Weird Little Guys

There are a lot of made up reasons for eating an all-meat diet. Steak won't cure your cancer and it probably wasn't that effective at preventing death from diarrhea during the Civil War. As we enter the season of gluttony, let's take a brief tour of the history of guys who think you should be eating WAY more meat.

Sources & Further Reading:

Salisbury, James (1888). The Relation of Alimentation and Disease. JH Vail & Company, New York.

McLaughlin, Terence (1978). A Diet of Tripe: The Chequered History of Food Reform. David & Charles.

Moncriff, Bernard (1856). The Philosophy of the Stomach; OR An Exclusively Animal Diet (Without Any Vegetable or Condiment Whatever) Is The Most Wholesome and Fit For Man. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. London.

Stuart, Elma (1889). What Must I Do To Get Well AND How May I Keep So? By One Who Has Done It. An Exposition Of The Salisbury Treatment. Trow’s Printing & Bookbinding. New York.

Baker, Shawn (2019). The Carnivore Diet. Victory Belt Publishing, Inc.

Sutherland, George Alexander (1908). A System of Diet and Dietetics. Oxford University Press.

Clummer, Clyde, L. (1950). "Dr. James H. Salisbury and the Salisbury Diet". Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly. 59 (4): 352–370.

Parry, Thomas (1844). On Diet, With Its Influence On Man

https://www.foodandwine.com/carnivore-diet-8769136

https://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/deathsandinquests1860.html

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/sep/12/carnivore-diet-meat-plants

http://docfinder.docboard.org/nm_orders/Baker,%20Shawn%20Mark.pdf

https://www.pbs.org/mercy-street/uncover-history/behind-lens/disease/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Molly talks to Adam Becker about his book, More Everything Forever

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A final look at the Pioneer Fund's attempt to use racist pseudoscience to overturn the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

Sources & Further Reading:

Tucker, William (2002). The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and The Pioneer Fund. University of Illinois Press.

Jackson, John P. Jr (2005). Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education. New York University Press.

Sussman, Robert Wald (2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press.

Newby, IA (1967). Challenge to the Court: Social Scientists and the Defense of Segregation 1955-1966. Louisiana State University Press.

Gabriel, Ricardo, "Somos Boricuas y Estamos Despertando: Decolonial Education, Collective Identity, and the Struggle for Puerto Rican Studies" (2023). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5583

Kenneth B. Clark, The Desegregation Cases: Criticism of the Social Scientist' s Role, 5 Vill. L. Rev. 224 (1959).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/vlr/vol5/iss2/5

Ernest van den Haag, Social Science Testimony in the Desegregation Cases - A Reply to Professor Kenneth Clark, 6 Vill. L. Rev. 69 (1960).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/vlr/vol6/iss1/3

https://www.naacpldf.org/brown-vs-board/significance-doll-test/

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/dont-blame-us-church-shootings-council-conservative-citizens-says-n380126

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1968/02/03/south-africa-the-south-west

https://x.com/socialistdogmom/status/1439283771237339139

https://time.com/archive/6873118/education-a-negro-in-ole-miss/

https://time.com/archive/6873165/the-south-the-intruder/

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/editors-note-the-lies-scientific-racists-told-about-jacksons-children/

https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2017/nov/15/how-integration-failed-jacksons-public-schools-196/

https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/revisiting-brown-v-board-education-70-years-later

https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal83-857-26237-1197399#_

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/07/us/desegregation-plans-in-peril.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1963/09/10/archives/wallace-orders-guard-units-out-for-school-duty-they-replace-state.html

Transcripts:
https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/d965a6d8-9452-495b-84ad-0d5be465964a/stell-v-savannah-chatham-county-board-of-education-transcript-of-proceedings

https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/209f0fe1-c065-4a37-b229-fc7b233ce2f3/evers-v-jackson-separate-municipal-school-district-transcript

https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/df5c8b3d-e3fa-465d-a071-7c18dcbd1ce7/evers-v-jackson-separate-municipal-school-district-transcript-1

https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/3c162003-4708-41e2-83da-437c93f0394a/evers-v-jackson-separate-municipal-school-district-transcript-2

Other Court Documents:

https://www.icj-cij.org/case/47

https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1748927/evers-v-jackson-municipal-separate-school-district/

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/347/483/#F11

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/220/667/1815159/

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/255/88/1818366/

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/724/1384/1468033/

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/387/486/262018/

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/333/55/14062/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Knowledge Fight Country is a platform where Dan Friesen and his guests can chew over the biggest and best ideas being disseminated in right wing media. Through a focus on Alex Jones and figures similar to him, this show will provide a humorous and fun layer on top of discussing the context on why liars lie and how they do it.

Listen here and subscribe to Knowledge Fight Country on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're revisiting two classic Weird Little Guys episodes from last year about a white nationalist political party's attempt to get their candidate on the ballot.

