Sex scandals have been swirling around Martin Luther King’s reputation for years. Now, more information comes out — courtesy of The Daily Mail, alas:
Secret FBI tapes that accuse Martin Luther King Jr of having extramarital affairs with ‘40 to 45 women’ and even claim he ‘looked on and laughed’ as a pastor friend raped a parishioner exist, an author has claimed.
The civil rights hero was also heard allegedly joking he was the founder of the ‘International Association for the Advancement of P***y-Eaters’ on an agency recording that was obtained by bugging his room, according to the sensational claims made by biographer David Garrow — a Pulitzer prize-winning author and biographer of MLK.
Writing in British magazine Standpoint, Garrow says that the shocking files could lead to a ‘painful historical reckoning’ for the man who is celebrated across the world for his campaign against racial injustice.
Actually, The Daily Mail is merely repeating other rags’ coverage:
The FBI surveillance tapes detailing his indiscretions are being held in a vault at the U.S. National Archives and are not due for release until 2027.
But David Garrow, a biographer of King who won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1987 book Bearing the Cross about the Baptist minister, has unearthed the FBI summaries of the various incidents.
In an article to be published in Standpoint, Garrow tells how the FBI planted transmitters in two lamps in hotel rooms booked by King in January 1964, according to The Sunday Times.
But note that this very American scandal is being covered chiefly abroad.
We may be living in the epoch for disclosures of difficult facts. When President Donald Trump had Attorney General Bill Barr release much of the work of the Mueller Report and its surrounding investigative product, a Democratic Congressman called the declassification “a cover-up”:
Some revelations are so hard to take they must be called the opposite of aletheia.
This trend for declassification and denial can be seen in something bigger than partisan politics and the clay feet (and other appendages) of our heroes. Some form of transparency is coming to the biggest secret of our time:
Many of my friends and readers remain adamant: the UFO story is a hoax. It isn’t. The ongoing disclosure indicates as much. In this short presentation by Richard Dolan, above, he even gives us some direction to go for the most interesting revelations.
The funny part of all of this is how cultic is the behavior of folks on the major sides of these issues. Cults of personality, like for MLK and Trump, distort their and our perceptions, of course. But the anti-Trump cult is even more into denialism than is the King hero-worship.
Perhaps this resilience of the King cult is for reasons Dave Smith made in his comedy special Libertas: perhaps MLK’s sexual scandals can easily be bracketed off from his civil rights accomplishments.
The most revolutionary insight for me these past several years has been to see in the standard dismissal of UFO lore and evidence a cultic attitude. We are used to ascribing to “UFO believers” a nutty cultism, sure. But centrist cults, like those defended by talented apologists like Michael Shermer and cherished by his wannabes the world over, are more effective, for they can dispense power, pelf, and position: centrist cults tend to be stronger than dissident ones. Which is why they are at least as likely to be wrong.
Right up until their secrets get out. Then there is chaos.
And we can witness fancy footwork as cult leaders backpedal.
What will happen to the MLK story, I don’t know. Maybe it will help African-Americans to wise up politically, and shuffle off their thralldom to progressivism and the Democratic Party. But, as with the case of Trump’s presidency, expect a lot of bizarre resistance.
But the UFO story is more important, for, as Richard Dolan asserts, this secret runs right into the heart of the Deep State, and rocks the foundations of our American pseudo-republic.
twv
Addendum
Wirkman Comment 