Can't We All Just Get Along?

From my primary "I Protest" Substack (June 2022) at donaldjeffries.substack.com

Since this was written three years ago, I am up to ten published books. The division in the alt media is worse than ever, following the second election of Trump.

I have been at this anti-establishment thing for over forty years now. It’s become more acceptable to counter the mainstream, and millions of Americans are “awake” to the tyranny and the corruption, to at least some degree. But we’re still wildly outnumbered. Look at the masks. And the absence of mass outrage.

I first discovered a deep fracturing within the JFK assassination research community as a teenager in the mid-1970s. I was part of Mark Lane’s group, the Citizens Committee of Inquiry. We were told that Harold Weisberg, who was Lane’s arch rival, had a similar group stocked with young people. I never met any of them, and I don’t think they really did anything. I’ve never even heard their name. But we knew they existed, and felt they were the enemy.

Our group also had to be distinguished from the Citizens Commission of Inquiry, an antiwar group that included Noam Chomsky. Who, of course, scoffs at all “conspiracy theories.” Chomsky also really, really hates the Kennedys. Like many on the Left, he basically thinks JFK’s death was meaningless, and that the guy pretty much deserved it. Needless to say, this group would have despised both Lane and Weisberg, and any misguided young radicals who followed them.

The research community actually first became deeply divided by Jim Garrison’s investigation. Good people like Weisberg and Sylvia Meagher broke with Garrison and Warren Commission critics like Lane and Penn Jones who remained loyal to the New Orleans District Attorney. From that point on, rivalries became the norm within our dysfunctional little band of naysayers. Huge egos and petty jealousies were front and center. This subject drew, and continues to draw, difficult personalities to it.

But it wasn’t until the internet burst upon the scene, with forums, blogs, and more publishing opportunities, that the extent of the discord became clear. It’s much easier to launch personal attacks, and feed personal vendettas, when digital platforms are freely available. One of the many people in the community who inexplicably grew to hate me once titled a blog entry, “Why Don Jeffries is an Asshole.” I’ve never met this person, and only had a few insignificant exchanges with him on JFK forums. His anger seemed to be directed at my defending Jim Fetzer’s right to keep posting.

Fetzer, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the biggest egos in a community full of them. But I’ve generally liked his work, and would always defend him, like I defended anyone else, when the mob picked up their cyber pitchforks and wanted to ban him. I was just about the only one who did defend him. But then again, I’m a civil libertarian. Very few people in the JFK assassination research community believe in free speech, which reflects what we see in an even smaller percentage of the general population. On the JFK forums, I was denigrated for my civility. One real curmudgeon dubbed me “Miss Manners.” Most posters wanted somebody banned. I didn’t want anyone banned. It’s never popular to go against cancel culture.

After 9/11, the internet spawned forums devoted to discussion of that dangerous fairy tale. And we quickly began to see the familiar arguments, accusations that others were “disinfo agents,” and strict adherence to personal theories. The large egos and difficult personalities predominated there as well. So I began to realize that this wasn’t exclusively a JFK assassination thing. And it’s undeniable that there are disinfo agents, perhaps hired by some intelligence agency, in the midst of JFK assassination and 9/11 researchers. The government has been infiltrating dissenting groups on both the Left and Right for my entire lifetime.

Some people think that I’m suspect because I was associated, in a pretty minor way, with Mark Lane. Lane was Jim Jones’s attorney, this reasoning goes, and he made it out alive. Lane also represented the Spotlight as their attorney. I was a long time subscriber to the Spotlight, and now I write for the American Free Press, which is what the Spotlight became after the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center drove them into bankruptcy. How can I innocently explain that connection? I once had dinner at Harold Weisberg’s home, and he was a former OSS officer. I’m very critical of our devotion to Israel. I hear frequently from those who hate me, yet follow my work closely, that I’m “anti-Semitic.” And “racist.” After all, free speech is now “racist.”

My point in going over all this is to stress just how fractured the world inhabited by those smeared as “conspiracy theorists” has always been. While I’ve had a lot of big names on my radio shows, and people like Ron Paul, Roger Stone, and Naomi Wolf have written Forewords to my books, I marvel at how so many less recognizable names ignore my interview requests. While Oscar-nominated actress Sally Kirkland always gets back to me, We are Change founder Luke Rudkowski has never answered any of my emails asking him to come on my show. I can get a response from Lana Wood, sister of Natalie Wood and an accomplished actress in her own right, but David Paulides, who writes the Missing 411 books, is too cool to answer my emails.

