I realize my friend was on to something. My friend had been an Air Force brat and had lived in Germany for a time and in Britian.
He had also been an artillery sergeant in Vietnam, always was armed where ever he went. Sometimes I put that down to PTSD, which at times he did seek treatment for. "Paul'' told me so much I never realized. Like how the Nazis were Leftists, how the NY Times was the worst news organization on the planet and how someday, without firing a shot, the "Bilderbergers'' would destroy freedoms across the globe on the pretext of some made up crisis like a natural disaster or a pandemic. He died few years ago. Everything he told me appears to be coming true.