History has shown the JBS to be more right than wrong
There is one poster around here that goes into a legendary anti-JBS rant whenever their name shows up....
Talks about lawsuits bla bla bla.
That version of the JBS is totally alien to the folks that I knew back in the day in Belmont, MA.
Those folks were intelligent, courteous and friendly—took time out of their schedule to share information with the very young me. They were happy to answer any questions and have an open discussion on any topic.
I immediately noticed the contrast with the leftist professors on campus who were self-righteous jerks who tolerated no dissent from their views.
So—I always give the JBS the benefit of the doubt when they are under attack.
In 1965 I was at a JBS meeting when one guy asked if the JBS thought that MLK was a Communist.
There was a bit of a ripple at that, but the speaker said “Pink, but not an outright Communist”.
In ‘65, that was heresy. Saint MLK could only be spoken of in reverent tones.
Turns out 45 years later they were dead right. All the crap he actually believed started coming out, and that was one of the bad points, among many.
As for Art. V, JBS is just concerned about mischief. That’s the definition of conservative, right?
They weren’t wrong. They were just early.
The JBS has not been “right” by any known rules of evidence and logic.
Robert Welch and every senior official of the JBS effusively praised former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. According to Welch and the JBS, Hoover was our nation’s most knowledgeable expert re: the Communist movement in the U.S. See for example, JBS article entitled “The Wisdom and Warning of J. Edgar Hoover” published in the 10/66 issue of the JBS magazine (American Opinion) and also available as a reprint. Significantly, Hoover’s FBI falsified EVERY major predicate of JBS ideology AND Hoover stated that the JBS was a “right wing extremist” movement that did not deal in fact or reality.
For details see:
https://archive.org/details/john-birch-society-report-october-2020-614pp/mode/2up
For a massive critique of the JBS position concerning our civil rights movement, see:
https://archive.org/details/0906-combined-pdf-racism-and-the-john-birch-society-283-pages