Deviations by Mike Markel Page B

his articles that said he was at
Lake Hollow a number of times, doing interviews and conducting ‘ethnographic
research.’”
    “What the hell does that mean?”
    “It’s what sociologists and anthropologists do.
They put themselves in an environment and study the culture. You know, who
talks to who, how things get done, the basic values and belief systems, that
kind of thing.”
    “You mean, he hangs out with them? Do they know
he’s doing this?”
    “I assume so. His articles are all over the
Internet, under his own name. His photograph is all over the university’s Web
site. If he were sneaking into the compound without their permission—which I
don’t think would be easy to do—and they caught him, they’d treat him like he’s
some kind of mole or something. And they don’t like that.”
    “Okay, but why would they invite him into the
compound to expose them?” I said.
    “It isn’t like he’s uncovering all kinds of dirt
about them that we don’t know. He isn’t talking about how they’re stealing
money, or anything like that. He’s writing academic articles.”
    “What’s that mean?”
    “Well, one of the articles, he’s comparing the
Montana Patriot Front to a couple of other groups, in terms of how they define
themselves in their charter documents. You know, the mixture of old-school Nazi
philosophy and anti-immigrant thinking. It’s like he’s studying this tribe in
Borneo, comparing it to other tribes.”
    “And they’re okay with him writing about them like
they’re a tribe in Borneo?”
    “Only thing that makes sense is they think they’ve
got nothing to be ashamed of. He can come and listen and write his articles
that nobody in Lake Hollow is going to read, but what’s the downside? If he
talks about their philosophy, they’re so egotistical they think that helps them
get the word out. Plus, it helps them feel like they’re pulling their weight in
the broader patriot movement. The Montana group is smaller than a lot of the
others, so the articles make them feel like they’re important.”
    I wasn’t sure I was buying Ryan’s theory. Hard to
imagine these guys thinking they look like anything other than morons who’ve
been dropped on their heads couple too many times, but I guess the definition
of being crazy is that you’re absolutely certain you sound perfectly reasonable—and
that everyone else is crazy. “Anything else you get off those articles?”
    “One other thing. Over and over, Fredericks cites
some guy named Benjamin Connors as a source. So I looked him up. Everybody else
he cites—even the crackpots who say the Holocaust never happened—they’ve got
titles and affiliations. They work for bogus think tanks or they’re professors,
but they’ve got names and jobs, and they write things and attend conferences.
This guy Benjamin Connors—I can’t find any evidence that there really is
someone named Benjamin Connors. And when Willson Fredericks cites him in his
articles, he never cites anything Connors has written. He just lists it as
‘personal communication.’”
    “I spent some time on YouTube last night—watching
the Montana Patriot Front channel.”
    “You see Fredericks on one of the videos?”
    “No, didn’t see him there, but there was this
video of a speech in their log cabin they call a church. It was pretty scary.
There’s some twisted dudes out there.”
    “See anything you want to follow up on?”
    “I don’t know. The guy was saying how the time for
talk has passed, how they need to take action. Said that some patriots have
already carried out missions, picked up the sword, that kind of shit, and how
we’re all gonna have to do that. Lots of nigger-this and nigger-that. Kikes,
towleheads, wetbacks. But everything is groups, no individuals.”
    “No clear threats against anyone in particular?”
    “I didn’t see anything like that.”
    “So how do you want to go at Fredericks?” Ryan
said as we headed out to the parking