John Birch Society. What are they all about?

[graywarrior]

I met a bunch of them last night. What is their thing besides being totally against the Iraq war?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. I'm surprised they're against the Iraq war

They're also anti-woman and anti-Catholic.

They were originally started to stop commies from taking over.

[graywarrior]

6. Hmmm, two of the people I met were women and they were adamant

about being against the war. I never trusted them, but then I never really knew anything about them

[SharonAnn]

19. Funny, they were strongly in favor of the Vietnam War. Against Equal Rights for women

Strongly in favor of an unfettered 'law enforcement" system, etc.

Believe in the conspiracy theory of The Illuminati.

Can't remember it all.

'The Birch John Sociaety".

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. They hate communists

That's why they were in favor of the Vietnam War.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. Rightwing, Racist, Rabid jackasses.

I'm not sure about Iraq. I would have to read up on it. They are one of the oldest wingnut groups.

[slackmaster]

3. Paranoid relics of the Cold War

They still think there is a vast conspiracy to implement communism all over the world.

[Bluzmann57]

4. They're insane right wingers

Anti abortion, anti stem cell research, extremely pro gun (ok, I am not against gun ownership either), anti Labor, conspiracy theory freaks. They believe in the crap about a "secret cabal" headed by Obama and his ilk that is aiming to take over the world. Etc. etc. I think their website is www.jbs.com or something like that. Just in case you want to learn more about them.
on edit-The website given is incorrect. My apologies. I guess I don't know (or care) what the Birch Society website is.

[RB TexLa]

5. Picture our protectionist, isolationist, anti-anyone who isn't an American DUers with a

right wing slant and that's them.

[graywarrior]

8. I run everytime I see the guy I know better than the rest

They remind me of AMWAY.

[sharp_stick]

15. Amway LOL

I always think that when I come across a Lyndon Larouch group.

The only Birchers I ever ran across seemed nice enough at first but it didn't take long talking to them to figure out they were a bunch of racist extremists. I think a lot of people claim to be John Birch supporters but don't really belong to the society.

The group was somewhat popular back in the anti commie Joe McCarthy days and loved to out neighbors as potential reds to the "authorities". Now they seem to be filled with cranky old, uneducated white guys that think the Mexicans are going to take over the country and touch the white girls in bad ways.

Luckily most people, including the authorities saw them as nutjobs.

[graywarrior]

39. Why would seemingly normal people be part of that group?

[havocmom]

7. They are a splinter on the ass of humanity!

Wait, that's the Birch John Society :blush:

Seriously, a RW group from way back. I believe genesis back about the time (or right after) Korean War. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong -too tired to do the google. Seem to recall that John Birch was deceased when the society was formed, but again, may have memory of old bio on group remembered badly.

I grew up in Orange County, California, where the group was big. I survived and maintained my liberal bent.

[eagertolearn]

26. Yes I remember a guy taking me on a date in 1976 to one of their

meetings. I was barely voting then and hardly understood politics but I felt very uncomfortable around them. That was S.CA too and racism seemed to be a big component of their meeting.

[arcadian]

9. Ultra right wing group from the Cold War

I'm surprised they are still around. They are the United Nations will take over the world and all Democrats are communists bunch.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

10. Anti-Osha, Anti-Civil Rights Legislation, Anti-Income Tax, thought Eisenhower was a commie...

[FormerDittoHead]

11. Perhaps your best source is None Dare Call It Conspiracy.

They are the source of the meme "International Communist Conspiracy".

Perhaps your best source is "None Dare Call It Conspiracy".

I was actually able to find a PDF of it:
http://www.captaincanadacrusades.ca/articles/none-dare-call-it-conspiracy%5B1%5D.pdf

Tangentially, here's a reference to that book in Wikipedia under Quigley:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley

"In 1971, Gary Allen, a spokesman for the John Birch Society, published None Dare Call It Conspiracy, which became a bestseller. Allen cited Quigley’s Tragedy and Hope as an authoritative source on conspiracies throughout his book. Like Skousen, Allen understood the various conspiracies in Quigley’s book to be branches of one large conspiracy, and also connected them to the Bilderbergers and to Richard Nixon.<19> The John Birch Society continues to cite Quigley as a primary source for their view of history.<20>"

I will tell you in that book there was a post card for more information. In my earlier life, even before Rush Limbaugh, I checked it out. The fact was that I was immediately put on a mailing list (this is real mail, before email) for literature which denied the Holocaust.

[billyoc]

12. Pat Buchanan is against the Iraq War, too.

He and the John Birchers see eye to eye on every issue.

[Stephanie]

13. I'm surprised they're still around

They are the proto-type wingnuts. I remember them when I was a kid.

[NoPasaran]

14. Do they still think Ike was a Red?

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. Ike wasn't a Red!

He was a pinko, who was soft on the Reds. He let the Reds on the supreme court take prayer out of schools.

Remember The Order? RW terrorists, murdered Alan Berg, robbed a couple banks. They were directly descended from the Birchers - most were former members.

[alfredo]

23. they also said honey was a Communist plot to weaken our children.

I remember hearing a Bircher on the radio railing against the switch from sugar to honey.

