Just regarding the post title, John Birch died 14 years before the JBS was founded and had nothing to do with them. They considered him a martyr because he was killed by a Chinese Communist during an assignment so they used him as a symbol of anti-Communism. James Doolittle, a wartime pilot and possibly Birch’s friend (maybe they just worked together, not sure exactly and I don’t feel like looking into it further), said in his autobiography:
“[Birch] had no way of knowing that the John Birch Society, a highly vocal postwar anti-communist organization, would be named after him because its founders believed him to be the ‘first casualty of World War III.’ I feel sure he would not have approved.”
As usual it’s these far right assholes hiding behind something/someone more respectable to launder their bullshit.
Just regarding the post title, John Birch died 14 years before the JBS was founded and had nothing to do with them. They considered him a martyr because he was killed by a Chinese Communist during an assignment so they used him as a symbol of anti-Communism. James Doolittle, a wartime pilot and possibly Birch’s friend (maybe they just worked together, not sure exactly and I don’t feel like looking into it further), said in his autobiography:
As usual it’s these far right assholes hiding behind something/someone more respectable to launder their bullshit.
Wow. What a bunch of pieces of shit.