Right-Wing Militia Fanatic/Analysis: Difference between revisions
Right-Wing Militia Fanatic/Analysis (view source)
Revision as of 17:56, 1 February 2015
, 9 years agoclean up
m (Mass update links) |
m (clean up) |
||
(2 intermediate revisions by one other user not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Analysis}}{{trope}}
Technically, the Ruby Ridge, Waco and Oklahoma City incidents did not involve actual militias per se, though the movement's rallying around these events, as well as the political views of some of the people involved, created a lot of confusion in the matter. This page is to clear up the misconceptions about what had happened.
The main people involved in the Ruby Ridge were a family of [[Crazy Survivalist|survivalists]] led by one Randy Weaver, a former Green Beret and factory worker who, in 1983, moved with his family to a cabin in isolated Boundary County in northern Idaho in order to escape from what they saw as the corruption of the modern world. Here, he got involved in an assortment of far-right causes, including the "sovereign citizen"<ref>Short version -- the government's law and taxes are voluntary, but they tricks you into signing contracts (such as driver's licenses and Social Security) that force you to follow what they say. However, by filing the right paperwork, you can renounce your citizenship and become, essentially, a nation unto yourself. Seriously.</ref> and tax protest movements, and started refusing to pay his taxes. His wife Vicki, meanwhile, sent threatening letters to then-President [[Ronald Reagan]] and the IRS, addressed to the "Queen of Babylon". After he sold a pair of [[American Gun Politics|illegal]] [[Sawed-Off Shotgun|sawed off shotguns]] to an undercover ATF<ref>The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, sometimes alternatively abbreviated as BATF or BATFE. In other words, all the finer things in life.</ref> agent, a clerical error in the letter telling him when he was to arrive in court (the letter said his trial was to begin on March 20, 1991, but actually, it was to begin on ''February'' 20) led to him becoming a wanted fugitive by accident. [[Hanlon's Razor|Mistaking government incompetence for proof that they were out to get him]], he hunkered down with his family for over a year, leading to [[The Siege|a siege]] that lasted from August
The Waco compound, meanwhile, was run by the Branch Davidians, a [[
Lastly, Oklahoma City perpetrator Timothy McVeigh did have connections to militia members and subscribed to extreme right-wing causes, but was never part of a militia himself, and worked with only a couple of other people. He was a [[Gulf War]] veteran who wanted to join [[Elites Are More Glamorous|the Green Berets]], but was rejected when his psych profile declared him unsuitable, and he left the military not long after. He viewed the government as a bully, particularly in the wake of the aforementioned Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents, and timed his bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the end of the Waco siege.
The militia movement claimed these events, as well as such things as [[
{{reflist}}
|