Part One: Elizabeth Dilling: The Original Candace Owens

Behind the Bastards - Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts

This episode explores Elizabeth Dilling, a pioneering far-right activist whose work laid groundwork for modern conservative figures like Candace Owens. Born into wealth and privilege in 19th-century Chicago, she became a

Key takeaways

• Dilling was a wealthy, conservative woman who rejected traditional gender roles while promoting patriarchal values.

Transcript preview

Cool So media. Welcome back to Behind The Bastards. This is not the first episode of the podcast we've done this year during the official summer, but it's basically the official legal Christian summer, right guys? Team, isn't it? It feels hot as hell outside today. It's gonna, but it's but it only for the next couple days and then it's gonna be in the 60s. Oh, is it? Yeah, and then and then mother nature will water my garden and I'm thrilled. I'm glad that Oregon won't burn down yet. Yes, yes, please Katie. Katie Stoll's here, legend. Hey everybody! How hot and or on fire is it where you are? Oh yeah. Oh, ah, both of those things. I am in the mountains, but it is an unpleasant, well it's 85, it's 85. It's not too bad. We had some 90 degree days last week, but I moved to the mountains thinking it would be cooler and boy was I wrong. Yeah, it gets hot. It gets hot. It gets hot. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. Lots. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not. So yeah everything catches on fire out there that's the beauty of living out in the country yeah and they defunded one of my um they close one of our fire stations anyway oh that's always so reassuring oh good it's not like California needs a lot of those wild time I'm I'm only bringing up the summer because I had my first every every year when it gets hot again I remember okay I gotta put out sunscreen before I go run this time and then 15 or so minutes into that first run of the year with sunscreen I remember oh yeah when you burns like a son of a bitch. So if my eyes look like red and buffie, it's because I just finished a run in a shower and my entire face was on fire from sunscreen. I actually thought it was because you were crying. No, no, Sophie. I would tell you if I was crying, but I this is simply self-inflicted friendly fire. Self-inflicted friendly fire. Another piece of a... I'm talking about summer and you're all bundled up. I am wearing my my hoodie or my sweater. Yes. Meanwhile Katie and I are Lucy Guoose. Yeah. Oh yeah. I got my Lakers Luke Adontrichord shirt on. Shout out to my haters. Okay. Anyways, Robert, did the job. Should we do the job? Yeah, shall we do the job? Kady. So, how are you doing today? Podcasting wise? Pretty good. I'm sitting here with my old pals. whom I've missed. I have missed you too and I have missed talking to you about shitty people so I wanted to give you a special shitty person today you know we talk a lot about old-timey far-right influencers on this podcast you know the the first the guys around the 20s and 30s and 40s of the O. G. American fascist movement of the O. G. American fascist movement and the and the crucial role different like female influencers have played in the American far right and so today we're gonna talk about a woman who you could call the first Candice Owens or the first Laura Lumer you can make a case she's got bits of both of those both Candice and Laura oh a little bit to this lady we're gonna talk about this week Elizabeth Dilling have you heard that name before do you see why I was like we need Katie for this episode yeah okay I'm excited I do not know anything about Elizabeth Dilling she's not super famous yeah more famous fascist than I think you will recognize from later on but like again because I guess of misogyny she never quite got as famous as her male fascist counterpart it's really the patriarchy yeah you can say whatever the fuck you want on that one there's no rules here if you know if you've watched Netflix they don't give a shit yeah you're barely know what's on their own network thanks Netflix podcast, guaranteed human. There was no anything inside those eyes. They turned black. It scared the hell out of me. People wake up. I'm the woman saw the murder take place by Krivet and DiPippo. Anthony DiPippo showed no signs of remorse. take it to the grief. Listen to the Devil's Quar in the Bone Valley Feed on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. me, Hotocopee. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Open your free I-Heart Radio app, search Joy 101, and listen now. Joy 101 with Hotacopee is presented by CVS. My first guest is Karen Tilton. Shatita, Luke and Yerem. Have surprises. Many surprises. to life. What! You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst. This is Sweet305. Here, oversharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet305 with Lélépons on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Inside American soccer, we'll talk about the real story lines. Discuss the tactics that actually decide matches and give you the truth about the US national team from inside the program. Whether you're a lifelong fan or this is your first World Cup. We've got you covered. