David Wynn Miller

The single weirdest, most straight-up nutso thing about John Lee Loughner’s worldview as expressed on YouTube seemed to me to be the stuff about how the government is exercising control over people’s minds via its control of grammar. That, I thought, is a political theory nobody would embrace. And yet the ace reporters at The New York Times found someone who does:

This is similar to the position of David Wynn Miller, 62, a former tool-and-die welder from Milwaukee who describes himself as a “Plenipotentiary-judge” seeking to correct, through a mathematical formula, what he sees as the erroneous and manipulative use of grammar and language worldwide. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers Mr. Miller a conspiracy theorist, some of whose positions have been adopted by militias in general.

“The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar,” Mr. Loughner said in a video. He also defiantly asserted, “You control your English grammar structure.”

Mr. Miller, in an interview, said the argument sounded familiar. “He’s probably been on my Web site, which has been up for about 11 years,” Mr. Miller said. “The government does control the schools, and the schools determine the grammar and language we use. And then it is all reinforced by newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and everything we do in society.”

Here’s Miller website, which is very difficult to understand.