Although not a member of RKBA, as someone that own guns I'll respond to Bob Johnson's diary asking the opinion of RKBA on the Bundy ranch standoff.
The Bundy militia folks are conspiracy nuts, and this coalition of white supremacists, cop killer Sovereign Citizens, terrorist wannabes, and generic inbred conspiracy nuts that believe they are fighting to save 'Murika from the great solar energy conspiracy. I did a diary about that.
I also commented that perhaps this is the Koch brother's Beer Hall Putsch against elected government. Maybe out of this mess they will find a charismatic nutcase to lead their Brown Shirts. (I don't think it's wrong to play the Nazi card when the group includes actual violent white supremacists). Clearly people were hoping for violence like the Nazi's abortive Beer Hall Putsch rebellion against the elected Weimar government. The Putsch gave the early National Socialists several martyrs and the symbol of the swastika flag stained with their blood (the Blood Flag) to rally their cause. Except in this case they were hoping for a video.
But what about the people? For people familiar with my mental health diaries, this material may be familiar.
The militia types like guns because guns give them an effective way to be obnoxious attention whores. Being an obnoxious attention whore is important for people who suffer from complete lack of any sense of personal significance significance or achievement.
Typical of people with no personal sense of self worth is that they must have a circle jerk of friends all telling each other how brave and clever and moral they are. It's almost inevitable they will try to gang up on others and intimidate them. If you get nothing else from this diary, just remember that hateful assholes travel in packs because they can't survive without some other hateful asshole telling them how wonderful they are. Of course, that still leaves the problem of being hateful assholes (and in their hearts they both know it) so they have to unite against a common enemy and declare that they are "better" than the enemy. This might be a witch hunt, or it could be a long term campaign of sabotage. Either way, this primitive black and white view of a world without nuance is typical of psychotic tendencies or people that were chronically neglected as children.
These groups have grown a great deal using the internet. Indeed, these fringe groups have probably made better use of the internet than most liberal groups. But they have always placed an emphasis on covert and long range communication using technologies like short wave radio. I have discussed the relative failure of online liberal activism from an Adlerian perspective, and why it's so hard to get people beyond a neurotic pissing contest, and it is a shame to think that white supremacist dimwits would outperform us in certain respects.
This desperate need for mutual admiration is natural, because what can people like this accomplish with their lives? Clearly, many of them are unemployed or underemployed so that they have time to trek to Nevada. No doubt many of them are retired or dependent on others. Disability is probably common. Lack of full time employment is also consistent with their online habits, since people like this are camped out on their computer pretty much around the clock.
The Bundy militia types bond over a variety of CT. Check their sites and you'll see much ranting about HAARP and FEMA and chemtrails and UN Agenda 21 and vaccines and Monsanto and raw milk. Seriously, check out any conspiracy theory and see how long it takes you to find Holocaust deniers that believe the same conspiracy theory. Nazism in particular is the grand daddy of conspiracy theories, so all CT can be gateways to white supremacy. Whether or not they "believe" these things is less important than their need to bond with each other through shared make believe, which I discussed in this Eric Hoffer diary.
The thing about hateful underachievers is that they demand to be hated by others. I discussed rage and obsessive hatred in this diary on projection and projective identification as defenses. By being obnoxious, stupid, and provocative, they demand the hatred from others. By making others hate them, they can rationalize that it's other people who are resentful and hostile, not them. Accusing other people of thinking bad thoughts is "projection," and manipulating others into playing the role you want is "projective identification." I have done diaries on both, and how they play into a lifestyle and personality animated by hatred and resentment.
Claiming that they know what others are thinking and punishing them for bad thoughts is symptomatic of a slew of mental illnesses, including sadistic abusive personality types and personality disorders. Some people actually believe these fantasies at the level of clinical paranoia, but most often it will be part of Gish Gallop of accusations as a pretext for violence. In the case of these white supremacists, they "know" people are conspiring against them, so they can justify a philosophy of "get them before they get us."
Since projection attempts to create an enemy with very similar emotions and beliefs, they are trying to create opponents that resemble themselves. It's a cliche, but people really do have the greatest hatred for people with similar personalities. That's why when two people are locked in bitter hatred, bystanders are likely to think "Hey you two, get a room!"
Because people like this are generally not hitting on all cylinders, they are going to depend on organizations and groups for a sense of purpose. Not that they will accomplish much as a group either - usually they will try to latch onto an established group, a political party, or web site and disrupt and sabotage until everyone else just gives up in disgust.
Where they do organize, it is to pick their battles with people who don't really have a dog in the fight. And that's one of the main points of conspiracy theories - it's inevitable that we end up at Glenn Beck's chalkboard claiming Obama is directly related to Saul Alinsky (who died in 1972). Their enemies are imaginary and the people sabotaging their lives are themselves, so they have to keep expanding the net of guilt-by-association until they can find someone to blame and hate. Ideally, that person will be accessible enough that they can be baited into hating them back and closing the circle. In terms of political effectiveness, it adds up to whole bunch of nothing, another spiral of pointless ineffectiveness.
Where does this go next? I wish I knew, but we'll just have to see where we are at this time next year....