Militias and Their Misinformation Machine
How Militias Use Misinformation to Drive Communities Apart
This piece is the second in our series on the dangers of anti-government militia and “patriot” groups (MPGs) in Montana. These groups are actively creating conflict and spreading misinformation in our communities. Our first article addressed the ways MPGs spread misinformation to get people focused on their talking points instead of crucial topics like racial profiling, racial violence, mass incarceration, and equality.
Love Lives Here feels it is our responsibility to clearly outline their agenda so community members can reject the division and conflict they promote. We should all be working together to make a safer, stronger, more accepting community.
The sight of armed militia and “patriot” group members at recent protests is alarming. That’s by design. These groups want to appear menacing, powerful, and in charge.
It’s also truth in advertising. Militia groups have a long history of causing violence in Montana, starting with the Montana Freeman all the way up to today, when a militia member allegedly unlawfully restrained a Black teenager in Missoula. Those violent acts are serious, but the biggest problem MPGs cause in Montana and the Mountain West is misinformation.
That misinformation starts with these groups’ names. Some of you have reached out to Love Lives Here to ask that we stop referring to these anti-government groups as “patriot” groups because they aren’t the only patriots in America.
We understand that reaction. However, these groups are using the term “patriot” to try to normalize their beliefs and even make them seem honorable, and we can’t ignore that. Those terms are also the official ones that anti-terrorism professionals use when they refer to those extremist groups. For the rest of this series, however, we will refer to “patriot” and militia groups as MPGs.
MPGs started swinging into action when COVID-19 hit the news early this year. Extremist groups like MPGs are poised to manipulate any crisis with their talking points, and they took full advantage of people’s fear and lack of information about COVID-19.
Instead of finding ways to help protect public health, they aggressively produced and pushed misinformation to convince people that COVID-19 was a hoax, masks were a government conspiracy to control us, and the stay-at-home orders were a path to martial law.
Local pro-militia, anti-government supporters like Annie Bukacek, Chuck Baldwin, and Nick Ramlow led misinformation campaigns, and they’re still doing it now. Just this year, MPG supporters have:
Claimed they had the right to arrest government officials who enforced shutdown orders
Tried to convince community members that they have the right to “patrol” public events as if they’re legitimate security forces
Spread rumors that groups like Love Lives Here were circulating petitions to defund the police
Shut down a public meeting on a mask mandate in Bozeman
Held anti-mask rallies at the the Capitol and at the governor’s mansion
Protested against “the government” (including law enforcement), then claimed to “back the blue”
This kind of consistent, deliberate propaganda machine creates confusion and resentment that makes it harder for communities to make good decisions. Instead of investing in solutions and positive outcomes, these people have chosen to see their fellow community members as allies or enemies, and they’re looking for reasons to battle the people they’ve labeled as enemies.
That’s not the way we should care for each other in the Flathead Valley.
Tomorrow, our email will tell you how MPGs use this misinformation to turn neighbors against each other and incite violence.
If you’d like more information preventing misinformation and disinformation from creeping into the news you consume, check out our webinar on Identifying Fake News During COVID-19.
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