​​By Steve Richards

Note to Readers:
This essay was written before the shootings in Atlanta but the echoes between the two are striking for at least three reasons:

• The anti-immigrant sentiment of the folks in the essay and the anti-Asian hate crimes taking place throughout the country,
• The use of a gun for the massacre
• The claim of the shooter that he "Loved Guns and God" (https://www.thedailybeast.com/seven-killed-in-shootings-at-atlanta-spas).

In other words, a terrifying candidate for the NkRA.​

So, I’ve been hired by the NkRA (Neo-Know Nothing Religion of the Armed) to head up its proselytizing department as a consultant.

It doesn’t pay much but I’m happy to be helping out and thought that the first thing I should do is compare the original Know Nothing party of Lincoln’s day with the Neo-Know Nothing Republicans (NKRs or Knickers) of today. Kind of a psychographic review of our prospective members - get into their heads if you will.

But first, the demographics, which are pretty simple for such a homogenous group like ours. How so? The original Know Nothings of the 1800’s were largely White, Anglo Saxon, and Protestant. Today’s Knickers are pretty much the same. Not surprising so let’s move on…

Next, the original Know Nothings were anti-immigrant and fought against the citizenship of immigrants – and their voting - by just about any means possible. Which seems like something most Knickers can relate to given their focus on migrants from South of the border, the Muslim ban (darn Biden), the Wall, outreach to white supremacists, etc.

Third, the Know Nothings were an essential catalyst to the dissolution of the Whig Party much like the Knickers to Republicans today. The Know Nothing movement seemed to come and go over a generation so that by the start of the Civil War it had largely disappeared. Turns out the Know Nothings in the North were more abolitionist than anti-immigrant and mostly joined the newly formed Republican Party. Millard Fillmore’s defeat illustrates the point when he came in a distant 3rd in the 1856 presidential election; instead, Democrat James Buchanan won and that was that. It remains to be seen how long Neo-Know Nothing Republicanism soldiers on though 15-20 years from its origins in June 2015 would put it on par with the original.
 
A fourth element to be considered is the unfortunate name itself: Know Nothings. Noone would ever choose such a name on purpose. Turns out that the original Know Nothings changed their name to the American Party as they realized their name sucked. This is still the case as calling someone a Neo-Know Nothing Republican can irritate as I can attest from my personal focus group that I am documenting in Neo-Know Nothing Republicans I Love (KnickersILove.com), at least until the historical context is explained. Fortunately for them, Knickers can just stay Republicans as they are the majority of the GOP.

​Fifth, Knickers, like the Know Nothings, tend to keep their most extreme views to themselves, others in the party, and maybe a few of their Facebook friends. This makes the fringes a little hard to communicate with, especially since our Twitter feed and Facebook pages have been shut down. This would seem to be very much in the spirit of the original Know Nothings who got their name from saying they didn’t know about the party. When asked about their views on immigrants and the mushrooming nativist organizations they were joining they said they knew nothing. Knickers similarly are often loathe to identify themselves (though the FBI is helping with their pictorial tweets of the most wanted from its Capitol Hill Violence webpage).
 
Knickers have a different take on knowing nothing as informed by conspiracy theories, media sources, neighbors and loved ones, etc. Per Joe Scarborough,

"It’s all, at the end of the day, about owning the Libs… To these demagogues, actually, owning the Libs now means owning science, owning medicine, owning reason, owning rationality. - Morning Joe, 3/3/21
 
Sixth, being anti-immigrant went hand in glove with being anti-Catholic, which, in the mid 1800’s meant Irish. They hated the Irish, even though the Irish were white. On the other hand, Knickers are not overtly this way though their enmity toward caravans of folks from the south in practice makes then kind of that way. Why so vilified? Same now as then I suppose, they are feared as a threat to white America – and our jobs - like Bogey and “Oomph Girl” Ann Sheridan dramatized in the 1937 film Black Legion.

By Steve Richards

The entire NkRA spectrum was on full display that day. From soccer moms to militia-types they were all there chanting and being uplifted as they beat up the cops. It all seemed like an agreeable day of spectacle…then cocktails, for many.

​But there was something missing. Their guns. Where were their guns? All that body armor and no guns?

When folks discuss how much worse it could have been they really seem to underestimate what they are talking about. The potential massacre was of old-testament proportions. Not quite Archangels hurling fire and brimstone, or outer space lasers for that matter, but with blazing possibilities, nonetheless. Since the weapons burnished were mostly of the baseball bat, stun gun, and zip-tie variety one can lose sight of what those citizens were capable of, in theory anyway.

Collectively however they showed that they didn’t need their guns. Especially when carrying one might make them targets for the police officers they were attacking. Plus, they were having so much fun without them! Some seemed like they might even be auditioning for clown school or something, like the guy with the horns, the guy with his feet on Pelosi’s desk and the guy dancing off with her lectern. It was like something from the Three Stooges.

​Folks were really looking forward to the follow up inauguration rallies pastors promised with musings like “…blood will flow out of the Capitol”, and the like. What a damper the 25,000 troops put on those. All over the country police and troops took all the air out it. Hardly anyone showed anywhere. Sort of like how it used to be at those neo-Nazi rallies in the old days. Like in the Blues Brothers when Jake and Elwood drove those brownshits off the bridge. 

​BySteve Richards
Managing Director, TheoEco Institute

To Our Readers:

Today's post represents a departure from our typical as we begin to dive deep into a new documentary we are producing, So Flo Guns or: My New Church the NkRA? We've been working on the film since 2018 and this essay has appeared twice before in evolving forms since 2016. Please forgive us if it leans too far into the political realm but it's impossible to discuss these topics without doing so. We hope it proves useful to our collective understanding of each other. - Steve R. 

​Back in 2016 I wrote about the NRA as a kind of alternative church I was thinking about joining. Since then, I never have been too regular a member at the NRA church though I’m giving its new arm a fresh look. 

Turns out there’s a schism going on with many of the fierier types separating into a new branch: The Neo-Know Nothing Religion of the Armed, or NkRA. How’s it different?

Just like 2016 I’ve read some thought-provoking Facebook posts from friends, family, and acquaintances recently. One even equated assault rifles to hammers as weapons used in killings (496 in 2011) and implied we need to control hammers if we are going to control assault rifles. Another said he packed a handgun in line at grocery stores, so he could protect himself and his neighbors in case a shooter attacked. Another said he’s a lion because he carries a gun while the rest of us are lambs.
​
Many Knickers I love (Neo-Know Nothing Republicans, an up-and-coming party of many NkRA members) take it up a notch with family posts about President Biden being a pedophile, and a friend or two explaining they might vote for Hitler today if he were running, assuming he supported policies they embrace.

Well, certainly being a lion sounds better than being a lamb, notwithstanding the Christian doctrine I’ve been following with its images of Jesus as shepherd, lamb; us as His flock, etc. These are crazy times after all, and Christianity seems a bit deficient, especially when one goes to a typical church nowadays where pews are plenty empty. Of course, being a NkRA devotee doesn’t mean you can’t still go to your old church if you feel like it. In fact, many Knickers still go to church on Easter and Christmas I’m assured.

So, I figure maybe this NkRA denomination just might be a reasonable facsimile for a church; especially since the passion it engenders seems so intense. But can it pass for a religion? Let’s see.