Daily Dose- Are You OKKK, Enid?

This conversation is about a recall vote for Judd Blevins in Enid, Oklahoma, and what it could do for the future of "identitarians".

For more insight: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/white-nationalist-leader-plotting-take-over-gop-n920826

DISCORD:https://discord.gg/9u3uwBkH6C

www.thedailyformer.com

Transcript

Samantha 0:12

Welcome to the daily dose a bite sized episode of the daily former a podcast about how the far right does not need to be The rest or the end of your life with me I have Lauren Jamie and Angela and today we're going to be talking about Enid, Oklahoma so basically there was an election for city council in November of last year, and this guy Jed Blevins was elected to city council, and like almost immediately this social justice group brought it to light that he was in this organization called Identity Europa, and, that he was at the unite the right rally that he has all of these discord messages that were leaked with the unicorn riot leaks and they really went hard actually they like made a website called recall jud. com or. org they started a petition that only required 200 signatures They got, I think the last time I checked, it was almost at 500. They've gone really hard trying to get this guy out. And what's really interesting about it, is that while there's overwhelming evidence of him being in this organization, he will not say whether he was in it or not. And he also keeps saying like, there's no hate in my heart. I don't hate anyone. I love everyone in Enid. He was really proud that he voted for adding a Texas roadhouse into his city. So he really loves the firecracker chicken wraps. it's a very interesting non apology. From someone who's being recalled and has an opportunity to disavow these beliefs or just, you know, be honest about it. So I wanted to talk to you guys. the recall vote is on April 2nd, so we will follow up, likely just to say whether he was recalled or not. But I just kind of wanted to talk about, speculate, and think about how this ties into the larger alt right, far right, ideology and the goals that have been in the movement since pretty much the beginning of it. So if anyone wants to start and if not, I am happy to like, just keep having opinions.

Angela 2:17

I think of the propaganda. Like, this is a tactic to deny, deny, deny. Do not acknowledge anything. And I think it's part of a bigger picture within the far right. even decades ago talked about doing this exact thing. We talked about getting involved in certain, professional things that might bring us closer to weapons, training survival stuff, whatever it was. But things that would benefit the violent far right as a whole and this to me is like the exact same thing They're working this backwards propaganda Machine where he pumped out so much bullshit when he was openly involved He was pictured At Unite the Right, holding a torch, marching, And if they don't recall him, that is setting a precedent for others who are doing the same thing.

Samantha 3:19

And for what it's worth, I was in the same organization that he was in. I don't remember if I ever met him in person, but I do know what his name was in the org. And it was, it's really funny. Cause they wanted to turn that organization into a political think tank. They would do tabling at college campuses. And it was like, Oh, you're a poly sci major. And you're, you know, white, young, relatively in shape, blah, blah, blah, all those things. And it was to, you know, Get people into far right ideology and then you start at a super low level. I think more times than I can recall, they would always say like, yeah, a clean water initiative or something like that. And when I was reading an interview with him, he was like, I'm very proud to have passed a clean water initiative or something. this is literally Textbook what we were told to do run for a low level political position, start to do relatively politically benign, you know, have a successful track record and then you keep moving up. And I think you bring up a really true and really interesting point that if he is not recalled, this sets a terrifying precedent. The one hope that I do have is that there was someone else who was in IE, and I think he went in Washington maybe or Oregon somewhere on the like, I want to say Pacific Northwest area, and he was recalled or censored almost immediately like within the week they were like, No, we're not we're not doing this. So I am hoping that, but what is y'all's experience with this.

