 So as right wing extremism continues to proliferate, you're going to continue to see more and more organizations pop up that might seem innocuous at first, but if you look just beneath the surface, you'll find that there's a lot more than meets the eye. And I want to talk about one group in particular that doesn't necessarily seem bad or nefarious if you just look at the name. That's, of course, Moms for Liberty. Now, you could mistake them for Moms Demand Action, which is a group that advocates for gun reform. Just putting Moms in the title immediately disarms people, right? Because you think, okay, it's just concerned citizens, this is fine. But in actuality, these Moms that we're talking about in Moms for Liberty, these aren't ordinary Moms. These Moms don't support Liberty, and furthermore, these Moms are straight up fascists. In fact, the Southern Poverty Law Center named them in their 2022 list of more than 1200 hate and extremist groups. And for good reason, they materialized in opposition to safety measures during the height of the pandemic. They're opposed to LGBTQ plus and racially inclusive school curriculums and are massive proponents for book bands. But their advocacy for far right policies is really just the tip of the iceberg because as Vice News reports, founded in 2020, Moms for Liberty portrays itself as a wholesome grassroots movement that is focused on protecting students. However, previous Vice News investigations uncovered a pattern of disturbing behavior by the group's members who have violently harassed and intimidated parents, school superintendents, school board members, and students who have stood up to them. A Vice News investigation has uncovered links between numerous Moms for Liberty chapters and extremist groups, like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Sovereign Citizen Groups, QAnon Conspiracist, Christian Nationalists, and in one case with the founder of the AK-47 worshipping Rod of Iron Ministries Church in Pennsylvania. Around the country, Moms for Liberty has formed links with extremist groups in militias which are joining forces with the parental rights group at protests and school board meetings and in turn pushing the already far-right organization toward even more extreme ideology. There's an ongoing campaign by these neo-Nazi groups to radicalize some of these more benign patriot MAGA groups and it's working because I've seen more Nazi content creeping into posts from Moms for Liberty people recently, a researcher who is known as Trash City and who closely tracks Moms for Liberty activity told Vice News earlier this month. Now, that last paragraph is really important because just one day after Vice published that article, while the Hamilton County Chapter of Moms for Liberty launched their newsletter called The Parental Brigade and the very first newsletter contained a quote from none other than Adolf Hitler which reads, He alone who owns the youth gains the future. There's a lot of things that I love about Hitler. A little bit of an oopsie, if you will. Now, the far-right who's focused specifically on school issues really seems to love that quote from Hitler for some reason because as journalist Matt Binder points out, this Hitler quote that Moms for Liberty used is the same Hitler quote that Republican Representative Mary Miller recited at a Moms for America event two years ago. Now, Moms for America for those of you who don't know is a group similar to Moms for Liberty but they've been around since the early 2000s and don't have known ties to extremist groups and they kind of focus more on pressure campaigns as opposed to direct harassment to my knowledge unlike Moms for Liberty which does just that. But after the Indianapolis Star published an article talking about this little oopsie, I guess we'll call it, Moms for Liberty, that chapter in particular, responded. The Star reports around 11.30 a.m. Thursday, Moms for Liberty emailed Indy Star and posted a statement on the group's Facebook page condemning Adolf Hitler and apologizing for using the quote. A new version of the front page without the quote or explanation was uploaded. Quote, we condemn Adolf Hitler's actions and his dark place in human history. The statement from chapter chairwoman Paige Miller reads, we should not have quoted him in our newsletter and express our deepest apology. Sure, both the Hamilton County Democrats and the chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party denounced the quote in the newsletter. Now, they may have denounced Hitler, which is literally the lowest bar ever. But as Brad Reed of Ross story pointed out, they still haven't explained why the quote was there in the first place. But in the update of the newsletter with the yellow box here, they supposedly offer more context where they try to explain, but it doesn't go well. So they say the quote from a horrific leader should put parents on alert. Oh, okay. If the government has control over our children today, they control our country's future. We the people must be vigilant and protect children from an overreaching government. So basically what they're trying to say is this is a complete misunderstanding because by quoting Hitler, we were trying to suggest that the Democrats are the real Nazis and that was a warning about them. They think that not us. But it's a bit contradictory considering that the next sentence says that they want to protect schoolchildren from government overreach. But when you look at the policies that they advocate for along with their tactics, the way that they want to protect children from government overreach is by getting the government to step in and censor any and all content that is racially inclusive or LGBTQ plus. So it's a bit interesting, right? Ironically, they're proving that they're the ones who are Nazi like as they call their opponents Nazis after they quoted Hitler. You just can't make this shit up. And to be very crystal clear here, this isn't an oopsie when I refer to it as that. It's a joke. This is not a mistake, okay? When these Republicans continuously quote Hitler and claim that it's an accident and have to apologize, these are things that I don't believe are mistakes. I think that these are calculations that they're making. And let's be honest, they liked the quote. But on top of that, this is probably a nod to extremists that they've been working with in an effort to recruit even more extremists. And the context here is especially important because this is a group that was founded in Florida following Ron DeSantis' crackdown on schools. Ron DeSantis is a fascist who is taking many cues from Hungary's fascist Prime Minister Victor Orban whose speeches have also conspicuously sounded very Nazi-esque, so we shouldn't pretend as if all of this was happening in a vacuum. And I wouldn't be surprised if this organization has monetary ties to a larger, well-funded right-wing network. They claim that they make their money from membership dues and merch sales. But an expose published by Media Matters by Olivia Little notes that the group's ties to right-wing politicians and media are many. On top of that, they seem to have a weird affinity for the Heritage Foundation, which is a bit suspicious. Although there's no evidence to be clear at this point that there are financial ties to a broader right-wing network. But either way, if you don't know about them, now you know. And it's really important to educate your friends and family about these sorts of groups. Because again, the name, it just on its face, is very disarming, right? You would think, okay, these moms, they're just normal citizens who are looking to do something good for the students, right? I mean, maybe you don't agree with them, but their intentions are pure. But in actuality, this group is very, very efferious. So the problem, and what I worry about with groups like this, is that they could potentially act as a gateway to further far-right radicalization in the same way that Facebook mommy groups ended up radicalizing a lot of regular moms and turned them into anti-vaxxers. Something that doesn't necessarily seem harmful on its face can be harmful in this era where fascism is omnipresent. And when these fascists oftentimes don't say the quiet part loud and they use coded words or synonyms to say what they're really thinking, you really do have to be on the lookout. So if you didn't know moms for liberty, these are not ordinary moms. These are fascists who sometimes like to quote Hitler.