Great thread on the overstated conservative mythology around Bill Buckley’s “purge” of the extremists in the early 1960s. https://twitter.com/larryglickman/status/1356942684779347968
This Firing Line episode from 1966, a few years AFTER Buckley supposedly cancelled the John Birch Society, is relevant, because Buckley spends much time DEFENDING the JBS from one of their critics. https://twitter.com/sethcotlar/status/1188315921393152001
Not only is Buckley’s role in policing his right flank overstated, but we also tend to forget what a cynical red baiter he could be. https://twitter.com/sethcotlar/status/1259645000788226048
Note that Buckley took his anti-anti-John Birch Society stance the year they produced this incredibly racist film, claiming the entire civil rights movement was a Communist front operation. This is what Buckley is gently defending. https://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/anarchy-u-s-a-1966
And don’t forget that the year Joe McCarthy was disgraced, Bill Buckley wrote a book defending him. https://twitter.com/sethcotlar/status/1233979027720785925
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