SINS OF THE FATHER: How My American Monster Series Reveals a Pattern of Corrupt, White Supremacist, and Authoritarian Patriarchs
SINS OF THE FATHER: How My American Monster Series Reveals a Pattern of Corrupt, White Supremacist, and Authoritarian Patriarchs
The first 15 reports in my American Monster series about the network of US criminals accelerating global fascism reveals many were raised by white supremacist, fascist, and criminal patriarchs
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The Sins of the Father
On last night’s RadPod & Chill, when we were discussing the Musk-Trump Twitter space — whatever that was — I had a realization that many of the men I investigated in my American Monster series were raised by authoritarian patriarchs. Some were true fascists, others were criminals, some religious fanatics and virulently homophobic, many were white supremacists, and some were variations of all of the above.
A few examples from my American Monster series:
Fred Trump shared the same lawyer as the mob bosses of New York. That lawyer — Roy Cohn — who grew up visiting his uncle in prison for financial crimes — helped the Trump men settle out of court for their racist rental practices. A print report from 1927 also indicated Fred Trump attended a KKK rally.
Rudy Giuliani’s father, Harold Giuliani, was convicted of felony assault and robbery, and served prison time in Sing Sing.
Fred Koch did business with both Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, and the Koch brothers were raised by a Nazi nanny in an authoritarian, patriarchal household. Fred Koch was among the founders of the extremist, conspiracy-laden John Birch Society.
Elon Musk’s father, Errol, bullied his son, physically abused his mother, and had children with his own stepdaughter. Musk was born in South Africa, where his grandfather JN Haldeman left numerous political writings revealing he was pro-Apartheid and an antisemitic conspiracy theorist, who blamed Jewish financiers for the world’s problems.
Paul Manafort’s father, Paul Sr., was indicted in a corruption scandal in 1981 but was not convicted.
Peter Thiel, who has been called a ‘joyless child,’ was raised by a German father, Klaus, described as a deeply religious, Republican ‘fanatic.’ Born in Germany but raised in the US and South Africa, Thiel attended a whites-only private school in South Africa, and his classmates told biographer Max Chafkin that Thiel defended Apartheid.
Erik Prince’s father, Edgar, was a billionaire industrialist who funded religious and political extremism along with Prince’s mother Elsa, a virulent homophobe. Among the groups they backed is the religious and political extremist umbrella group, the Council for National Policy, as well as Focus on the Family, which espouses a patriarchal world view where women are submissive to their husbands.
These are just a few examples of the sins of the father, the uncles, and grandfathers in shaping patriarchal, corrupt, white supremacist, and authoritarian world views among the men I have investigated in the first 15 reports so far in this series.
We all have agency, and the sins of anyone’s ancestors do not have to be carried with them. In fact, some of the bravest, pro-democracy activists and experts have come to their work because of their family histories and the fascist countries they escaped from — both past and present.
History is always with us and informs us, but it does not have to define us. As Timothy Snyder says:
“There’s no such thing as history on your side… And I think the whole arc of history bending towards justice, it’s a nice thing; one likes to believe things like that are true. But there’s no arc of history; it’s not bending in any particular direction. You can make democracies happen, but to make democracies happen, you have to first set a really good example yourself.”
WE make democracies happen. It’s what WE do. What I do is expose those trying to prevent democratic governance, many of whom appear to have embraced authoritarianism.
Read on for the full reports, and please consider a membership to support this work.
American Monsters — The First 15 in My Series on the Network of US Criminals Accelerating Global Fascism
It’s stunning to me as I review a year’s worth of work — exposing and documenting the network of US criminals accelerating global fascism.
Look at them — some of those photos are mugshots, many are convicted felons — serving time in prison or currently in prison. Others write billion-dollar checks to cover for their crimes or to remove the regulatory agencies charged with protecting us from their crimes. They all have ties to Russia, and actively promoted the theft of the 2016 election.
The Monsters and Propagandists in this series are serving some kind of evil, and it’s important to expose them.
For America to survive whole, these Monsters must be neutralized. Clearly, we must have the ability to serve them for their crimes against humanity.
We are a decade into the Great Information War, and these men I profile are engaging in menticide, when they’re not engaging in ecocide.
An orchestrated mind war is not free speech.
Monsters are less scary in daylight. Why I do this… to expose and defang them, and because someone has to do it.
And then there were 15…
No. 1 — Paul Manafort
No. 2 — Roger Stone
American Monster — Roger Stone
No. 3 — Roy Cohn
American Monster — Roy Cohn
No. 4 — Donald Trump
American Monster — Donald Trump
No. 5 — Steve Bannon
American Monster — Steve Bannon
No. 6 — Mike Flynn
American Monster — Mike Flynn
No. 7 — Rudy Giuliani
American Monster: Rudy Giuliani — ‘A Dictator In Search of a Balcony’
No. 8 — Robert Mercer
No. 9 — Elon Musk
American Monster — Elon Musk
No. 10 — Erik Prince
No. 11 — Alex Jones
No. 12 — Tucker Carlson
No. 13 — Peter Thiel
American Monster — Peter Thiel
No. 14 — Rupert Murdoch
No. 15 — The Kochtopus
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