Hiding the Truth
I saw a comment in a really excellent post at Crooks and Liars, which read as follows:
"Prosecutors late last week, at a bail hearing for members of the Hutaree militia, played tape recordings of the kinds of things the Hutaree leaders were telling their followers. As I suggested back when the busts occurred, the evidence makes clear that these "Patriots" were telling the public one thing to present a "good citizen" face, while they were telling their followers quite another."
As I have mentioned, I have followed right wing groups for a long time. I would like to share with you one of the most consistent distinguishing characteristics of these groups, which I first identified in the sixties, with the American Nazi Party: It is the inevitable existence of what I have called an "exoteric" and an "esoteric" doctrine. That is, there is one statement of their principles for public consumption (generally including their low-level followers) and another doctrine setting out their true intent. I cannot think of a single feature of these groups which is more consistently present.
Examples? David Duke and the Klan pretending that they were not racists and insisting that they were just trying to protect American workers from illegal immigrants; the pretense of the tea party organizers that they are a grass roots phenomenon...I could go on.
I need hardly state what one can expect from organizations that believe the general public must be deceived about their intentions. Yet this is inevitably the course these people take.
"Prosecutors late last week, at a bail hearing for members of the Hutaree militia, played tape recordings of the kinds of things the Hutaree leaders were telling their followers. As I suggested back when the busts occurred, the evidence makes clear that these "Patriots" were telling the public one thing to present a "good citizen" face, while they were telling their followers quite another."
As I have mentioned, I have followed right wing groups for a long time. I would like to share with you one of the most consistent distinguishing characteristics of these groups, which I first identified in the sixties, with the American Nazi Party: It is the inevitable existence of what I have called an "exoteric" and an "esoteric" doctrine. That is, there is one statement of their principles for public consumption (generally including their low-level followers) and another doctrine setting out their true intent. I cannot think of a single feature of these groups which is more consistently present.
Examples? David Duke and the Klan pretending that they were not racists and insisting that they were just trying to protect American workers from illegal immigrants; the pretense of the tea party organizers that they are a grass roots phenomenon...I could go on.
I need hardly state what one can expect from organizations that believe the general public must be deceived about their intentions. Yet this is inevitably the course these people take.
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