Mainstreaming Patriot CultureIn recent articles in the New
York
Times, reporter Dan Barry has explored the strange alliances among Black
and White separatists, "sovereign" Freemen, conspiracists, and anti-federalist
constitutionalists involved in the spread of anti-tax schemes. The recent roundup
of persons filing bogus tax documents certainly involves financial opportunism,
but it is rooted in the spreading idiosyncratic legal theories of the right-wing
Patriot movement.
Two key elements of the right-wing Patriot movement are anti-government conspiracism and
bogus legal interpretations of the tax laws and the US Constitution.
For an extensive report on the roots of the sovereign Freeman theory, visit
the web site of the Milita Watchdog and read the article on the so-called "Common
Law Courts." Background information on the Patriot movement can be
found at the web page of the Coalition
for Human Dignity.
The anti-government conspiracism has two main historic sources, fears
of a freemason conspiracy and fears
of a Jewish conspiracy. These conspiracist ideas are promoted largely
by two different right-wing institutions, the John
Birch Society and the Liberty Lobby.
Conspiracism breads irrational scapegoating,
and even when conspiracist theories do not center on Jews, people of color,
or other scapegoated groups, they create an environment where racism, antisemitism,
homophobia, and others forms of prejudice and oppression can flourish.
In recent years a few persons on the political left and a few members of Black
nationalist groups have adopted and adapted right-wing conspiracy theories.
In chapters from the study Right Woos Left you can read about the Populist
Party/Liberty Lobby Recruitment of Anti-CIA Critics into a network of
anti-government conspiracists, or how respected civil rights activist Rev.
James Bevel slid into an alliance with conspiracist fascists. You can
also read about the strange alliance between White racial nationalists and
Black racial nationalists in the chapter on the Third
Position and Black Nationalism. Or you can browse the Table of Contents
for entire study: Right Woos Left.
If you visit the web links
page of Hakim H.Y. Bey, cited in the Times as someone who "appears
to be a philosophical leader of the Moorish Nation operating in the Bronx,
and who is someone they want to question in connection with the tax-fraud
scheme," you will see references to a number of sites including:
Conspiracist
ILLUMINET PRESS ONLINE
James Daugherty's New Paradigms Project
//a-albionic.com/a-albionic/gop
Right-Wing & Separatist
Welcome to the Committee to
Restore the Constitution
Police Against the New World
Order
The Militia of Montana
We have a number of articles on this site
with critical analysis of some of these groups and ideas:
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