A stone cold assassin, he was:
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I think that’s probably the most succinct and accurate accounting of his beliefs and yet, I still have no goddamn idea what they are. So many seemingly contradictory stances with a healthy dose of biblical guidance for good measure. I just read some of the writings and it’s just a bizarre mash-mash which now includes warnings about an apparent coup attempt against trump. I think looking at it through the lens of a cult is probably the best way to understand it. Whatever the hell “it” is.
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That’s another cult like aspect. LaRouche often made fairly specific, borderline apocalyptic predictions. Then used claimed confirmation of that prediction to bolster himself.
That’s how he ended up on the AIDs thing. He had previously predicted mass epidemics in the 80’s (though it’s not clear if those predictions were back dated or not). And AIDs was supposedly that prediction coming true. That AIDs didn’t destroy us is supposedly the result of the movement’s actions.
It’s much more like a new religious movement than a political one. It’s just built around 101 level secular Philosophy, politics, and conspiracy theory instead of Jesus.
So it makes a bit of sense that their politics and associations are such a mess, because those aren’t the central thing. LaRouche, his vaguer philisophical teachings and the vast mythology built up around his conspiracy ideas are what’s central.
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Well, thanks for wading through all the muck to help me understand a little better. I never could bring myself to commit the time or mental energy. Too many people I love are/we’re wrapped up in cults of various stripes.
He sits a Nexus of a whole bunch of shit I’ve long been interested in. Fringe politics, cults and new religious movements, conspiracy theory, scams, medical bunk.
So I was already pretty familiar with the guy. But I still needed to brush up on his wiki page. Guys shit is more convoluted than Marvel Comics continuity, it’s difficult to keep straight. And so much of it is secret to the group, or fabricated by them later, it’s honestly impossible to tell if any of it is true.
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Oh yeah, those loonies. In every federal election wedged somewhere between the Tierschutzpartei (animal protection party) and the Marxist-Leninist party of Germany in the permille region of the votes. Their tinfoilhat theories make Reichsbürger look sane. Their election posters are always hillarious.
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Then again, one suspects that either the Republicans or the Democrats could have won the 2016 election by running any dead person.
Well, the republican won running a braindead person…
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Yeah, they never really went away. I got some free dvd I never watched from the LaRouchies back in 2007 or so. They were handing out pamphlets at the Stop N Shop, and would accost people with questions like “don’t you just hate Nancy Pelosi?!” to try and get them interested.
Long before Alex Jones or David Icke, LaRouch was the big promoter of nonsensical conspiracy weirdness. You only had to peruse his newspaper once to figure it out.
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Bad example. We all know australia is a hoax
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It was pretty much GE level Soc. The teacher had people who represented various “unique” lifestyles or paths come and talk to us. In addition to LaRouchians, we had swingers, a couple who had been in the Children of God cult (they were deprogrammed), and I don’t recall who else.
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hmm,
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He founded some youth initiative in 2000 specifically to recruit young people, seemingly only on college campuses. I was in college in Philly in the 00’s and I guess he’s always had a large following there so they showed up a lot. And they had some success. I wasn’t as familiar with him then as I soon became. But when I ran into the LaRouche booth at my freshman orientation I remember I said “isn’t that guy dead”. Which didn’t go over well.
They got enough of your anarchist, Marxist, and white activist kids hooked that professors starting working him into the curriculum as a way to diffuse it. And anti-cult/deprogramming groups started setting up on campus to warn people not to sign up, and tell their stories of being ripped off and used.
“I’m voting LaRouche” is still a common joke around politics among the Philadelphians I know in my age group, and regional media still seems to mention them a lot.
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OK, that’s a funny scene.
That’s a good one too. I think I’m going to steal that one, which works even better now that he’s (supposedly) dead.
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OK, I’m confused. How did anarchists get hooked by LaRouche? His cult always seemed to come across as the opposite of anarchist to me.
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Recruitment tactic. LaRouche started out in various communist and militant socialist organizations in the 40’s/50’s, once he was his own thing his group presented itself as a socialist political party. Or a sub group of existing ones and mostly involved themselves with the far left. And they’ve continued to gesture at such things to avoid accusations of fascism.
So what they do is play up those connections, and any bits of his ideology that fit. To recruit young people with an interest in or involvement in the far left, anarchism, various collectivist ideologies. And left wing activists in general. Once you catch their interest you Indoctrinate them in the LaRouche way, and boom worker bees handing over their life’s savings and fucking their credit to line your pockets.
Same reason neo-nazis target punk rock kids for recruitment. Nothing particularly fascistic about punk as a general thing. But it was a good place to find impressionable young people to exploit.
LaRouche tried to target, or tie himself to other political movements at various points. Including white supremacists. But he never seemed to gain much purchase.
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I don’t know. Wouldn’t this make him more qualified?
When the KKK goes NOPE TOO LOONY FOR US. That really says something.
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Looks like @Leibniz011 signed up just to preach the Gospel of Lyndon to us heathens in this thread. I feel honored.
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