An event that a Southern Poverty Law Center spokesman calls a “marketplace of conspiracies beneftting far-right ideology” begins Thursday at the Spokane Convention Center.
The Red Pill Expo, started by conspiracy theorist and writer G. Edward Griffin, runs through June 23.
The event 's opening ceremonies will include- a screening of “Lavoy: Dead Man Talking,” a film about Arizona rancher Lavoy Finicum. He was killed in 2016 by Oregon Police who said he reached for a gun in his pocket. His supporters called the killing "an ambush."
The Red Pill Expo’s site reads, “LaVoy Finicum stood up against government tyranny and paid the ultimate price when he was shot dead.”
Finicum’s widow Jeanette will also speak at the event. The site reads, “She is locked in a heated legal battle with the government to defend our liberty and to hold responsible parties accountable.”
Rep. Matt Shea of Washington state will also speak at the expo. Shea was most recently the subject of a defamation lawsuit filed against him by Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Pendell.
Shea claimed on a podcast that the gun used in a triple murder in Colbert could be traced back to Pendell.
Major event themes and topics listed on the website include:
- Will Gun Control Succeed?
- Healthcare or Herdcare?
- Ed: A Generation of Ignorance
- Economic Collapse or Boom?
- Military in the Deep State
- How to Take Action
Southern Poverty Law Center senior investigative writer and reporter said the “Red Pill” is a representation of “awareness and belief in conspiracy theories.” He called the expo “a conspiracy sector of the alt-right.”
“The terminology is new but the ideas are quite old,” Lenz said.
Lenz added that the event questions the “nefarious intentions” of government agencies like the Federal Reserve, for example, and references anti-government conspiracy texts.
“It looks to me like this will be a marketplace of conspiracies that benefit far-right ideology,” he said.
Southern Poverty Law Center officials said this group is not classified as a hate group and does not spread racism.
On Monday, June 25, the Spokane Community Against Racism and Morning Star Baptist Church will host a Countering the Alt-Right Threat to Spokane presentation. It will educate participants on “how the alt-right threatens our community and ways we can counter these groups…that are becoming more emboldened in Spokane,” according to the event’s Facebook page.
The Red Pill Expo in Spokane is one of hundreds of events throughout the country every year, Lenz added. It will host 30 conference speakers from throughout the country.
The expo runs until 9:15 p.m. on Thursday; from 7 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. on Friday; and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.