Now I remain fans of both Rudkowski and Paulides, and some others who have ignored my requests for interviews. If they somehow read this, I mean to cast no dispersion upon them. Maybe they just didn’t see the emails, or get so many they can’t answer them all. I know that Paulides tragically lost his son last year I think, and my heart certainly goes out to him. But I am intrigued by his work on the baffling disappearances in our national parks, and think my audience would love to hear our discussion. I have always admired Luke and We are Change- they’ve done great work. If he can’t understand we’re on the same team, I don’t know what else to say.

Then there are the bloggers and podcast hosts very few know of- Ice Age Farmer is one that stands out. Someone recommended him to me, as people often recommend guests for my show. Ice Age Farmer, whoever he is, never replied to my interview request. I’ve pointed out that almost no one in the population at large knows who people like Rudkowski and Paulides are. But Ice Age Farmer? All of us in the alt world are big fish of varying size in a small pond. The “conspiracy celebrities,” as I call them, need to get over themselves and realize that the last thing we should be doing is segregating based upon perceived name recognition.

Basically, the alt world that is heavily populated with conspiracy analysts like me, is akin to a high school clique. “Conspiracy celebrities” are as acutely aware of how many followers you have on Twitter as any self-respecting high school girl is. They know where you stand on the popularity totem poll, by those kinds of numbers, or what kinds of shows you’ve been on, or the guests you’ve had on your own shows. In this respect, they are just like the non-conspiracy world. “Normies” pay attention to your unofficial social credit score, too. How many Americans aren’t judged by the size of their incomes? Or the neighborhood they live in?

As I’ve tried to tell my fellow JFK assassination researchers for years, we have to coalesce around our common cause. In that case, it would be to stand uniformly behind an “Oswald didn’t do it, there was a conspiracy” position. No internal infighting over film alteration, Harvey & Lee, or any other aspect of the case. Those who support the official nonsense don’t squabble over details. They’re committed to defending the official lie. Period. And to ridiculing those who don’t believe it.

The same thing holds with 9/11. Just stress that the official story is impossible. Don’t fight over dancing Israelis, or empty towers, or “no planes.” They lied to us. As always. That’s the important thing, but it gets lost in a morass of minutiae. That applies to JFK, 9/11, or any of these issues. Our leaders, and their Mockingbird mouthpieces in the state controlled press, lied to us. They continue to cover up. Is there a reason why those who are “awake” can’t rally around that theme?

I consider anyone in the Truth movement to be an ally. If you see the corruption, and understand the emperor is wearing no clothes, then we are on the same side. We don’t have to agree on everything. That’s why I thought of a John Doe movement, to stress the things that decent people who care about the future of this country consider important. As President Kennedy said, we all cherish our children’s future. That future will be pretty bleak, unless we finally join forces against our common enemy.

Benjamin Franklin told his fellow patriots, as they prepared to secede from England’s colonial rule, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Right now, we are not hanging together. We are fighting with people who should logically be our comrades. The corrupt elite have long utilized the ever popular divide and conquer strategy. They distract us with sports, gambling, and bread and circuses like the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard show. They divide us with race and gender and religion.

I talk to many others in the alt media. I’m aware of too many petty feuds between good people, and I’m sure there a lot more petty feuds I don’t know about. Just recently, Dinesh D’Souza published a Twitter exchange with Tucker Carlson’s producer. It quickly degenerated into pretty juvenile stuff, and as far as I could figure was a disagreement over something very minor- how long D’Souza’s promo for his new film 2000 Mules was going to be. I don’t think you’ll be seeing D’Souza on Tucker’s show any time soon. And both D’Souza and Carlson are pretty mainstream, as compared to those in the conspiracy world, where I spend so much time.

I sometimes have to watch what I say to certain people in the Truther community, because I know about a feud they have with someone else I’m friendly with. Some of them will cut you off, if they find out you’re fraternizing with the “enemy.” Just on the issue of Trump, I’ve lost people on both sides by being one of those rare Trump agnostics. Some of the biggest potential audiences I can get are full of Q believers. These are good people, seeking the truth. I’m not going to alienate them by pointing out how ridiculous the whole Q thing is. But by talking with them about common concerns, that doesn’t mean I am a Q believer myself.

I could become a total purist and refuse to associate with anyone who deviates from my beliefs on any significant subject. How would that increase our already unlikely chances of forming a coalition that has the will and determination to confront our captors? I know too many in our dysfunctional research communities who have that philosophy. “I’m putting you on ignore.” “You’ve been blocked and deleted.” I’ve been deleted on social media by many, from David Talbot and Jim DiEugenio to John Wilkes Booth’s great-great-great grand niece and even my own niece.

