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David Duke

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Duke in Saxony, Germany.
A lunatic Chaplin imitator
and his greatest fans
Nazism
Icon nazi.svg
First as tragedy
Then as farce
v - t - e
“”I am a National Socialist. You can call me a Nazi if you want to.
—David Duke[1][2]
“”White people don't need a law against rape, but if you fill this room up with your normal black bucks, you would, because niggers are basically primitive animals.[3]
—As if you needed any more proof that this guy is an asshole.

David Ernest "The Goyim Know, Shut it Down" Duke (1950–) or, as he likes to emphasize, Dr. David Duke PhD., but frequently derided as David DuKKKe for his youthful indiscretion as a Ku Klux Klan leader, is a failed American politician, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi activist. He is a former Klansman who claims he left his racist days behind long ago, though his political activities suggest otherwise. He uses the word "Zionist" more than the words "and" or "the". Duke's rise in the Klan was due to his ability to appear mainstream in an attempt to normalize them. He now spends most of his time moaning about the Jews on the internet.

Duke speaks against what he describes as Jewish control of the Federal Reserve Bank, the federal government and the media. Duke supports the preservation of what he considers to be Western culture and traditionalist Christian family values, Constitutionalism, abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, racial segregation, anti-Communism and white separatism.[4][5][6] He also opposes what he considers to be "promotion of homosexuality" by Jews.[7]

In 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax-related charges and served a 15 month prison sentence.[8]

Early life of a loser[edit]

Famous image of Duke in a KKK uniform, dated 1978.[9]

Duke joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1967 while still a teenager.[2] Duke, although he does not deny this part of his life, is willing to tell some rather misleading statements about what the Klan was like at this point in history. On one occasion, for example, he wrote:

It is true that as a young man, over 35 years ago I was in a totally nonviolent KKK organization in Louisiana. I forgive people in Europe and elsewhere for not knowing much about the Klan, but in America, the Klan was once a popular part of the community in the South with many elected Governors, Senators and others. Klan groups were and are completely independent and separate from one another, and had very different structures. . . The group I was a part of was strictly non-violent. In fact, not a single member of my organization was ever charged or even accused of any racially oriented crime. I repeat that. No one in my organization was ever accused of any violent crime.[10]

First off, although the Klan was once a part of typical life for many people in the South, that ended long before Duke left. According to Tyler Bridges, "By the time Duke identified himself as a Klansman in 1973, the group had been discredited and membership had shrunk to about 3,000 from roughly 50,000 in 1965."[11]:37-38 Duke was not merely a young man blissfully unaware as to what his community organization was up to, he was an active member of the organization and attempted to promote it, even to other nations. As Bridges notes, "Duke traveled to other countries in the late 1970s trying to build a worldwide network of racialists."[11]:74

Furthermore, although Duke himself never engaged in violence against anybody to our knowledge, that does not mean he was quite as peaceful as he wants people to think. Bridges noes their were occasions where "Duke spoke publicly in favor of violence" although "as part of his effort to give the Klan a facelift, he sought to erase its violent image." Bridges specifically notes an episode where "two of his Klansmen were arrested during the October 1974 flare-up in Destrehan for carrying illegal guns" as well as the fact that "Duke and the Crusader were highly sympathetic to former and current Klansmen who were accused, tried, or convicted of violence."[11]:53

The aforementioned letter also contains something that it is worth addressing, Duke writes that "Condemning me for my associations as a young man is obviously unfair when one considers that many people in politics also evolved from controversy in their early days."[10] Here, as much as it pains us to say it, Duke has a point. It would obviously be unfair to judge somebody, especially of Duke's time and place of birth, who got swept up into white supremacist ideology in his younger years only based on their actions during this time of their life. However, as will be explored below, Duke has not changed in the slightest since he was a young Klansman, and still very much agrees with everything he said during those times of his life. If Duke had woken up one day, realized all the racist bullshit he was saying was, well, bullshit, apologized for it, and became a different person, then this would be nothing more than an uncomfortable episode from the past of a decent man. However, Duke is still racist, meaning the only thing that has changed since he left the Klan is the kind of clothes he wears.

