Apparently, you have a reading comprehension problem.
I was responding to a message which inquired if any JBS members still existed and which suggested that they were all in “their 80’s”.
My point (since you apparently did not comprehend it) is that membership size is not a definitive or exclusive metric for determining impact or importance — for several reasons:
1. First, an extremist organization may have only a small or modest size membership (i.e. dues paying and regularly active people) BUT, typically, there are 10 times that many “state-of-mind” supporters/sympathizers.
2. Second, an activist group (even if relatively small) can easily cause problems in local communities. For example, when the JBS came into existence, there were numerous reports of local controversies involving JBS members attacking teachers, libraries, PTA’s, public speakers, etc.
3. Political extremist groups (left or right) are opportunistic and attack vulnerable targets and try to mold public opinion about specific issues and controversies. If they disseminate FALSE information, they can warp our decision-making or cause us to adopt policies which exacerbate legitimate problems.
4. Lastly, many people do not know that many very wealthy and influential people associated themselves with the JBS — including several billionaires. Regardless of how many members an extremist organization has — if it has extraordinary financial resources — it can be disproportionately effective at spreading its poison.
“there were numerous reports of local controversies involving JBS members attacking teachers, libraries, PTA’s, public speakers, etc.”
I doubt that there was any truth to that.
Knotts Berry Farm had a JBS meeting room of some sort in their Independence Hall building. Some friends and I wandered in for fun when we were in high school. The Birchers turned out to be about as extreme as a library guild. This was hardly the right wing version of the SDS.
Apparently you are a troll, here to try to pick fights.
Reviewing your posting history, you were last on FR in September, where you exclusively rant about the Birchers. Prior to your Sepember screeds, other than one post in Feb, you were last here in 2015 complaining about Birchers.
Please take your obsessive mental disturbances elsewhere.