Maybe there is hope after all, or: A most unexpected change of heart

Since I was still recovering from TAM9 last night and crashed on the couch at around 9 PM, I didn't have time for one of my usual logorrheic posts. I did, however, have time to take note of an update on a story I started covering six years ago. One of the greatest things about having a long running blog (six and a half years) is that sometimes, after not having heard anything for a long time, I'll be surprised by new information on a story I commented on years ago and can update my readers. So it is with this rather bizarre story about two teenaged girls who formed the group Prussian Blue back in 2005 or so.

Remember Prussian Blue? It was a singing duo consisting of the (then) 13-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed, all "Aryan" Mary-Kate and Ashley of the white supremacist set named Lynx and Lamb Gaede. Together, Prussian Blue became very popular among the white supremacist set, appearing at all manner of racist gatherings to sing songs praising Rudolf Hess, were known for playing a video game called "Ethnic Cleansing," and writing songs like "Aryan Man Awake," with lyrics like:

When the man who plows the fields is driven from his lands.

When the carpenter must give away what he's built with his own hands.

When a mother's only children belong to her no more.

And black masked men with guns come bashing down the doors.

Where freedom exists for only those with darker skin.

Where lies and propaganda will never let you win.

Where symbols of your heritage are held with such contempt

And benefits of country 'cept tax are you exempt.



Aryan man awake

How much more will you take?

Turn that fear to hate

Aryan man awake.

They also had a penchant for appearing with clothes like this:

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Nice. They also have a little sister whose name is Dresden.

Also don't forget what Prussian Blue is. Basically, Prussian Blue is an issue that Holocaust deniers like to use for pseudoscientific hand waving when they claim that the gas chambers at Auschwitz and other camps could not have been used as execution chambers. It begins with the observation that, when bricks (such as gas chamber walls) are exposed to cyanide (such as what constituted the Zyklon-B used to kill Jews in gas chambers), a reaction between iron and cyanide can take place that can leave a blue residue. Holocaust deniers will point out that Prussian blue has often been found on the bricks in the remains of fumigating chambers but not on the remains of the gas chambers, a contention at the heart of Fred Leuchter's pseudoscientific and incompetent attempt to "prove" that Auschwitz gas chambers couldn't have been used for homicidal mass gassings of Jews. Why I've explained in detail before why the Prussian Blue argument is a fallacy; so I won't repeat the argument here. The point is that the name of Lynx and Lamb's duo was based on Holocaust denial.

When I first discovered the disgusting phenomenon that was Prussian Blue, I expressed this hope:

All one can hope is that, as they get further into their teen years, they rebel a bit against their parents (as so many teenagers do) and renounce this sort of disgusting racist spew.

Apparently, at age 19 they've finally done just that (mostly):

Lamb and Lynx Gaede, the dimpled tween rockers whose Nazi-themed pop band, Prussian Blue, sparked an exuberant media firestorm several years back have grown up -- and had a change of heart.

"I'm not a white nationalist anymore," Lamb told The Daily in an exclusive interview, the twins' first in five years. "My sister and I are pretty liberal now."

"Personally, I love diversity," Lynx seconded. "I'm stoked that we have so many different cultures. I think it's amazing and it makes me proud of humanity every day that we have so many different places and people."

Not surprisingly, back then, Lamb and Lynx were kept from seeing and hearing alternative viewpoints. Their mother April, who is a dedicated white separatist, neo-Nazi, and racist taught them the beliefs they sang about:

Now, the Gaede twins say they have changed their views and attribute their earlier political pronouncements to youthful naivete. "My sister and I were home-schooled," Lynx pointed out. "We were these country bumpkins. We spent most of our days up on the hill playing with our goats."

Lamb agreed. "I was just spouting a lot of knowledge that I had no idea what I was saying," she said.