Lauren 4:44

This actually reminds me of a lot of things, like, so, I remember when I had switched groups, like, halfway through my involvement, I went from, like, this fucking, street crew, we looked just like something out of Romper Stomper, for God's sakes, and I went over to kind of, like, a more, quote, organized organization, although I, I wouldn't necessarily Call them that nowadays, that's just how it was pitched to me at the time. this is the same stuff as they had preached. They told me, okay, first of all, you need to clean up your image. Second of all, you need to reconsider the career that you want to get into. Cause at the time, actually, I was thinking about going into construction. This is before I ever actually did it. they had said, okay, well, it's not going to really serve us in any way. And I mean, like I was also a woman at the time who was in a group that Preaches that kind of more misogynistic view of women but the one thing that I remember standing out was them saying, oh, why don't you be a teacher? I'm like, why the hell would I want to do that? And can y'all really see me doing that? And they said, what you can do is secretly replace the books and stuff in the library with, more racially conscious stuff. That's their wording, not mine. so that was one of the tactics too, to get in, do things as sneaky as possible, and then get out, like, you're still going to leave your mark, kind of thing.

Samantha 5:56

Yeah. Yeah. That's, also a great point. That they want you to take over, like, education also, becoming an EMT and stuff like that was, really important. Now looking back on it like horrified thinking about how many people I knew that were EMTs that were like, oh I had to Save a black person's life today or do this or do that and just I don't know that stuff makes me feel really Disgusting now when I look back on it. But when I look at stuff like this, I do wonder how often this happens You know, this guy had a completely different name than what his actual name is. And I'm wondering how many people were in the organization or just on discord or in, you know, the online groups that were consuming this stuff and are now on school boards and in city councils and running for tourism boards and stuff this is their end game to do this stuff and not even we have an idea of it because of the mask of anonymity.

Jamie 6:55

I think this is going to be a huge issue going forward. I think this is going to become more of the norm you know, with more polarization, more political divides, people are going to start I wouldn't say infiltrating, but really infiltrating, but people in those positions that are starting to buy into that agenda are also going to start pushing that agenda.

Samantha 7:13

yeah. No, absolutely. I would call it infiltrating because you're not running for city council because you want to improve the city. You're running for city council because you want to spread far right ideology. And in their eye, in their mind, it is improving the city, but it is with a very specific and very narrow set of terms that makes it better.

Angela 7:34

You know when you mentioned before, you guys used to do things like hand out water to nice white people? This is the same thing, but on a much larger scale. Because he's not in there, like, yeah, white power. This is the group that likes to be called Identitarian because nobody knows what the fuck that means unless you actually do some work on it. This is very much part of the larger plan and I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised at all. What I do think is really ironic is how was so public with his white supremacy. He was the Oklahoma state coordinator. It's not like he was just a little member that sent in dues. He was doing major things with the group even after Charlottesville.

Samantha 8:28

yeah. I mean, He was dropping banners like there are photos of him in IE garb doing IE banners wearing the khakis and polo. It's so funny, my. I like animal instincts. It's like, identitarian is actually, but that's just the cringe, cringe part of me. But I mean, you're kind of bringing up also a good point, even with that one, identitarian sounds benign. if I were to just go to someone and be like, yeah, I'm an identitarian, it's like, oh, that sounds French. What does that mean? You know, but that was the whole point.

Angela 8:59

exactly. That's the point of it. It sounds fine.

Samantha 9:03

yeah. In my deposition, I think I described IE very specifically as wolves in sheep's clothing. they are the definition of it. I don't know, I really want to go back to Jamie's thing, this will be happening much more often. How, how do we, how do we handle that? Angela, you bring up the point that he was public, it was known, and he was still elected, and yes, there's going to be a recall vote, but how did we get to this place to begin with?

Angela 9:29

how many people are thinking, wow, he's only done good things here so far. I haven't seen that. That can't be true. He, he can't. Like, that's the point.

Samantha 9:40

Well, I also think something that's worth noting is that he has made a point to not disavow white supremacy. He has just said, there's no hate in my heart. And he also will not say whether he is or isn't involved in that kind of stuff anymore. Whereas any normal person would be like, Oh my God, I absolutely disavow this. no matter how conservative you are, no matter how hard right you might be. There is a line when you are not far right that you're kind of like, okay, well, I'm not a Nazi. I'm not a white nationalist. And I think his bullshittery of like, I'm going to talk around this. I'm going to do a really complicated dance and say all of these things. And right now, signed benign policy, like, yeah, everyone has to start somewhere, you know?

