policies in shaping the Geo Peace platform, 932 00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:04,120 Speaker 1: disparaging not only liberal elites but any fellow Republicans who 933 00:53:04,160 --> 00:53:07,000 Speaker 1: still believed in the kind of compassionate conservatism preached by 934 00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:09,960 Speaker 1: George H. W. Bush. The list of companies and industries 935 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:11,719 Speaker 1: that the government is crowding out and bailing out and 936 00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:14,759 Speaker 1: taking over it continues to grow. The former GOP vice 937 00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:17,640 Speaker 1: presidential candidate Sarah Palin told a two thousand ten gathering 938 00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:21,440 Speaker 1: of Tea Party Republicans. Historian Alan Nevins of Columbia University, 939 00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:23,680 Speaker 1: a student of American politics and history, and a two 940 00:53:23,719 --> 00:53:26,759 Speaker 1: time Pulitzer winner for his political biographies, saw the writing 941 00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:29,000 Speaker 1: on the wall. If Goldwater and his supporters stuck to 942 00:53:29,040 --> 00:53:32,280 Speaker 1: their guns, there will be in effect a new Conservative Party. 943 00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:37,880 Speaker 1: And that's what happened. Yeah, Nail's good stuff, right on, buddy, 944 00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:41,560 Speaker 1: I I think you can take some smallest and getting 945 00:53:41,800 --> 00:53:43,719 Speaker 1: a good I told you so in there before you're 946 00:53:43,760 --> 00:53:46,759 Speaker 1: hung for being a leftist. Yeah, that's all right, That's 947 00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:49,680 Speaker 1: that's the one upside you get to being a left Yeah. Yeah, 948 00:53:49,719 --> 00:53:52,399 Speaker 1: that's what. Get a little bit of smugness before you're 949 00:53:52,440 --> 00:53:55,080 Speaker 1: shot down by the Stapo. We don't get any power, 950 00:53:55,160 --> 00:53:58,560 Speaker 1: but we get a nice exit line at a firing line. Yeah. Yeah, man, 951 00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,200 Speaker 1: the best exit lines at a The only people who 952 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:03,799 Speaker 1: really have good responses to getting shot by a line 953 00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:07,520 Speaker 1: of fascists are yeah, you know what, you know what 954 00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:10,400 Speaker 1: I'm thinking about. It's really interesting is that like in 955 00:54:10,520 --> 00:54:13,200 Speaker 1: the earlier days, you know, like when the John Birch 956 00:54:13,280 --> 00:54:16,560 Speaker 1: Society was all going and stuff, you'd have these, you'd 957 00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:19,000 Speaker 1: have those elected representatives who would have to come out 958 00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:22,759 Speaker 1: as members after they had already been elected, whereas like 959 00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:26,080 Speaker 1: during the Tea Party, they actually got people elected full 960 00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:28,920 Speaker 1: with full knowledge of like they are part of this, 961 00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:33,319 Speaker 1: Like those people may not have gotten elected people known 962 00:54:33,400 --> 00:54:36,200 Speaker 1: they were John Birch people to them. Yeah, and now 963 00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:39,000 Speaker 1: everyone's fighting over themselves to announce that they're a member 964 00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:41,880 Speaker 1: of whatever the new most extreme sect of the Republican 965 00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:48,360 Speaker 1: Party is. Yeah, that doesn't indicate progress to me. Tragic 966 00:54:50,200 --> 00:54:54,520 Speaker 1: tragic optimist Hunter S. Thompson really really got that one wrong. Yeah, 967 00:54:56,000 --> 00:54:59,360 Speaker 1: uh so, Yeah, the John Birch Society gave birth to 968 