# The John Birch Society **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 21, 2007, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693 "2007-07-21T18:54:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![boggle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@boggle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boggle)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/21 "2007-07-26T05:08:04Z")
The ones I know are also Libertarians. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2007, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/22 "2007-07-26T07:01:36Z")
[QUOTE=boggle] The ones I know are also Libertarians. [/QUOTE] . . . Libertarians just fell considerable in my estimation. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/23 "2007-07-29T18:11:00Z")
I used to work for the company that printed their brochures and DVD/VHS covers. It was the first I had heard of them, but over the four years I worked there, I have seen some amazing stuff come through. They are, in a word, paranoid. Most of the things they publish are about the government these days, at least everything that crossed my desk was. In the last year, most of it was about immigration. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/24 "2007-07-29T18:31:20Z")
It’s too bad **Vanilla** / **Good Egg** isn’t still here as she was an _active_ member of the JBS as well as a member of the Green Party. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/25 "2007-07-30T17:55:03Z")
All I know is, I’m a faithful follower of Brother John Birch, and I belong to the Antioch Baptist Church, and I don’t even have a garage–you can call home and ask my wife. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard of the Antioch Baptist Church for a while, either. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/26 "2007-07-30T18:16:18Z")
Easy there, **Freddy**. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/27 "2007-07-30T19:26:45Z")
[QUOTE=gonzomax] You must have loaded the Libertarian site by mistake. [/QUOTE] So, clearly you don’t have a clue what would be on the Libertarian site, ehe? Of the list Fear Itself gave that you quoted I’m hard pressed to think which ones Libertarians would AGREE with. Certainly the one calling for halts on gun control. Otherwise? Maybe the one about getting out of the UN? Other than that its pretty funny that you think libertarians want things like restrictions on free trade and such. Sort of like having a pro-Nazi groups bullet points tied into a hard core Jewish religious group… -XT ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/28 "2007-07-30T19:35:34Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] So, clearly you don’t have a clue what would be on the Libertarian site, ehe? Of the list Fear Itself gave that you quoted I’m hard pressed to think which ones Libertarians would AGREE with. -XT [/QUOTE] How about government funded education? They (JBS) are against that. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/29 "2007-07-30T19:41:06Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] How about government funded education? They (JBS) are against that. [/QUOTE] Agreed. Maybe a better analogy on my part would have been the differences and superficial similarities between fascism and Communism. Sure, they have some things in common…but their core beliefs are diametrically opposed. Libertarians are almost all free trade folks…and looking at your bullet list this seems pretty contrary to the JBS thinking (I have to admit I don’t know a lot about them so maybe I’m wrong here). -XT ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/30 "2007-07-31T02:03:51Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] How about government funded education? They (JBS) are against that. [/QUOTE] Against FEDERAL Gov’t funded/controlled education, to be precise; with a little more leeway on state/local funding/control. The whole free-trade/fair-trade issue has never been quite settled in conservative circles. I imagine the JBS would argue that NAFTA doesn’t create a North American free-trade region as much as it established a supra-national political-economic authority. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/31 "2007-07-31T02:40:46Z")
[QUOTE=FriarTed] Against FEDERAL Gov’t funded/controlled education, to be precise; with a little more leeway on state/local funding/control. [/QUOTE] That’s not what [their website says](http://www.jbs.org/node/1351): > [@](#): > > The John Birch Society believes that a strong educational background is needed in order to preserve our American heritage. However, as declared in our Position Statement, the John Birch Society believes that parents, **not any federal or state bureaucracy** , should have control over the education received by their children. They want all control and funding to be local, and from the sound of it, that means school by school, not a central school district. They are also very big on [home schooling](http://www.jbs.org/node/1387). ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/32 "2007-07-31T02:44:30Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] That’s not what [their website says](http://www.jbs.org/node/1351):They want all control and funding to be local, and from the sound of it, that means school by school, not a central school district. They are also very big on [home schooling](http://www.jbs.org/node/1387). [/QUOTE] OK then, I think there was more of a role allowed to the state when I was active in 80-82, although I know even then, there were a lot of incidents of state bureaucrats cracking down on home & private schools. So perhaps the JBS tightened up whatever support for public education it had since then. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693/33 "2007-07-31T02:51:04Z")
[QUOTE=FriarTed] I imagine the JBS would argue that NAFTA doesn’t create a North American free-trade region as much as it established a supra-national political-economic authority. [/QUOTE] So it does. Which would be a **good** thing, if said authority were answerable to a transnational elected parliament like the EU’s. But it ain’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-society/412693.md?page=1)