ExtremismExtremists and Conspiracy Theorists Urge Resistance to “Medical Martial Law”
In the past month, anti-government extremists, conspiracy theorists and others chafing under coronavirus restrictions have led a rising chorus of angry opposition to public health measures promulgated by federal and state governments. This growing movement promotes opposition to and noncompliance with these measures, which they believe are driven by ulterior motives.
“Where’s the fighting spirit?” an angry Chuck Baldwin asked his assembled “Liberty Fellowship” congregation in Kalispell, Montana, in late March 2020. “Where’s the spirit of resistance…able to discern whenever the forces of tyranny would usurp our constitutional liberties?” People needed to understand, he said, “the importance that we have as a church to resist the forces of evil.”
The purported evil that so alarmed Baldwin, a prominent figure in the anti-government extremist “Patriot” movement, was what he believes are excesses inherent in the measures that federal and state governments are taking to combat the coronavirus.
To Baldwin, these measures aren’t for the benefit of public health but are actually a “pretext for civil tyranny.” Baldwin assured his congregation that he believed the virus was real, but told them he was “absolutely positive” that the “hyper-exaggeration and hyper-inflated paranoia and hysteria surrounding the virus” was actually a “conspiratorial plan against the liberties of the American people.”
In a March 17 message on Facebook to his followers, Baldwin gave the situation a name: “Medical martial law.” He reiterated the phrase a few days later, calling it “unadulterated, unabashed government tyranny.” It was a phrase that resonated with his adherents. “We are under a medical Marshall [sic] law,” one of them agreed, “and quickly losing our rights.”
In the first few weeks of April, this spirit of opposition has motivated extremists and others, including many carrying guns or wearing Guy Fawkes masks, to stage protests against coronavirus measures at state capitals in Ohio, Michigan and elsewhere. The protesters have promised ongoing resistance to virus-related restrictions.
Medical Martial Law
Baldwin is hardly alone in his conspiratorial beliefs. In the past month, anti-government extremists, conspiracy theorists and others chafing under coronavirus restrictions have led a rising chorus of angry opposition to public health measures promulgated by federal and state governments. This growing movement promotes opposition to and noncompliance with these measures, which they believe are driven by ulterior motives.
Many pandemic countermeasures oppositionists, like Baldwin, refer to the public health measures as “medical martial law,” or, occasionally, as “martial law lite.” The government may not have formally declared martial law, the argument runs, but the various federal and state policies cumulatively have the same effect.
