Behind every would-be tyrant is a money man. And behind America's hard-right drift—from Glenn Beck foam-flecked chalkboards to Tucker Carlson’s white power PowerPoints—sits a family fortune stained with oil, fascism, and a libertarian fever dream.
This is the kind of historical clarity we desperately need in 2025. You’ve laid bare the truth: America didn’t “drift” into fascism; it was driven, by oil, by money, and by the ruthless ideological machinery of the Koch dynasty. Too often, we treat billionaires as eccentric background characters in our national decline, but Fred Koch was an active collaborator with genocidal regimes and an architect of American white Christian authoritarianism. His sons didn’t just inherit his money; they inherited his mission and refined it into a polished, think tank-approved war on democracy.
Calling the Tea Party a tantrum on a billionaire leash is perfect. That’s what people forget. This wasn’t grassroots. It was gaslit. And today’s attacks on public education, trans rights, and civil rights? All rebranded operations of that same machine. It’s not patriotism. It’s plutocracy in red, white, and Koch green.
Thank you for making the lineage unmistakable; from Fred’s Nazi oil deals to Charles’s ideological insurgency. If we don’t name this history, we’ll repeat it. Loudly. Violently. Permanently.
Sharing this widely. Everyone needs to read it. Twice.
You are so right!!!! I read somewhere that Fred Koch was one of the co-founders of the John Birch society. I have no been able to verify that. But these are the most radical of the radical right wing people who don’t think governments should exist. Or if they do then the governments should serve the richest people and the hell with everyone else.
Why doesn’t the “little man”, i,e., the voting public, see or understand this? How to combat? Get the House and Senate next year, the White House in 2026, and work toward getting unbiased judges ion SCOTUS, corporate money out of politics, and freeze some assets. I am sure they are guilty of tax evasion, bribery and treason.
Ah, the answer to that question is a topic for an entire post or three.
The short answer is reichwing media combined with an all too compliant lamestream media. The spread of propaganda is the first step. We had Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, and a host of others before Rupert and sons came over here and started up the Faux Newspeak propaganda machine. Faux grew into a juggernaut.
That's, of course, an oversimplification. There are numerous other bad actors involved, including but not limited to St. Reagan and Newt Gingrich.
I have been drafting ideas for Project 2026 for this very reason! Today, the “little man” is drowning in a fire-hose of junk info and engineered exhaustion. Koch money bankrolls cable news ad buys, Facebook rage-bait, and school-board stealth campaigns that twist reality into a fun-house mirror. People do not see the strings because the puppeteers own the spotlight.
Practical Counter-Plan
Break the Propaganda Seal
-- Share explainer threads, infographics, and local teach-ins that follow the money from Fred Koch to today’s culture-war bills.
-- Pair facts with stories: voters remember Jane-the-nurse losing flood insurance more than a 200-page report.
Win the Bench Seats First
-- Flip county commissions, state courts, water boards; the Koch network started local for a reason.
-- Recruit candidates who talk bread-and-butter plus corruption; fund them with recurring $10 “anti-dark-money” donations.
Turn Out the Non-Voters
-- Focus on renters, 18-34s, and low-propensity union households; the right suppresses here because they are terrified of them.
-- Adopt “two-touch” canvassing: first visit registers, second visit returns the ballot. It works.
Own the Narrative in 2026
-- Hammer one frame: “Billionaire Rule vs Public Rule.” Every speech, ad, meme repeats it.
-- Demand televised debates on corporate capture; force opponents to defend dark money in real time.
Legislate Democracy-First
-- Pass the updated For the People Act: public campaign vouchers, automatic registration, election security money.
-- Pack it with court-ethics rules and a binding recusal law for Supreme Court justices.
Starve the Beast
-- Repeal fossil-fuel subsidies; redirect to climate jobs that outnumber refinery payrolls.
-- Impose a windfall-profits surcharge to fund public media and civic tech.
-- Archive every leaked memo, every funded hate group, every environmental fine; a public ledger of corruption keeps pressure on prosecutors and journalists.
Billionaires are not invincible; they are just organized. Match them with bigger numbers and better stories, and the empire cracks like a cheap pipeline gasket.
Media fog hides Koch power. Bust the info blockade, flip local races, pass democracy bills, seize dirty assets, and stack a people-powered Court.
This is eye opening. I’ll do my own research based on what is written here. Unfortunately though, I’ve heard about the Koch family over the years, and I believe it is true.
I know it is true. My documentary footnotes are stranded on an old Hard drive.
