No, The Ku Klux Klan Has Never, Ever Been A 'Leftist' Organization
[Cross-posted at Hatewatch.]
"It's important to get history right."
So quoth Jeffrey Lord, the conservative CNN analyst, earlier this week during a noteworthy exchange with liberal commentator Van Jones. The comment was noteworthy because -- in stark contrast to his own admonition -- Lord had tried peddling an up-is-down, reality-inverted version of history in that segment (and on CNN the day before), namely, his claim (while attempting to defend Donald Trump for his refusal to disavow the endorsement of far-right extremists) that the Ku Klux Klan was "a leftist terrorism organization."
This is not just flat-out false, it is an outrageous inversion of historical reality: the Klan was not just a self-described "conservative," right-wing organization, it probably was one of the earliest iterations of the most extreme known form of right-wing politics, fascism. Both CNN and Lord owe their audience (and Jones) an apology for spreading known falsehoods on the air.
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