# The John Birch Society's long shadow **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 18, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230 "2023-05-18T15:45:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/1 "2023-05-18T15:45:01Z")
I listened to this article on the radio last night > **[A historian details how a secretive, extremist group radicalized the American...](https://www.npr.org/2023/05/17/1176662608/a-historian-details-how-a-secretive-extremist-group-radicalized-the-american-rig)** > > Matthew Dallek says the John Birch Society, which was active from the late '50s through the early '70s, propelled today's extremist takeover of the American right. His new book is Birchers. And several points struck me: - They considered every attempt by government to make people’s lives better as evil communism that must be stamped out. - They were racist, sexist, homophobic, antisemitic Bible thumpers. But they did have some limits, especially as to being openly seen as bigoted. - They successfully nurtured the far right movement we have today - There are astonishingly close parallels between their campaign against floridation of water and the recent campaigns against vaccination. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/2 "2023-05-18T15:52:18Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > There are astonishingly close parallels between their campaign against floridation of water and the recent campaigns against vaccination. Yes, they were on the forefront of defending our [precious bodyly fluids](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J67wKhddWu4). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/3 "2023-05-18T16:13:34Z")
The John Birch Society was overwhelmingly about two things - the dire perils of Communism and the threat of World Government as exemplified by the United Nations. Activism on other issues was very limited in comparison. While there are echoes in what the JBS was warning about in the 1960s in today’s right-wing extremism, I think it’s a stretch to suggest that the JBS is a direct cause of what we’re seeing today. Even when it was most active, the JBS was viewed as extremist and a semi-joke, not a major player in politics. They tended to support Barry Goldwater but he got trounced by Lyndon Johnson in '64. Today, Goldwater would be viewed by the Republican right as a RINO or worse. The JBS is still around, with a website and online publication (“The New American”). They seem to have dialed back on the Communist Menace and are flogging the same themes as a ton of other right-wing groups - immigration, “Covid overreach”/vaccine dangers, election fraud, the Deep State and so on. The closest I could find to anti-Semitic propaganda was ranting about unnamed “globalists” who are controlling international trade for nefarious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/4 "2023-05-18T16:34:44Z")
This recent [Frontline episode on Clarence and Ginny Thomas](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/clarence-and-ginni-thomas/) indicates that Ginny is a Bircher. I’d say the shadow is still present in politics and law. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/5 "2023-05-18T16:45:52Z")
I caught that interview on the radio this morning, too-- chilling! Talk about deja vu all over again. The Birchers and the Tea Party were a match made in ~~heaven~~ hell. And we’re living with the issue from that unholy union. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/6 "2023-05-18T16:54:45Z")
A half century ago, the JBS were widely regarded as being cranks worthy of a wink and an eyeroll, but what’s most disturbing now is how the same sorts of conspiracy theories that were their bread and butter back in the day are making their way into the mainstream dialogue and sharing equal footing with more sane thinking. [1962 Chad Mitchell Trio - The John Birch Society - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5f1KpfngH4) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/7 "2023-05-18T18:55:53Z")
When I was a junior or senior in high school, the school sponsored a debate for candidates for the school board. One of our teachers wanted us to attend. I did. One of the candidates was Henry Waxman (running IIRC for his first elected office). He was intelligent and non-smarmy. I was impressed. The other guy (not remembering his name at all) was weird and creepy, and he had an equally creepy sidekick who gave off seriously bad vibes. Turned out those two were Birchers. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/8 "2023-05-18T19:20:01Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > A half century ago, the JBS were widely regarded as being cranks worthy of a wink and an eyeroll, but what’s most disturbing now is how the same sorts of conspiracy theories that were their bread and butter back in the day are making their way into the mainstream dialogue and sharing equal footing with more sane thinking. > > [1962 Chad Mitchell Trio - The John Birch Society - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5f1KpfngH4) Bob Dylan wrote [“Talkin’ John Birch Paranoia Blues”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Xn9YOKPcQ&ab_channel=BobDylanVEVO) to mock them and wanted to sing it on Ed Sullivan in 1964 where he was booked. The network refused the song, Dylan refused to sing a different song and so a probable historic TV event (like The Beatles on Ed Sullivan) never happened. ---
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/9 "2023-05-18T19:28:22Z")
I remember in the 1960’s in our neighborhood on Halloween, our local John Birchers were handing out their fascist political pamphlets instead of Halloween treats. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2023, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/10 "2023-05-18T20:53:45Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > While there are echoes in what the JBS was warning about in the 1960s in today’s right-wing extremism, I think it’s a stretch to suggest that the JBS is a direct cause of what we’re seeing today. This is probably accurate. What I would say is that there is a ongoing political core of populist regressive fascistic conservatism that exists in this country (and others), and that core gets tapped by different movements through time. So it isn’t so much that the Bircher’s lead to the Trumpers, but that the Bircher’s, Know Nothings, McCarthyits, Moral Majoritarians, Tea Partyists, and Trumpers, are all outbreaks from the same reservoir of disease. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/11 "2023-05-19T04:21:13Z")
I read this biography of John Birch when it came out a few years ago. TL : DR - he would probably have spun wildly in his grave, wherever it is, had he known what would happen to his name in the decades following his death. His apolitical but devoutly religious mother actually joined the John Birch Society in large part because it was named after him. [https://www.alibris.com/John-Birch-A-Life-Terry-Lautz/book/32830437?matches=11](https://www.alibris.com/John-Birch-A-Life-Terry-Lautz/book/32830437?matches=11) p.s. My local public access TV station used to have a show sponsored by them. It was quite a doozy, as one might expect. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/12 "2025-01-12T21:32:10Z")
Bumping this because I just really learned about the JBS (aka MAGA) from a recent Malcolm Gladwell podcast. I need to dig into this more, but it seems the long shadow is very relevant today > **[John Birch vs. the PTA | Revisionist History](https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/john-birch-vs-the-pta)** > > In the 1960s, a right-wing organization called the John Birch Society rose to fame in America for their anti-communist campaigns. They tried to take over the Parent-Teacher Association. The battle between the two tells us a lot about American... ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-birch-societys-long-shadow/984230/13 "2025-01-13T05:48:53Z")
How The John Birch Society Invented The Modern Far Right | BEHIND THE BASTARDS link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuEpS1UWHpU&ab\_channel=BehindtheBastards](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuEpS1UWHpU&ab_channel=BehindtheBastards) This is worth a listen if JBS is something you’d like to know more about.