While attending Louisiana State University,[note 1] he joined the National Socialist White People's Party and founded an LSU student chapter of the group in 1970 called the White Youth Alliance. Duke became a notorious joke on campus for parading around in a Nazi uniform. After graduating from college, he formed a new Klan group called the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. This was when some Klan leaders were trying to resurrect their group's image by shedding the white sheets and putting on suits and ties. Even he eventually got tired of dealing with the sort of degenerates and misfits the Klan attracts, and left the Klan in 1980 to found a "more professional" organization called the National Association for the Advancement of White People.[12] Although by the time of his leaving, many members of the Klan were both upset with the amount of publicity Duke was getting and were furious when he was caught selling the membership list of his organization to a rival Klan leader, who later turned out to be an FBI informant.[2]

The NAAWP proceeded to attract the same sort that the Klan did. Julia Reed noted in a 1992 article for The New York Review of Books notes that his newsletter was virtually identical to The Crusader, and that he the organization sold books with titles like The Hitler We Loved and Why and The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: Did Six Million Really Die?.[2]

Today, Duke hangs out on Stormfront with a whole new crop of twits and misfits.[12]

Running for office[edit]

Famous bumper sticker from the 1991 election.[13]
“”The only thing we have in common is we're both wizards under the sheets.
—Edwin Edwards[14]

Duke was a serious wake-up call for those who thought politicized racism was a thing of the past, a mere artifact dusted periodically by the Strom Thurmonds of the world. It's not the same as a politician being freshly vetted in the 80s-90s, never really distancing himself from his "white power" bona fides, and getting elected for it.

Duke ran umpteen times for several public offices on the Democratic, Republican, and Populist Party tickets. Most of the time, he did poorly. Still, the voters in Louisiana must have been drunk on November 3, 1989, because Duke somehow managed to get himself elected to a term in the Louisiana State House of Representatives as a Republican. His actual attempts to govern were weak, with one of his fellow local politicians saying he was "so single minded, he never really became involved in the nuts and bolts of House rules and parliamentary procedure. It was just that shortcoming that led to the demise of most of his attempts at lawmaking."[15]

Smelling the sweet stench of success, he ran for U.S. Senate the next year against incumbent J. Bennett Johnston. Fortunately, Duke lost.[16] Undaunted, he ran for governor of Louisiana in 1991. His opponent, Edwin Edwards, was notoriously corrupt and has been sentenced more than once on various charges of racketeering, bribery, etc. Because of this, Duke actually had a substantial likelihood of getting elected governor of Louisiana, and the race attracted national attention over concern an avowed white supremacist could win the seat. This spawned the bumper stickers seen around Louisiana, "Vote for the Crook: It's Important", and "Vote for the lizard, not the wizard".[17] Duke's history of racism also led to many of his fellow Republicans, including then-President George H. W. Bush,[18] to come out against him. Edwards won, 61-39%.[19]

Still not getting the message, Duke sought the Republican nomination for president in 1992, which tanked so badly it consigned Duke to the Alan Keyes realm of perennial candidates. And satirical songs![20]

In July 2016, Duke announced that he would be running for the United States Senate, in an ominous move representative of the growing prevalence of far-right politics in America. He said of his campaign, "Thousands of special interest groups stand up for African-Americans, Mexican Americans, Jewish Americans, etc. The fact is that European Americans need at least one man in the United States, one man in Congress, who will defend their rights and heritage."[21] Evidently, Duke fails to realize that this description applies to pretty much every Republican congressman. If elected, he would have replaced the vacated seat of the not-as-crazy-but-still-pretty-nuts David Vitter. Donald Trump refused to support his run for senate, and toyed with the idea of voting for a Democrat over Duke in the area – "depending on the Democrat", of course.[22] In the end, Duke lost the election badly, getting only 3 percent of the vote.[23]

Delusions[edit]

A look at some of Duke's statements reveals a man with significant delusions of grandeur; he claims his books to be among the most influential in the world (not to mention his website!).[24] He has said that he flew perilous missions to drop supplies to anti-communist guerrillas in Laos. However, no-one can recall him doing this.[25] He also claims to have been begged to run in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election on a Republican ticket.[26]

Affiliations[edit]

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan[edit]