Lauren 10:30

I was gonna say, the whole thing, that he stated definitely sounded scripted. so he knew that this was gonna happen himself, or that he might get outed, so he prepared for it.

Samantha 10:38

And you probably had a fucking other white nationalists write it for him.

Lauren 10:42

Oh yeah.

Samantha 10:43

That's gossipy speculation, but I will probably remove that. But that is the reality. the far right sees itself, at least that iteration, the identitarians I was in it. I'm going to refer to myself in the past tense. I saw myself as an intellectual, you know, I didn't see myself as boots and braces. I made fun of people like that. I said, we're the sophisticated ones because we wore khakis and we were called optics cucks, but that is. What has made it possible for this guy to get an office? the toning down you would never guess that that's who he was. at first glance, you'd be like, oh, wow, he has a, very specific haircut, but a lot of people do. I don't know, it's kind of frightening.

Angela 11:25

it reminds me of other things that we've seen in current events over the last decade. There's a whole, gaggle of white supremacists that tried to take over the whole town in North Dakota.

Samantha 11:38

Wasn't that Gregory Cobb?

Angela 11:40

Craig Cobb. Yeah.

Jamie 11:41

Yeah. How many people

Samantha 11:42

tell me more about that, and did it ultimately fail, or is it kind of an ongoing thing?

Angela 11:51

It failed. there were a few attempts to keep pushing back on the government and the, I don't even know what to call them but it's a very small town, like what, population 15 or something ridiculous, like not even that. They didn't really have a way to stop what was happening. A bunch of white supremacists bought up strategic parts of this town until they owned enough that made them feel like they had a stronghold and could completely overcome the local governing body, get white supremacists into every aspect of it, but it kind of failed because they were in this, Dilapidated little area with a house that was basically condemned and didn't even have running water, but they had these really amazing crisp new Nazi flags that they were flying. It was just, it was ridiculous and it didn't end well. Craig Cobb ended up in jail. There's more to it that I, you know, would love to spend time actually digging into and researching, but just the whole art. And the audacity of going so far as to try to control an entire area and to slither your way in unrecognized, basically, but they did it wrong. Like, half of them are trying to, get into the little city council, and the other ones are, marching around with their pretty little flags and their guns, and it's, like, really Really? You lost that game of hide and seek? Like, hello?

Samantha 13:29

that was what Brad meant when he said they were master racing around. Yeah, I I agree and actually I would love it if the next daily dose we did a little casual deep dive on Craig Cobb and just kind of use it as an example the white nationalist white supremacist movement. we can go far right, violent extremist movements, that. This has been tried so many times. David Duke tried to run for governor a few different times and he would get the nominee to some degree, it is still understood that this is a bad thing for the vast majority of people. But I do really wonder if this recall is going to go through because Exactly what you said where they're like, well, you know, he made sure that the playgrounds have new slides, bad people wouldn't do that. And yes, they would.

Jamie 14:19

Say the recall was up to?

Samantha 14:21

I think when I last looked, it was just under 500.

Jamie 14:25

Considering the population is 51, 000 ish. That's pretty damn low. Recalling someone like that.

Samantha 14:33

yes, that is, kind of what makes this so interesting is that it is double the amount that they needed to have a recall, but. That's one percent, quite literally. Of people and That's exactly what makes me curious to see how this goes. Cause he also got elected. that is the other part. this wasn't a power grab, this person got elected as an already publicly doxxed and figured out person and there's no way that if he has been in that world since 2017 that's like eight years. there's no way other people in that city didn't know. So that also makes me curious. It's also Oklahoma. I feel like that is also something that is worth knowing Oklahoma is one of those states that still has quite a few sundown towns. it's not like this is happening in Vermont, you know, but that also makes me wonder is this becoming normalized again? You know, but yeah, do you have any other opinions or thoughts or anything that we wanted to do? We will follow up with this next week. Probably next Tuesday. when Angela and I do a little casual deep dive on Gregory Cobb.