00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:02,360 Speaker 1: Barry gold Water, who gave birth to a new Republican Party, 969 00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:04,960 Speaker 1: the Party of Reagan, of George W. Bush and eventually 970 00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:08,040 Speaker 1: of Donald J. Trump. But in nineteen sixty four, the 971 00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:10,640 Speaker 1: John Birch Society's politics were still a tad to fringe 972 00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:14,399 Speaker 1: for mainstream success. Lb J successfully painted Goldwater is something 973 00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:17,040 Speaker 1: of a lunatic who would bring about nuclear apocalypse, which 974 00:55:17,080 --> 00:55:19,080 Speaker 1: is part of why lb J won that election. Is 975 00:55:19,239 --> 00:55:22,040 Speaker 1: very famous, daisy ad, you look it up. That's about 976 00:55:22,080 --> 00:55:24,200 Speaker 1: like Goldwater is going to kill your children in nuclear 977 00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:28,320 Speaker 1: hell fire. It wasn't wrong though it wasn't He was 978 00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:32,600 Speaker 1: not wrong. He was wrong, and lb J did did 979 00:55:32,719 --> 00:55:35,560 Speaker 1: win that election and went on to do nothing problematic 980 00:55:35,640 --> 00:55:40,360 Speaker 1: or violent himself. So J yeah, yeah, come on, President 981 00:55:40,480 --> 00:55:43,719 Speaker 1: of Peace, Civil Rights Act. We forget everything else he did. 982 00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:47,160 Speaker 1: Come on, That's that's dick. He nicknamed his dick Jumbo, 983 00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:50,960 Speaker 1: though he did in his famed slogan was no child 984 00:55:51,080 --> 00:55:53,279 Speaker 1: ever had their skin burned off because of lb J. 985 00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:57,920 Speaker 1: You know what, I don't know what he'd put when 986 00:55:57,960 --> 00:55:59,800 Speaker 1: he'd wake up in the morning, He'd put Jumbo in 987 00:55:59,840 --> 00:56:05,160 Speaker 1: his an UH rapid in there. The John Birch Society 988 00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:07,480 Speaker 1: began to fade and influence and bleed members after the 989 00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:10,719 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four elections. UH. In nineteen sixty seven, The 990 00:56:10,719 --> 00:56:13,880 Speaker 1: Saturday Evening Post published an article entirely focused around the 991 00:56:13,920 --> 00:56:16,960 Speaker 1: society's decline. It's numbers, they said, had peaked in nineteen 992 00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:19,560 Speaker 1: sixty five at ninety five thousand, and by sixty seven 993 00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:22,120 Speaker 1: it was down to eighty thousand or so. Several high 994 00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:25,480 Speaker 1: profile congressional members stepped back from their duties and resigned entirely. 995 00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:28,200 Speaker 1: The Post noted the society has also been plagued with 996 00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:30,680 Speaker 1: an internal crisis over anti Semitism, and it has been 997 00:56:30,719 --> 00:56:32,799 Speaker 1: shelled from other sectors on the political right as an 998 00:56:32,840 --> 00:56:35,840 Speaker 1: embarrassment to the conservative cause. Asked if the Birch Society 999 00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:38,319 Speaker 1: weren't better than nothing as an anti communist roullying point, 1000 00:56:38,600 --> 00:56:42,200 Speaker 1: National Review editor William Buckley said, no, it's worse than nothing. 