In small-town Wisconsin, looking for the roots of the modern American conspiracy theory

[JacksinPA]

In small-town Wisconsin, looking for the roots of the modern American conspiracy theory

The once-powerful John Birch Society is largely forgotten today, relegated to a pair of squat buildings along a busy commercial street in small-town Wisconsin.

apnews.com

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — The decades fall away as you open the front doors.

It’s the late 1950s in the cramped little offices — or maybe the pre-hippie 1960s. It’s a place where army-style buzz cuts are still in fashion, communism remains the primary enemy and the decor is dominated by American flags and portraits of once-famous Cold Warriors.

At the John Birch Society, they’ve been waging war for more than 60 years against what they’re sure is a vast, diabolical conspiracy. As they tell it, it’s a plot with tentacles that reach from 19th-century railroad magnates to the Biden White House, from the Federal Reserve to COVID vaccines.

Long before QAnon, Pizzagate and the modern crop of politicians who will happily repeat apocalyptic talking points, there was Birch. And outside these cramped small-town offices is a national political landscape that the Society helped shape.
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My orgchem prof in the early 60s was a Bircher. These guys were convinced that we were in a life-or-death struggle with the commies. And according to this, they're still at it.

I recall that a guy named Jogn Birch was said to be the first American to die in the Cold War that followed WWII.

 

[watsup]

In small-town Wisconsin, looking for the roots of the modern American conspiracy theory

The once-powerful John Birch Society is largely forgotten today, relegated to a pair of squat buildings along a busy commercial street in small-town Wisconsin.

apnews.com

APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — The decades fall away as you open the front doors.

It’s the late 1950s in the cramped little offices — or maybe the pre-hippie 1960s. It’s a place where army-style buzz cuts are still in fashion, communism remains the primary enemy and the decor is dominated by American flags and portraits of once-famous Cold Warriors.

At the John Birch Society, they’ve been waging war for more than 60 years against what they’re sure is a vast, diabolical conspiracy. As they tell it, it’s a plot with tentacles that reach from 19th-century railroad magnates to the Biden White House, from the Federal Reserve to COVID vaccines.

Long before QAnon, Pizzagate and the modern crop of politicians who will happily repeat apocalyptic talking points, there was Birch. And outside these cramped small-town offices is a national political landscape that the Society helped shape.
===========================================================
My orgchem prof in the early 60s was a Bircher. These guys were convinced that we were in a life-or-death struggle with the commies. And according to this, they're still at it.

I recall that a guy named Jogn Birch was said to be the first American to die in the Cold War that followed WWII.

Did you know that the John Birch Society was started and funded by the Daddy of the Koch Brothers? They learned from his mistakes, and instead of starting a nutcase conspiracy group, they gave hundreds of mllions to "respected" far right propaganda "think tanks" such as CATO, ALEC, Americans for Tax Reform (for them) and the Heritage Foundation. They hired really smart people for the propaganda organizations and made them available to FOX and to represent far right viewpoints in the mainstream media. And they have been quite successful in changing America to suit their far right agenda. Welcome to Koch Paradise.

 

[The Mark]

Did you know that the John Birch Society was started and funded by the Daddy of the Koch Brothers? They learned from his mistakes, and instead of starting a nutcase conspiracy group, they gave hundreds of mllions to "respected" far right propaganda "think tanks" such as CATO, ALEC, Americans for Tax Reform (for them) and the Heritage Foundation. They hired really smart people for the propaganda organizations and made them available to FOX and to represent far right viewpoints in the mainstream media. And they have been quite successful in changing America to suit their far right agenda. Welcome to Koch Paradise.

I feel obligated to say something like "and what a Koch-up it is."

 

[watsup]

I feel obligated to say something like "and what a Koch-up it is."

Indeed.

 

[JacksinPA]

Did you know that the John Birch Society was started and funded by the Daddy of the Koch Brothers? They learned from his mistakes, and instead of starting a nutcase conspiracy group, they gave hundreds of mllions to "respected" far right propaganda "think tanks" such as CATO, ALEC, Americans for Tax Reform (for them) and the Heritage Foundation. They hired really smart people for the propaganda organizations and made them available to FOX and to represent far right viewpoints in the mainstream media. And they have been quite successful in changing America to suit their far right agenda. Welcome to Koch Paradise.

Papa Koch made his $MM building oil refineries for Stalin. Obviouslt that family had a close knowledge of the commies.