Third Position

Original air date: 8/21/25

In 2012, a newly formed white nationalist political party tried to get their candidate on the ballot. The American Third Position Party wanted Americans to vote for Merlin Miller, but how did the party end up picking him? 

Sources:

https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/federalelections2012.pdf#page=11

https://irehr.org/2018/06/14/what-is-the-american-freedom-party/

https://www.ocregister.com/2009/09/04/two-time-felon-runs-pro-white-political-group/

https://rosecityantifa.org/articles/meet-the-oregon-chapter-of-the-american-freedom-party-part-one/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/will-la-elect-a-ron-paul_b_104053

https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2013/08/two-american-freedom-party-leaders-speak-out-about-their-party/

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d284

https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/middle-east/six-day-war-liberty.html

A Secret Third Thing

Original air date: 8/28/25

After the 2012 election, the American Third Position Party rebranded. Not because their candidate lost, they expected that. But probably because their candidate didn't know what the party's name meant.

Sources:

https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/federalelections2012.pdf

https://politicalresearch.org/2016/12/19/what-third-position

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/neofascism-european-style/

https://www.alternet.org/2008/07/surviving_a_weekend_with_americas_premiere_pro-white_activist_group#

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/10/18/former-mpd-chief-drue-lackey-dead-90/92349168/

Winkler, Martin M. Arminius the Liberator: Myth and Ideology. Oxford University Press, 2016. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the first level of Knowledge Fight Country, Dan and his guest adventurer Molly Conger set out to understand the context around Tucker Carlson's interview with a welder who is mad about algebra.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A closer look at one of the men on the Pioneer Fund's team of scientists for segregation reveals that he wasn't a scientist at all.


Sources & Further Reading:

Tucker, William (2002). The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and The Pioneer Fund. University of Illinois Press.

Jackson, John P. Jr (2005). Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education. New York University Press.

Sussman, Robert Wald (2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press.

Van den Haag, Ernest (1969). The Jewish Mystique. Stein and Day.

Ernest van den Haag, Academic Freedom and Tenure, 15 Pace L. Rev. 5 (1994)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58948/2331-3528.1354
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol15/iss1/2

Chianese, Gloria (2006). Fascismo e lavoro a Napoli: Sindacato corporativo e antifascismo popolare (1930-1943).

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/538438703?objectPage=3

https://ilmanifesto.it/melamerson-una-coppia-in-fuga-a-vietri

https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/the-intellectual-portrait-series-a-conversation-with-ernest-van-den-haag

https://web.archive.org/web/20031010001427/http://home.comcast.net/~neoeugenics/pioneer.htm

https://holidaycoast.it/en/Vietri-sul-Mare-and-Salerno%3A-highlights-on-designer-ceramics-with-Europe/

https://www.ilvescovado.it/it/storia-e-storie-19/verso-il-25-aprile-l-antifascismo-vietrese-105190/article

https://www.nytimes.com/1969/11/23/archives/the-jewish-mystique-by-ernest-van-den-haag-252-pp-new-york-stein.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/nyregion/e-van-den-haag-87-educator-and-backer-of-death-penalty.html

https://chroniclesmagazine.org/cultural-revolutions/ernest-van-den-haag-r-i-p/

https://vdare.com/articles/in-memoriam-ernest-van-den-haag

https://kirkcenter.org/essays/ernest-van-den-haag-19142002/

https://sousamendesfoundation.org/family/melamerson

https://archives.albany.edu/description/catalog/apap135

https://files.supersite.aruba.it/media/31058_cfca3f8a5fa8002f9ebf82670aba47c97078fb72.pdf

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, the DOJ's Civil Rights division announced they were moving to dismiss more than 50 desegregation cases against school districts all over the country. Like the weird little guys trying to overturn the Brown v Board of Education decision in the 1960s, the Trump administration is trying to take us all back to a version of America they think was great.

Sources & Further Reading:

Reardon, Sean & Grewal, Elena & Kalogrides, Demetra & Greenberg, Erica. (2012). Brown Fades: The End of Court-Ordered School Desegregation and the Resegregation of American Public Schools. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 31. 876-904. 10.2307/41653800.
https://selc.wordpress.ncsu.edu/files/2013/03/Brown-Fades.pdf

Wang G, White JS, Hamad R. The end of court-ordered desegregation and US children's health: quasi-experimental evidence. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2024 Nov 4;193(11):1530-1540. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwae082
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12096290/

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. (2007). Becoming less separate? School desegregation,
justice department enforcement, and the pursuit of unitary status. Washington, DC
https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/docs/092707_BecomingLessSeparateReport.pdf

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-ends-over-50-half-century-old-desegregation-cases-throughout-united