Actually, I had noticed that Prussian Blue had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth around 2008. I had placed the feed for one of the Prussian Blue fan blogs in my news reader, along with other Holocaust denial blogs that I used to monitor, and the last time I saw anything about Lamb and Lynx doing anything associated with the white separatist movement was back in 2007. The two posts after that involved Lamb and Lynx going to their homecoming dance and going snowboarding. It turns out that around 2006, Prussian Blue, in a hilariously inappropriate move which they attributed to teen rebellion, started performing Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" in their set. Bob Dylan was raised Jewish, and their including any of his songs in their set wasn't exactly...appreciated.

One of the strangest aspects of this story is the relationship between Lamb and Lynx and their mother April. April is still a dedicated white separatist, so much so that she's promoting the building of an "intentional" white community in Montana, called Pioneer Little Europe. Yet the daughters still appear to be pretty close with their mother. I suspect that part of the reason that there hasn't been a complete break between twins and mother is because April still hopes that this is just a "phase" that Lamb and Lynx are going through and that they'll come back to the movement. It's also apparent that Lamb and Lynx are not unscarred by their time as Prussian Blue. For one thing, they still harbor views that reek of Holocaust denial:

Meanwhile, they'll keep growing up. Impressive as their transformation has been, for instance, their views on World War II still bear traces of the Holocaust denial ideology they were taught as children. For instance, asked whether the Holocaust happened, Lynx replied, "I think certain things happened. I think a lot of the stories got misconstrued. I mean, yeah, Hitler wasn't the best, but Stalin wasn't, Churchill wasn't. I disagree with everybody at that time."

Which is, of course, a combination of Holocaust denial gambits that I like to call "the Holocaust wasn't so bad" and "even if the Holocaust happened, Stalin and Churchill were just as bad as Hitler" combined with "shit happens during war." Maybe April knows her daughters better than they think she does and has reason to hold out hope that her daughters will return to her racist fold.

At the risk of re-activating our mighty morphin' (as in sockpuppet morphin') cannabis troll, I also can't end before noting that the Gaede twins appear to have substituted one obsession for another. Both apparently have developed multiple chronic health problems, and both have come to the same conclusion regarding the solution to their health problems:

Approximately a year ago, Lamb and Lynx stumbled on a new treatment that they say has done wonders for many of these ailments.

"I have to say, marijuana saved my life," Lynx told me. "I would probably be dead if I didn't have it." She discovered pot while recovering from her cancer treatments. She'd been prescribed morphine and OxyContin, which she quit cold turkey. One day when she was having a bout of nausea, a friend offered her a toke. She was reluctant at first. The girls' biological father had been "a druggie" when they were young, Lynx said.

But the drug worked wonders, and soon Lynx became one of the first five minors to get a medical marijuana card in Montana. Now Lamb has one, too.

Pot has also helped the twins rekindle the creative impulses they once channeled into their music. They've both taken up painting -- astrological themes, mostly -- and Lynx restores furniture. They hope to enroll in college, and intend to dedicate themselves to making medical marijuana legal in all 50 states.

Now, it's not clear what sort of cancer Lynx had. All the story says is that she had a "large tumor" removed from her shoulder, which could be anything from a sarcoma to a benign tumor. Whether these anecdotes indicate that pot has done anything for either of them other than get them high or not, it's not possible to say (although their story does remind me that I've been meaning to do a post or two on medical marijuana, which to me is in essence a new, hip form of herbalism). It's also clear that critical thinking isn't exactly part of Lynx and Lamb's repertoire even now. Very likely, their rejection of their white separatist beliefs was far more likely to have been sparked by their rebellion against their parents and their situation when they were 14 than by any thoughtful process that led them to reject racism, anti-Semitism, and neo-Nazi beliefs. Clearly, they appear prone to other non-reality-based belief systems, such as astrology.

Still, they are only 19, and 19 is quite young. There is time for them to continue to mature and, one hopes, ultimately to complete the rejection of their previous racist beliefs.

More like this

After 6 weeks and almost 100 posts, we have finally reached the point where you actually BEGIN with a post that makes an association between Nazis, stupid people, child abuse, abuse of the sacred smiley, cannabis trolling and that most pernicious of substances of abuse, Oxycontin.

