Like the Posse Comitatus and the militia that came before, the People’s Rights network is saturated with conspiracy theories, many grounded in antisemitism.

As a nascent far-right network, People’s Rights has yet to articulate an overarching conspiracy theory of its own creation. Rather, the network rests upon a mélange of conspiracy theories brought in by the leadership from various corners of the far-right. Conspiracy theories from QAnon, the John Birch Society, Three Percenters and militia-types, Christian nationalists, and hardcore anti-Semites have circulated throughout the People’s Rights network.

Given the role that reaction to COVID-19 measures played in the genesis of the organization, it’s not surprising to see a massive number of COVID-19 conspiracies circulating in the network.

Those conspiracies range from “COVID-19: Tool of Red China and the Socio-Globalist Left” to “coronavirus is part of the forced vaccination,” to a “mandatory covid vaccination” will alter our DNA, to comparing COVID-19 restrictions and/or mask-wearing to slavery and Nazi atrocities against Jews, to the COVID-19 test as a “clandestine brain virus, nano-tech, or plant a chip in someone,” to the same “cult of deception” was behind the coronavirus, the Kennedy assassination and the 9/11 terrorist attacks; to the “plandemic” is “Totalitarianism at a Whole New Level,” to “COVID-19 an occult driven script and a Luciferian human sacrifice mega-ritual.”[80]

Different COVID-19 conspiracies are often woven together into a larger tapestry. There have been efforts, for instance, to tie together fear of a cabal of elites wanting power, with anti-vaxxer propaganda, and stereotyping of recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Take, for instance, People’s Rights Washington State figure Kelli Stewart, who has written of the coronavirus that,

“The global elites want our nation. The Covid plandemic was just one part of this takeover…then on to the riots in the streets leading to civil unrest and war, then fires, the final blow will be round two of the fake plandemic just before the election.”[81]

Often the people pulling the strings in the conspiracies are unnamed “elites” or the hands of the “New World Order.” At times, however, the focus of the conspiracy gets a name and a face. One of the more popular conspiracy themes shared by People’s Rights leaders is the belief that liberal Jewish philanthropist George Soros is behind the myriad of ills facing the country. These conspiracies are often explicitly antisemitic or deploy classic antisemitic tropes to demonize Soros.

Ammon Bundy has referenced the Soros conspiracy at People’s Rights meetings, as have others. People’s Rights California leader Tony Pellegrino recently posted a meme asking, “Why can’t Soros be investigated for funding riots, anarchy, and domestic terrorism?”[82]

The use of the antisemitic conspiracy theory is long-running in network circles. Individuals who are now leaders in People’s Rights promoted the antisemitic Soros conspiracy theory long before they signed up. People’s Rights Idaho Area 2 assistant Sean Anderson, for example, promoted the antisemitic conspiracy theory that George Soros and the “Bilderberg group” were “puppet masters” that selected Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.[83] Diego Rodriquez, a speaker at multiple People’s Rights events, signed onto a September 2016 letter with Christian Right leaders which declared,

“wealthy, anti-Christian foundations, following the lead of billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, fund and ‘rent’ Christian ministers as ‘mascots’ serving as surprising validators for their causes…In the ironic rhetoric of compassion, Soros and friends also fund mass immigration followed by redistricting schemes and ‘voting “(sic) rights”…One wonders if the end goal is the destruction of national identity through demoralization, open borders and debt, thus the ‘fundamental transformation’ (weakening) of American civil society for their leveraged global power. (They have done this to other nations.)”[84]

The Soros conspiracy isn’t the only place antisemitism rears its ugly head in the People’s Rights network. People’s Rights leaders in Washington and California have circulated videos by notorious antisemitic conspiracy theorist David Icke, and his videos have been shared in People’s Rights Facebook groups in Montana District 1, Oregon Area 5, and Washington Area 8.[85]

When People’s Rights Washington leader, Kelli Stewart, posted one of Icke’s videos, she headlined her post, “Here is the problem, and the SOLUTION, all wrapped up in this tiny little twelve-minute…video.”[86] Icke holds that “a reptilian race has controlled the planet for thousands of years and continues to do so today” and that reptilian “‘Jewish’ Rothschild’s” lay behind Nazi atrocities against Jews.[87]

Other People’s Rights leaders have abandoned any effort to cloak their antisemitism, opting for an explicit expression. A “TRUTH PILL” is what California State leader Tony Pellegrino has called an openly antisemitic conspiracy theory that alleges a dual system of citizenship in the U.S,

“Well guess who owns the FEDERAL RESERVE. Yup, the Zionist Banksters…The FRAUD and DECEPTION of the Satanic Zionist Jesuit Freemason scum that’s foisted on YOU by THEIR MEDIA, Schools, Medical Industry and Hollywood is executed by STUPID ASS, CROOKED ASS, JACKASS COPS.”[88]

The multitude of conspiracy theories pulsing through the People’s Rights network helps shape the ideology of Bundy and his posse.

