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Beth Witrogen's avatar

Thank you as always for your tireless commitment to truth and revealing the underpinnings of "democracy."

I would like to recommend two items that were eye opening for me as a lifelong ancestral survivor of the Holocaust and current activist in California's Carceral system: Eric Lichtblau's "The Nazis Next Door" and this link to the KKK Oath -- which reads like Project 2025. I haven't yet seen major authors like yourself reference this Oath in terms of Miller and other white supremacists.

This movement is the basis of the carceral system, and if I had the chops I would write about it ... but right now I don't, so I am passing it on for your interest, if you have interest.

Thank you for all that you do - these are major works of major import. BLESS YOU!

https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/227kkkmanual.html

Note: 1) To unite white males 2) To create a brotherhood akin in race 3) Full Christian program of Jesus Christ 4) Protect the sanctity of the home ... etc.

Critical Resistance's avatar

Beth, thank you and I mean that. You've been a vocal supporter and your engagement matters more than you know.

I looked at the Klansman's Manual you linked. You're right that it reads like a template. "Unite white male persons, native-born, Gentile citizens... brotherhood akin in race, belief, spirit, character... full Christian program... protect the sanctity of the home." That's 1925. The language gets laundered over the decades, but the architecture persists and you can trace a direct line from that manual to what's embedded in federal agencies right now.

The carceral system thread is real and it's coming. Part 9 documents the institutional protection patterns, and historical continuity like this is exactly what grounds that work. I'm saving this link.

If you ever want to write the piece connecting these dots yourself, you have readers here who would show up for it. You certainly have the knowledge.

Beth Witrogen's avatar

O ... M ... G. Thank you! I'm so honored -- I've been (screaming?) for so long, pay attention ... people don't want to because it's not comfy, right? Well here we are ... I am VERY interested in your work, and Part 9 will resonate for me I'm sure. ABSOLUTELY institutional protection patterns.

Yes there are dots and YOU are connecting them. THANK YOU! "The architecture persists ..." YES.

If you read my latest Substack, "Lipstick on a Pig," I have detailed the contrast between an 80 year old Black man in a medium security prison here who was beaten up and hospitalized for refusing to transfer. Now he's housed in the state's facility for the most ill ... all the while Corrections is touting its new $243 million humanitarian California Model at San Quentin.

SO the public doesn't understand, it's always about the money. I think we see that rather clearly don't we? And yet, what goes on doesn't get reported. I am deeply embedded ...

I'm very interested in your offer -- can you contact me through my Substack, Sea of Mercy? I am very willing to talk about this -- I don't know that I have the bandwidth to write up 5000 words, but if we want to talk parameters, I would be humbled and honored to contribute here. THANK YOU. (Or let me know how to contact you; I'm sure we don't want to put our personal 411 into public chat.)

Mary-BethSMontgomery's avatar

Horrifying that they are being embraced by gop 🤬

Critical Resistance's avatar

Part 7 is called "Inside the Agencies." It goes deeper than embrace.

Beth Witrogen's avatar

YOU ARE AMAZING!!

I hope you will publish these pieces more widely, in media like Mother Jones, The New Yorker (will they?), etc.

Critical Resistance's avatar

I can certainly look into it. I worry about institutional restraints when it comes to some of these topics, but the publications doing the best work right now seem increasingly willing to break those norms. We'll see.

Beth Witrogen's avatar

I have the same issue, but I can direct you to friendlier outlets that publish around carceral material.

I had to stop publishing in mainstream because of the hateful comments (early maga, back in the early 2010s ...) So I do understand.

Shane Bauer (terrific journalist, American Prison is a masterpiece) writes or wrote for MJ, so I know they publish long-form carceral pieces. Prism, The Marshall Project ...

It's really ... er ... critical ... to get your scholarship out there. Now is the time ... there's too much naivete about the PIC, prison industrial complex. It is not TV.

Mike's avatar

Grrrrrrrrrr

Critical Resistance's avatar

Wait until you see the training camps on Wednesday.

Noel Keith's avatar

Good work 👍

Reminds me of an extra snarky piece that I did last year as a review of an excellent ProPublica article

https://noelkeith.substack.com/p/tranquil-piece-of-mind-vol1-no2-courage?r=4c7psw&utm_medium=ios