Your Kung Fu is strong today Orac.

Have you seen the latest 'Autisms and Oughtisms' post?

All I have to say is if you really must smoke something PLEASE do serious exercise or yoga or swimming as well. No one else wants your hospital bills. Find a way to quit or find a way to stay healthy!

By Ashtanga London (not verified) on 23 Jul 2011 #permalink

Micheal that's the same argument I have about yoga.

I know lots of 50 year old ashtanga yogis who are healthy like people who are 20 year longer.

However, I need to produce proof of this so you need to produce proof of your claim surely?

Did any of your pot smoking friends drink alcohol as well? There's something that is PROVEN to kill brain cells (google your own science, I'm busy googling yoga and ventilation).

By Ashtanga London (not verified) on 25 Jul 2011 #permalink

AL, Everyone is so immature when it comes to cannabis and RI is no exception.

Have a snippet of recent copypasta:

Public health researchers say the federal government is slowing the search for cures to breast, colon, prostate, and brain cancer, as well as Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's, and HIV because the research involves pot.

That's the takeaway from the 21st annual symposium of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, held in St. Charles, Illinois July 5-10. Researchers stacked the program with talks not only about cannabis' palliative properties but also its curative efficacy. The event, sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, was held the same week the DEA reiterated its stance that marijuana has no accepted medical use.

"It was really interesting. At the same time the DEA was publicly declaring that cannabis has no medical value I was surrounded by the most brilliant minds in the world talking about nothing but the medical value of cannabinoids," said Amanda Reiman, who holds a Ph.D from UC Berkeley's School of Social Welfare, where she is also a lecturer, and who presented a poster at the symposium. "The frustration on the part of the researchers was something you could feel in the air."

Give it two generations and all the brain washing will have died-off, leaving us new bloods to get on with it.

By Kim Cannibals (not verified) on 31 Jul 2011 #permalink

I don't fall for their "conversion"...it is just another schtick to bolster a failed minor career as no-talent singers for the neo-nazi white supremacists.

Notice how the one twin is living at home with the mama nazi, supposedly recovering from cancer surgery and using medical marijuana...no doubt because her oxycontin supplier cut her off. The other twin is a chamber maid. Such losers who were home-schooled in the intricacies of holocaust denial have now had an epiphany...sure they did!

Nice to be has-beens at the age of 19, who have no future except any notoriety they can manufacture, while still in lock-step with white supremacy doctrine and, of course, their latest gimmick of medical marijuana; dirtbags.

Yes "lilady" itâs all an evil conspiracy by these two minors to hop from one unpopular bandwagon to another in hopes of getting rich and famous quick. Good thing we have people like you to see through the lines and tell it like it is!

I consider these two less evil and more victims of child abuse. Not that I think they should have any claim to fame, but whether they are truly sincere about their past is irrelevant.

They are publically denouncing their past thus completely negating what former fan base (i.e. the racists) they had. Who cares if they mean it or not? They will eventually fall back into mediocrity and logic prevailed.

First "Insane Clown Posse" turn out to be soft, Christian rockers. Now, this. Is no one on stage who they pretend to be anymore? (Joking, of course.)

Lilady, that was cruel.

I remember reading about these lolita-esque white power "stars," with their stage mom and feeling sorry for them. Yes, they were spewing hate, but it's not as if they came to hate of their own accord -- they had it fed to them at a very young age. I admire their willingness to call it quits, and I wish them well in their journey. Sure, the one girl is still living with "mama nazi," but it sounds as if she has some medical issues that make independent living difficult. They seem to have concluded that their mom is wrong, but she is still their mother, and they may be trying to maintain a relationship with her despite those differences. Can you really blame them for loving their own mother despite her flaws?

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the "medical" marijuana, and I'm skeptical of its alleged benefits. But it's not the worst thing in the world.