Our only hope at this point is to join hands. Everyone should be supporting the independent voices left in the media. They haven’t come after Substack, blogs, podcasts, and internet radio shows yet. If you’re interested in overthrowing these heinous authoritarians, you have to show that you support those of us who are willing to speak out. Listen to my radio shows, and the other programs on Rokfin.com and similar platforms. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to my work, or the work of others who are fighting this Orwellian madness.

Anyone reading this now, and certainly all my subscribers, is showing support. And those who have opted for the pay option have taken that support up to another level. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of you. Substack is a great platform for free speech. We need to support anyone who is against censorship and recognizes the importance of the Bill of Rights. It’s like we are at a townhall or school board meeting. You need to applaud, and ideally line up behind the ones who are willing to actually express their opposition to corruption. Every house needs a foundation.

Buy the books that can still somehow get published in this draconian atmosphere. I have six books out there, and they’re all full of information that should be of interest to anyone reading my Substack page. Get Naomi Wolf’s new book, or Peter McCullough’s. I was flattered to be invited by Naomi to her book launch party last week, and McCullough was there as well. So, interestingly enough, was Peter Navarro, who was arrested a few days later. I don’t agree with Navarro on everything, but his arrest was as outrageous as Roger Stone’s was. If we don’t speak out about this kind of tyranny, then we’ll all wind up as January 6-style political prisoners.

You can support me and other alternative voices without spending a penny. If you like a book, including mine, put up a rating on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble. Suggest books that expose the truth, including mine, to your local or college library. Tell your friends and family, or at least the ones that might possibly be receptive, about us. We are in a real battle, whether most of us realize it or not. The other side is waging war, even if we’re not. As Alex Jones says, this is an information war.

I have said these things before, but every time someone messages me, and it happens quite a bit, about how much they loved one or more of my books, I politely ask them if they’d be willing to post a review. Now you don’t even have to write a review-Amazon just lets you give books a rating. But few seem willing to do that. And that’s the problem; one can perhaps understand why people are reluctant to join internet boycotts, or even sign online petitions. But rating a book that you love? What would that take- less than thirty seconds?

I’ve had a lot of people tell me they were moved by Bullyocracy or On Borrowed Fame. Last time I looked, On Borrowed Fame had five ratings on Goodreads. Maybe people who read my books don’t join Goodreads. It’s like social media for book lovers. But writers need supporters to counteract the insidious influence there and elsewhere of what are called “One Star Bandits.” I’ve had these people give my books a 1 star rating before they were published. I definitely didn’t send them an advance copy. But if people who support writers like me don’t give good ratings, then the “One Star Bandits,” whatever their motivation, win. Controversial subject matter is unquestionably targeted.

So the war is being waged all over. The battlefields are on social media, and every alternative platform. But we have to fight them on their own turf. As I’ve pointed out, Gab, Parler, Rumble, etc., are nice, but they don’t draw the “normies.” Preaching to the choir doesn’t bring new recruits. We have to win battles on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon, etc. And showing your support with “Likes,” comments, and ratings is one very painless way to do that. Chick Lit and court historian authors get plenty of ratings from those who approve of the tyranny. People opposed to what’s going on need to support the authors taking them on.

I wish I could name more names, but I don’t want to cause even more division. Suffice to say that there are people who will no longer come on my show, because someone else they have some squabble with was on my show. Or even for unknown reasons. Maybe they read something I wrote that they didn’t like. That’s always possible, given the nature of my writing. There are others who won’t invite me back on their shows, for the same kinds of pointless reasons.

I won’t badmouth Roger Stone, for example, even though I disagree with a lot of what he’s said and done in recent years. He was kind enough to write the Foreword to my book at a time when a name like his brought it a lot more recognition. I’ve lost people simply because my name is associated with his in this way. Some people that like me, hate the hosts of some platforms that I’ve appeared on. As I’ve said, I never turn down an interview request. If someone cares enough to want me on their show, who am I to turn them down? I’m repelled by the likes of Rachel Maddow, but if she wanted me on her show, I would accept the invitation.

Between the petty, high school drama, and the unreasonable inflexibility of so many “awake” persons, the task of opposing a very powerful foe becomes almost impossible. As Jones again likes to say, there’s a war on for your mind. But it’s being waged even more importantly for your soul. This is a spiritual battle. There is good and evil. I know what side I’m on. But we need to have each other’s backs. And stop the infighting. The enemy is powerful. We will need all of our collective strength.