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Just so that there is no question of the dark rage that seethes at the heart of the Morg's hive-mind, I here quote the words of Morgbot Mopologist Lou Midgley, whose lock-step thinking has been laid bare for all to see in this jeremiad of extremist vituperation:

"I have been asked by the Editor of the Daily Universe to make some comments on the John Birch Society. It is difficult to believe that anyone at the university--anyone who reads books and thinks--would take such a movement seriously.... The man who wrote The Politician did so to inform his followers that former President Eisenhower was a communist. Of course he provides no evidence but the usual collection of garbage. For absurdity, the charge against Ike would have to be placed next to the belief, as far as I know, held by no-one, that President McKay is secretly a Catholic. What Welch-Birch really wants is to return to a world without taxes, the U.N., labor unions, racial minorities demanding some kind of legal equality; Birchers want a world without fluoridation, the Soviet Union, large cities and emerging nations and all the rest that goes with our world."

Clearly we must conclude that Midgley was actually intending for all to get precisely the opposite message, since it was none other than President McKay who supported E. T. Benson in his vociferous anti-Communism and informal Bircher promotion at the time. Ergo, we must conclude that McKay was indeed secretly a Catholic.

Here I was thinking he was merely a reptilian....thanks for the clarification.

The very first time I saw Professor Midgley was at a BYU debate in which, as I remember, he demolished W. Cleon Skousen and Skousen's fruitcake notions about a vast international conspiracy of Illuminati and communists.

Trevor wrote:

"I have been asked by the Editor of the Daily Universe to make some comments on the [b]John Birch Society. It is difficult to believe that anyone at the university--anyone who reads books and thinks--would take such a movement seriously.... "

That's funny. That's what many of us think about Mormonism. To many of us outside of it, it is a transparent fraud. (Falling comfortably within the category, "Just how obvious does it have to be?") Yet as Dan has pointed out, and as we cannot deny, many very intelligent, well-read people believe it with 'every fiber of their being." (Is this a phrase unique to Mormonism, or to others claim to know something with "every fiber of their being?") There are probably somewhere out there some pretty intelligent people who buy into the John Birch Society who will take mighty offense at Midgley's words.

I imagine, moreover, that Midgely would be highly offended should the same words be thrown back at him. But from where I sit, the JBS is no more or less obvious piece of twaddle than Mormonism.

It's all a matter of perspective, but I find precious few believers who are willing to concede this obvious point, nor who can provide a convincing reason why their perspective is more valid than anyone else's.

Daniel Peterson wrote:The very first time I saw Professor Midgley was at a BYU debate in which, as I remember, he demolished W. Cleon Skousen and Skousen's fruitcake notions about a vast international conspiracy of Illuminati and communists.

Obviously there could be no better evidence that he really agreed with Skousen and that both of them were actually working for the Illuminati at the time.

Daniel Peterson wrote:The very first time I saw Professor Midgley was at a BYU debate in which, as I remember, he demolished W. Cleon Skousen and Skousen's fruitcake notions about a vast international conspiracy of Illuminati and communists.

Some years ago some conspiratorial fruitcake wrote some book called "None Dare Call It A Conspiracy." William F. Buckley, presumably, referred to it snidely as "None Dare Call It BS."

Maybe an apocryphal story, but I like it.

Wasn't Pres Benson a member of the John Birch Society?

Here you can see Ezra Taft Benson endorsing the book "None Dare Call it Conspiracy" at the pulpit of general conference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJNMcD2IY_k

This portion of his talk was censored when it went to print in the Ensign.

guy sajer wrote:Some years ago some conspiratorial fruitcake wrote some book called "None Dare Call It A Conspiracy." William F. Buckley, presumably, referred to it snidely as "None Dare Call It b***s***."

Maybe an apocryphal story, but I like it.

It sounds like Buckley.

Back when he was very young, when Robert Welch had just started the John Birch Society and was pushing the idea that President Eisenhower was "a conscious, card-carrying member of the Communist conspiracy," Buckley responded "Eisenhower's not a Communist. He's a golfer."

He had no patience for such silliness.

And no, President Benson was not a member of the John Birch Society, though he was more sympathetic to it in the 1960s and 1970s than I could have wished. His son Reid was a member.

Daniel Peterson wrote:The very first time I saw Professor Midgley was at a BYU debate in which, as I remember, he demolished W. Cleon Skousen and Skousen's fruitcake notions about a vast international conspiracy of Illuminati and communists.

I'm sure Midgley did demolish him. But I suspect that fellow John Birchers in the audience saw the outcome differently.