DEEP DIVE -

On this episode of Those Conspiracy Guys we head down south to the land of the pines, to where the seemingly inarguable facets of human decency don't seem to exist and where an historically hated, morally outdated and powerfully overrated set of white guys wilfully discriminate against anyone who isn't them, we are talking about the Ku Klux Klan. From the mis 19th Century the Klan have been active and after the emancipation proclamation freed the black slaves in the US, these post civil war contrarians have fought to keep America white and keep other races, ethnicities and religions subjugated either by intimidation or by infiltrating the houses of politics and law.

With new cinema being used as a Propaganda tool in the early 20th century, a second resurgance of The Klan emerged after the first wave was destroyed by political unification and social reform. This second wave were more emboldened and took actions and made an impact so much so that this is the typical image we think of today when we say KKK. With WW2 unifying the US further and African Americans fighting not only for their country but for their rights as citizens; The KKK made their third and most violent resurgence. It was created in antithesis to the Civil rights movement and powerful figures, predominantly in the South, used it to take advantage of localised prejudice.

Coming from the millions of members in the 20s to just the hundreds of thousands in the 50s and 60s the Klan influence on modern culture has shone a light on the still existing bigotry in the US social structure. Their campaign of America First and the exclusion of minorities from politics, education, and social programs is said to be still in operation today. The numbers of the KKK today are in the mere thousands but still a visible force of modern day 'Nazis' are present in the form of white nationalist protestors. These men and women are in the vast minority but still the shadow of the atrocities of the KKK in the last 100 years make their small presence have a large impact.

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