The following quotes are taken from my email exchanges with Jim Shankman of Madison, Wisconsin, the individual who has admitted to writing a vicious screed directed at blogger Ann Althouse and her husband, Meade. All bold type used for emphasis is my choice for publication purposes. It was Meade who removed a “solidarity” shirt from a statue of Hans Christian Heg, (see video) an action that appears to have greatly upset Shankman.
He has granted permission to publish our recent email correspondence. The full email trail will be posted below. When asked if he wrote a death threat directed to Republican Senators in Wisconsin, Shankman denied it. Some have expressed a feeling that there were stylistic similarities between it and the screed directed at Althouse. To the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence suggesting Jim Shankman wrote the death threat.
Shankman initially responded:
I did not post this email. I have never authored a death threat against anyone as far as I can recall. I was one of the people holding up peace signs when people had grothmann surrounded (I have pics of myself there).
He then followed up in a subsequent email.
I literally read that email for the first time now. I don’t even know which faction these are coming out of. Like I said, I am a relative moderate among the more militant types within the movement. I’m just not plugged into the industrial sabotage/beating up scabs community.
Along with acknowledging a more “militant” type of protester engaged on the union side of the issue in Madison, Shankman issued a warning of sorts as to what may yet develop as the Left works against the Wisconsin legislation.
What my message is is that people are getting ready for serious actions. Stuff that makes my letter to Althouse look like a childish prank, which in a sense it is. All of us are against SB11, and everyone is willing to go as far as their comfort zone allows to make sure it doesn’t happen. There are a lot of veterans and law enforcement officers at these rallies. People are hearing it said that 9/11 first responders are not real Americans and they aren’t ok with that. People are not down with threats coming out of the militia movement and private security types. I am personally not ok with anonymous threats from people who read lies about me on the internet. I really want both sides to take a look at how far this really has to go, and whether some of us who are serious about taking our country back regardless of their supposed political allegiances can agree to turn our efforts against the apparatus of big government, big media, and wall street before running around beating each other up in the streets.
While taking exception to some of how my initial post characterized him as potentially unambitious, Shankman mentioned his fondness for outdoor adventure and stated that he is currently mostly living off the land, while residing in a card board box in the attic of some friends. As for “making it mobile,” it’s unclear if Shankman intends to modify the cardboard box in some manner, or if he intends to pack it up, taking it along with him as he goes. On the other hand, I suppose one could simply pick up a new box when arriving in a new location and I’m not sure how said box, or mobile home/housing, might hold up to rain, or the often cold Wisconsin weather – depending upon the season, of course.
Also, the piece said that I “didn’t strike you as the type who would strike out for gold” like hans christian. I dunno, gold digging was crazy dangerous but I am really into outdoors adventure stuff and trying to live as much off the land as possible. Right now, i’m staying in a cardboard box structure that I put up in some friends’ attics, and I mean to make it mobile soon enough. When I was younger, I hopped trains around rural Iowa, slept in the graveyard of an unincorporated city, hitchiked(sic) to colorado, etc…
Shankman also elaborated on his preferred economic theory. The reference to Catholicism is particularly interesting.
With regards to distributivism, it is very mainstream catholic theology. You could ask James O’Keefe, who says he is personally inspired by G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton is the main political philosopher of distributivism. The last couple pages of What’s Wrong With the World are instructive here. Someone equated distributivism with liberation theology, which is not the case. Distributivism is the stance that the church endorses AGAINST liberation theology, and you can see this in the theology of pope benedict during his disputes with the liberation theologians.
As for his views regarding violence, he offers the following. Below that, I will post the entire email exchange in the order received and sent. I gave him my email address when we spoke last night and he emailed this evening.
Every tactic I have used is directly out of :”the Citizen’s Guide to Lobbying your Government”. I recommend that the right be diligent in their exposes of their enemies and GET IN THE STREETS AND DEMO against them. I oppose physical violence because it is ineffective, boring, and unequal to the needs of the day. I do not carry weapons and I do not attack. The only position I have taken that can be reasonably conceived as pro violence was my statement that I am not RADICALLY nonviolent. I am REASONABLY nonviolent. I am nonviolent unless attacked. I advocate occupying spaces and making them defensible, updating your friends on best security practices, and keeping in close contact with people you trust.
Shankman initiated contact with this email this evening – subject header: communique from jim shankman:
mr riehl.
I read your piece and thought it was fair overall, although I have a few minor quibbles. First, the picture on the site was a picture of me and anna, I’d rather you used a picture of just me. Also, that pic was from when I’d been inside the capitol building for a few days and didn’t have time to shave. I am usually pretty clean-cut. There are recent pics of me – one with an “I support US UNCUT” sign by lady forward, that I feel would be more appropriate. I can send you any information you’d like.