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-dismisses-half-century-old-louisiana-consent-decree

https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/communication/speech-march-washington-aug-28-1963

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/freedom-black-women-speak-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom

https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jun/18

https://www.k-12legalinsights.com/2026/03/some-recent-motions-for-unitary-status-seem-to-be-facing-less-careful-scrutiny/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-seeking-to-end-school-desegregation-cases/

https://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/why-are-schools-still-segregated/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/us/politics/justice-department-desegregation-cases.html

https://www.ed.gov/grants-and-programs/grants-birth-grade-12/school-and-community-improvement-grants/training-and-advisory-services-equity-assistance-centers

https://www.regulations.gov/document/ED-2026-OESE-0958-0001

https://www.justice.gov/crt
https://web.archive.org/web/20240301102317/https://www.justice.gov/crt

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/ex-employees-us-justice-department-blast-destruction-civil-rights-unit-2025-12-09/

https://redlinecivilrights.org/education/

https://www.jurist.org/news/2026/07/us-federal-court-ends-decades-long-school-desegregation-lawsuit-in-louisiana/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6105774/smith-v-concordia-parish/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/14791822/boudreaux-v-st-mary-parish/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/5295676/thomas-v-st-martin-parish/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72066767/navy-v-sch-bd-of-st-mary-prsh/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the decade after the Supreme Court's ruling in the Brown v Board of Education case, segregationists used every tool available to prevent integration. By the early 1960s, a group of Pioneer Fund-backed scientists had teamed up with the lawyer they hoped could get their pseudoscientific argument against Brown in front of a judge.


Sources & Further Reading:

Tucker, William (2002). The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and The Pioneer Fund. University of Illinois Press.

Jackson, John P. Jr (2005). Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education. New York University Press.

Sussman, Robert Wald (2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press.

Gould, Stephen Jay (1996). The Mismeasure of a Man. Penguin Books.

McMillen, Neil (1971). The Citizens’ Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction, 1954-1964. University of Illinois Press

Reardon, Sean & Grewal, Elena & Kalogrides, Demetra & Greenberg, Erica. (2012). Brown Fades: The End of Court-Ordered School Desegregation and the Resegregation of American Public Schools. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 31. 876-904. 10.2307/41653800.
https://selc.wordpress.ncsu.edu/files/2013/03/Brown-Fades.pdf

Albert P . Blaustein & Andrew H. Field, "Overruling" Opinions in the Supreme Court , 57 MICH. L. REV. 151 (1958). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol57/iss2/2

Amy M. Gardner, Comment, "An Attempt to Intervene in the Confusion: Standing Requirements for Rule 24 Intervenors," 69 University of Chicago Law Review 681 (2002).
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5684&context=journal_articles

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/08/how-often-does-the-supreme-court-overturn-its-own-decisions/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wickliffe Draper's Pioneer Fund started out in 1937 by funding screenings of Nazi propaganda films in high schools. But like most American racists, the 1954 Supreme Court decision in the Brown v Board of Education case changed how he approached the fight for white supremacy.

Sources & Further Reading:

Tucker, William (2002). The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and The Pioneer Fund. University of Illinois Press.

Jackson, John P. Jr (2005). Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education. New York University Press.

Sussman, Robert Wald (2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press.

McMillen, Neil (1971). The Citizens’ Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction, 1954-1964. University of Illinois Press

Kevin M. Kruse, The Paradox of Massive Resistance: Political Conformity and Chaos in the Aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education, 48 St. Louis U. L.J. (2004).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol48/iss3/13

Thompson, Susan C. "Racial Injustice: A History of the Segregated School System in Jackson, Mississippi." Georgia State University, 2018. https://doi.org/10.57709/12100172

Sadler, Cynthia Jones, "Standing in the Shadows: African American Informants and Allies of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 268. https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/268

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/how-integration-failed-in-jacksons-public-schools-from-1969-to-2017/

https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/06/archives/antiintegrationad-seeks-teachers-aid.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1998/02/20/justice-department-lawyer-george-s-leonard-86-dies/238e9399-ef53-4983-9814-40b2250a2223/

https://ldfrecollection.org/content/archives/ba006941-a08b-4c85-b0d7-2f2e5ff00e85

https://www.nytimes.com/1964/08/21/archives/jackson-schools-end-segregation-43-negroes-sign-up-quietly-for.html

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/meridian-schools-no-longer-under-federal-supervision-stemming-from-1965-desegregation-lawsuit/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB929056013324992946

https://www.nytimes.com/1964/03/19/archives/mississippi-agency-channels-260000-to-antirighits-drive.html

https://da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/document/images/png/cd12/113717

https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/coordinating-committee-for-fundamental-american-freedoms/

https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/nativist-lobby-three-faces-intolerance/

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/eugenics-voter-id-laws-thomas-farrs-connections-pioneer-fund/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.