In 1974, Duke founded the Louisiana-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKKK: for when three Ks just isn't enough), shortly after graduating from LSU.[27] He became Grand Wizard of the KKKK. Duke first received broad public attention during this time, as he endeavored to market himself in the mid-1970s as a new brand of Klansman: well-groomed, engaged, and professional. Duke also reformed the organization, promoting nonviolence and legality, and, for the first time in the Klan's history, women were accepted as equal members, and Catholics Jews and black people were encouraged to apply for membership.[28] Duke would repeatedly insist that the Klan was "not anti-black", but rather "pro-white" and "pro-Christian." Duke told The Daily Telegraph he left the Klan in 1980 because he disliked its associations with violence and could not stop the members of other Klan chapters from doing "stupid or violent things."[29]

In 1980, Duke left the Klan and formed the National Association for the Advancement of White PeopleWikipedia (NAAWP), a white nationalist organization.[30]

Notably, Duke was severely trolled in 1979 by police detective Ron Stallworth.Wikipedia Stallworth convinced Duke into signing his KKK membership form, without Duke knowing that Stallworth is African American. Stallworth's investigation of the clan was described in his book, Black Klansman,[31] and later dramatized in the film BlacKkKlansman.Wikipedia

Ernst Zündel and the Zundelsite[edit]

Duke has expressed his support for Holocaust denier, wingnut, and crank Ernst Zündel, a German emigrant in Canada. Duke made a number of statements supporting Zündel and his Holocaust denial campaign.[32][33][34][35] After the aging and decrepit Zündel was deported from Canada to Germany[36] and imprisoned in Germany on charges of inciting the masses to ethnic hatred,[37] Duke referred to him as a "political prisoner".

2005 doctorate[edit]

In September 2005, Duke received a Candidate of Sciences degree in history from the Ukrainian Interregional Academy of Personnel ManagementWikipedia (MAUP).[38]

His doctoral thesis was titled "Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism,"[38] which apparently Duke feels no shame or irony saying this as a former Klansman.

The Anti-Defamation League claims that MAUP is the main source of antisemitic activity and publishing in Ukraine,[39] and its "anti-Semitic actions" were "strongly condemned" by Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk and various organizations.[40][41][42][43] The Anti-Defamation League describes it as a "University of Hate".[44] Duke has taught an international relations and a history course at MAUP.[45]

Stormfront[edit]

In 1995, Don Black and Chloê Hardin, Duke's ex-wife, founded Stormfront, a prominent online forum for white nationalism, white separatism, holocaust denial, Neo-Nazism, hate speech, conspiracy theories of an antisemitic tinge, and racism.[46][47][48] Duke is an active user on Stormfront, where he posts articles from his own website and polls forum members for opinions and questions, in particular during his Internet broadcasts. Duke has worked with Don Black on numerous projects including Operation Red Dog (the attempted overthrowing of Dominica's government) in 1980.[49][50]

British National Party[edit]

In 2000, Nick Griffin (then leader of the British National Party in the United Kingdom) met with Duke at a seminar with the American Friends of the BNP.Wikipedia[51] During this meeting, Griffin proclaimed:

...instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity ... that means basically to use the saleable words, as I say, freedom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticise them. Nobody can come at you and attack you on those ideas. They are saleable.[52][53][54]

This was widely reported in the United Kingdom media, as was the meeting between Duke and Griffin, following electoral successes made by the party in 2009.[52][53][54]

Banned from Twitter[edit]

Duke was finally banned from Twitter in July 2020 after years of posting antisemitic innuendos and conspiracy theories, apparently, because he had posted antisemitic conspiracy theories and misinformation about the COVID pandemic.[55]

Books and other "works"[edit]

