Ideology and "Psychology", was Re: identifying with the enemy

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Tue May 22 16:14:34 PDT 2001


Gordon Fitch <gcf at panix.com> I've studied Gritz with a certain amount of interest because I knew him slightly in the Army. At that time, he didn't show even the slightest evidence of racism at any time when I was observing him. However, the U.S. military has a very strong policy against racism, so he could have been concealing it (others didn't, however, and the word tended to get around). Most of the material on the Net connecting Gritz with racism seems to do it through guilt by association, that is, they find someone associated with a racist enterprise who can also be associated with Gritz, and thereby make out Gritz to be a racist. The same means could be used to prove Gritz was an ardent believer in UFOs. Now, for all I know, he is both a racist and a believer in UFOs, but the evidence could also lead one to believe he isn't very sophisticated about politics and is something of a nut case as well. (A nut case being someone whose universe appears to be a different one from the one I inhabit.)

If you're really concerned, you can write to Gritz, at bogritz at bogritz.com, or visit his web site (www.bogritz.com) and find out what he has to say, or not to say, about the matter. Don't say I sent you. I'm probably too complicated for Bo and other Manicheans.

Good chapter on Bo in the book by Montana native, David Neiwert, "In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest, " Washington State University Press, $13.95 pb, 1999. Neiwert has a real feel for rural, conservative working class sub-cultures and the alienation many feel there from, 'er, "rootless cosmopolitians, " (if that phrase can be disconnected from anti-semitic discourses for th purposes of shorthand here!). Not a dry book like say the social psychological studies, based on the F-Scale of Adorno et. al. , of Bob Altmeyer on rightest authoritarianism.

The evidence as to Gritz'es racist attitudes is mixed (Asian wife, no? Who wishes he would get out of the movement. She gave him an ultimatum a few years ago to quit, which led him to an unsuccessful suicide attempt with a rifle ( http://www.cnn.com/US/9809/21/gritz.01/ http://www.rickross.com/reference/militia5.html ), but I think falls more on the side of viewing him as racist given his appearences at Congresses of Aryan Nations, the Pete Peters organized meeting in Estes Park, Co. in '92 of militias in formation addressed by Louis Beam("Leaderless Resistance" see his website via the Stormfront website), and esp. his candidacy in the Populist Party of Willis Carto back in '92 for Pres. (Party symbology> Scary mofo looking Hawk akin to those of the Croatian fascist Ustashe. Back then, they distributed leaflets in Santa Cruz, Ca. At Bookshop Santa Cruz, I got the owner Neal Connerty to throw out the leaflets he had not given more than a glance at before. Say "populist" and some lefties get all warm inside...) Oh, and the Nazi salute that Bo gave to supporters of Randy Weaver in Idaho during the standoff at Ruby Ridge. And the help he offered to Christian Identity bomber, Eric Rudolph when the FBI put out a huge task force to find him.

Racism in the US military? What, anarchist Gordon channelling Charles Moskos? (Low blow!?) Seriously, anyone on the list have details on the race riots esp. in the US Navy in the early 70's on battle carriers that led to the commission headed by Elmo Zumwalt, Sr. on racial tensions in the military.

Finally y'all can listen to Bo on this internet radio network, hmm, well I thought he was on GCN here, http://www.gcnlive.com/hosts.htm , other hits on google say, WWCR (World Wide Christian Radio out of Tennessee), anyway, if y'all find him tell me, it's been a few months since I listened to Bo. Michael Pugliese



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