NOTES

[80] Thornton, Brand. Facebook. July 29, 2020.   https://www.facebook.com/brand.thornton.3/posts/3398197406878123; Clemons, Angela. Facebook. February 16, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=713014735770195; Whalen, Casey. “Trevor Loudon Interviewed on Cultural Marxism.” InlandNWReport. http://inlandnwreport.com/2020/06/20/trevor-loudon-interviewed-on-cultural-marxism/; Whalen, Casey. August 18, 2020; Hevia, Raul. Facebook. September 13, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/raul.hevia.3/posts/3123897657738681; Peterson, Alicia. Facebook. September 19, 2020; “People’s Rights Meeting – Emmett, Idaho 09-03-2020.” Video. Facebook. September 3, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/peoplesrights.org/videos/328177418293891/; Powers, Jeremiah. Facebook. September 11, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/jeremiah.powers.902/posts/1193339234372416; Bundy, Ammon. Facebook. August 10, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/1115723640/videos/10222257655246387/

[81] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. September 11, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=894700680933721&id=100011813922844.

[82] Pellegrino, Tony. Facebook. April 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/tony.pellegrino.75/posts/1311604182373668; Pellegrino, Tony. May 7, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/tony.pellegrino.75/posts/1344984432368976; Pellegrino, Tony. Facebook. September 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/tony.pellegrino.75/posts/1452270438307041.

[83] See Tanner, Chuck. “Ammon Bundy and People’s Rights Mobilize Following Arrest of Idaho-Based Ally.” Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights website. July 31, 2020. http://tremololabs.com/2020/07/31/ammon-bundy-and-peoples-rights-mobilize-following-arrest-of-idaho-based-ally/.

[84] TruthPR. “A Call to Repentance & Renewal.” TruthPR.Com. October 5, 2016. https://www.truthpr.com/a-call-to-repentance-renewal/.

[85] Hill, Holly. Shared Link. Facebook. People’s Rights Washington Area 8 Facebook Group. July 27, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/groups/187640989330229/permalink/208172660610395/: Kruger, Cheri. Shared post. Facebook. People’s Rights Oregon 5 Group. August 31, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/groups/3049903611902687/permalink/3112791885613859/: Littlewolf, Brynn Leah. Shared post. Facebook. People’s Rights Montana District 1 Facebook Group. August 30, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/groups/972412889862804/permalink/1027839084320184/.

[86] Stewart, Kelli. Facebook. August 30, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=886119605125162&id=100011813922844

[87] Icke, David. The Biggest Secret: The book that will change the world. Scottsdale, Arizona: Bridge of Love Publications. 1999. p. 19. Icke writes that “[R]eptilian bloodlines like the ‘Jewish’ Rothschilds funded and supported the Nazis and allowed the rank and file Jewish people to reap the unspeakable consequences… [I]t was the Rothschilds who helped to create and fund Hitler and the Nazis in the Second World War which included the sickening treatment of Jews, gypsies, communists, and others.” p.81, 228. Befitting such views, Icke has also embraced the scurrilously antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a factual account of history: “The so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion were discovered in the last century and tell in incredible detail the events and methods of manipulation we have seen manifest in the 20th century.” p.212.

[88]  Pellegrino, Tony. Facebook. March 21, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/tony.pellegrino.75/posts/1298289263705160. The meme elaborates that, “Everyone is treated as a POW/war booty/DEBT slave and after 1933, the enemies of the states. To keep this short and overly simplified after the FEDERAL RESERVE ACT 1913 the currency was coopted by the Crown…YOU are a DEBT slave for the Vatican. That thing that every thinks is the Christian capitol of the world? That’s a Satanic Jesuit Freemason hell hole that runs everything by military force…Now everyone is a TAX slave, under colour of law, under martial law rule, raped a robbed the Crown Temple B.A.R. with Grand Master Masons running each Corporate STATE OF…no common law courts, and how do they enforce all this?…YUP! JACKASS COPS! They hire the biggest psychopaths with sociopathic tendencies…

The Para-Military rabid-pit bulls are under and protected by the Fraternal Order of Freemasons, oops, Police. They wear military uniforms. They carry heavy Artillery. They use Armoured Personnel Carriers. They get ISRAEL, Inc. Training, and why? Well guess who owns the FEDERAL RESERVE. Yup, the Zionist Banksters…The FRAUD and DECEPTION of the Satanic Zionist Jesuit Freemason scum that’s foisted on YOU by THEIR MEDIA, Schools, Medical Industry and Hollywood is executed by STUPID ASS, CROOKED ASS, JACKASS COPS…If you KNOW you’re not lawfully under their enslavement, they’ll call you a ‘sovereign citizen’ or ‘domestic terrorist’ or ‘public threat’ or now, ‘American National.’ They parrot their overlords in the ADL, B.A.R., SPLC, FBI, Masons, and others…When you support genocidal ISRAEL INC. war mongers because TB tells you to, they you’re in need of a cold slap across your face. Stope watching that STUPID FUCKING ZIONIST Hollywood Chimp Training.”