Profile: Brand Thornton

Brand Thornton

People’s Rights Ceremonial Leader

 

Brand Thornton has played an important role at People’s Rights events, opening an August 1 event in Nez Perce, Idaho by blowing a shofar appropriated from Jewish ceremonies for far-right purposes.[1] Thornton is also a member of the Open Carry Utah-OCU Facebook group, an arm of PeoplesRights.org.[2]

Thornton’s involvement in Ammon Bundy’s networks extends back to at least the 2016 Malheur occupation when he blew a shofar as he accompanied the first men that undertook the armed seizure of the wildlife refuge. He would do the same outside the courthouse during Ammon and Ryan Bundy’s trial in Portland, Oregon. Thornton would also testify as a witness for the defense.[3]

Brand Thornton has a paramilitary-centered and violent vision for America. Expressing simultaneous hostility at police and the LGBTQ community, he wrote, “Take your thin blue line and LGBT flag and burn it.” In a July 29 post Thornton declared that “I will never back the blue,” advocating instead that all police be fired and replaced with “constitutional neighborhood militias.”[4]

Thornton has offered up visions of violence against anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter, writing recently, “Antifa and BLM, your choice, you want peace or pushing up daisy’s (sic)?” In another post, Thornton declared that “I live to hear Antifa getting shot all day long.”[5]

Thornton has posted memes rejecting the existence of white privilege; declared that white people protesting racism are “brainwashed” and protesting against white people “because they are white;” defended the team symbol of the Washington D.C. football franchise; and repeated the white nationalist refrain that “It’s Ok to Be White.” Thornton even posted a meme featuring a statue of Barack Obama, declaring, “YOU WANNA TAKE STATUES DOWN? START WITH THIS USELESS MOTHERFU—- RIGHT HERE!”[6]

Thornton has lashed out at Christian churches asking people to wear masks to protect the community as “false prophets.” A meme Thornton posted to Facebook urged people to “avoid the [COVID-19] test at all costs” because it may be used to plant a “clandestine brain virus, nano-tech, or plant a chip in someone.”[7] Another Thornton-posted meme offensively declared that “Masks are the modern day Star (sic) Just like during The destruction of Germany.”[8]

 

Notable Facebook Likes: Charlie Kirk, Free Ammon Edward Bundy Now, Cliven Bundy American Patriot, Abolish the Bureau of Land Management, Center for Second Amendment Studies, NumbersUSA, Militia News, Bundy Ranch, Tenth Amendment Center, Breitbart, Defending Utah, Krisanne Hall, JD, Unorganized Militia Psyops Corps, Schaeffer Cox, Redoubt News, Constitutional Guard, Gun Owners of America, Judicial Watch, Tea Party Express, Heritage Action for America, Michelle Malkin, Dinesh D’Souza, Ted Nugent, Republican Guerilla Commandos Militia, and FreedomWorks.[9]

 

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NOTES

[1] Tanner, Chuck. “People’s Rights Demonstrates Far-Right Roots, Again.” Institute for Research and Education for Human Rights. August 17, 2020. https://irehr.org/2020/08/17/peoples-rights-protest-demonstrates-far-right-roots-again/. See this source for original sources.

[2] Open Cary UTAH-OCU (An arm of PeoplesRights.org). Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1627363757540485/members/.

[3] Wilson, Conrad. “Bundy Supporters Rally Outside Federal Courthouse as Jury Deliberates.” OPB.  October 24, 2016. https://www.opb.org/news/series/burns-oregon-standoff-bundy-militia-news-updates/bundy-supporters-portland-federal-courthouse/.

[4] Tanner, Chuck. “People’s Rights Demonstrates Far-Right Roots, Again.” Institute for Research and Education for Human Rights. August 17, 2020. https://irehr.org/2020/08/17/peoples-rights-protest-demonstrates-far-right-roots-again/.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Brand Thornton has two separate Facebook accounts. Thornton, Brand. Facebook. Likes. https://www.facebook.com/brand.thornton.5/likes ; Thornton, Brand. Facebook. Likes. https://www.facebook.com/brand.thornton.3/likes.