1001 00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:47,319 Speaker 1: William Buckley. Buckley was also like, and I hope they 1002 00:56:47,400 --> 00:56:49,640 Speaker 1: never invent something called the Internet, because that should will 1003 00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:51,840 Speaker 1: come right back. Yeah. Well, and it's the kind of 1004 00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:53,920 Speaker 1: it's funny because like Buckley is the good guy in 1005 00:56:54,000 --> 00:56:56,600 Speaker 1: this story because he realizes fairly early on that the 1006 00:56:56,680 --> 00:57:00,360 Speaker 1: John Birch Society are dangerous people and ex commune dicates 1007 00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:03,240 Speaker 1: them to the best of his ability. Also big backer 1008 00:57:03,320 --> 00:57:09,359 Speaker 1: of Rhodesia. No, the John people is a very very 1009 00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:11,920 Speaker 1: insane people. But I do believe in white nations. Yes, 1010 00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:15,560 Speaker 1: of course, I think they are entirely White nations. Had 1011 00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:19,680 Speaker 1: common cause on that because they believe that the Rhodesia, 1012 00:57:20,200 --> 00:57:23,360 Speaker 1: you know, fighting for the apartheid state, there was defending 1013 00:57:23,440 --> 00:57:27,520 Speaker 1: the country against communism. Yeah, you know that there was. Yeah, 1014 00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:30,320 Speaker 1: thank god for that, otherwise we would never have gotten 1015 00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:34,360 Speaker 1: Elon musk Here, so some of the Society's earlier backers 1016 00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:39,000 Speaker 1: started to abandon it after the unsuccessful Goldwater campaign. One 1017 00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:41,440 Speaker 1: supporter complained, Welsh has turned what claimed to be a 1018 00:57:41,520 --> 00:57:44,880 Speaker 1: militant anti communist movement into a book selling operation. His 1019 00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:47,320 Speaker 1: notion that the Society is going to save America by 1020 00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:49,640 Speaker 1: getting people to read books is absurd. So they read 1021 00:57:49,680 --> 00:57:52,240 Speaker 1: all the books. What then there's no program? With crises 1022 00:57:52,360 --> 00:57:54,240 Speaker 1: erupting all around the world. Welch talks on and on 1023 00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:57,040 Speaker 1: about the difference between a republican and democracy. I saw 1024 00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:00,080 Speaker 1: no future whatsoever for the Birch Society, and so like it. 1025 00:58:01,040 --> 00:58:04,280 Speaker 1: This take was, however, shortsighted. Robert Welch was right to 1026 00:58:04,360 --> 00:58:07,440 Speaker 1: dedicate the majority of his efforts to writing fascist propaganda, 1027 00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:10,000 Speaker 1: and he was dedicated. Welch wrote every word of the 1028 00:58:10,080 --> 00:58:13,160 Speaker 1: Society's bulletin for years, which by nineteen sixties seven more 1029 00:58:13,560 --> 00:58:16,880 Speaker 1: more than a million published words. The Society spent tens 1030 00:58:16,920 --> 00:58:18,840 Speaker 1: of millions of dollars over the years putting out books 1031 00:58:18,840 --> 00:58:21,200 Speaker 1: and magazines filled with propaganda, and of course, one young 1032 00:58:21,280 --> 00:58:24,400 Speaker 1: boy who grew up on those books was Alexander Emeric Jones. 1033 00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:28,960 Speaker 1: Glenn Beck the most influential ideological founder of the Tea Party, 1034 00:58:29,040 --> 00:58:31,160 Speaker 1: was also raised on John Birch books. In addition to 1035 00:58:31,200 --> 00:58:33,880 Speaker 1: speaking fondly of the society, he urged his millions of 1036 00:58:33,960 --> 00:58:36,600 Speaker 1: viewers to read the work of Cleon scaus In, an 1037 00:58:36,640 --> 00:58:41,240 Speaker 1: anti communist ideologue who was a Bircher himself. Yeah, for 1038 00:58:41,360 --> 00:58:48,640 Speaker 1: a time, he was not fully Birch because too extreme 1039 00:58:48,720 --> 00:58:51,520 Speaker 1: for them at a Yeah, yeah he did. Yeah, you 1040 00:58:51,600 --> 00:58:53,520 Speaker 1: get the feeling that they, you know, they had to 1041 00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:59,080 Speaker 1: walk so that he could leap off of a cliff. Um. Yeah. 1042 00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:01,480 Speaker 1: Scows In, like Jones and like Beck, preached of a 1043 00:59:01,560 --> 00:59:04,520 Speaker 1: secret alliance between capitalists and communists to install a one 1044 00:59:04,560 --> 00:59:07,240 Speaker 1: world government under the guidance of David Rockefeller, which is 1045 00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:10,560 Speaker 1: not that far off from what fucking Robert Welch was saying. 