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogger and Tab Ramos on the I Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. on April 19th, 1894 in Chicago. Now if 1894 and Chicago sound familiar to you that's because that is the same year and city as the Pullman strike which is a legendary moment in labor history began as a local Chicago strike that became a national boycott and changed US labor law forever in the process. And that strike itself was heavily inspired by the trials of the 1893 economic panic that fractured the US economy and helped fuel Eugene V. Debs's creation of the American Railway Union, right? So Chicago at the time Elizabeth is born is a real hotbed for labor, for this burgeoning and really exploding American left, which is growing into what some might argue, and probably still to this day would count as its most influential period in American history, is kind of coming up as a result of the things that are sort of happening right around the time Elizabeth has born. So it's kind of going to be important a little that she's never going to adopt any of these kind of politics, but they are happening around her in the environment that she's growing up in. Like her family is against a lot of these changes. She's going to grow up hearing about them because they're right outside her door, you know? Sure, yeah. Yeah. So little Elizabeth comes into the world in a time and a place that was hugely significant in the history of American labor and the struggles of the working man against his bosses. And so it's appropriate for the person she would become that even as an infant, she was entirely separate and protected from the normal world of working class people. This is happening outside her basically. Her father, Dr. Leit Kirkpatrick, was a famous surgeon and her mother, Elizabeth Harding, was a homemaker, but both came from very prominent families, right? So both of their families have some degree of financial comfort and her dad, at least initially, is this like famous doctor. The Kirkpatrick's, her dad's family had been wealthy landowners in Ireland, but had fled near the end of the 1800s and settled in Virginia. Liz would later describe her father as coming from Scott's Irish stock and some going around to has given me cause to think that her family basically if you've ever heard of like the Irish land wars this period of time in which like there's a lot of conflict in Ireland over like who gets to own what land there's a lot of conflict as a result of these like absentee landlords that piss off a lot of people well her ancestors are some of the absentee landlords I was going to say they're the absentee ones yeah yeah yeah yeah because they're like a Scottish family who winds up owning a lot of land in Ireland you know that the Kirkpatrick's had to flee their family estate because they were brutal landlords but my research does make that seem likely. Sure, yeah. Yeah, we don't talk enough about Ireland's land wars. Sounds like we're setting up for a family that does not learn from those lessons perhaps. Perhaps they're here also resenting the different classes around them. I don't know. Doesn't learn from their lessons and has like a long time grudge against anyone trying to like fix things. just see that as like you're fucking with my big you know like that's the people that she comes from so let's talk a little about the Irish land wars because people don't often enough and it's a fun bit of history only about 5% of the land in Ireland from the late 1700s to the end of the 1800s was owned by Irish Catholics despite the fact that Irish Catholics were most of Ireland people got very angry about this and it led to successive waves of protests and even violent insurgent direct action it is very possible because they wound up on either side of this dispute but the fact that they had a family estate and came to the US with money makes me suspect that they weren't fighting for the freedom of poor men right these are probably on one specific side of the land worse pretty solid guess yeah meanwhile the Harding family Elizabeth's mother's people came from a long line of Anglican bishops which also makes it likelier that her dad's people were foreign landlords at some point anyway she grows up fairly well off in a 2002 article for the journal of American Christine Erickson describes her family as financially comfortable upper middle class, right? That's where they're coming from. Her parents have enough money that even though these are pretty rough times, they're able to travel fairly regularly, but they're not able to send the kids abroad with them. So Liz grows up, not traveling much herself, but her mom and her aunts are always visiting Europe, spending their inheritance, and so she grows up hearing about that. Sure, okay. Yeah, uh-huh. I mean, for the parents anyway. who wants to bring your kid. Sorry kids you had to stay mom and dad are off for a bit. Mom and dad are off for a bit but also in this period of time mom and dad are off for a bit for like eight months because yeah it takes