By the way, there is nothing wrong with working as a chambermaid. It's honest work, and somebody has to do it. She probably doesn't have a great education, so that's what she can get. That doesn't make her a dirtbag -- it makes her a teenage girl with not-very-good job.

A nice warm-feeling story. I buy it. Sounds soo typical of people today. But not nice of lilady to make chamber maid into a perjoritive! Not many can do better with only home-schooling by an idiot, and no college, in this miserable economy.

Re maryjane, a close associate has used it for relief of constant muscle pain, and would still if he could get it cheap enough. Says the medical equivalent is perhaps half as effective. But he does admit that he enjoys the high...

The twins weren't just homeschooled - they both graduated from public schools, and had attended them before moving to Montana, too. HS appears to be something that crazy-mom did intermittently to facilitate their insane career as singing extremists. They didn't go to college because (reading between the lines) they're staying home with mom, using pot for their 'health problems'

In June of 2004, as part of the process of connecting with my birth family, I attended a reunion of a portion of that family in Clovis, California. There I met several members of the Gaede clan (klan?) - April's father Bill, April, her brother Wolfgang, and, of course, Lynx and Lamb - to whom I am apparently related. Lynx and Lamb "entertained" us with what I later learned was one of their milder songs during which alarm buzzers and klaxons were going off in my head. Later I was able to listen at length as Bill - an avuncular man with a kindly face and manner - described one of his favorite Friday-night activities: beating up Mexican immigrants with his son "Wolfie" and, as a result, spending the weekend in jail.

Upon returning home I spent some quality internet time doing research on this portion of my birth family and, for the first time in my life, was grateful I had been adopted.

(Before I comment, I feel I should compensate for the girls' abysmal lyrics and past sentiments thus I present socially acceptable, seasonably timely, and spiritually relevant lyrics by some other very white - and talented- siblings:

"Sunny Afternoon"

"Help me, help me, help me sail away.
Give me two good reasons why I oughta stay.
Cause I love to live so pleasantly.
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime( 3x)" by Ray Davies, The Kinks.

I feel much better now.)

On the topic of the "new herbalism":

A few weeks ago, I spent a day in Mendocino and Humboldt Counties ( Ukiah, Eureka) which might be the epi-center of rural pot culture garnished with organic, green, sustainability, and unfortunately, woo. Frankly, if this supplants N--ism or other violent, separatist movements in the interior West, it wouldn't be an entirely bad thing.

It is highly attractive to young people with its emphasis on sensuality and free expression. There appears to be an entrepreneurial spirit engendered as well- hydro-ponic supplies, tie dyeds, crafts, music shops, exotic snacks & munchies, bead shops, used books, cafes, and sophisticated but earthy restaurant culture. Organic wine and beer. Goat cheese.( not to mention the sales of weed) Dreadlocks on white people.

I had interesting, long conversations with several young men ( to whom I asked leading questions): they were laid-back, articulate, and somewhat reasonable. Live and let live. The intellectual hub is the university @ Arcata. ( I imagine Montana's heart is probably @ Bozeman).

Marihuana may be viewed as panacaea to some advocates but I suspect most just like getting high. Diversification of land use and business out in Wine Country. The age range of the hip is vast : teens- 70's. I got the impression that these rural areas may have found that traditional farming and dairy didn't pay the bills as well as the *noveau* and that some have found a route towards affluence that didn't exist in earlier days. Reminds me a little of the Back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s.

By Denice Walter (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

OT ( but are Mike Adams' natural health freedom fighter posturings *ever* _truly_ OT @ RI?)

Today at NaturalNews: Mike envisions a 3-step plan to end the "obesity epidemic" that includes an armed citizens' brigade, citizens' arrests, and public trials of corporate chiefs of food companies that "poison" and media that spread the gospel of junk food.

By Denice Walter (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

Sorry, I'm a bit jaded about the twins "conversion" because of their attachment to the "mother ship" and the lack of total rejection of the dogma of holocaust denial. (War is hell and poop happens and Stalin and Churchill "probably" weren't as bad as Hitler).

