The Outstater

September 13, 2024

Knocking Down KKK Straw Men

IT IS THE MOST DISAPPOINTING piece of journalism you should ever hope to read — the Indianapolis Star’s “investigation” Wednesday of the “right wing” in Indiana. Please excuse the use of scare quotes here but the lack of definition in the article and its spurious intent require them.

Here is the headline: “Same Goals, New Tactics: How Extremist Groups Have Weaponized Social Media to Push Agendas.” The rest is an irrelevant and inchoate reading of history, that and base characterizations.

A full-page illustration on the web version was a photograph of Ku Klux Klan marchers 100 or so years ago — an anachronism, hardly the stuff of “investigative” work. 

Reading on, you will find no facts to support the claim of rising “extremism” here, only the obvious realization that the Internet has quickened communication of all types of -isms. Indeed, collecting specific data on “hate” defies even the U.S. Department of Justice, which says that only 60 percent of Indiana law enforcement agencies filed the requested forms during the last reporting period. 

But lest we hang up our hoods and robes too soon the authors found a history professor tenured in some corner of the IU campus willing to say that the ideology of the KKK is “far from dead.” He imagines he sees parallels between new groups in Indiana that “echo the 1920s Klan.” 

The professor had an even more ominous warning: “They (the extremists who walk among us) are armed, they have short fuses, and they’re ready to engage in violence. But I think the larger danger is the people who are well-dressed and well-spoken. The people who propagate ideas and visions of America that are very similar to those of the Klan in these new groups are a fundamental threat to our democracy.” 

Well dressed and well spoken? That is alarming. But again, no hard data.

The authors were excited to discover that in 2020 (can you spell George Floyd) there was a “huge” spike in reported hate crimes in Indiana and the nation: “These incidents reveal a changing dynamic across America as extremist ideology and groups emerge from the shadows and push their way onto the public stage.”

But there is confusion about correlation and causation. Could reported hate crimes be something different than actual hate crimes? How many Hoosiers have been convicted of a hate crime as a result of that spike in reports?

Although there are surely more, the Star “investigators” note just three incidents: 1) a synagogue wall defaced; 2) the guitarist for an Indy heavy metal band arrested Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol (not yet sentenced); and 3) a man who duct-taped a cross on a fence facing a neighbor’s home with whom he was quarreling — oh, and he blasted a recording of “Dixie.”

That last was classified as a violation of a Fair Housing Act provision (46 month in prison), so actually only one Indiana hate crime was verified. 

In all, it was what you would expect from sophomoric journalism, which, in effect, it was, the authors being students at the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University. Their editors at the Star should be ashamed to have pushed such an adolescent product on unsuspecting readers. And the adults responsible for guiding impressionable young minds at the IU Media Center should be hung by their heels on lamp posts.

For in 2,000 words these supposedly trained journalists could demonstrate only that their “education” consisted of narratives picked up at late-night bull sessions in IU dormitories. There was no discernment. Their article offers no useful definition of “extremist,” or at least not one that differentiates, say, between the Oath Keepers (militant servicemen and law enforcement officers pledging to keep their constitutional oaths) and envy-fueled Marxists looting and burning the commercial districts of large cities. 

But for clarity’s sake, here is a question: Would the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism consider a Hoosier who holds any of these viewpoints an “extremist”?

• The truths of the Declaration of Independence, especially as they apply to the interrelated freedoms of religion, property and speech, should be exalted (even over the Constitution itself, if it comes to that).
• The primacy of the individual should be honored in addressing all public concerns.
• Equality of opportunity is sacrificed in pursuit of equality of results, e.g., affirmative action.

Well yes, those are implied in this foundation’s 35-year-old mission statement. Let’s make it more difficult. How about these positions?:

• Democracy cannot preserve individual liberty; indeed the right to vote is secondary to constitutional principle.
• Debt and inflation are real and debilitating, despite a government’s willingness to print money.
• Private property is the bedrock of prosperity.
• So-called “social justice” is a fashionable construct without legal basis in our system of government, constituting a conflicting and often hostile set of governing policies.
• High levels of taxation, in addition to discouraging economic growth, render government too big to monitor and thereby erode precious public trust.
• Cultures are not interchangeable.
• Welfare divorced from the ability or willingness to work leads to ruin for both the individual and the community.
• The high level of American healthcare depends on a strong doctor-patient relationship, unencumbered by government.
• A society that spurns merit and character for mere feelings and good intentions will fail to produce the generation needed to overcome existential challenges.
• The Christian model of a nuclear family is essential to America’s well-being.
• Agencies placing 20,000 illegal aliens in a town of only 60,000 are either traitorous or criminally ignorant.

Are those ideas proliferating in Indiana? It would be interesting to know. The article doesn’t say. Indeed, it doesn’t address any actual conservative, a.k.a. “right-wing” viewpoint. That is true even though several on our list are at the very least arguable.

Rebutting serious ideas, you see, is hard work, something they may not encourage at the IU school of “investigative” journalism. Better to ignore them. Knocking down straw men labeled “bigots” and “racists” is easier.

Again, don’t send your children there unless things change. — tcl

Our Site

Full use of this site, including access to the search function and the archive of past articles and journals, is now available to everyone.

Connect with Us

 

Our mission is to marshal the best thought on governmental, economic and educational issues at the state and municipal levels. We seek to accomplish this in ways that:

• Exalt the truths of the Declaration of Independence, especially as they apply to the interrelated freedoms of religion, property and speech.
• Emphasize the primacy of the individual in addressing public concerns.
• Recognize that equality of opportunity is sacrificed in pursuit of equality of results.

The Indiana Policy Review Foundation is a non-profit education foundation focused on state and municipal issues. It is free of outside control by any individual, organization or group. It exists solely to conduct and distribute research on Indiana issues. Nothing written here is to be construed as reflecting the views of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before the legislature or to further any political campaign.

The foundation's white papers are intended to make scholarly research on Indiana issues more widely available to policy analysts and researchers. White Papers represent research in progress and are published to invite comment and discussion as preparation for their submission to academic journals and other professional publications. The authors are solely responsible for the content of their research and analysis.