a while to sale. You're gonna be raised by some lady we hired by see you when you're nine. Yeah exactly. Be back in a year baby. Yeah, be back in a year baby. Her father died when she was relatively young and this was he dies a sudden and surprising death. Yeah, family, but it says a lot about their overall financial state that even though her father dies pretty early on, this never affects them financially as far as we can see. They remain comfortable, which means they're very well off. So she's going to grow up with extremely conservative values and politics, but she's also going to grow up, because her mom is the only one running things after a while, she's going to run up very, grow up very used to seeing a woman call the shots, right? And this is going to have a conflicting effect on her effect on her. right? Because she both comes to believe that like traditional values are best and also she's used to women being in charge in her own life. Yeah, yeah. That's kind of tough to square at that point in time I guess. I was gonna say I was gonna say as are you Robert. Yeah, yeah my mom reminds is very reminiscent of this where like she was a very conservative person and also did not understand why men should be doing anything. Like those were two ideas that co-existed within her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. wrote of Elizabeth in her graduate thesis for East Tennessee State University, quote, If her father had not died, she would not have been exposed to such a strong independent woman as her mother. Before Dr. Lafayette, Kirkpatrick's death, he strongly believed the woman belonged in the home and away from both politics and business. In contrast, her brother Lafayette was encouraged to pursue a business career and at the age of 23 had acquired financial security through land development in Hawaii. He subsequently traveled around the world for three years with Baron von Zeppelin and continued to lead and continued to lead a privileged life until at 1948. Again, for any of the family, of the money she comes from, her brother is best friends and traveling buddies with Baron von Zeppelin. It doesn't get much older money than that, that Baron von Zeppelin. Having a road trip with the Zeppelin guy. So yeah, they're doing fine even with dad out of the picture. Little Elizabeth would be described during her childhood as, quote, highly emotional and an eager girl with a dramatically sculptured face, enormous, enormous, and a quick giddy laugh, somewhat lonely and casting about in search of a career. Which is also interesting. She's a very, she will always espouse very traditional values. She's always looking for a job for herself. She never is interested in just being a homemaker. Not, you know, no problem with that, but she is never interested in just sitting at home and raising kids. She wants to do something out in the world that people are aware of. It's actually a very fascinating dynamic for somebody. I mean, we're seeing it's still. this way, but this is this big push in the conservative party for traditional values and yet they're going to be advocating for their own careers. It seems counterintuitive, but interesting for this woman. Yeah, I mean it's the fillish-sloughly thing, right? Of like, I don't think women should be doing any of this stuff. Also, as a woman, I really like to have a big career. And also like modern times, that's very Erica Kirk. Yeah. It's very Erica Kirk. That is exactly what I was exactly what I was thinking. I mean if either of you have seen any of like the interview clips from T. P. USA's like first big like women's event that Erica Kirk led it's all of when people are interviewed it's all like this where they're they're like all over the map on if they're like well women can have it all but they have to do this but women could have it all but not those women it's really interesting coverage just to like get an insight into that ideological thinking it's fascinating. cognitive dissonance in your belief system. It always winds up being fascinating on some level. And like in a way like I just there's no way there would be an Erica Kirk without a Liz Dilling without a Phyllisathly without a you know it's all she had to crawl so that Erica Kirk could walk I don't know I don't know who's doing the whatever so Erica Kirk could come out with a firebooming fireworks. Yeah. money to get her quality education. She studies the concert harp at a Catholic academy and she graduates from a girl school and is noted as having an almost photographic memory. Her early interests were and this is not a normal, like her education is weird because I can't graph it directly into a normal one because she is both doing like normal primary school, secondary school and also Catholic Academy, women's preparatory finishing school. Like she spends years in schools that are just to like teach you how to behave as a woman. that's part of her schooling because she's like an upper class lady right it takes a lot you gotta know where all the forks go and stuff I imagine there's more two with than forks but forks seem like they're pretty key I'm stand up straight how to smile politely