My memories from early childhood of friends whose parents and grandparents had numbers tattooed on their arms and the stories related to me by a Jewish friend who worked at great personal risk for the French Underground and another friend from Budapest who survived the camps still linger in my mind.

If Orac revisits the twin story in a few years to relate their complete and utter rejection of their white supremacists beliefs...I promise to offer up an apology for my posting that questions their sincerity. Until then...

It's also clear that critical thinking isn't exactly part of Lynx and Lamb's repertoire even now. Very likely, their rejection of their white separatist beliefs was far more likely to have been sparked by their rebellion against their parents and their situation when they were 14 than by any thoughtful process that led them to reject racism,
anti-Semitism, and neo-Nazi beliefs.

Not sure I agree, though it's certainly possible. It's quite possible that exposure to people (in their wonderful varieties) was sufficient to have them question what they had been taught about racism, while they haven't encountered anything to make them question other areas, like astrology, nor have they read much about the holocaust.

Maybe I'm a sucker, but I don't see why it's any more likely that it's rebellion than simply realising that the things that they'd been taught didn't align with their experiences.

By Epinephrine (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

It's quite possible that exposure to people (in their wonderful varieties) was sufficient to have them question what they had been taught about racism, while they haven't encountered anything to make them question other areas, like astrology, nor have they read much about the holocaust.

That's probably true. There's also the matter that it can be hard to admit that one was completely wrong. Take Penn and Teller on global warming, for instance. They've since moved away from the stance that warming is "Bullsh!t," but at least in 2009, Penn Jillette couldn't quite bring himself to admit outright that global warming is anthropogenic. It's possibly a similar situation here. The twins probably can't quite bring themselves to jettison their own wrong beliefs entirely, at least not yet, especially since they've spend years of their lives promoting those beliefs.

By J. J. Ramsey (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

Thank you, Denise@8, for not quoting "MmmBop" at us.

By Kate from Iowa (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

Being the hippy-dippy space cadet that I am, it's tempting to be a cannabis troll. But if I must say something thoughtful, I think that too many people react against prohibition by claiming that marijuana is completely harmless. I am concerned about these girls' use of the drug. Should you feel inclined to post on it, I would be interested to hear your views on the "harmless" herb.

In this post this you say that they sung praises to Rudolf Hoess (commandant of Auschwitz), and in the other post you say that they praised Rudolf Hess (Party Secretary). Which one did you mean?

By Colin Day (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

Orac: Looking forward to objective, informed posts about marijuana, medical or otherwise. My son started college last Fall, took the opportunity to grab the (marijuana) bull by both horns, with all too predictable results, evident in his grades and general motivation. He hes become quite adept at selecting what information he believes when it comes to his habit, and generally sees it as utterly harmless. Since I am not a doctor, or researcher - and you are - I'd love to see a great big dose of insolence piled on this topic, wherever that leads.

I hate pedants, pedantry, and typo/spelling flames. Google it yourself whether Prussian Blue's song was about Hess or Hoess.

"and in the other post you say that they praised Rudolf Hess (Party Secretary). Which one did you mean?"

what the fuck does it really matter?
Do you think there is a qualitative difference?
One was an arsehole - so was the other.

I wonder if it's common for people writing 'activist' songs for denialist causes to engage in such low-quality writing.

One is reminded of the various craptacular anti-vaccine songs Orac has linked to over the years. And of course, apart from their abominable sentiment and general falsity, many of the lyrics of Aryan Man Awake are simply atrocious.

I mean, look at "And benefits of country 'cept tax are you exempt". What kind of writing is that?

I'd go looking for other examples of awful lyrics (such as the rest of the one Orac mentions), but I think I'd be sick.

@Spinoza

I'm not so much interested in the chronic effects of pot smoking in healthy users, but rather the claims made by advocates of medical marijuana, many of which resemble claims made by herbalists for their favorite magic herb; i.e., that it will cure or help diseases for which there is little or no evidence that it will. Personally, I think the stuff should just be legailzed, regulated, and taxed, just like alcohol.