1046 00:59:11,040 --> 00:59:13,560 Speaker 1: It's a bit of a step forward, but not a 1047 00:59:13,720 --> 00:59:17,040 Speaker 1: wild leap. You know, broke, don't fix it right. The 1048 00:59:17,120 --> 00:59:19,560 Speaker 1: John Birch Society is still alive today, and according to 1049 00:59:19,640 --> 00:59:21,680 Speaker 1: some reports, it has grown in the Trump era. One 1050 00:59:21,680 --> 00:59:24,320 Speaker 1: of their modern propaganda videos is called The Dangers of 1051 00:59:24,400 --> 00:59:28,440 Speaker 1: Democracy and defines democracy as mob rule, emphasizing that the 1052 00:59:28,560 --> 00:59:31,720 Speaker 1: United States is a republic, not a democracy. The video 1053 00:59:31,880 --> 00:59:35,360 Speaker 1: ends on a quote attributed to Mausey Dung. Democracies inevitably 1054 00:59:35,440 --> 00:59:38,480 Speaker 1: lead to collectivism, which leads to socialism, which leads to communism, 1055 00:59:38,560 --> 00:59:41,720 Speaker 1: which leads to totalitarianism, which proves that both mausey Dung 1056 00:59:41,840 --> 00:59:45,320 Speaker 1: and Hunter S. Thompson are way too optimists. Yeah, good work, 1057 00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:54,880 Speaker 1: wild eyed Optimists Chairman Mao and Hunter Thompson. Yeah, I mean, 1058 00:59:54,960 --> 00:59:58,560 Speaker 1: it's it's interesting how right he was. Welch never lived 1059 00:59:58,600 --> 01:00:01,080 Speaker 1: to know it, but like you can see, like even 1060 01:00:01,800 --> 01:00:05,680 Speaker 1: the like every little one of his like reoccurring lines 1061 01:00:05,720 --> 01:00:08,680 Speaker 1: about like fucking we're a republic not a democracy. Now 1062 01:00:08,760 --> 01:00:11,320 Speaker 1: that ship gets like Senator Mike Lee of Utah repeated 1063 01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:14,880 Speaker 1: that line this year, like arguing why you know we 1064 01:00:14,920 --> 01:00:19,640 Speaker 1: shouldn't accept the results of the election. Um, it's he's 1065 01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:22,240 Speaker 1: right in a sense like he's we are a republic 1066 01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:25,240 Speaker 1: and not a democracy. I meant gold Water with his strategies. 1067 01:00:25,560 --> 01:00:28,919 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Welch with his strategies like he's I don't 1068 01:00:28,960 --> 01:00:31,240 Speaker 1: think that it's like I don't think you could look 1069 01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:33,200 Speaker 1: at what happened and say he's right in terms of 1070 01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:36,760 Speaker 1: like this is a good way to make stable, competent 1071 01:00:36,960 --> 01:00:42,160 Speaker 1: political movement. But he accidentally created like and stumbled onto 1072 01:00:42,240 --> 01:00:44,360 Speaker 1: a really good idea about how to break people's brains 1073 01:00:45,080 --> 01:00:50,200 Speaker 1: and really make grifts right, really successful. Like he made 1074 01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:53,000 Speaker 1: that pattern really well. It is it is weird to 1075 01:00:53,080 --> 01:00:56,080 Speaker 1: think that there's a progenitor that's so recent. It's like 1076 01:00:56,160 --> 01:00:58,400 Speaker 1: with l Ron Hubbard, where you're like, you can't start 1077 01:00:58,480 --> 01:01:01,080 Speaker 1: a religion if you're if I know you, if you're 1078 01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:03,840 Speaker 1: like a hundred years old, that's that's too close. That's 1079 01:01:03,880 --> 01:01:07,600 Speaker 1: too close. It's the same way with this horrifying Republican Party. 