David Duke

David Ernest Duke (1950–) or, as he likes to emphasize, Dr. David Duke PhD., but frequently derided as David DuKKKe for his youthful indiscretion as a Ku Klux Klan leader, is a failed American politician and activist whose work centers around white nationalism. He's a Neo-nazi and former Klansman[1] who claims he left his racist days behind long ago, but that's spin. He uses the word "Zionist" more than the words "and" or "the". David Duke's rise in the Klan was due to his ability to appear mainstream in an attempt to normalize them. He now spends most of his time moaning about the Jews on the internet.

A lunatic Chaplin imitator
and his greatest fans
Nazism
First as tragedy
Then as farce
v - t - e
“”Nazis also want to smash the system.[1]
“”White people don't need a law against rape, but if you fill this room up with your normal black bucks, you would, because niggers are basically primitive animals.[2]

Duke speaks against what he describes as Jewish control of the Federal Reserve Bank, the federal government and the media. Duke supports the preservation of what he considers to be Western culture and traditionalist Christian family values, Constitutionalism, abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, racial segregation, anti-Communism and white separatism.[3][4][5] He also opposes what he considers to be "promotion of homosexuality" by Jews.[6]

In 2002, David Duke pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax-related charges.[7]

Early life of a loser

David Duke joined the Ku Klux Klan in 1967 while still a teenager. While attending Louisiana State University,[note 1] he joined the National Socialist White People's Party and founded an LSU student chapter of the group in 1970 called the White Youth Alliance. Duke became a notorious joke on campus for parading around in a Nazi uniform. After graduating from college, he formed a new Klan group called the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. This was when some Klan leaders were trying to resurrect their group's image by shedding the white sheets and putting on suits and ties. Even he eventually got tired of dealing with the sort of degenerates and misfits the Klan attracts, and left the Klan in 1980 to found a "more professional" organization called the National Association for the Advancement of White People. The NAAWP proceeded to attract the same sort that the Klan did. Today, David Duke hangs out on Stormfront with a whole new crop of twits and misfits.

Running for office
“”The only thing we have in common is we're both wizards under the sheets.
—Edwin Edwards

Duke was a serious wake-up call for those who thought politicized racism was a thing of the past, a mere artifact dusted periodically by the Strom Thurmonds of the world. It's not the same as a politician being freshly vetted in the 80s-90s, never really distancing himself from his "white power" bona fides, and getting elected for it.

Duke ran umpteen times for several public offices on the Democratic, Republican, and Populist Party tickets. Most of the time, he did poorly. Still, the voters in Louisiana must have been drunk on November 3, 1989, because Duke somehow managed to get himself elected to a term in the Louisiana State House of Representatives as a Republican. Smelling the sweet stench of success, he ran for U.S. Senate the next year against incumbent J. Bennett Johnston. Fortunately, Duke lost. Undaunted, he ran for governor of Louisiana in 1991. His opponent, Edwin Edwards, was notoriously corrupt and has been sentenced more than once on various charges of racketeering, bribery, etc. Because of this, Duke actually had a substantial likelihood of getting elected governor of Louisiana, and the race attracted national attention over concern an avowed white supremacist could win the seat. This spawned the bumper stickers seen around Louisiana, "Vote for the Crook: It's Important", and "Vote for the lizard, not the wizard". Edwards won, 61-39%.

Still not getting the message, David Duke sought the Republican nomination for president in 1992, which tanked so badly it consigned Duke to the Alan Keyes realm of perennial candidates. And satirical songs![8]

In July 2016, David Duke announced that he would be running for the United States Senate, in an ominous move representative of the growing prevalence of far-right politics in America. He said of his campaign, "Thousands of special interest groups stand up for African-Americans, Mexican Americans, Jewish Americans, etc. The fact is that European Americans need at least one man in the United States, one man in Congress, who will defend their rights and heritage."[9] Evidently, Duke fails to realize that this description applies to pretty much every Republican congressman. If elected, he would replace the vacated seat of the not-as-crazy-but-still-pretty-nuts David Vitter. Donald Trump refused to support his run for senate, and toyed with the idea of voting for a Democrat over Duke in the area – "depending on the Democrat", of course.[10] In the end, Duke lost the election badly, getting only 3 percent of the vote. [11]

Delusions

A look at some of Duke's statements reveals a man with significant delusions of grandeur; he claims his books to be among the most influential in the world (not to mention his website!).[12] He has said that he flew perilous missions to drop supplies to anti-communist guerrillas in Laos. However, no-one can recall him doing this. He also claims to have been begged to run in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election on a Republican ticket.