One example: “In 1987, investigations, including Senate hearings, revealed that Koch Industries, through its subsidiary Koch Oil, was suspected of stealing oil from Native oil wells. Specifically, a Senate report highlighted Koch Oil as "the most dramatic example of an oil company stealing by deliberate mismeasurement and fraudulent reporting”
When the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United, it was a game changer. And average American citizens , whose pockets are not lined with billions, can still use their VOTES and VOICES
Except… the 2024 election was hacked. I know I sound like a nut case, but there’s more and more data backing it up. Look up Smart Elections or Election Truth Alliance on YT for the nitty gritty and analyses of the voting patterns. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
They also cheated in 2016 and in 2020, but mail-in voting was so huge in 2020 that it threw off their early voting hacks. That’s why he flipped out when Biden won, and claimed that HE had cheated! Bc every accusation is an admittance of guilt for him…
Excellent summary of the fiends bent on destroying liberty and freedom for everyone except billionaires. Sick, greedy, psychopathic ghouls like the Koch brothers should be regarded as pariahs and outcasts, not celebrated for their money wealth and power.
I worked for Koch Industries in the first 5 years after Y2K.You nailed it. I suggest looking at Market Based Management (MBM) to fully see their business
philosophies fleshed out in excruciating detail. Those guys make Hitler look like a first grader. Look at the suit filed by the excluded brothers to see how truly vicious and bloodthirsty they are. Look at how Fred stole from the Indians and rebelled in the title of Chief after his thefts of mineral rights . Charles and David learned from a master,
There is a plaque dedicated to the Koch’s in the Natural History Museum in D.C. As my son and I passed it, I turned to him and said “whenever you see that name, know that there are very dark and sinister things behind it”
Thank you for posting and sharing this…I know that average American doesn’t know who these men are and how every awful thing that is happening to the United States right now has been funded by their billions.
The Koch brothers are featured in the book “Dark Money.” They come up in the book “Rat f***ed” as well. One passage I’ll never forget went something like, when one of the Koch brothers was asked, why do you need or want more money, you have more than you could ever spend, Koch brother said, Because I want my fair share, and that’s all of it! Greed and Psychopathy personified.
Great writing, easy to understand, digest, & research. I’ve lived through more than half of the Koch’s’ nonsense, so I know for a fact the truths you speak.
One thing the Kochs forgot though. The rest of the world.
Humans can’t survive eating Koch oil, & China already has the memo & the playbook. China is no longer importing soybeans from the USA due to the tariffs & trump admin basically being an arm of Koch, & Brazil is now benefiting from that.
Want to know a big crop here in already ridiculously poor Mississippi? Soybeans. And soybeans are only one of many things that are about to happen due to those tariffs.
Art here. I’ve been reading up on The Heritage Foundation and The Federalist Society. Both of these so called “conservative” think tanks have a long history of working to undo our Democratic Republic. It’s time for the mainstream media to focus on these two organizations and inform the general public about who started these groups, where their money comes from, how they have corrupted our government, and what their true goals are. Thank you Dissent in Bloom!
Yep! Leonard Leo had a significant role in picking most of our SCOTUS judges today. Weird how all the Republican scotus judges are also all members of the federalist society.
Which is what Senator Whitehouse has been trying to do: to educate Congress and us about these odious connections and the feeding tube from one to another.
How do we get Rachel Maddow to do this bit of history? Or PBS. I've read that his goons or maybe he watches Rachel. All this time, I've been giving Putin the credit for the destruction. I knew about the Koch brothers, the heritage foundation, project 2025, the tea party but I never tied it all together. Laziness on my part. I didn't know about Koch senior and his nefarious support of Stalin and Hitler.
Thank you so much for your research and for connecting the history, from Father to sons. I'm afraid that the roots are so deep, it will be decades before this country can find some semblance of humanity in government and the supreme court. I'm so grateful for the decent people in government and society.
This is the kind of historical clarity we desperately need in 2025. You’ve laid bare the truth: America didn’t “drift” into fascism; it was driven, by oil, by money, and by the ruthless ideological machinery of the Koch dynasty. Too often, we treat billionaires as eccentric background characters in our national decline, but Fred Koch was an active collaborator with genocidal regimes and an architect of American white Christian authoritarianism. His sons didn’t just inherit his money; they inherited his mission and refined it into a polished, think tank-approved war on democracy.
Calling the Tea Party a tantrum on a billionaire leash is perfect. That’s what people forget. This wasn’t grassroots. It was gaslit. And today’s attacks on public education, trans rights, and civil rights? All rebranded operations of that same machine. It’s not patriotism. It’s plutocracy in red, white, and Koch green.
