The Ruby Ridge siege & conspiracy-laced politics in America

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Find out on Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR. This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. A 2022 Pew research survey found that 39% of American adults and 47% of Christians believe we're living in the end times prophesied in the Bible. One event that likely accelerated the spread of that belief was the violent 1992 Ruby Ridge confrontation in Idaho between federal agents and the family of Randy Weaver,

whose apocalyptic beliefs led them to build and live in a primitive cabin on a remote mountaintop. An attempt by federal marshals to serve an arrest warrant on Weaver resulted in gunfire that left three people and a family dog dead and two people injured. Our guest today, writer Chris Jennings, has a new book that explores the religious antecedents of the Weaver's beliefs and the impact of Ruby Ridge on the spread of conspiratorial anti-government and white supremacist movements. The deadly actions of federal agents at Ruby Ridge, including the fatal shooting of a woman with a baby in her arms, raise some of the same questions about the use of lethal force at issue in current immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota. Chris Jennings is a former editorial staffer at The New Yorker and the author of a previous book about nineteenth century utopian movements called Paradise Now.

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