The Paranoid Strain

We're finishing up our Bircher talk here, with our discussion of the group's great crusades to keep people from having more rights, because apparently expanding civil, women's, or gay rights played right into the commies' hands. Plus, they really, really wanted to get rid of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Did they? Kinda. I mean, he retired. So Victory! Plus, you'll learn who this John Birch guy is, and why it's not called The Robert Welch Society. Next week--well, we don't wanna spoil it. But you're not gonna want to miss it.

We find ourselves falling deeper into the history of the John Birch Society, Robert Welch's baby, and the anti-communist organization that seemed so fringey in the mid-20th century, yet seems so clearly a prologue to Qanon today. Learn how the group formed, how it misjudged the communist menace, and how Welch's unique personal history shaped its worldview. See you in a couple of weeks with more exciting adventures in red-baiting!

As the title suggests, this is the moment where we hand off the story from contemporary Russia to the USA's number one Cold Warrior, a former candy magnate who founded the most successful and influential anti-Communist movement in our nation's history. The John Birch Society is truly the forerunner of today's unhinged right-wing conspiracy culture--the proto-Qanon, if you will. So let's examine what they were all about, starting with the man who founded and led the society for a quarter-century, Robert Welch Jr. See you with more in a couple of weeks.