Jon Ronson, a Jewish journalist (yes, that’s relevant, as he repeatedly insists), hung out with crazy Jihadists, Alex Jones, militia types, Bilderberg obsessed conspiracy theorists and so forth, and recounted his adventures in his 2002 book Them: Adventures with Extremists (Simon & Shuster).
Now, if you’ve been following Ezra Levant’s blog, and read his Statement of Defence, you’ll be familiar with another extremist named David Icke, who believes that the Queen and other leaders are shape-shifting space lizards who form a secret cult that runs the world.
Icke attracted the ire of Richard Warman and the folks at something called Anti-Racist Action (which, like so many “anti-racist” progressives, turn out to be fascist brainwashed twits and accidental collaborators with the real enemy).
For example, this is from the BC Civil Liberties Association’s 2003 annual report:
Richard Warman wrote the Kamloops library, which had included [David Icke’s] book in their collection, alleging that the book defamed him. He requested that the library pull the book, threatening to add the library as a defamation defendant if it refused. On the advice of legal counsel, the library removed the book from circulation.
The BCCLA took swift action, contacting Attorney General Geoff Plant and expressing concern about the chilling effect that this type of prior restraint could pose.
Unfortunately, the story gets worse. The BC Library Association ran, essentially, a news story about the Kamloops situation on a portion of its website titled “Censorship in BC.” The Library Association reported on the content of the book and Mr. Warman’s threat of suit. This came to Mr. Warman’s attention and he again threatened to sue.
The Library Association refused to modify its website, rightly in our view, and Warman has now filed a defamation action against it. The Library Association has retained counsel, pro bono, and intends to vigorously fight the lawsuit, with the continued support of the BCCLA.
Yesterday I was flipping through Them and was struck by Chapter 6: “There are lizards and there are lizards”, which recounts in some detail the infamous Icke vs. Warman’s Friends pie fight.
In light of recent events, I present the following excerpts from Them for your edification.
But the most surprising presence within David [Icke’s] entourage was that of Brian Selby, a veteran local [Vancouver] journalist from the left and a one-time prominent Greenpeace activist. (The coalition [i.e. Anti-Racist Action] was mystified by Brian’s apparent defection to the far right. It had been the subject of much debate during thei anti-Icke meeting.)
“I’ve been in this town fifteen years,” said Brian, “and I’ve gotta say that this is the most twisted political cluster-fuck I’ve ever seen. You’ve got the weirdest coalition. You’ve got the draconian powers of the Canadian Jewish Congress. Then you’ve got people with a history of being progressive. The Seattle protesters…”
“Nobody does all this against one person unless there’s something much bigger going on behind the scenes,” said David.
“You’ve got to have a lot of power to call up a radio station and get the plug pulled on a show,” agreed Brian.
***
“David [Icke] at his most controversial,” explained Brian, “is saying nothing that Noam Chomsky hasn’t himself written regarding, for example, the Zionist appropriation of the memory of the Holocaust for political purposes.” He paused. “What do you think?”
“It isn’t convincing,” I [Jon Ronson] said.
“This is open and shut,” said Brian. “Chomsky is the darling of the left. There’s no way they can argue with that. Do you reckon?”
***
“That was very weird,” said Sam to me after Brian [Selby] and Henrick had gone home.
“It was weird,” I agreed. “You know, I’ve been trying to keep an open mind, but now I’m pretty certain that David Icke really does mean lizards when he says lizards.”
But the antiracits were still not convinced.
“It’s the hidden reptilian hand of Judaism coming to take over the world,” said a coalition member called Richard Warman. “It’s all about dehumanizing your enemies. How do we make Jews dispicable, subhuman and worthy of our condemnation? So yes, I still believe that when David Icke says lizards he means Jews.”
***
In the days that followed this TV debate, some of the [Anti-Racist Action] coalition began privately admitting to me the whole thing was beginning to backfire. David Icke’s fans were not, by and large, anti-Semites. It was more alarming than that. They were, in fact, the coalitions core constituents — liberals and anti-racists and left-wingers concerned with the perils of global capitalism. These people were beginning to look upon the coalition as the villains, as the hidden hand, as them. [italics in the original]
When three representatives of the coaliton appeared on a radio phone-in show to drum up support for a mass protest against David Icke, they received a volley of antagonistic quesitons. Why were they obsessed with denying freedom of speech to someone who clearly wasn’t an anti-Semite? Who was really behind the coalition? What were they hiding? And so on. [italics in the original]
***
The next morning the Canadian Jewish Congress and B’nai Brith — the most powerful and respected groups within the antiracist alliance — cut their losses. They telephoned Sam [of Anti-Racist Action] to say they were withdrawing their support.
