Thursday, December 3, 2020

#2413: Everest Wilhelmsen

Everest Wilhelmsen is, or was, a paranoid wingnut associated with a group called the Christian American Patriots Militia, and a serious case of Obama Derangement syndrome or Baracknophobia. Wilhelmsen even claimed that he had the constitutional authority to kill then-president Obama because of Obama’s “willful alienation and violation of our Constitution [not specified], constant disregard for our peaceful protests [?!] and corruption of all three branches of government (i.e. rogue and illegitimate government).” Specifically, “[t]he authority to kill Obama comes from the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution: He is levying war on the United States and aiding and comforting our foreign enemies.” 

Secret Service was of course aware of Wilhelmsen’s Facebook post, which one imagines only fuelled his paranoid conspiracy theories about dictatorships and black helicopters further. According to his group, “[t]he foundations of our nation are Christian principles built upon the bedrock of Truth, not on the shifting sands of lies,” and the “founding fathers” and the Constitution give contemporary Christians the “rights and duty to bear arms against any government having a design to reduce us under absolute Despotism.” Spelled with a capital letter, “Truth” is a proper name, which can refer to whatever you want; it has nothing to do with truth. 

Wilhelmsen was apparently also instigator of the Facebook group Reward for Capture of Clinton, where he (or his buddies) argued that Hillary Clinton is guilty not only of “murdering” Chris Stevens and other diplomats but that Clinton was complicit in covering up Obama’s “ineligibility to be president, an “offense” that, as Wilhelmsen understands things (or fails to), carries a death sentence. And not only can Obama be assassinated with impunity: any government official who refuses to declare that Obama is illegally president are also free game for any trigger-happy Christian patriot. 

Diagnosis: An obscure and minor character, to be sure, but he is certainly not alone. There are plenty of this kind of lunatic around, and yes: occasionally, someone may very well decide to act on this kind of deranged, paranoid conspiracy theory.

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