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Originally Posted by castlebravo92
Hughes can be seen as an amalgam of Lyndon LaRouche (the crazy political movement), Howard Hughes (the reclusive billionaire angle), and maybe a splash of L. Ron Hubbard.
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Yes, and a splash of David Duke. Dude was a Grand Wizard of the KKK, then a Democratic Party presidential [primary stage] hopeful, and, later, the Populist Party's candidate in 1988, before later emerging as a sort of elder statesman for the alt-right movement of the late 20-teens.
re FBI infiltration of extremist groups...
The internet as it exists today would not have been a feature of the mid-to-late 1990s of the Twilight War. That cuts both ways. Extremists groups couldn't use it to recruit and coordinate activities nationwide (and even internationally); the FBI/NSA wouldn't be able to use it to learn of threats, keep tabs on extremist groups, and begin infiltrating same.
Also consider the de-centralized nature of extremist groups then and now. They're like the Hydra of Greek mythology. The FBI may be able to sever a head or two, but it can't kill the beast, and those heads will eventually regrow anyways. Given the FBI's RL success in infiltrating domestic terror groups, IRL, there's still no shortage of same.
I can see a Duke-like figure (natch, Hughes) helping start the movement, then laying back in the cut until global events (i.e WWIII) open the door to consolidate and seize the reins. As the face of "the movement", he'd be well placed to rise to the top when war breaks out. At that point, the FBI would likely shift it's focus to domestic pro-Soviet groups, as well as Soviet agents operating in the USA, thereby losing track of Hughes' activities.
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