@peter
#19

Hess was merely deluded (at least by the time he flew to Britain); Hoess was a mass murderer.

By Colin Day (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

I really don't give a hoot more about these poor kids more than I care about brainwashed kids in any culture of hate and racism - they just are sadly juxtaposing blond cuteness with evil.

I am eagerly awaiting the thorough Oracian debunking of medical marijuana - a calculated but I believe misguided tactic by NORMAL and it's allies to assist in assimilation of regular marijuana use to mainstream society and to lead to eventual overall legalization.

Sadly now I see daily many folks happily displaying their "medical marijuana" cards to me, most who admit they just want a "get out of jail free" card incase they get caught holding, who use for their PTSD, depression, ADHD and anxiety disorders as well as their chronic back and knee pains associated with obesity. Is it any surprise most of these folks don't hold a job and are on the public dole?

Sorry, post #22 should refer to post #18, not #19. My bad.

By Colin Day (not verified) on 19 Jul 2011 #permalink

Really looking forward to the medical marijuana post. I definitely feel the pull
of the naturalistic fallacy on this one, so I'm really interested to see what you
say about the efficiency as a pain killer that does not cause nausea

As far as the "Hitler v. Stalin" gambit, I have to say I've long believed the ideal outcome of WW2 would have been them managing to kill each other off. I take the unenviable choice into account before judging the various poor bastards on the Ostfront.

Screw that, I want that shirt. :D

Oh, and Legalize; Regulate; Tax. Always Legalize; Regulate; Tax.

I am speaking as someone who is terrified of strongly mind-altering substances, and worried about consumption by friends.

By Svlad Cjelii (not verified) on 20 Jul 2011 #permalink

I am speaking as someone who is terrified of strongly mind-altering substances, and worried about consumption by friends.

Your friends are cannibals, and you're afraid they'll get the munchies?

j/k

As for medical marijuana, I'm also looking forward to a post.

By Epinephrine (not verified) on 20 Jul 2011 #permalink

@peter
#19

Hess was merely deluded (at least by the time he flew to Britain); Hoess was a mass murderer.

No, Hess was a major supporter of Hitler, his deputy to be precise, and if you consider him just merely deluded as an apology you might as well say Hitler was only deluded. Hess had powers to persecute any "enemies" of the 3rd Reich.
Hoess was "only" a camp commandant - Hess was one of the leaders of the 3rd Reich and involved in making policies - who is more powerful here?

@orac
#17

Oh, that was a typo? Sorry.

By Colin Day (not verified) on 20 Jul 2011 #permalink

It would nice for Louis Theroux to do a follow up TV program about these two as a follow up to his program "Louis and the Nazis" broadcast in the UK in 2003 which featured these two girls.

OK, Hess had the authority to persecute enemies of the Reich. How many did he actually persecute? As for Höss, he was a "mere commandant" at Auschwitz from 1940 to 1943. Given the size of Auschwitz (it was a sprawling complex), he might not have had much direct responsiblity, and the larger part of the killings may have occurred after he left in 1943. I'm thinking more about how they exercised power than how much power they had.

Per Orac's suggestion, I found that the song was about Hess

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Blue#Lyrics_and_influences

By Colin Day (not verified) on 20 Jul 2011 #permalink

LiLady - are you ok? You're normally one of the stand-out commenters here, thoughtful and measured, but you're standing out for a different reason at the minute. In a post above you were scathing about welfare recipients (I am one, not in the US) and characterised them as mindless shopping network slaves. Then in the same post you said that video gamers are neglectful and abusive, and now you're ragging on a pair of abused kids? Nice.

The twin that's still living at home has been described as "collapsing into floods of tears as she tries to reconcile her love for her mother, with her anger at the way she raised them". She's too ill to work, she has no choice but to live with an abusive parent, and you're taking pot shots (no pun intended) at her. I was abused by my parents, I had to live with them when a rare neurological disorder meant I couldn't leave home, and it was hell being trapped there. I still love them though, they're my parents. As a child you think everyone's raised the same way you are. You don't realise what's abusive and what isn't.

