Seth CotlarIn 1968, the Arizona Republic ran an incredible, 8-part series on the danger of far right extremism in Arizona. This was notable because that newspaper was a VERY CONSERVATIVE paper. The first Democrat it ever endorsed was Hillary in 2016.
This is the passage that most stood out to me. Can you imagine a conservative Republican media outlet today publishing an 8-part series on the anti-democratic threat posed by far right extremists?
FWIW, the guy I'm studying, Walter Huss (who became the chair of the OR GOP in 1978) had several pieces of literature from The Minutemen and other groups mentioned in this series. These folks were fringe, but they also had a huge mailing list and thousands of interested readers.
I believe this was the person who ultimately was the source for this story. Note how he was recruited by the head of the College Republicans to join a right wing paramilitary organization that was training to overthrow the US Gov't which had become Communist (according to them)
Once this person got connected up with the world of far right paramilitary organizations in Arizona, he began rubbing shoulders with all sorts of like-minded people in Arizona--ad execs, insurance salesmen, used car dealers, gun shop owners, physics majors making A-bombs etc.
If you're interested in seeing the whole series (which is pretty fantastic), I hope to have it posted on my Substack in the next day or so.
mf MD 
@sethcotlar do you have any data/documentation on whether these folks were directly influenced by russian propaganda? that's my working hypothesis and i know it's not scientific until there's actual proof, but i'm trained in science and not sociology and so i don't know how to find out
@mfreeman Not that I know of.
@sethcotlar thank you
Jonathan HendrySadly I suspect you're not writing about a big punk rock fan.
SpicewallaIs that the same minutemen group that murdered a 9 year old girl a decade ago?
Here's an extremely-NPR NPR piece about her murderer.
https://www.npr.org/2011/02/04/133504099/former-member-of-minuteman-group-accused-of-murder
Richard W. Woodley ELBOWS UP 🇨🇦🌹🚴♂️📷 🗺️@sethcotlar
Well Hilary was closer to actual conservatism than Trump was/is.
Well Hilary was closer to actual conservatism than Trump was/is.