[nxylas]

29. Why honey?

Does it sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids or something?

[alfredo]

30. Something like that. To them sugar gave instant energy, honey didn't.

[formercia]

17. My parents were Birchers

It was an abusive childhood.

Actually, the positive side is that it made me question whether there was something better out there.

[marmar]

18. Nativist, racist, sexist Manifest Destiny types.....

n/t

[blondeatlast]

20. They also want us out of the UN--wow; I thought they were a relic.

Surprised that they are still around. :wow:

[pmorlan1]

21. John Birch Society Against Tortue

They are also against torture and a lot of them are for prosecuting Bush criminals. Check out this piece on their website:

http://www.jbs.org/index.php/jbs-news-feed/4311

While I don't agree with a lot of their views I do agree with them on torture.

[TornadoTN]

22. Most of the Ron Paul nuts that I meet are big Birchers

Kind of fitting as well, really.

[Taverner]

24. They're still around?

Wow - I always thought of them as an old 30's era relic, like George Lincoln Rockwell

[alfredo]

25. The Chad Mitchell Trio had a great song about them

"The John Birch Society"

by Michael Brown
Oh we're meeting at the courthouse at eight o'clock tonight
You just come in the door and take the first turn to the right
Be careful when you get there, we'd hate to be bereft
But we're taking down the names of everybody turning left

Oh we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save our country from a communistic plot
Join the John Birch Society, help us fill the ranks
To get this movement started, we need lots of tools and cranks

Now there's no one that we're certain the Kremlin doesn't touch
We think that Westbrook Pegler doth protest a bit too much
We only hail the hero from whom we got our name
We're not sure what he did, but he's our hero all the same

Oh we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Socialism is the ism dismalist of all
Join the John Birch Society, there's so much to do
Have you heard they're serving vodka at the W.C.T.U.

Well you've heard about the agents that we've already named
Well M.C.A. has agents that are flatly unashamed
We're after Rosie Clooney, we've gotten Pinky Lee
And the day we get Red Skelton won't that be a victory

Oh we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Norman Vincent Peale may think he's kidding us along
But the John Birch Society knows he spilled the beans
He keeps on preaching brotherhood, but we know what he means

We'll teach you how to spot 'em in the cities or the sticks
For even Jasper Junction is just full of Bolsheviks
The CIA's subversive and so's the FCC
There's no one left but thee and we, and we're not sure of thee

Oh we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Here to save our country from a Communistic plot
Join the John Birch Society, holding off the Reds
We'll use our hands and hearts, and if we must, we'll use our heads


O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain


Do you want Justice Warren to be your Commissar?
Do you want Mrs. Khrushchev in there with the DAR?
You cannot trust your neighbors, or even next-of-kin

If mommy is a Commie then you gotta turn her in

Oh we're the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society
Fighting for the right to fight the right fight for the right
Join the John Birch Society, as we're marching on
We'll all be glad to see you when we're meeting in the John
In the John, in the John Birch Society

[formercia]

27. K&R

I wish.

[DavidDvorkin]

28. I remember that wonderful song

How we laughed and laughed! How convinced we were (or tried to convince ourselves, anyway) that the rightwing kooks were a passing fad! All we had to do was laugh at them, and they'd have to pipe down.

[alfredo]

31. The Chad Mitchell Trio singing "The John Birch Society."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG6taS9R1KM

One more by them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhaDtSBmIrI&feature=related

[yewberry]

32. My first encounter with those assholes:

When I was 6, my mom ran for the House of Reps in NH. She was (and is) supportive of progressive causes, and she won. Throughout the campaign and afterward, those shitstains would send graphic anti-abortion literature to our home. Postcards (so that you couldn't help seeing the images before you tossed them) with pictures of aborted fetuses, you know the kind. After the first few incidents, I wasn't allowed to get the mail for a long time.

I was six, and I still remember those images.

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. They are libertarians

They are against all govt programs, including the military. So they are anti war. But progressive Dems don't have much else in common with them.

[pmorlan1]

35. We have this in common too

They are libertarians
Posted by proud2BlibKansan

They are against all govt programs, including the military. So they are anti war. But progressive Dems don't have much else in common with them.

Progressive Dems. are against torture so is the John Birch Society
Progressive Dems. are for prosecuting Bush officials for torture and so are quite a few John Birch members.

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. Not all progressives favor prosecuting Bush

[Control-Z]

36. My father was a card carrying Bircher.

He moved us to Orange County because of the Birch Society. I can remember as a young child the secret meetings he went to. They were small and usually in someone's home. He'd take me along, but stick me in another room for the duration. Most were registered as Independents, they were so extreme that republicans were too liberal. Someone up thread said theirs was an abusive childhood with Bircher parents. My certainly was (abusive).

My father accused just about every friend and acquaintance of being a "commie pinko fag". He was a racist. A bigot. Paranoid. Angry and volatile. He hated just about everyone except his Bircher friends.

[d_b]

38. our dads should get together and play golf.

[Malikshah]

40. "We're the John Birch Society" Youtube... circa 1962 Folk song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG6taS9R1KM

It's a slow load, but cute... lyrics included..