Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 24
The Russian Gog will form a coalition of its own satellites, including Ethiopia,
Afghanistan and Libya.‖ He argued that these would also be aided by ―the
mixed breeds of Asia and Africa and India, who ...will ally themselves with
anything which promises them that they can pillage and rape in the lands of
the White man. (Cited by Barkun, 1994, p.110)
The Russian hordes were then expected to seize the eastern Mediterranean and the Suez
Canal, to disrupt the flow of oil to the west, and attack the US across the Bering Straits
while also deploying missiles, submarines, and aircraft.
Typically, the only evidence offered for such predictions consists of Biblical quotations,
selected precisely because their vagueness means that they can be press-ganged into the
service of any and every theological construction. The collapse of the Soviet Union hasn‘t
noticeably dented anyone‘s sense of certainty. In a seamless transition that passes
unnoticed by most True Believers, the focus of the conspiracy theory is simply shifted onto
new enemies, principally, ZOG. The underlying apocalyptic perspective is encased in
titanium and located in bombproof shelters, where it withstands all refutation from the
outside world. Yesterday‘s failed predictions are rationalized into insignificance. For long-
term cultists, amnesia is an occupational disease, whatever their ideological point of
departure. The fact that the prediction has surfaced countless times before is concealed
from new members, and consigned to the dusty vaults of memory by the old. Members are
in turn too occupied by frantic activity to seriously think through the contradictions of their
position. The conspiracy is too close to victory for debate, doubt, or questions. Immediate
action alone can save those fortunate enough to belong to the designated in-group.
Again, the inadequate empirical base for the belief system upheld by rightist cults is also
common across the spectrum of cultic organizations. In order to maintain their sense of
certainty, and consequent commitment to absolutist forms of organization, it is imperative
that they resist exposing their beliefs to empirical testing and the possibility of falsification
(Shermer, 1997). When faced with refutation the solution is simply to crank up the volume
of their rhetoric, and reinforce its impact by repetition, thereby silencing the voices of
dissent.
The Power of Expectancy Effects
A key ingredient sustaining the psychology of such a belief system is the dynamic of
expectancy effects. Researchers have consistently found that our expectations of events
strongly influence how we perceive them. One study, particularly pertinent in this context,
required subjects to observe a videotape of a heated argument that climaxed with one
person pushing the other (Duncan, 1976). When the ―shover‖ was black, his behavior
tended to be perceived by white observers as ―violent.‖ On the other hand, if the shover
was white his behavior was generally regarded as ―playing around.‖ In short, we see people
and events not as they really are, but as our theories about them suggest they ought to be.
It is also unlikely that many of these people would have regarded themselves as racist: if
asked, they would have insisted that the adjective ―violent‖ was an objectively accurate
descriptor of the behavior they had witnessed. Thus, when cults provide us with a theory of
everything it is little wonder that conflicting evidence from the real world is so readily set
aside. Identity believers believe that their theory possesses such an all-embracing
explanatory power.
Guided by their belief system, they thus perceive every political event as further evidence
that their conspiratorial and apocalyptic interpretation of the world has been confirmed.
Furthermore, in many cases, their expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. A believer
in Christian Identity will view blacks, Jews and gays as mortal enemies who threaten the
survival of the white race and who should therefore be relocated to small reservations or
exterminated outright. They will engage in public protests and demand retribution against

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 25
the designated out-groups. The fact that members of such groups respond angrily to such
suggestions, and even organize counter-demonstrations, becomes further evidence to the
cultist that he or she is surrounded by enemies. The drawbridge forming a link to reality is
raised. On the other hand, if there is no public reaction, it merely constitutes evidence that
the conspiracy has grown even more devious in covering its tracks.
Accordingly, the belief system is immune to falsification. Whatever happens, whatever could
possibly happen, is taken as evidence of its essential correctness. Many Identity
enthusiasts, for example, argue vehemently that the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 was part
of a plot to discredit the right and was actually the work of the US Government, (Tourish &
Wohlforth, 2000). The Waco siege in 1993 was not a bungled FBI operation, but a ZOG
inspired assault on Christian dissenters. One long time supremacist, Eustace Mullins,
penned the following critique of what occurred:
The Waco Church Holocaust, in which many worshippers, including innocent
children, were burned alive while worshiping in their church (was) an
atrocity which surpasses the worst accusations made against the Nazis in
Germany. (Cited by Stern, 1996, p.64)
In essence, paranoia is the nearest thing we have to a perpetual motion machine. It
requires no further impetus than a starting point, and a modest injection of determination.
The more self-contained its social environment and the fewer inputs it receives from the
outside world, the stronger it is likely to become. As Dyer (1998, p.112) has put it:
The power of conspiracy rests in faith: in the ability to believe in things
unseen, to be sure of something that cannot be proven by our senses or by
documentation. Faith has always been a stronger force in the world than
mere reason, and because of that, debunking conspiracy theories is almost
impossible.
Conspiracy theories can sink such deep roots because members of hate groups tend to see
those in minority categories as interchangeable with all other members of the category.
However brilliant their achievements, the fact of their group membership is the most
important thing about them. In this world, we do not live in communities composed of
individual people. Rather, we are besieged by homogeneous hordes of aliens, devils, rabid
feminists, half-apes, and sodomites, all out to get us.
This perspective is so often contagious precisely because the habit of blanket categorisation
is practised far beyond the confines of Identity inspired communes and rural retreats.
Hence, the social climate for supremacist ideas is frequently nurturing. The Christian
Identity movement simply gives such categorisation a more strident form, and proclaims it
with pride rather than shame. Furthermore, it seeks to turn prejudice from a mood of
incandescent anger into a coherent movement, capable of imposing a separatist agenda on
the wider society.
Uncertainty, Stereotyping, and Cult Recruitment
We live in a period of unprecedented social change. Clearly, many of the changes endured
in the past two decades (e.g., downsizing, delayering, globalization) have been profoundly
painful for millions of people. Identity theology draws much of its strength from a reaction
against this upheaval. Many commentators have extolled the virtues of rapid change and
urged people to embrace it willingly (e.g., Peters, 1992). In general, such counsel is as
successful as that of a surgeon who grimly urges her patients to ―enjoy your operation.‖ It
simply runs counter to how most of us feel. For example, in terms of work, people generally
prefer to do a job the way in which it has been learned, performed, and reinforced in the
past (Moorhead &Griffin, 1989). Change makes our world less familiar, predictable, and
comfortable, and we therefore tend to react instinctively against it. In turn, the desire to