Affiliations

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

In 1974, Duke founded the Louisiana-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKKK: for when three Ks just isn't enough), shortly after graduating from LSU.[13] He became Grand Wizard of the KKKK. Duke first received broad public attention during this time, as he endeavored to market himself in the mid-1970s as a new brand of Klansman: well-groomed, engaged, and professional. Duke also reformed the organization, promoting nonviolence and legality, and, for the first time in the Klan's history, women were accepted as equal members, and Catholics Jews and black people were encouraged to apply for membership.[14] Duke would repeatedly insist that the Klan was "not anti-black", but rather "pro-white" and "pro-Christian." Duke told The Daily Telegraph he left the Klan in 1980 because he disliked its associations with violence and could not stop the members of other Klan chapters from doing "stupid or violent things."[15]

In 1980, Duke left the Klan and formed the National Association for the Advancement of White PeopleFile:Wikipedia's W.svg (NAAWP), a white nationalist organization.[16]

Notably, Duke was severely trolled in 1979 by police detective Ron Stallworth.File:Wikipedia's W.svg Stallworth convinced Duke into signing his KKK membership form, without Duke knowing that Stallworth is African American. Stallworth's investigation of the clan was described in his book, Black Klansman,[17] and later dramatized in the film BlacKkKlansman.File:Wikipedia's W.svg

Ernst Zündel and the Zundelsite

Duke has expressed his support for Holocaust denier, wingnut and crank Ernst Zündel, a German emigrant in Canada. Duke made a number of statements supporting Zündel and his Holocaust denial campaign.[18][19][20][21] After the aging and decrepit Zündel was deported from Canada to Germany[22] and imprisoned in Germany on charges of inciting the masses to ethnic hatred,[23] Duke referred to him as a "political prisoner".

2005 doctorate

In September 2005, Duke received a Candidate of Sciences degree in history from the Ukrainian Interregional Academy of Personnel ManagementFile:Wikipedia's W.svg (MAUP).[24]

His doctoral thesis was titled "Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism,"[24] which apparently Duke feels no shame or irony saying this as a former Klansman.

The Anti-Defamation League claims that MAUP is the main source of antisemitic activity and publishing in Ukraine,[25] and its "anti-Semitic actions" were "strongly condemned" by Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk and various organizations.[26][27][28][29] The Anti-Defamation League describes it as a "University of Hate".[30] Duke has taught an international relations and a history course at MAUP.[31]

Stormfront

In 1995, Don Black and Chloê Hardin, Duke's ex-wife, founded Stormfront, a prominent online forum for white nationalism, white separatism, holocaust denial, Neo-Nazism, hate speech, conspiracy theories of an antisemitic tinge, and racism.[32][33][34] Duke is an active user on Stormfront, where he posts articles from his own website and polls forum members for opinions and questions, in particular during his Internet broadcasts. Duke has worked with Don Black on numerous projects including Operation Red Dog (the attempted overthrowing of Dominica's government) in 1980.[35][36]

British National Party

In 2000, Nick Griffin (then leader of the British National Party in the United Kingdom) met with Duke at a seminar with the American Friends of the BNP.File:Wikipedia's W.svg[37] During this meeting, Griffin proclaimed:

instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity ... that means basically to use the saleable words, as I say, freedom, security, identity, democracy. Nobody can criticise them. Nobody can come at you and attack you on those ideas. They are saleable. —Nick Griffin[38][39][40]

This was widely reported in the United Kingdom media, as was the meeting between Duke and Griffin, following electoral successes made by the party in 2009.[38][39][40]

Banned from Twitter

Duke was finally banned from Twitter in July 2020 after years of posting antisemitic innuendos and conspiracy theories, apparently, because he had posted antisemitic conspiracy theories and misinformation about the COVID.[41]

Books and other "works"
  • After several more failed runs for the U.S. Senate, he wrote a book called My Awakening. (Ever notice how narcissistic those Nazi works tend to be? Mein Kampf, My Awakening ... My, my, my...)
  • David Duke is also purportedly the author of a 1976 self-help sex manual for women on how to perform fellatio and anal sex under the pen-name of Dorothy Vanderbilt,[note 2] and a 1973 street fighting manual for radical black militants, African Atto under the pen-name of Mohammad X.[42]
  • He holds a Ph.D. from a university in Ukraine, notorious for its anti-Semitic views,[43] writing his doctoral thesis on "Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism".
  • He has an active account on Stormfront, which he uses to big up his own articles. Incidentally, his ex-wife set up the site.
  • From 2003 to 2004, he served a prison term for mail fraud (bilking his supporters into giving donations under false pretenses, much of which he spent on his gambling habit) and for filing a false tax return.[44][45]
  • He has come out in favor of the Tea Party, speaking in April 2010 to tell the world they aren't racist because he says they aren't.[46] Under the delusion that "the 1%" were almost exclusively Jews, he also supported Occupy Wall Street, or, as he put it, Occupy "Zionist" Wall Street. Most people in the Occupy movement tried their best to ignore this.[47]
gollark: Replying to https://discord.com/channels/346530916832903169/348702212110680064/747219936598032417LIES! Some of us are very REFINED and will only say things like "One desires more tea."
gollark: 🥔 <:Tohnk:445016844223381526> 💸 <:Thonk:445016973798014987>
gollark: <:transistor:717746226925404181> <:angry_ping:739431677901799444> 🏓
gollark: <:bees:724389994663247974><:dodecahedron:724893894822854697>
gollark: There might be some problems beforehand, with increasing frequency, as things begin to generate timestamps which go over the limit.

