The Terrible Parable of the Dumbass Doyles

In this episode, Lou revisits the story of James and Maehala Doyle of Tennessee, who devoted themselves and their family to supporting slavery and opposing antislavery and abolitionist settlers in the Kansas Territory. In the Pottawatomie incident of May 1856, Doyle and his two oldest sons, William and Drury, were killed by John Brown's men, under the leadership of the old man, because of their role in spreading and supporting proslavery terrorism in the territory, and for posing a direct threat to the lives and well-being of the Browns.  The Doyles are dumbasses--ignorant people caught up in advancing injustice and bigotry--and represent an element in the history of the United States that are always the most dangerous because they are the most useful tools to the machinations of powerful but wicked elites, from the slaveholders of the antebellum era to the fascist rightwingers of today.