Thank you for making the lineage unmistakable; from Fred’s Nazi oil deals to Charles’s ideological insurgency. If we don’t name this history, we’ll repeat it. Loudly. Violently. Permanently.
Sharing this widely. Everyone needs to read it. Twice.
You are so right!!!! I read somewhere that Fred Koch was one of the co-founders of the John Birch society. I have no been able to verify that. But these are the most radical of the radical right wing people who don’t think governments should exist. Or if they do then the governments should serve the richest people and the hell with everyone else.
Another place to read about them is a book named “Kochland” by Christopher Leonard.
Why doesn’t the “little man”, i,e., the voting public, see or understand this? How to combat? Get the House and Senate next year, the White House in 2026, and work toward getting unbiased judges ion SCOTUS, corporate money out of politics, and freeze some assets. I am sure they are guilty of tax evasion, bribery and treason.
Ah, the answer to that question is a topic for an entire post or three.
The short answer is reichwing media combined with an all too compliant lamestream media. The spread of propaganda is the first step. We had Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, and a host of others before Rupert and sons came over here and started up the Faux Newspeak propaganda machine. Faux grew into a juggernaut.
That's, of course, an oversimplification. There are numerous other bad actors involved, including but not limited to St. Reagan and Newt Gingrich.
Nancy,
I have been drafting ideas for Project 2026 for this very reason! Today, the “little man” is drowning in a fire-hose of junk info and engineered exhaustion. Koch money bankrolls cable news ad buys, Facebook rage-bait, and school-board stealth campaigns that twist reality into a fun-house mirror. People do not see the strings because the puppeteers own the spotlight.
Practical Counter-Plan
Break the Propaganda Seal
-- Share explainer threads, infographics, and local teach-ins that follow the money from Fred Koch to today’s culture-war bills.
-- Pair facts with stories: voters remember Jane-the-nurse losing flood insurance more than a 200-page report.
Win the Bench Seats First
-- Flip county commissions, state courts, water boards; the Koch network started local for a reason.
-- Recruit candidates who talk bread-and-butter plus corruption; fund them with recurring $10 “anti-dark-money” donations.
Turn Out the Non-Voters
-- Focus on renters, 18-34s, and low-propensity union households; the right suppresses here because they are terrified of them.
-- Adopt “two-touch” canvassing: first visit registers, second visit returns the ballot. It works.
Own the Narrative in 2026
-- Hammer one frame: “Billionaire Rule vs Public Rule.” Every speech, ad, meme repeats it.
-- Demand televised debates on corporate capture; force opponents to defend dark money in real time.
Legislate Democracy-First
-- Pass the updated For the People Act: public campaign vouchers, automatic registration, election security money.
-- Pack it with court-ethics rules and a binding recusal law for Supreme Court justices.
Starve the Beast
-- Repeal fossil-fuel subsidies; redirect to climate jobs that outnumber refinery payrolls.
-- Impose a windfall-profits surcharge to fund public media and civic tech.
Prosecute and Freeze
-- Expand IRS criminal enforcement; whistle-blower rewards uncover the shell companies.
-- Let DOJ use RICO against coordinated dark-money networks laundering quid-pro-quo bribes. Assets seized fund voting-rights grants.
Reform the Court
-- Add four seats or impose 18-year staggered terms via statute.
-- Require a supermajority for striking democratically enacted voting laws.
Build an Anti-Oligarch Culture
-- Boycott Koch-owned brands; boost union-made alternatives.
-- Teach media-literacy curricula starting in middle school: inoculation beats debunking.
Keep Receipts and Tell the Story
-- Archive every leaked memo, every funded hate group, every environmental fine; a public ledger of corruption keeps pressure on prosecutors and journalists.
Billionaires are not invincible; they are just organized. Match them with bigger numbers and better stories, and the empire cracks like a cheap pipeline gasket.
Media fog hides Koch power. Bust the info blockade, flip local races, pass democracy bills, seize dirty assets, and stack a people-powered Court.
This is eye opening. I’ll do my own research based on what is written here. Unfortunately though, I’ve heard about the Koch family over the years, and I believe it is true.
I know it is true. My documentary footnotes are stranded on an old Hard drive.
One example: “In 1987, investigations, including Senate hearings, revealed that Koch Industries, through its subsidiary Koch Oil, was suspected of stealing oil from Native oil wells. Specifically, a Senate report highlighted Koch Oil as "the most dramatic example of an oil company stealing by deliberate mismeasurement and fraudulent reporting”
And, of course, they got away with it.
Every word is true. And there’s a lot more.