Also, the piece said that I “didn’t strike you as the type who would strike out for gold” like hans christian. I dunno, gold digging was crazy dangerous but I am really into outdoors adventure stuff and trying to live as much off the land as possible. Right now, i’m staying in a cardboard box structure that I put up in some friends’ attics, and I mean to make it mobile soon enough. When I was younger, I hopped trains around rural Iowa, slept in the graveyard of an unincorporated city, hitchiked to colorado, etc…
With regards to distributivism, it is very mainstream catholic theology. You could ask James O’Keefe, who says he is personally inspired by G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton is the main political philosopher of distributivism. The last couple pages of What’s Wrong With the World are instructive here. Someone equated distributivism with liberation theology, which is not the case. Distributivism is the stance that the church endorses AGAINST liberation theology, and you can see this in the theology of pope benedict during his disputes with the liberation theologians.
And finally, as I believe you know, I do not advocate for big government, big business, big union, or big anything. I advocate for citizens lobbying their government to have their concerns known. Every tactic I have used is directly out of :”the Citizen’s Guide to Lobbying your Government”. I recommend that the right be diligent in their exposes of their enemies and GET IN THE STREETS AND DEMO against them. I oppose physical violence because it is ineffective, boring, and unequal to the needs of the day. I do not carry weapons and I do not attack. The only position I have taken that can be reasonably conceived as pro violence was my statement that I am not RADICALLY nonviolent. I am REASONABLY nonviolent. I am nonviolent unless attacked. I advocate occupying spaces and making them defensible, updating your friends on best security practices, and keeping in close contact with people you trust.
regards,
Jim Shankman
To which I responded:
Thanks for writing, Jim. As I don’t edit Big Government, I don’t do image selection. I only submit text. I appreciate your reaction in that sense. Obviously, given the issue at hand and our political differences, perhaps it was not always easy to strike the tone you may have most preferred. But I’m glad you more or less see the piece as fair. Having been reported on on a few occasions, one rarely does come away fully satisfied in my experience.
Best,
Dan
Replied Shankman:
Thank you. Do you mind If I distribute our email exchanges unedited?
I did not, simply requesting reciprocity:
That’s fine, provided I may do the same with your approval. – Dan
Replied Shankman:
Of course, and you can post in full or in part anything from this address or the corresponding website whenever you want.
I then asked him about the death threats issued to the WI GOP Senators.
Jim – Some have speculated that you may have also penned the email referenced in the item below. They’ve felt there were stylistic similarities. For my part, I am making no assumptions. Would you care to comment on the issue? Was it, in fact, you? And if not, do you have a reaction to the email? I imagine you saw it in the press. Thank you Dan
To which he replied:
I did not post this email. I have never authored a death threat against anyone as far as I can recall. I was one of the people holding up peace signs when people had grothmann surrounded (I have pics of myself there).
To which I said:
Thank you. I assume you’d prefer to not identify them?
He then responded at length:
I literally read that email for the first time now. I don’t even know which faction these are coming out of. Like I said, I am a relative moderate among the more militant types within the movement. I’m just not plugged into the industrial sabotage/beating up scabs community. If you want to find out who originated it, I’d suggest trying to find out where in Madison it came from and who was around then. But keep in mind, these threats have been coming from a bunch of different sources. What my message is is that people are getting ready for serious actions. Stuff that makes my letter to Althouse look like a childish prank, which in a sense it is. All of us are against SB11, and everyone is willing to go as far as their comfort zone allows to make sure it doesn’t happen. There are a lot of veterans and law enforcement officers at these rallies. People are hearing it said that 9/11 first responders are not real Americans and they aren’t ok with that. People are not down with threats coming out of the militia movement and private security types. I am personally not ok with anonymous threats from people who read lies about me on the internet. I really want both sides to take a look at how far this really has to go, and whether some of us who are serious about taking our country back regardless of their supposed political allegiances can agree to turn our efforts against the apparatus of big government, big media, and wall street before running around beating each other up in the streets.
What I’m saying to the right is – there’s demos going on, get to them. There are 50 state rallies against the Federal Reserve planned for march 28th by anonymous! Its so easy to show these guys we aren’t going to take it any more.
I wrote:
Okay, thank you. Stay in touch. I’ll be writing this up. – Dan
I then followed up with a lingering question at 8:06 PM ET.
Would you care to comment as to what actions may yet be to come. You meantioned this: “What my message is is that people are getting ready for serious actions. Stuff that makes my letter to Althouse look like a childish prank, which in a sense it is. “
Shankman sent this at 8:14 PM ET.:
Another idea for a story on violence and the movement – look thru the wiseye footage during the assembly filibuster. On i believe the second night around 3am they started all talking about their gun collections (the assembly members, democrats and republicans) it was pretty weird stuff, one of the dems was talking about how he hasn’t been able to get a new hunting rifle since Winchester busted the union and moved its manufacturing overseas because they are apparently terrible now.
and yeah please forward me any questions or whatever. Most of my info is just on the internet a click away.
So, I emailed this at 8:21 PM ET and have yet to receive a response to my last question as regards any potentially “serious actions” to come.
Ok, thank you, Jim. Be well.
Dan
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.