  • After several more failed runs for the U.S. Senate, he wrote a book called My Awakening. (Ever notice how narcissistic those Nazi works tend to be? Mein Kampf, My Awakening ... My, my, my...)
  • Duke is also purportedly the author of a 1976 self-help sex manual for women on how to perform fellatio and anal sex under the pen-names of James Konrad and Dorothy Vanderbilt,[note 2] and a 1973 street fighting manual for radical black militants, African Atto under the pen-name of Mohammad X.[56]
  • He holds a Ph.D. from a university in Ukraine, notorious for its anti-Semitic views,[57] writing his doctoral thesis on "Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism".
  • He has an active account on Stormfront, which he uses to big up his own articles. Incidentally, his ex-wife set up the site.
  • From 2003 to 2004, he served a prison term for mail fraud (bilking his supporters into giving donations under false pretenses, much of which he spent on his gambling habit) and for filing a false tax return.[58][59]
  • He has come out in favor of the Tea Party, speaking in April 2010 to tell the world they aren't racist because he says they aren't.[60] Under the delusion that "the 1%" were almost exclusively Jews, he also supported Occupy Wall Street, or, as he put it, Occupy "Zionist" Wall Street. Most people in the Occupy movement tried their best to ignore this.[61]
  • He is the author of the book Jewish Supremacy, which basically argues that his white supremacist ideology is actually the ideology of his enemies; isn't that convenient?
  • Another piece of literature written by him is The Secret Behind Communism, which sees him buying into every anti-communist claim uncritically all while finding a way to blame all of them on Jews.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ Motto: "LSU. Go in dumb, come out dumb too".
  2. ↑ Seriously, it's even sourced and everything on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Bridges, Tyler (1994). The Rise of David Duke. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 15. ISBN 978-0-87805-684-2. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 His Brilliant Career
  3. ↑ David Duke: In His Own Words, Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 4 February 2021
  4. ↑ Duke, David. "An Aryan Vision". My Awakening. SolarGeneral. Retrieved 2006-11-13. 
  5. ↑ Duke, David (October 23, 2004). "Kayla Rolland: One More Victim". Retrieved 2006-11-13. 
  6. ↑ "David Duke: In His Own Words / On Segregation". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 2006-11-13. 
  7. ↑ Duke, David. "Jewish Supremacists, Homosexuality and Divide and Conquer". Retrieved 24 December 2014. 
  8. ↑ USA Today:David Duke pleads to mail fraud, tax charges
  9. ↑ Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke narrowly qualifies for U.S. Senate debate to be held at a historically black college
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 [https://davidduke.com/dr-david-duke-really-believe/ Dr. David Duke: Who I am and What I Really Believe
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 The Rise of David Duke by Tyler Bridges
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 SPLC on Duke
  13. ↑ Sweeney: The crook, the Klansman and the quandary
  14. ↑ The greatest quotes of Edwin Edwards
  15. ↑ Ron Gomez, "David Duke? He's Just Another Freshman", My Name Is Ron And I'm a Recovering Legislator: Memoirs of a Louisiana State Representative, Lafayette, Louisiana: Zemog Publishing, 2000, pp. 157-164; ISBN 0-9700156-0-7
  16. ↑ Johnston Beats Duke, 54-43%, in Louisiana
  17. ↑ Louisiana Governor’s Election Continues Tradition of Unusual Party Split
  18. ↑ THE 1991 ELECTION: Louisiana; Bush Denounces Duke As Racist and Charlatan
  19. ↑ David Duke’s War Against Two Louisiana Governors
  20. ↑ David Duke Is Running For President
  21. ↑ Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke running for Senate seat in Louisiana
  22. ↑ Maddow, Rachel; Fayard, Caroline (August 4, 2016). "David Duke Raises Stakes In Louisiana Race". The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC.
  23. ↑ "Kennedy, Campbell face off in U.S. Senate race runoff" by Greg Hillburn, News Star, 2016 November 8
  24. ↑ David Duke begging for your money
    "Davidduke.com has become one of the most important Internet Websites in the world standing forthrightly against the Jewish supremacist threat against the heritage and freedom of our people.
