Waco, Ruby Ridge, and the ghosts that America haunts
View this email in your browser
It’s a Wednesday in America, and here we are again, remembering another tragic anniversary. Thirty years ago today, 76 Branch Davidians, one-third of whom were children, died in a tear gas-filled inferno in Waco, Texas, following a 51-day standoff with federal agents.
The Waco siege, recounted on last week’s episode of Long Shadow: Rise of the American Far Right, was as bizarre as it was devastating. Yet perhaps the most surprising detail is how the extremist event went on to polarize the country — and still does to this day. After all, Donald Trump kicked-off his presidential campaign there last month, and now he’s crushing the Republican primary field.
Still, if there’s an audience that would most benefit from listening to Long Shadow’s second season, it might be moderate conservatives. But for those who have been swept away by the fringe’s tide, the show will be a difficult mirror to look in. The first episode should be easy enough to listen to, because most people don’t see their values reflected in a man who had 17 children with 11 different Branch Davidian women, including two underage mothers.
But the calculus complicates when a “government is coming for our guns” narrative enters of the conversation. David Koresh prophesized biblical forces in the form of government agents would attack him and his followers. As a result, the Branch Davidians had stockpiled 300 firearms, including 60 M-16s, 60 AK-47s, and about 30 AR-15 assault rifles. On the first day of the siege, the Davidians fired more than 12,000 bullets at ATF agents, who returned 1,500 rounds before running out of ammo.
Episode 2: The Revolution Begins. Listen to LONG SHADOW wherever you get your podcasts.
“They’re coming for our guns” is a trope right out of white supremacist materials like The Turner Diaries that have seeped into regular Fox News coverage — and therefore conservative mindsets — over the years. This talking point has resulted in a conflation between guns, patriotism, and religious faith, as well as a fetishism of firearms themselves.
The baseball card version of that story might be the still-developing tale of Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts National Guard airman arrested last week for leaking classified intelligence. Teixiera allegedly showed classified documents to an online gaming group “united by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God,” according to The Washington Post. But that wasn’t all the 21-year-old shared with his online friends, the newspaper reports. The Post also describes a video in which a person purported to be Teixeira appears at a shooting range, where he yells “a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target” with a large rifle.
For whatever it’s worth, at least one other member of the group shared Teixeira’s toxic views. The New York Times reports members of the group “traded racist and antisemitic epithets and appeared in other groups featuring Nazi iconography.” “There’s no point hiding it,” the Times reports one as saying. “I’m not a good person.”
Online racism is nothing new. It nearly stretches as far back as the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege, which is the topic of our podcast’s second episode, “The Revolution Has Begun.” This installment chronicles a violent, 1980s crime spree inspired by The Turner Diaries and outlines how white separatist Idaho rancher Randy Weaver became an ATF target, which resulted in the deadly showdown at Ruby Ridge.
Randy Weaver survived the shootout with federal agents, but his wife Vicki and son Sammy weren’t as fortunate. In an investigative report of the event, the U.S. Senate concluded, “The shooting of Vicki Weaver as she held her baby daughter will haunt federal law enforcement for years to come.”
This is the last photo of Vicki Weaver. She was shot and killed by a federal agent during the Ruby Ridge standoff.
“Indeed, that was a sentiment that proved true,” says Graff on the podcast, “because the most lasting legacy of Ruby Ridge — its long shadow — came with its impact on the far right in America.”
Randy Weaver’s story is a complicated one. As Graff notes, he and his wife, Vicki, believed in the separation of races, but on their hilltop in Idaho, they didn’t pose a threat — they wanted to be left alone. “Again and again in the story of the rise of the far right, the federal government, through its overreach, would make enemies of people who weren’t enemies to begin with,” Graff says.
So on anniversary dates like today, we remember people like David Koresh, Vicki Weaver, Timothy McVeigh and others. On the surface, they seem disconnected from each other, but Long Shadow follows the thread of history, and shows how they’re connected. They’re ghosts that America continues to haunt.
There’s just one day left to support Long Lead in the Webby Awards, and we really need your vote! The People vs. Rubber Bullets, the most comprehensive explainer of less-lethal projectiles ever produced, has been nominated for Best Individual Feature. But to take home the prize, our six-part story has to slay some giants of journalism: ProPublica, The Washington Post, Glamour and NBC News. Meanwhile, Querdenken Everything is also competing for a Webby for the Best Use of Motion Graphics. Both of these productions were nominated for ADC Awards and will be honored at next month’s Creative Week in New York. We are humbled by all this praise for our work!
The Webbys have a “People’s Choice” award which lets internet users vote for winners. The People vs. Rubber Bullets is in in a tight race! Please vote (and confirm your votes in your email inbox!) and ask your friends to support us, too.
Vote for The People vs. Rubber Bullets here!
Also, please listen and subscribe to Long Shadow wherever you get your podcasts, including:
Long Shadow on Apple Podcasts
Again, thank you for supporting Long Lead's work. I'll be back next week to tell you about Long Shadow’s third episode, titled "Sic Temper Tyrannis” (a loaded phrase that recurs in this series).
Until then…
John Patrick Pullen
Founding Editor, Long Lead
PS: Don’t forget to read Garrett Graff’s newsletter Doomsday Scenario, an essential companion to the podcast. Last week’s essay included photos and observations from his reporting trip to Waco, where he saw the little church that Alex Jones built, and where Graff says Waco, the siegcame Waco, the myth.
Copyright (C) 2023 Long Lead, LLC. All rights reserved.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe