Now what evidence does Introvigne present for the other two supposed conspirators/terrorists, the secular humanists and the leftists? Although the lunatic Voltairians lead the list, they are never mentioned again in the article. However, the far left is dragged into the scene in a truly creative fashion. "Both left-wing and right-wing extremists have targeted 'sects' and 'cults' among the agents of US-led globalization, together with Freemasons, Jews, multinational corporations, and professors of economics advocating free-market policies."The syntax is Introvigne at his lawyerly best. If the reader accepts the subject of the phrase - "both left-wing and right-wing extremists" - uncritically, he will have to accept the perverse conclusion: every "left-wing extremist" is to blame for any "right-wing extremist's" attack on "the Jews." Introvigne then makes another logical leap: "On 20 May 1999 in Italy a group claiming to represent a new generation of the 1970's 'Red Brigades' assassinated a (left-wing) scholar of economics on the accusation of his being an agent of globalization. One could not help but notice how similar the language of the 28-page manifesto of these new Red Brigades was to earlier tirades accusing 'sects' and 'cults' of being agents of Americanization and up to no good."Follow Introvigne's reasoning carefully. He has so far proven only one item of his anti-cult conspiracy: that a right-wing Catholic group called for outlawing "cults." He then says that a left-wing group killed an economist, accused of cutting pensions, reducing hospital care and promoting the paring down of wages. What is the connection? The supposed similarity of the manifesto of these new Red Brigades to "earlier tirades" about cults. Which tirades? By whom? What on earth is he talking about? "Reading in France that the Church of Scientology and McDonalds are both agents of an anti-European American infiltration network - no matter how well-intentioned the authors of these tirades may be - offers no reassurance to those of us who remember Mormon missionaries being targeted (and occasionally killed) by left-wing terrorist groups in Peru, Bolivia and other Latin American countries."The logic is mind-boggling. First, the jump from the Red Brigades to France… Then the idea that every time you express dislike for McDonald's cuisine in Bordeaux, you are morally killing a fair-haired youth from Utah in Arequipa. Even if you are "well intentioned." According to the Pastoral
Commission for the Land of the Brazilian Bishop's Conference, 1,186
farmers, trade union leaders and priests were murdered in Brazil between1985
and June 2000. The killers were hired by people who share the views on
land reform of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Introvigne's spiritual
and ideological guide. Tradition, Family and Property, the significantly-named
organization of Corrêa de Oliveira and the mother organization of
Introvigne's Alleanza Cattolica, was set up around the single issue
of denying Brazil's farmers the right to the land they worked on, at any
cost. By Introvigne's own standards, if people who prefer traditional French
food to McDonald's are morally guilty by association of the death of Mormon
missionaries, Introvigne himself certainly shares in the guilt of Tradition,
Family and Property and its followers and friends.
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