Weird Little Guys

Knowledge Fight Country is a platform where Dan Friesen and his guests can chew over the biggest and best ideas being disseminated in right wing media. Through a focus on Alex Jones and figures similar to him, this show will provide a humorous and fun layer on top of discussing the context on why liars lie and how they do it.
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We're revisiting two classic Weird Little Guys episodes from last year about a white nationalist political party's attempt to get their candidate on the ballot.
Third Position
Original air date: 8/21/25
In 2012, a newly formed white nationalist political party tried to get their candidate on the ballot. The American Third Position Party wanted Americans to vote for Merlin Miller, but how did the party end up picking him?
Sources:
https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/federalelections2012.pdf#page=11
https://irehr.org/2018/06/14/what-is-the-american-freedom-party/
https://www.ocregister.com/2009/09/04/two-time-felon-runs-pro-white-political-group/
https://rosecityantifa.org/articles/meet-the-oregon-chapter-of-the-american-freedom-party-part-one/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/will-la-elect-a-ron-paul_b_104053
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2013/08/two-american-freedom-party-leaders-speak-out-about-their-party/
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d284
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/middle-east/six-day-war-liberty.html
A Secret Third Thing
Original air date: 8/28/25
After the 2012 election, the American Third Position Party rebranded. Not because their candidate lost, they expected that. But probably because their candidate didn't know what the party's name meant.
Sources:
https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/federalelections2012.pdf
https://politicalresearch.org/2016/12/19/what-third-position
https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/neofascism-european-style/
https://www.alternet.org/2008/07/surviving_a_weekend_with_americas_premiere_pro-white_activist_group#
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/10/18/former-mpd-chief-drue-lackey-dead-90/92349168/
Winkler, Martin M. Arminius the Liberator: Myth and Ideology. Oxford University Press, 2016.
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In the first level of Knowledge Fight Country, Dan and his guest adventurer Molly Conger set out to understand the context around Tucker Carlson's interview with a welder who is mad about algebra.
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A closer look at one of the men on the Pioneer Fund's team of scientists for segregation reveals that he wasn't a scientist at all.

Sources & Further Reading:

Tucker, William (2002). The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and The Pioneer Fund. University of Illinois Press.

Jackson, John P. Jr (2005). Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education. New York University Press.

Sussman, Robert Wald (2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press.

Van den Haag, Ernest (1969). The Jewish Mystique. Stein and Day.

Ernest van den Haag, Academic Freedom and Tenure, 15 Pace L. Rev. 5 (1994)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58948/2331-3528.1354
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol15/iss1/2

Chianese, Gloria (2006). Fascismo e lavoro a Napoli: Sindacato corporativo e antifascismo popolare (1930-1943).

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/538438703?objectPage=3

https://ilmanifesto.it/melamerson-una-coppia-in-fuga-a-vietri

https://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/the-intellectual-portrait-series-a-conversation-with-ernest-van-den-haag

https://web.archive.org/web/20031010001427/http://home.comcast.net/~neoeugenics/pioneer.htm

https://holidaycoast.it/en/Vietri-sul-Mare-and-Salerno%3A-highlights-on-designer-ceramics-with-Europe/

https://www.ilvescovado.it/it/storia-e-storie-19/verso-il-25-aprile-l-antifascismo-vietrese-105190/article

https://www.nytimes.com/1969/11/23/archives/the-jewish-mystique-by-ernest-van-den-haag-252-pp-new-york-stein.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/nyregion/e-van-den-haag-87-educator-and-backer-of-death-penalty.html

https://chroniclesmagazine.org/cultural-revolutions/ernest-van-den-haag-r-i-p/

https://vdare.com/articles/in-memoriam-ernest-van-den-haag

https://kirkcenter.org/essays/ernest-van-den-haag-19142002/

https://sousamendesfoundation.org/family/melamerson

https://archives.albany.edu/description/catalog/apap135

https://files.supersite.aruba.it/media/31058_cfca3f8a5fa8002f9ebf82670aba47c97078fb72.pdf
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Last week, the DOJ's Civil Rights division announced they were moving to dismiss more than 50 desegregation cases against school districts all over the country. Like the weird little guys trying to overturn the Brown v Board of Education decision in the 1960s, the Trump administration is trying to take us all back to a version of America they think was great.

Sources & Further Reading:

Reardon, Sean & Grewal, Elena & Kalogrides, Demetra & Greenberg, Erica. (2012). Brown Fades: The End of Court-Ordered School Desegregation and the Resegregation of American Public Schools. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. 31. 876-904. 10.2307/41653800.
https://selc.wordpress.ncsu.edu/files/2013/03/Brown-Fades.pdf

Wang G, White JS, Hamad R. The end of court-ordered desegregation and US children's health: quasi-experimental evidence. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2024 Nov 4;193(11):1530-1540. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwae082
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12096290/

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. (2007). Becoming less separate? School desegregation,
justice department enforcement, and the pursuit of unitary status. Washington, DC
https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/docs/092707_BecomingLessSeparateReport.pdf

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-ends-over-50-half-century-old-desegregation-cases-throughout-united

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-dismisses-half-century-old-louisiana-consent-decree

https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/communication/speech-march-washington-aug-28-1963

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/freedom-black-women-speak-march-washington-jobs-and-freedom

https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jun/18

https://www.k-12legalinsights.com/2026/03/some-recent-motions-for-unitary-status-seem-to-be-facing-less-careful-scrutiny/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-seeking-to-end-school-desegregation-cases/

https://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/why-are-schools-still-segregated/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/us/politics/justice-department-desegregation-cases.html

https://www.ed.gov/grants-and-programs/grants-birth-grade-12/school-and-community-improvement-grants/training-and-advisory-services-equity-assistance-centers

https://www.regulations.gov/document/ED-2026-OESE-0958-0001

https://www.justice.gov/crt
https://web.archive.org/web/20240301102317/https://www.justice.gov/crt

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/ex-employees-us-justice-department-blast-destruction-civil-rights-unit-2025-12-09/

https://redlinecivilrights.org/education/

https://www.jurist.org/news/2026/07/us-federal-court-ends-decades-long-school-desegregation-lawsuit-in-louisiana/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6105774/smith-v-concordia-parish/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/14791822/boudreaux-v-st-mary-parish/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/5295676/thomas-v-st-martin-parish/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72066767/navy-v-sch-bd-of-st-mary-prsh/
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