Oh and my grandfather? Managed to flee Auschwitz, his entire family died there and in Ravensbruck. He saw Louis and the Nazis, before he died, and said that he pitied Lamb and Lynx. He said that the Hitler Jugend had no other sources of information, and it was kill or be killed for the ones that grew up to be SS. He hoped that the girls would get access to other kids, to the internet, and to books that would show that their mother was wrong, adding "But god help them if they do, she gonna kill them for it".

So if he lived through that, had his baby stabbed with a bayonet, and could still see the good in kids like Lynx and Lamb? I'm sure you could too. Hate only breeds hate.

I hope whatever is troubling you comes to an end soon.

@ Patch: Nice armchair analysis, based on your interpretation of my remarks.

As I stated in my second post above, it is my opinion that the twins are still very much involved in white supremacists causes and just because their budding careers have faltered they are tied to the mother ship and now, I suspect, have fallen into the marijuana crowd with their "medical need" for marijuana. You need to have professional experience working with addicts and their drug-seeking behaviors to understand the content of their statements:

"Approximately a year ago, Lamb and Lynx stumbled on a new treatment that they say has done wonders for many of these ailments.

"I have to say, marijuana saved my life," Lynx told me. "I would probably be dead if I didn't have it." She discovered pot while recovering from her cancer treatments. She'd been prescribed morphine and OxyContin, which she quit cold turkey. One day when she was having a bout of nausea, a friend offered her a toke. She was reluctant at first. The girls' biological father had been "a druggie" when they were young, Lynx said.

But the drug worked wonders, and soon Lynx became one of the first five minors to get a medical marijuana card in Montana. Now Lamb has one, too.

Pot has also helped the twins rekindle the creative impulses they once channeled into their music. They've both taken up painting -- astrological themes, mostly -- and Lynx restores furniture. They hope to enroll in college, and intend to dedicate themselves to making medical marijuana legal in all 50 states."

In my professional opinion and experience having worked in public health clinics with drug addicts, the twins have substituted marijuana...procuring it as a freebie...because they are unable to score Oxycontin and other drugs from a doctor or through street sources.

You seem to think that your family was uniquely dysfunctional and that you overcame many obstacles. Since you have been following my postings intently, have you ever heard me mention my father...while I heap praises on my now deceased mother? Many of us came from not-ideal backgrounds and overcame adversities in our background but do not use it as a badge of honor...or an excuse for our behavior.

What about my second posting do you not understand?

"If Orac revisits the twin story in a few years to relate their complete and utter rejection of their white supremacists beliefs...I promise to offer up an apology for my posting that questions their sincerity. Until then..."

So much for your very amateurish armchair analysis.

A somewhat heartening story, although I must admit I find the over-the-top suspicion of their motives kind of repulsive. So they're pretending not to be Neo-Nazis or whatever it is they were before, but they're giving themselves away as secret nazis by not totally condemning Hitler relative to Stalin and Churchill? They're just trying to spark up some media attention, but they have refused interview requests for five years? Is this Respectful Insolence or Prison Planet? Everything they say matches what you'd expect if they changed their minds but were unable to completely distance themselves from their old beliefs. Have some sympathy for some messed up kids, whydoncha. We should all be so lucky to come out of that kind of environment and manage to change our minds.

LiLady - are you ok? You're normally one of the stand-out commenters here, thoughtful and measured, but you're standing out for a different reason at the minute. In a post above you were scathing about welfare recipients (I am one, not in the US) and characterised them as mindless shopping network slaves. Then in the same post you said that video gamers are neglectful and abusive, and now you're ragging on a pair of abused kids? Nice.

I have to say that I agree with Patch on the above. I'm a regular reader and have long found Lilady to be one of the best commenters on RI. I was startled, to say the least, by her responses in both this post and the previous one with the blender. They seem out of character.