Oh it’s true. Unfortunately, every stinking word
Thank you for sharing these details.
When the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United, it was a game changer. And average American citizens , whose pockets are not lined with billions, can still use their VOTES and VOICES
Except… the 2024 election was hacked. I know I sound like a nut case, but there’s more and more data backing it up. Look up Smart Elections or Election Truth Alliance on YT for the nitty gritty and analyses of the voting patterns. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
They also cheated in 2016 and in 2020, but mail-in voting was so huge in 2020 that it threw off their early voting hacks. That’s why he flipped out when Biden won, and claimed that HE had cheated! Bc every accusation is an admittance of guilt for him…
For a deep and riveting dive into the Koch’s, read Jane Mayer’s Dark Money…compelling.
It's 100% true. The two of them flat out ravaged America and democracy.
Great article here, thank you 🙏. I learned about things I hadn't known before.
Excellent summary of the fiends bent on destroying liberty and freedom for everyone except billionaires. Sick, greedy, psychopathic ghouls like the Koch brothers should be regarded as pariahs and outcasts, not celebrated for their money wealth and power.
They should be given the Marie Antoinette treatment.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/koch-brothers-family-history-sons-of-wichita/
Rather long, detailed family history.
I worked for Koch Industries in the first 5 years after Y2K.You nailed it. I suggest looking at Market Based Management (MBM) to fully see their business
philosophies fleshed out in excruciating detail. Those guys make Hitler look like a first grader. Look at the suit filed by the excluded brothers to see how truly vicious and bloodthirsty they are. Look at how Fred stole from the Indians and rebelled in the title of Chief after his thefts of mineral rights . Charles and David learned from a master,
They've been playing the long game, and it's not over yet. We have our work cut out for us.
There is a plaque dedicated to the Koch’s in the Natural History Museum in D.C. As my son and I passed it, I turned to him and said “whenever you see that name, know that there are very dark and sinister things behind it”
Rapist Philanthropists
Thank you for posting and sharing this…I know that average American doesn’t know who these men are and how every awful thing that is happening to the United States right now has been funded by their billions.
We see you.
The Koch brothers are featured in the book “Dark Money.” They come up in the book “Rat f***ed” as well. One passage I’ll never forget went something like, when one of the Koch brothers was asked, why do you need or want more money, you have more than you could ever spend, Koch brother said, Because I want my fair share, and that’s all of it! Greed and Psychopathy personified.
Reading Dark Money now.Yikes!
Great writing, easy to understand, digest, & research. I’ve lived through more than half of the Koch’s’ nonsense, so I know for a fact the truths you speak.
One thing the Kochs forgot though. The rest of the world.
Humans can’t survive eating Koch oil, & China already has the memo & the playbook. China is no longer importing soybeans from the USA due to the tariffs & trump admin basically being an arm of Koch, & Brazil is now benefiting from that.
Want to know a big crop here in already ridiculously poor Mississippi? Soybeans. And soybeans are only one of many things that are about to happen due to those tariffs.
Art here. I’ve been reading up on The Heritage Foundation and The Federalist Society. Both of these so called “conservative” think tanks have a long history of working to undo our Democratic Republic. It’s time for the mainstream media to focus on these two organizations and inform the general public about who started these groups, where their money comes from, how they have corrupted our government, and what their true goals are. Thank you Dissent in Bloom!
Yep! Leonard Leo had a significant role in picking most of our SCOTUS judges today. Weird how all the Republican scotus judges are also all members of the federalist society.
It's ironic how Trumpkopf and Leo have apparently had a falling out.
Which is what Senator Whitehouse has been trying to do: to educate Congress and us about these odious connections and the feeding tube from one to another.
Thank you for exposing the Koch empire for what it always has been, a shrine for white supremacy and fascist racism with pots of 💵💰
How do we get Rachel Maddow to do this bit of history? Or PBS. I've read that his goons or maybe he watches Rachel. All this time, I've been giving Putin the credit for the destruction. I knew about the Koch brothers, the heritage foundation, project 2025, the tea party but I never tied it all together. Laziness on my part. I didn't know about Koch senior and his nefarious support of Stalin and Hitler.
Not that Putin doesn't have a hand in it. They're operating in tandem.
Read the book: “Sons of Wichita” by Daniel Schulman. Follow it up with Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money.”
Get the complete history.
Important books about the Kochs include:
Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
Christopher Leonard’s Kochland
Thank you so much for your research and for connecting the history, from Father to sons. I'm afraid that the roots are so deep, it will be decades before this country can find some semblance of humanity in government and the supreme court. I'm so grateful for the decent people in government and society.