Echoes of Ruby Ridge
Agree or not with their views, the federal siege on the Weaver family began an awakening which has rewritten American history
In a time before the phrase had even been created, we can now look back on the early 1990’s as a major ‘red pill’ era. It included the release of William Cooper’s seminal work “Behold a Pale Horse” (1991, more on him HERE), President George H.W. Bush’s now-infamous “New World Order” speech (1990), and national syndication of the conspiracy-driven radio show, ‘Coast To Coast AM with Art Bell’ (1993).
That’s not even including the federal siege of the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco, Texas… a subject which I covered HERE.
Every avalanche begins with the movement of a single snowflake...
- Thomas Frey
Another event occurred during this time period, in 1992, one which should never be forgotten.
Beginning on August 21 of that year, a simple family - living on a remote ridge in northern Idaho - became the focus of an intense, 11-day siege by federal authorities, one which received international media attention.
This event, for the curious, happened to be my first ‘red pill.’
When the dust finally settled three people lay dead - a federal agent, the family matriarch Vicki Weaver (assassinated while unarmed and holding her infant daughter), and 14 year-old son and brother Samuel Weaver (shot in the back while running away) - and a nation paused in wonder over what had occurred.
I am not here to rehash the particulars of what happened at Randy Weaver’s mountain cabin; there are several books on the subject which tell the tale much better than I am able in a compact space (Jess Walter’s Ruby Ridge: The Truth and Tragedy of the Randy Weaver Family, is a must-read). There are also plenty of easily-found documentaries on YouTube, which can give you the ins-and-outs.
What is seldom discussed, however, is how the echo of Ruby Ridge has been reverberating over the last three decades, and how it affects us to this day. Most people do not realize it, but - as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand altered the trajectory of world events in 1914 - it was one of the most important pivot points in American history.
An avalanche-creating snowflake had dropped.
The most immediate result was in how many viewed federal law enforcement agencies. From the FBI to the Marshal’s Service to the BATF, the image-rehabilitation those agencies undertook during the Reagan era was laid to waste.
After this? There was no doubt that if your views were considered ‘extreme’ by those-in-power they would literally kill you; what was once considered fodder for conspiracy theorists had become stark reality, a reality which - again - exists to this very day.
Ashli Babbitt, anyone? LaVoy Finicum? Yeah…
Another immediate effect was on the National Rifle Association [NRA]. Once basically an association for hunters and shooting enthusiasts, Ruby Ridge began a alteration in how the organization saw itself.
Eventually referring to federal agents as ‘jack-booted thugs,’ the NRA shifted its primary focus away from sporting and toward lobbying efforts for defense of the second amendment. In so doing, it became one of the most powerful and important political advocates for Liberty in the modern era.
While it has watered down its advocacies over the last few years, one still has to wonder if any of the gains achieved (including the recent Supreme Court rulings in favor of Amendment Two) would have been possible had not Ruby Ridge sparked that change in focus.
Another understanding which began at the time, though it took longer to germinate, was in how the mainstream media establishes ‘narratives.’ Before 1992 the notion that the media was biased was just under the surface; people suspected it, but the tangibility of the accusation could not be firmly proven.
By watching how the Rudy Ridge story unfolded through said-media, however, one was given a course in “American Propaganda: 101.” We saw, through live television and print newspapers, how modern narratives are established.
At the beginning the Weavers were portrayed as radical white supremacists, heavily armed while holed up in an impenetrable, booby-trapped mountaintop fortress. Vicki, in particular, was demonized as a maniacal matriarch who would execute her own children before surrendering her cause.
When the truth ended up being far different than the story being told, however? Trust in media began to slide, and - though it took years to reach its current barrel-bottom level - the coverage from this event was the seed from which that mistrust sprouted.
But the most telling result of Ruby Ridge, and the one which took the longest to come to fruition, was its long-term effect on the political Right.
Over a period of time after the siege, people on the ‘moderate’ right began to question the narratives too, and - along with them - accepted ‘truths.’ “What if we have been lied to about the goodness of ‘Globalism,’” people began to quietly ask themselves, which lead to, “What if we are being lied to about ‘conspiracy theories,’ too?”
Within a few years many of those who were merely right-leaning were, in certain circles, asking the final, death-knell question: “What if we’ve been lied to about… everything?” (Later, the COVID-19 psy-op crystalized the answer to that question, for millions of individuals.)
These people undoubtedly did not have Ruby Ridge directly in mind while asking these questions, but events have a way of affecting us on a subconscious level, and the siege was certainly one of those events.
And with that, a Populist Right began to rise in America.
Quietly, of course (because even back then people faced professional, social, and personal consequences for speaking against the narratives), people wondered and worried about the course of our nation. Narratives related to history, science, and multiculturalism were slowly being put under the microscope, and said-narratives were found to be wanting.
The slow burn continued to grow. Many critical-thinking conservatives began embracing right-wing Populist concepts, like full-throated ‘Bill Of Rights,’ advocacy and cultural nationalism… ideas which were, in many ways, embodied by the stand taken by the Weavers.
After all, all they really wanted was to just be left alone. Sound familiar?
The free-speech culture itself began to shift, too. People asking ‘radical’ questions became far less quiet (with voices which would have been cowered into silence two decades ago speaking boldly from public platforms), and before anyone realized it the fire turned into an inferno.
An example of that can be found in the sheer number of (completely valid) questions being asked over the last few weeks about our one-sided yet decades-long involvement with Israel. This would not have been possible even two years ago, due to the rampant suppression of speech through fear and intimidation, but now?
People just do not care anymore. Inferno, indeed.
The Populist Right has become a real force in America, and - despite censorship efforts by Globalist social-media concerns - it continues through today. I do not think this transpires without the initial spark Ruby Ridge provided.
No one is denying the Weavers beliefs were far outside of the mainstream, of course, and in some areas would even be considered ‘bigoted’ (though what that word even means anymore is anyone’s guess). It is also true that many of the Populist Right’s political and philosophical ideas differ from what the Weavers held as absolute truths.
Concepts such as theirs exist not in a vacuum, however, and are subject to evolution. That is what is happening here.
The most basic principles which were the foundation of the 1992 standoff - that people should be free to think and to act, to worship and raise their children, as they choose (without harassment - or threat of violence - from their government), that rugged individualism matters… that the fundamental rights of the people are absolute?
Those principles remain strong at the core of the Populist Right (along with traditional conservative and rational libertarian thought), even through today.
Core principles, once considered American principles, for which one family was willing to fight and die. Principles, which were openly and violently attacked by our federal government over 31 years ago…
… on a remote ridge in northern Idaho.
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Notes…
-- Updated 08/22/2024 with fresh links; no other context was altered
-- This is a heavily-rewritten and updated 2017 piece, from a Medium blog I once hosted.
The books that I recommend on Ruby Ridge:
https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Siege-Ruby-Ridge-Words/dp/0966433408 - Written by Randy and Sara Weaver
https://www.amazon.com/First-Canary-Inside-Story-Decade/dp/0971024804 - Written by Tony & Jackie Brown