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Enemies Above: The FBI and the Creation of the Brown Scare Myth
The Libertarian Institute ^ | July 19 2023 | Brandan P. Buck

Posted on 07/21/2023 5:58:04 AM PDT by euram

“Today’s threat to our national security is not a matter of military weapons alone. We know of new methods of attack. The Trojan Horse. The Fifth Column that betrays a nation unprepared for treachery.”

Such were the remarks from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fireside chat on May 26, 1940. Roosevelt’s sentiments captured and propagated a growing sense of fear and paranoia that the United States was entering a covert war with a hostile foreign power. These sentiments, coupled with the steps taken by the United States government to fight them, are strikingly similar to those of today. With Vladimir Putin as a stand-in for Hitler and MAGA for the alleged rising presence of domestic fascism, supporters of the foreign policy status quo are mobilizing a version of history to frame current dissent as beyond the pale and to justify their extraordinary steps to curtail it.

As they had during the Great War, the United States government and American interventionists preceded official entry into World War II with a concerted effort to convince Americans of the need to aid the Allies. This push to move foreign policy opinion accompanied a growing panic concerning domestic extremism, particularly on the Right, in what historian Leo Ribuffo called “the Brown Scare.”

(Excerpt) Read more at libertarianinstitute.org ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: biden; fbi; leoribuffo; maga; trump

1 posted on 07/21/2023 5:58:04 AM PDT by euram
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To: euram

So, you’re saying it was a mistake to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan?


2 posted on 07/21/2023 6:39:39 AM PDT by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: DugwayDuke

Seems they are criticizing using the war as an excuse to violate the civil rights of Americans.


3 posted on 07/21/2023 7:05:45 AM PDT by AndyTheBear (Certified smarter than average for my species)
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To: euram
1940 Why now bring up an almost 90 year old story..? ... " stand in for Hitler AND MAGA " ? ..oh,, that's why ...to... L4Q5bPl
4 posted on 07/21/2023 7:08:50 AM PDT by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
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To: cuz1961

Directed towards the urinalist who wrote this piece.


5 posted on 07/21/2023 7:11:01 AM PDT by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
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To: euram

MAGA for the alleged rising presence of domestic fascism

That’s exactly the OPPOSITE of ‘MAGA’. It’s the true ANTI-FASCISM.


6 posted on 07/21/2023 9:20:06 AM PDT by ro_dreaming (Who knew "Idiocracy", "1984", "Enemy of the State", and "Person of Interest" would be non-fiction?)
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To: DugwayDuke
So, you’re saying it was a mistake to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan?

It was not a mistake to defeat Japan.

Our involvement in another European civil war, which was "won" by the Soviet Union (with some help from the US) was and is questionable.

The result, which was in essence OSS/CIA and various other disreputable characters taking over the British Empire, was mostly bad.

7 posted on 07/21/2023 9:23:46 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Make the GOP illegal - everything else will follow)
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To: Jim Noble

Jim Noble wrote: Our involvement in another European civil war, which was “won” by the Soviet Union (with some help from the US) was and is questionable.”

Not at all questionable. You do remember the holocaust?


8 posted on 07/21/2023 9:55:51 AM PDT by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: DugwayDuke
You do remember the holocaust?

Apart from movies made in the 1970s and afterwards, the American war in Europe had nothing to do with the holocaust.

Our government even turned away ships carrying Jewish refugees, sending them back to their deaths. The memoirs of General Eisenhower do not reference or discuss the holocaust.

If we HAD intended to fight a war over the holocaust, it would have been a very different war. But we didn't.

And the existence of a globe-spanning empire run from DC and Virginia dedicated to ending nation-states and forcing degeneracy on people who don't want it is, on the whole, a bad thing, as I said.

9 posted on 07/21/2023 10:06:00 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Make the GOP illegal - everything else will follow)
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To: euram

FDR did what benefited himself politically, but the German-American Bund was real, and so were other fascist, pro-German, and pro-Nazi (and Communist pro-Soviet) groups.


10 posted on 07/21/2023 10:18:10 AM PDT by x
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To: Jim Noble

Jim Noble wrote: “Apart from movies made in the 1970s and afterwards, the American war in Europe had nothing to do with the holocaust.”

Which would you prefer:
A Europe dominated by Hitler.
A Europe dominated by Stalin.
It would have been one or the other.


11 posted on 07/21/2023 10:29:53 AM PDT by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: DugwayDuke

Once Germany declared war on the United States, I would have been rooting for a Soviet victory.


12 posted on 07/21/2023 10:56:18 AM PDT by Jim Noble (Make the GOP illegal - everything else will follow)
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To: Jim Noble

Jim Noble wrote: “Once Germany declared war on the United States, I would have been rooting for a Soviet victory.”

I would have been rooting for a United States victory.


13 posted on 07/21/2023 11:38:30 AM PDT by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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