Angela 15:42

I do have one final thing. that I've been thinking of during our conversation. He won't acknowledge his involvement, even though there's visual proof. I think we all know there's no denying involvement without acknowledging even let's say he's changed. If you're running for an official position in government, you owe the people honesty. And if you were involved and are embarrassed by it, well, you should be, but you should also be accountable and be able to acknowledge that and say, I've changed. I'm not that person anymore. And there hasn't even been that from him. And that really makes me question the sincerity Of what little he has said it

Lauren 16:34

even if he did change, should he really be running for office or anything political this soon? does it not take more time?

Samantha 16:43

so that part kills me because I have a friend that has been encouraging me to run for the library board in a city that I live in to try and fight, you know, Moms for Liberty is having a grand old time influencing the library board here and trying to get a bunch of stuff removed. And that is my biggest fear. That is my biggest anxiety about running is that I'm outspoken. But because of my past, I understand that there is a permanent question mark on my head of like, If we give you this position, the privilege of, this position, will you abuse it? You know, are you doing exactly what they're doing? And I think that's where, again, any normal person, if I was running for it, I would scream it from the mountains yes, I absolutely disavow this. Why would I want anyone to question if I was involved in it or not? You know, too, too. Leave that room for ambiguity, I think is, is extremely telling that is the answer.

Lauren 17:42

Well, Sam, there's also tangible proof that you have changed, whereas for him, not so much.

Samantha 17:48

Yeah, I mean, that's, that's fair. But also, he said right now, oh, I have a record that I'm proud of. I did these three apolitical things. Which is great that he did these apolitical things. Sure. But again, that still doesn't, it's so weird. I keep wanting to make these comparisons to Hitler and you know how like you have to start somewhere. Hitler didn't just get on the platform and was given power. there were all of these things that fell into place and that happened in order to make it possible. And that's not to say that I think he's going to be the next God Emperor dictator or anything like that, but he is someone that will. make it possible for the next authoritarian person to come in. But that was a very long winded way of saying yeah, Angela, that's, that's exactly it. He hasn't outright said it and until he does nothing, he says, In my opinion will be good enough or will be indicative of an actual change.

Angela 18:46

may only be my personal opinion and that's fine if it is, but I really feel that. If we, as farmers are going out into the public and asking them to trust us, we owe nothing less than full transparency. Mm

Samantha 19:03

yes, 100%. And I think that includes and what makes that really tough is that I don't have an issue talking about where I stand politically, but I also don't want to exclude anyone that might not be on the exact same page as me. But in person, I'm very clear about where I stand on everything. No matter how ambiguous I try to seem on this podcast I will still always make a point to say like, Nazi punks fuck off, you know, I'm not in it. I'm not doing it. I don't care if you're conservative. I don't care. I know people that are Republicans think that we're calling them Nazis. I'm not. I know what a Nazi is. I was friends with a bunch of them. I was one. So, you know, please don't ever mistake my words that being a Republican is being a Nazi. This guy? Luckily a Nazi. likely. But yeah, that's where I'm at with it. Does anyone have anything that they want to add? Before, before we close this out

Lauren 20:01

The one thing that's still stuck in my head is during his little speech when he had said, Oh, there's no hate in my heart for anyone. That kind of reminds me of something that we used to say, when I was in and probably when y'all were in too, Oh yeah, we don't hate anybody. We just love white people. And it's like, yeah, okay. And I watched porn for the acting quality.

Samantha 20:21

for the storylines, gosh, I want to know what happens if you get stuck in a dryer. Jeez. But yeah, I agree with you. I think this is one of those things where we as formers, it's so easy to see through it. It's so transparent for us and it's an intuition and I hope one day can share it just like that bullshit meter. But until then, we're just going to have to keep doing these episodes. thank you guys so much for talking And everyone who's listening. For listening and just kind of letting me rant about this for a little bit. Cause I'm kind of nervous about it. I, I trust and hope the good people of Enid will make the right decisions. But again, just knowing that he was elected is concerning. please come on our discord and, disagree with us, have opinions tell stories and until then we'll talk to you later.