See also

Notes
  1. Motto: "LSU. Go in dumb, come out dumb too".
  2. Seriously, it's even sourced and everything on WikipediaFile:Wikipedia's W.svg.

References
  1. SPLC on Duke
  2. David Duke: In His Own Words, Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 4 February 2021
  3. Duke, David. "An Aryan Vision". My Awakening. SolarGeneral. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
  4. Duke, David (October 23, 2004). "Kayla Rolland: One More Victim". Retrieved 2006-11-13.
  5. "David Duke: In His Own Words / On Segregation". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 2006-11-13.
  6. Duke, David. "Jewish Supremacists, Homosexuality and Divide and Conquer". Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  7. USA Today:David Duke pleads to mail fraud, tax charges
  8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ6fRky-XPw
  9. http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/politics/david-duke-senate-race/
  10. Maddow, Rachel; Fayard, Caroline (August 4, 2016). "David Duke Raises Stakes In Louisiana Race". The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC.
  11. "Kennedy, Campbell face off in U.S. Senate race runoff" by Greg Hillburn, News Star, 2016 November 8
  12. David Duke begging for your money
    "Davidduke.com has become one of the most important Internet Websites in the world standing forthrightly against the Jewish supremacist threat against the heritage and freedom of our people.
    Dr. Duke’s Books, My Awakening and Jewish Supremacism, have become two of the two most influential and important books in the world. No two books are more important for the awakening our people.    "(archived from the original on 5 February 2009)
  13. Rose, Douglas. The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of Race University of North Carolina Press. 1992
  14. "Photo of David Duke at a Klan cross lighting ceremony". Retrieved 2006-09-02.
  15. Leonard, Tom (23 October 2009). "David Duke: Nick Griffin was 'lynched' on Question Time". The Torygraph. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  16. "David Duke to Leave Klan". St. Petersburg Times. July 25, 1980. Retrieved 2011-01-16.
  17. Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth (2014) Flatiron Books. ISBN 9781250299031.
  18. Grobman, Alex; Medoff, Rafael (2003). "Holocaust Denial: A Global Survey — 2003". The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
  19. Lipstadt, Deborah (November 28, 2005). "David Duke Visits Syria to support Syrian Government and Attack Jews and Israel". Retrieved 2006-09-02.
  20. Churchill, Ward (October 1996). "Assaults on Truth and Memory: Holocaust Denial in Context". ZNet. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
  21. "Holocaust Denial: The State of Play". The Australian Jewish News. January 22, 2004. Archived from the original on September 10, 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
  22. Duke, David (February 26, 2005). "Free Zundel!". Retrieved 2006-09-02.
  23. "Ernst Zundel". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 2006-09-02.
  24. Duke, David (September 9, 2005). "David Duke Achieves Doctorate in Ukraine". Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  25. "Ukraine University of Hate". Anti-Defamation League. November 3, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  26. "Foreign Minister Tarasyuk: MAUP Activities Unlawful". Ukrainian Embassy. January 24, 2005. Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  27. Gawdiak, Ihor (January 27, 2006). "Ukrainian American Organization [UACC Gratified by Official Condemnation of Anti-Semitic Institution in Ukraine"]. BRAMA News and Community Press. Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  28. Levin, Mark (January 25, 2006). "Ukraine Government Calls for Action Against Anti-Semitism". NCSJ. Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  29. "ADL Welcomes Ukraine's Strong Condemnation of University Fomenting Anti-Semitism". Anti-Defamation League. January 25, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  30. "Ukraine University of Hate". ADL. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  31. Blumenthal, Max (March 23, 2006). "Republicanizing the Race Card". The Nation. Retrieved 2006-11-16.
  32. "RedState, White Supremacy, and Responsibility", Daily Kos, December 5, 2005
  33. Bill O'Reilly, "Circling the Wagons in Georgia", Fox News Channel, May 8, 2003
  34. "WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center: Case No. DTV2001-0023". World Intellectual Property Organization. January 13, 2002.
  35. Captmike works undercover with the US Government to stop the invasion of the Island Nation of Dominica. manana.com
  36. Operation Red Dog: Canadian neo-nazis were central to the planned invasion of Dominica in 1981 canadiancontent.ca
  37. April 2000 meeting
  38. Burgess, Kaya (12 June 2009). "White supremacist gunman James W. von Brunn had links to BNP". London: Times Online. Retrieved 12 June 2009.
  39. Cahal Milmo; Kevin Rawlinson (22 October 2009). "10 things you should know about the BNP when you watch Question Time tonight". The Independent. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  40. "PANORAMA: UNDER THE SKIN [Transcript"]. BBC. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  41. Twitter permanently bans former KKK leader David Duke: The avowed white supremacist recently tweeted racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus by Jacob Bogage & Eugene Scott (July 31, 2020, at 7:46 a.m. PDT) The Washington Post.
  42. According to the Anti-Defamation League
  43. See the Wikipedia article on Interregional Academy of Personnel Management § Controversies.
  44. David Duke Arrested In Germany, Ex-Klan Leader Faces Deportation
  45. David Duke Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Tax Charges
  46. Tea Parties aren't Racist. David Duke says so.
  47. Talking Points Memo.
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