1080 01:01:07,640 --> 01:01:10,240 Speaker 1: It should have been like thousands of years ago that 1081 01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:13,720 Speaker 1: we learned how evil these idiots are, and there's not 1082 01:01:13,880 --> 01:01:17,040 Speaker 1: the way. You know, one of the most one of 1083 01:01:17,080 --> 01:01:19,720 Speaker 1: the biggest bummers to me is that Andrew bright Bart 1084 01:01:19,840 --> 01:01:22,400 Speaker 1: was right about something important, which was his famous quote 1085 01:01:22,480 --> 01:01:26,440 Speaker 1: that politics flows downstream of culture um and Bob Welch 1086 01:01:26,600 --> 01:01:29,960 Speaker 1: is absolutely evidence of that because like like at the time, 1087 01:01:30,000 --> 01:01:31,840 Speaker 1: a bunch of his initial backwards like this is a failure. 1088 01:01:31,880 --> 01:01:34,440 Speaker 1: All you're doing is putting out books in propaganda. And 1089 01:01:34,480 --> 01:01:39,280 Speaker 1: then we like our present Republican Party is so far 1090 01:01:39,360 --> 01:01:41,760 Speaker 1: beyond what Bob Welch could have ever hoped for. Because 1091 01:01:41,800 --> 01:01:44,280 Speaker 1: of that, you know, it's so deeply inspired, whether they 1092 01:01:44,400 --> 01:01:47,240 Speaker 1: know it or not, by those works of propaganda that 1093 01:01:47,320 --> 01:01:51,120 Speaker 1: were put out by Welch and his his dick whole 1094 01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:55,040 Speaker 1: friends assholes. Yeah, it sucks, and we're not even going 1095 01:01:55,080 --> 01:01:56,920 Speaker 1: to get into like the like the Burt John Ver 1096 01:01:56,960 --> 01:01:59,320 Speaker 1: Society talked about the Illuminati a bunch. Robert Welch was 1097 01:01:59,360 --> 01:02:02,040 Speaker 1: a big bully, were in the Illuminati, which is there 1098 01:02:02,160 --> 01:02:04,960 Speaker 1: is a great speech that he gave sort of later 1099 01:02:05,080 --> 01:02:07,720 Speaker 1: in his career at Berkeley that you can find on 1100 01:02:07,840 --> 01:02:10,400 Speaker 1: YouTube that I would really suggest people look up because 1101 01:02:10,440 --> 01:02:12,440 Speaker 1: it's so funny. These kids are just laughing at him. 1102 01:02:12,520 --> 01:02:16,560 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's amazing. He's he's trying to be very 1103 01:02:16,640 --> 01:02:20,200 Speaker 1: serious and they are just clowning on him. Well, it's 1104 01:02:20,560 --> 01:02:24,760 Speaker 1: it's satisfying. And there there's there's still so like I 1105 01:02:24,840 --> 01:02:27,680 Speaker 1: found a fun political article about the modern John Bird 1106 01:02:27,800 --> 01:02:30,560 Speaker 1: Society and it talks about like a worksheet for one 1107 01:02:30,600 --> 01:02:34,040 Speaker 1: of the week's video lessons. Uh. And so there's a 1108 01:02:34,120 --> 01:02:36,840 Speaker 1: multiple choice question on it that asks you to identify 1109 01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:40,480 Speaker 1: the Illuminati. Is it a a myth, b an alien 1110 01:02:40,600 --> 01:02:43,080 Speaker 1: race of shape shifters, or see a group founded in 1111 01:02:43,120 --> 01:02:46,680 Speaker 1: the late seventeen hundred seeking world government. One of those 1112 01:02:46,720 --> 01:02:49,400 Speaker 1: seems very specific, almost as though they want you to 1113 01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:51,880 Speaker 1: choose one of those. You know. Also, all of those 1114 01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:57,400 Speaker 1: are right, depending on who you're reading, ending on who's 1115 01:02:57,440 --> 01:03:02,439 Speaker 1: judging the test. Yeah. Bob Welch died in nineteen eighty five, 1116 01:03:02,560 --> 01:03:04,920 Speaker 1: but in the decades since his death, his ideology has 1117 01:03:05,000 --> 01:03:07,920 Speaker 1: conquered the Republican Party. The statements he was mocked for 1118 01:03:08,000 --> 01:03:10,040 Speaker 1: making in the nineteen fifties and sixties are now so 1119 01:03:10,200 --> 01:03:13,560 Speaker 1: popular that elected Republicans dare not push back against them, 1120 01:03:14,840 --> 01:03:17,240 Speaker 1: So that's good. One of the great irenies of this 1121 01:03:17,440 --> 01:03:19,560 Speaker 1: is that the man who was most responsible for acting 1122 01:03:19,600 --> 01:03:22,400 Speaker 1: as a vector of Birchie in ideology to the mainstream, 1123 01:03:22,560 --> 01:03:25,480 Speaker 1: Barry Goldwater, probably would have been horrified by what he 1124 01:03:25,480 --> 01:03:28,280 Speaker 1: helped bring into the world. Because near the end of 1125 01:03:28,320 --> 01:03:32,280 Speaker 1: his life in nineteen Barry Goldwater lobbied to allow homosexuals 1126 01:03:32,360 --> 01:03:34,880 Speaker 1: to serve openly in the military. He