As for Lynx and Lamb, they're 19 years old, they've lived their whole lives in an abusive Neo-Nazi subculture which their whole family still supports, and they're taking steps away from their family's views. And they're doing all that while one of them is recovering from cancer. If they want to get high sometimes, so be it. It's a hell of a lot better than beating up immigrants or painting swastikas on synagogues, which is probably what their parents would prefer them to do.

I also grew up in a household with a Holocaust denier, and rejecting their views is HARD. I was luckier than Lynx and Lamb, though, because I had one parent who was, you know, sane. She was just also an abused wife who didn't dare directly contradict him, and couldn't get herself and her kids away from him until I was a teenager. I believed what my dad told me, because while I was afraid of him, he was also my DAD. I can still remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank in school when I was twelve or thirteen, and the bottom dropping out of my world. Everything I thought I knew was actually a lie, and it was frakking terrifying. And the worst part was that I didn't dare confront him. I can't imagine how much worse it all would have been if BOTH my parents had been neo-Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers. And remember that children usually love their parents, even if those parents are abusive.

So let's cut Lynx and Lamb a little slack. WIth any luck, they're at the start of a long journey away from the toxic subculture in which they were immersed their whole childhood. Oh, and being a hotel maid is nothing to be contemptuous about. It's hard physical labour and poorly paid, but there's no shame in honest work. And better work than that is probably tough to find without a postsecondary education.

You are all of course entitled to your opinion, but so am I.

Notice I didn't state categorically that they haven't changed their minds about the racist organizations that they performed for, yet I still have my doubts about their sincerity and their latest "cause" of legalizing marijuana which they are both on having received their medical marijuana cards as minors from the state of Montana.

BTW, their mother is a vicious hater and their father who is divorced from mama Nazi is not. He went to court to get custody and they opted to stay with their mother...they had options to get them out of that life.

I beg to differ about their lying low for the past five years; they have been making the TV circuit recently having appeared on ABC Good Morning America this past week and have been quite busy giving interviews to magazines.

I just don't see any signs that would indicate they're not who they seem to be: young adults who have figured out that the answers they were always taught aren't correct, but are still trying to figure out what is correct, and are making missteps along the way. If they were really just trying to revive flagging careers, alienating the subculture that made up pretty much their whole fanbase would be a pretty weird step to take.

It's not impossible that it's just a calculated ploy, even if it's a miscalculation, but I just don't have any problems believing that they have reached the stage of believing that Mom and friends could be mistaken about how bad non-white people are, but aren't yet able to accept that Mom and friends could be going along, even retroactively, with mass murder. The Big Lie that is denial of the Holocaust is too big to expect everyone to see through it in one step.

By Antaeus Feldspar (not verified) on 24 Jul 2011 #permalink

I thought that marijuana didn't have direct benefits but it did increase the appetite for people with cancer and stopped nausea and just made you feel good.

I'm fifty now and having known a lot of heavy users I'm sure that it does make permanent changes to peoples brains.

By Michael J (not verified) on 25 Jul 2011 #permalink

A true story. It does happen world-wide. Racism and the use of illegal drugs is flaunted. Maybe it is an act of rebellion or a ploy to catch attention. The basic stand should be on what is right, what is legal, and not what one wants to do. There are laws to be followed.

I don't know these people and don't care what they think about anything. Am I alone in this?

Check out the Pioneer Little Europe project of Kalispell, Montana. The 86 page 'Pioneer Little Europe Prospectus' by H. Michael Barrett details it out.

By Mimereader2 (not verified) on 09 Aug 2011 #permalink

"You are all of course entitled to your opinion, but so am I."

Okay fair enough. You responded to MOST of the comments except you conveniently ignored the comments about working as a chambermaid. Why are you going to look down on someone for being a chamber maid? That is just elitist and classist.

By bananaslugs (not verified) on 08 Oct 2011 #permalink