Revealed: US professor Scott Yenor
was behind extremist site that spread conspiracies
Boise State University (BSU) professor and #Claremont#Institute scholar #Scott#Yenor was the hidden hand behind #Action#Idaho, a far-right online media platform that featured inflammatory rightwing commentary on politics in that state, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.
The documents, obtained through public records requests, also show that 💥Yenor sought and received funding for the initiative from wealthy and influential donors like Claremont Institute board chair, Thomas D #Klingenstein.💥
He also attempted to hire a rising conservative writer, #Pedro#Gonzalez, to lead the initiative.
Gonzalez was later embroiled in a controversy about #antisemitic remarks he made in online chats in 2019 and 2020.
They also show him tapping a network of expertise that overlaps both with the Claremont Institute and the Society for American Civic Renewal ( #SACR ), a secretive fraternal #Christian#Nationalist organization the Guardian has reported on extensively.
Yenor has not publicly disclosed his involvement in Action Idaho, and it has only been fleetingly mentioned in previous reporting on Talking Points Memo. The revelations could raise further questions about the potential conflicts between Yenor’s professorial position at a public university and his political activism.
Yep, definitely sounds like Elon Musk's sort of club.
I note the fucker hasn't been into Space yet, nor will he ever, so all this Christian Nationalist shit of 'to the Stars' is just that. His exploding rockets are holding back our return to the Moon.
If you have never heard of the "Society for American Civic Renewal" (the acronym is pronounced “#sacker” by its members), it’s because they’ve been trying to stay under the radar.
Now that they are getting uncovered, they are attempting to manage the news coming out about them.
They are working to fundamentally reshape America to their vision. It sounds like a classic conspiracy theory — a bunch of rich white men on a mission from God? Really?
The thing is, there’s something about people who have managed to accumulate wealth, whether in business or by other means (like inheritance) that practically breeds hubris.
The prosperity gospel preaches that wealth is a sign that God has especially favored you, and you are privileged to rule over others by virtue of that wealth.
Kovensky has been able to unearth some details on what #SACR is about.
What is it? Among other things…
...The men TPM has identified as behind this group — and they are all men — have a few things in common. They’re all a certain kind of devout #Christian#traditionalist. They are #white. They have means, #financial and social, and are engaged in #politics.
...The members identified by TPM don’t necessarily fit the profile of the disaffected, disgruntled loner or the amped-up, testosterone-fueled militia types often found on the paranoid right-wing fringe. TPM’s reporting has identified as SACR members the president of the influential, Trump-aligned #Claremont#Institute, #Harvard#Law grads, and leading businessmen in communities scattered across America.
...Group members hold a distinct vision of America as a latter-day ancient Rome: a crumbling, decadent empire that could soon be replaced by a Christian #theocracy.
To join, the group demands faithfulness, virtue, and “#alignment,” which it describes as “#deference to and acceptance of the wisdom of our American and European Christian forebears in the political realm, a traditional understanding of #patriarchal#leadership in the household, and acceptance of traditional #Natural#Law in ethics more broadly.”
More practically, members must be able to contribute either influence, capability, or wealth in helping SACR further its goals.
The president of the rightwing Claremont Institute, Ryan P Williams & another senior Claremont official, Prof Scott Yenor, are closely involved with the shadowy Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), an exclusive, men-only fraternal order which aims to replace the US government with an authoritarian “aligned regime”, and is rooted in extreme Christian nationalism and religious autocracy.
The revelations emerge from documents gathered in public records requests.
One document speaks of recruiting a “brotherhood” who will “form the backbone of a renewed American regime” and who “understand the nature of authority and its legitimate forceful exercise”; whose “objectives” include to “collect, curate, and document a list of potential appointees and hires for a renewed American regime”.