In Story (03/18/2019), “How the Vietnam War Empowered the Hippie Movement,” Sarah Pruitt writes, “The hippie counterculture, which emerged in the late 1960s and grew to include hundreds of thousands of young Americans across the country, reached its height during this period of escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War, and subsided when that conflict ended.

“Among the diverse groups that made up the vibrant counterculture of the 1960s in the United States, including the civil rights movement, the Black Panthers, gay rights and women’s liberation activists, anarchists and other political radicals…’”

Steve Bannon, former campaign manager and senior adviser to Trump, is an anarchist who wants to destroy the state. In daily beast (3/13/2017), “Steve Bannon, Trump’s best guy, told me he was a ‘Leninist,'” Ronald Radosh reported: “He never called himself a ‘populist’ or a “American nationalist,” as many think of him today. “I am a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed.

“’Lenin…wanted to destroy the state, and that is also my aim. I want to bring everything down and destroy the whole establishment of today. Bannon employed Lenin’s strategy for populist Tea Party goals. He included in this group the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the traditional conservative press.

I am still dumbfounded by the brazen hypocrisy of Tea Party Republicans who talk as if every dollar spent by our government is wasted and that virtually all government jobs should be cut, except their own, of course.

During a 2011 Republican primary debate, Tea Party Republican (then Texas Governor) Rick Perry said he would eliminate three cabinet-level departments if elected. “Those are three government agencies that when I get there are gone,” Perry said. “Commerce, Education, and uh, uh, what’s the third one over there, let’s see.”

Finally, a few minutes later, Perry remembered that the Department of Energy was the third agency he wanted to eliminate. So naturally, President Trump appointed Perry as Secretary of Energy, a position he held from 2017 to 2019.

Many hippies adopted non-traditional spiritual beliefs. According to Wikipedia: “Many hippies rejected traditional organized religion in favor of a more personal spiritual experience. Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sufism often resonated with hippies, as they were seen as less bound by rules and less likely to be associated with existing baggage. Some hippies embraced neo-paganism, particularly Wicca. Others were involved in the occult…

“In his 1991 book, Hippies and American values, Timothy Miller described the hippie ethos as essentially a “religious movement” whose goal was to transcend the confines of mainstream religious institutions. “Like many dissenting religions, the hippies were extremely hostile to the religious institutions of the dominant culture, and they tried to find new and adequate ways to accomplish the tasks that the dominant religions had not accomplished.” In his seminal and contemporary work, The hippie tripauthor Lewis Yablonsky notes that those who were most respected in hippie circles were the spiritual leaders, the so-called “high priests” who emerged at this time.

Likewise, today’s far-right crazies are embracing distant, non-traditional belief systems such as QAnon. According to Wikipedia: “QAnon is an American far-right political conspiracy theory and movement centered on false claims made by one or more anonymous individuals, known as ‘Q’, that a satanic and cannibalistic pedophile cabal operates a worldwide pedophilia. trafficking ring that conspired against former US President Donald Trump during his tenure. QAnon has been described as a cult.

In ABC News (01/19/2021), “QAnon emerges as a recurring theme in criminal cases related to the US Capitol siege,” report Olivia Rubin, Lucien Bruggeman and Will Steakin: “A sense of loyalty to the fringe online conspiracy movement known under the name QAnon is emerging as a common thread among dozens of men and women across the country arrested for their part in the deadly U.S. Capitol insurgency, court records reveal.

When Jacob Shanley, the so-called “QAnon shaman” invaded the United States Capitol, he looked like a crazed hippie from hell. In NPR (11/17/2021), “Self-proclaimed ‘QAnon Shaman’ Sentenced to 41 Months in Capitol Riot,” Ryan Lucas reports: “Jacob Chansley, the self-proclaimed ‘QAnon Shaman’ who has become one of the faces of the January 6 attack on the Capitol after storming the building in a fur cap with horns, was sentenced to nearly three and a half years in prison…”

The hippies were probably best known for their prodigious use of cannabis and drugs. More than a few right-wing extremists smoked cannabis inside the United States Capitol during the January 6 uprising.

In HuffPost (8/11/2021), “‘One Toke Over The Line’: Judge Denies Pot-Loving Capitol Rioter’s Holiday Travel Request,” reports Ryan J. Reilly: “Eduardo Nicolas Alvear Gonzalez, known online as ‘Capitol Rotunda Doobie Smoker’, pleaded guilty to one count of marching, demonstrating, or picketing inside the Capitol… In his statement of offense, Gonzalez admitted that he “smoked marijuana in the Rotunda and illegally distributed marijuana to others inside the Capitol Building.”

In Reuters (7/10/2021), “Man who smoked weed in Capitol on Jan. 6 pleads guilty to disorderly conduct,” reports Mark Hosenball: “A man from Glens Falls, New York, who prosecutors say smoked marijuana inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, pleaded guilty Thursday to entering and remaining in a restricted-access building.

“US Federal Prosecutor Alexis Loeb told Judge Emmet Sullivan during a hearing in Washington that when 29-year-old James Bonet walked into the Capitol, he said, ‘We’re taking him back. We recover it.

“He then smoked a marijuana cigarette after walking into the office of Democratic U.S. Senator from Oregon, Jeff Merkley, Loeb said.”

Former President Jimmy Carter embraced musicians (pot smokers) such as Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Carter quoted a Dylan song during his presidential acceptance speech in 1976. In his 2016 memoir, Willie Nelson revealed that he once smoked weed in the White House with President Carter’s son, Chip. .

Apparently, there is an overlap between far-left and far-right countercultures. In The Guardian (22/09/2021), “It’s shocking to see so many leftists drawn to the far right by conspiracy theories”, writes George Monbiot: “It’s not just the anti-vaccines. of resisting power and regaining control of our lives have been cynically redirected.

“Almost daily, I see conspiracy theories flowing smoothly from right to left. I hear people articulating the claims of white supremacists, apparently in complete ignorance of their origins. I meet hippies who once sought to create communities that shared the memes of extreme individualism. Something has gone wrong in parts of the alternate scene.