    Dr. Duke’s Books, My Awakening and Jewish Supremacism, have become two of the two most influential and important books in the world. No two books are more important for the awakening our people.    "(archived from the original on 5 February 2009)
  25. ↑ What Was David Duke Doing in Laos?
  26. ↑ Will Dr. David Duke Run for U.S. President?
  27. ↑ Rose, Douglas. The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of Race University of North Carolina Press. 1992
  28. ↑ "Photo of David Duke at a Klan cross lighting ceremony". Retrieved 2006-09-02. 
  29. ↑ Leonard, Tom (23 October 2009). "David Duke: Nick Griffin was 'lynched' on Question Time". The Torygraph. Retrieved 25 January 2015. 
  30. ↑ "David Duke to Leave Klan". St. Petersburg Times. July 25, 1980. Retrieved 2011-01-16. 
  31. ↑ Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth (2014) Flatiron Books. ISBN 9781250299031.
  32. ↑ Grobman, Alex; Medoff, Rafael (2003). "Holocaust Denial: A Global Survey — 2003". The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. Retrieved 2006-09-02. 
  33. ↑ Lipstadt, Deborah (November 28, 2005). "David Duke Visits Syria to support Syrian Government and Attack Jews and Israel". Retrieved 2006-09-02. 
  34. ↑ Churchill, Ward (October 1996). "Assaults on Truth and Memory: Holocaust Denial in Context". ZNet. Retrieved 2006-09-02. 
  35. ↑ "Holocaust Denial: The State of Play". The Australian Jewish News. January 22, 2004. Archived from the original on September 10, 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-02. 
  36. ↑ Duke, David (February 26, 2005). "Free Zundel!". Retrieved 2006-09-02. 
  37. ↑ "Ernst Zundel". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 2006-09-02. 
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Duke, David (September 9, 2005). "David Duke Achieves Doctorate in Ukraine". Retrieved 2006-11-16. 
  39. ↑ "Ukraine University of Hate". Anti-Defamation League. November 3, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-16. 
  40. ↑ "Foreign Minister Tarasyuk: MAUP Activities Unlawful". Ukrainian Embassy. January 24, 2005. Retrieved 2006-11-16. 
  41. ↑ Gawdiak, Ihor (January 27, 2006). "Ukrainian American Organization [UACC Gratified by Official Condemnation of Anti-Semitic Institution in Ukraine"]. BRAMA News and Community Press. Retrieved 2006-11-16. 
  42. ↑ Levin, Mark (January 25, 2006). "Ukraine Government Calls for Action Against Anti-Semitism". NCSJ. Retrieved 2006-11-16. 
  43. ↑ "ADL Welcomes Ukraine's Strong Condemnation of University Fomenting Anti-Semitism". Anti-Defamation League. January 25, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-16. 
  44. ↑ "Ukraine University of Hate". ADL. Retrieved 2012-05-06. 
  45. ↑ Blumenthal, Max (March 23, 2006). "Republicanizing the Race Card". The Nation. Retrieved 2006-11-16. 
  46. ↑ "RedState, White Supremacy, and Responsibility", Daily Kos, December 5, 2005
  47. ↑ Bill O'Reilly, "Circling the Wagons in Georgia", Fox News Channel, May 8, 2003
  48. ↑ "WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center: Case No. DTV2001-0023". World Intellectual Property Organization. January 13, 2002. 
  49. ↑ Captmike works undercover with the US Government to stop the invasion of the Island Nation of Dominica. manana.com
  50. ↑ Operation Red Dog: Canadian neo-nazis were central to the planned invasion of Dominica in 1981 canadiancontent.ca
  51. ↑ April 2000 meeting
  52. ↑ 52.0 52.1 Burgess, Kaya (12 June 2009). "White supremacist gunman James W. von Brunn had links to BNP". London: Times Online. Retrieved 12 June 2009. 
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 Cahal Milmo; Kevin Rawlinson (22 October 2009). "10 things you should know about the BNP when you watch Question Time tonight". The Independent. Retrieved 19 January 2015. 
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 "PANORAMA: UNDER THE SKIN [Transcript"]. BBC. Retrieved 19 January 2015. 
  55. ↑ Twitter permanently bans former KKK leader David Duke: The avowed white supremacist recently tweeted racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus by Jacob Bogage & Eugene Scott (July 31, 2020, at 7:46 a.m. PDT) The Washington Post.
  56. ↑ According to the Anti-Defamation League
  57. ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Interregional Academy of Personnel Management § Controversies.
  58. ↑ David Duke Arrested In Germany, Ex-Klan Leader Faces Deportation
  59. ↑ David Duke Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Tax Charges
  60. ↑ Tea Parties aren't Racist. David Duke says so.
  61. ↑ Talking Points Memo.
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