was a loud 1127 01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:38,280 Speaker 1: and full throated supporter of abortion rights, and he demanded 1128 01:03:38,360 --> 01:03:42,280 Speaker 1: legalization of medical marijuana. By the standards of Republicans. Now, 1129 01:03:42,800 --> 01:03:51,919 Speaker 1: Verry Goldwater was a fucking Democrat, like Goldie. Yeah, yeah, 1130 01:03:52,120 --> 01:03:54,120 Speaker 1: it's really bad. Like when you read it like, oh, 1131 01:03:54,200 --> 01:04:01,200 Speaker 1: Barry Goldwater died in American terms a liberal. That's not 1132 01:04:01,360 --> 01:04:06,360 Speaker 1: a super inspiring thing. Either you either die a fascist 1133 01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:11,200 Speaker 1: or you live long enough to finally realize, Yeah, fuck it, 1134 01:04:11,400 --> 01:04:15,360 Speaker 1: let's smoke some weed. I'm Bury gold Water. Much like 1135 01:04:15,440 --> 01:04:18,040 Speaker 1: a Koke brother, Eventually you just say, hey, whoops, my 1136 01:04:18,200 --> 01:04:24,680 Speaker 1: bad guys, thanks for that coke. Yeah, well, anybody got 1137 01:04:24,720 --> 01:04:29,000 Speaker 1: plugables too. I'd like to a podcast. I would like 1138 01:04:29,320 --> 01:04:32,160 Speaker 1: that does not sound accurate. I'd like to plug my 1139 01:04:32,720 --> 01:04:37,959 Speaker 1: non uh endorsement of drinking solvents. What do you drink? 1140 01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:45,520 Speaker 1: Are you? Are you pound in decks? Um? We have 1141 01:04:45,600 --> 01:04:48,360 Speaker 1: a podcast, Knowledge Fight. We do. It's Knowledge Fight. You 1142 01:04:48,440 --> 01:04:52,680 Speaker 1: can find it if you search Knowledge Fight somewhere. And also, 1143 01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:54,439 Speaker 1: you have a book. I have a book. It's called 1144 01:04:54,440 --> 01:04:56,240 Speaker 1: The Quiet Part Loud. You can't find it if you 1145 01:04:56,320 --> 01:04:58,400 Speaker 1: search the Quiet Part Loud. It turns out somebody else 1146 01:04:58,440 --> 01:05:03,680 Speaker 1: wrote like little non vella with a similar titles. So yeah, 1147 01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:06,800 Speaker 1: it's on Amazon, and so I'm I'm screwed. And by 1148 01:05:06,880 --> 01:05:11,800 Speaker 1: the way, the Quiet Part is just choose. Yeah, yes, 1149 01:05:12,720 --> 01:05:14,320 Speaker 1: it would be a very different name if I was 1150 01:05:14,400 --> 01:05:17,960 Speaker 1: a right wing psychopath. But yeah, you can find it 1151 01:05:18,000 --> 01:05:20,400 Speaker 1: at The Quiet part lot dot com. Uh, it is 1152 01:05:21,040 --> 01:05:23,040 Speaker 1: free to download. You can donate or whatever if you 1153 01:05:23,080 --> 01:05:27,479 Speaker 1: want to, or just read it and don't scream. Choose 1154 01:05:27,560 --> 01:05:33,880 Speaker 1: like I didn't, don't do don't wait that at all costs. Uh. 1155 01:05:35,720 --> 01:05:40,480 Speaker 1: Also listen to my podcasts. Yeah are we? Are we 1156 01:05:40,480 --> 01:05:42,520 Speaker 1: supposed to? For you? Is that part of this show? 1157 01:05:42,640 --> 01:05:47,240 Speaker 1: Did I forget the episodes finished? He can't plug? I 1158 01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:50,800 Speaker 1: don't I have? I have? I was, Yeah, I have 1159 01:05:51,520 --> 01:05:57,520 Speaker 1: Plugman's disease. I know the I know the feeling. We're done, 1160 01:05:58,640 --> 01:06:03,120 Speaker 1: goodbye America away. Don't drink it off the internet. No, no, 1161 01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:06,760 Speaker 1: pound some four o nine. It seems like it's going 1162 01:06:06,800 --> 01:06:09,560 Speaker 1: to be an interesting editing challenge. Well, what's really fun 1163 01:06:09,840 --> 01:06:11,480 Speaker 1: is when you get you get a half point of 1164 01:06:11,560 --> 01:06:13,360 Speaker 1: four o nine and a half pint of Windex and 1165 01:06:13,400 --> 01:06:16,040 Speaker 1: you do a forty decks. That's really if you really 1166 01:06:16,120 --> 01:06:18,880 Speaker 1: want to get tight, you know, really burn off some 1167 01:06:19,000 --> 01:06:27,080 Speaker 1: of that into the workday steam. Well that nope, all right, 1168 01:06:27,160 --> 01:06:29,280 Speaker 1: we'll be hosting the show from now And I think 1169 01:06:29,920 --> 01:06:35,840 Speaker 1: drinking solvents the unproblematic beverage. Oh boy,