Bohemian Grove

The Bohemian Club is a male-only exclusive private club north of San Francisco, California. Every year in mid-July, it hosts a three-week encampment at what is known as the Bohemian Grove, that is attended by some of the most powerful people in the world. Naturally, this has attracted lots of speculation of what is going on there; because when rich people meet, it's obviously evil. People attending are discouraged from talking shop, but it invariably happens.
==Conspiracy==
Alex Jones is convinced that there are satanic gay rituals that go down when all the rich people get together,RT report with Alex Jones. Alex Jones on gay rituals of Bohemian Grove because they burn an effigy in a ceremony called the Cremation of Care. The "ceremony" is narrated by Walter Cronkite from speakers inside a giant owl. Naturally, Alex Jones thinks all of this is very evil and horrible things must be happening, despite the fact he literally walked in without trouble one year to watch the ceremony. Conspiracy theorist Mark Dice claims that the idea of the nuclear bomb was first conceived at the Grove (a planning meeting for the , which coordinated early research that laid the groundwork for the Manhattan Project, did indeed take place at the Bohemian Grove on September 13, 1942"S-1 COMMITTEE Bohemian Grove (September 13, 1942)", The Manhattan Project: An Interactive History, US Department of Energy - Office of History and Heritage Resources, but that is a small footnote in the ) and also claims that one can obtain a "PhD in Bohemian Grove Studies" by watching a couple of his flawless YouTube videos.Absolutely flawless. In 2012, Dice, Jones, Cindy Sheehan and numerous other Truthers actually traveled to the Bohemian Grove to protest against the meeting and to wake up the sheeple.Wake, up, sheeple! On top of this, many, many videos exist of Satanic rituals caught on camera in the Bohemian Grove.OMG Ritual Sacrifice! That must be an easy place to sneak into, isn't it?
==Truth==
The Cremation of Care is thought to more symbolize the participants burning away their worries for the next few weeks. Most of the people there have vast responsibilities, and they get to party it up for three weeks without anyone watching. The owl symbolizes knowledge, from the goddess Athena most likely. Even the very word "bohemian" adds to this.
Philip Weiss, writer for the satirical (yet occasionally investigative) Spy magazine, managed to infiltrate the Bohemian Grove in 1989.Masters of the Universe Go to Camp: Inside the Bohemian Grove, UC Santa Cruz He mainly came to the impression that the festivity was similar to a camping trip among men, but with very important people in attendance who are allowed the rare liberty of not having to act statesman-like or wield their burdensome political/economical powers for a short while, instead engaging in encouraged idleness or in acts of rowdiness like publicly urinating near a tree, beer in hand, despite a sign warning: "Gentlemen please! No pee pee here!" and while listening to a piano valeted by an artist-hireling situated somewhere to lighten up the grove with the distant sound of some sweet serenades. Many attendees likened the Bohemian Grove experience to "having great sex."
==Sexism==
Bohemian Grove has also been criticized for sexism on account of its "no girls allowed" philosophy, with Sonoma County debating whether they should provide security for a boys' club or enforce its sexist rules. In an entertaining letter, Supervisor Lynda Hopkins criticised a policy which allows women as workers and men who have mothers, but prohibits women as equal participants:
Which is exactly why it is so hard to get into politics as a woman. Because politics are still dominated by men, and women are less likely to be mentored by men, because we’re less likely to golf, hang out in men’s circles or be part of men’s clubs. We weren’t part of your frat. We’re not bros.
Which is also why the Grove has always bothered me. Because it IS the “hegemon,” and it ISN’T an “anachronism.” The Grove is how the world of politics continues to function today.
However, she conceded that it "sounds like West County Burning Man, and I can understand the appeal."Sonoma County Supervisor To Bohemian Grove: Admit That It's Weird, and Sexist by Jay Barmann (June 9, 2019) SFist.
Bohemian Grove has at times touted the fact that they have "equal employment opportunities" (i.e., non-discrimination) for people whom they hire as staff. The reality, though, was that the club fought complying with the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), appealing legal rulings up to the US Supreme Court before agreeing to comply with the law. Women are now allowed as servants to the men of the Grove.Bohemian Club v. Fair Employment Housing Com Docket No. A024988 (November 20, 1986) Casetext.
===Drag===
A consequence of the Grove being closed to women members and the annual performance of member-acted, -written and -directed plays is that there is inevitably drag performance.
File:Bohemian Grove drag3.jpg|Bohemian Grove play from 1925, Wings
File:Bohemian Grove drag1.jpg|Bohemian Grove play from c. 1960
==Anti-labor rights==
In 2016, the Club lost a class action lawsuit that had alleged wage theft from the employees who work as valets. The Club was forced to pay $7 million in the settlement.SF’s Bohemian Club to pay workers $7 million in settlement by Jenna Lyons (July 1, 2016; Updated: July 2, 2016 1:17 p.m.) SFGate. In 2023, the Club was again sued for labor law violations against valets, this time for unlawful labor practices, including non-stop 16-hour days without breaks, and failure to pay minimum wage or overtime.San Francisco's secretive Bohemian Grove sued by valets by Andrew Chamings (June 12, 2023) SFGate.
==Affirmative action==
Having been founded by an actor and some journalists in the 1880s, the club was soon taken over by businessmen who purchased property for the club, which now consists of a large club building in downtown San Francisco near Union Square and a large forest of redwood trees outside the small town of Rio Nido in Sonoma County, California. The bifurcated membership has created a caste system. Businessmen and politicians often live in cabins, sometimes with their own servants. Artists live in communal tents and eat communally. Though the artists also pay annual dues like the businessmen and politicians, the artists are expected to perform as musicians, actors, writers and directors. The membership is observationally very white, decades after Van Der Zee's book, as one might expect from a private men's club established in the 1800s.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas attended Bohemian Grove as a guest of his benefactor, Republican megadonor as part of ongoing largesse.Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire by Joshua Kaplan et al. (April 6, 2023) ProPublica. In accepting such largesse, Thomas violated ethics law by not fully reporting the gifts over the years. Don't expect much in the way of consequences though.
==Some members of note==
==External links==
* — an incomplete list
*Transcript of alleged Satanic ritual
*Skeptic Project's incredibly detailed debunking of Alex Jones
*The Simpsons' version
==Sources==
*The Greatest Men's Party on Earth: Inside the Bohemian Grove by John Van der Zee (1974) ISBN 0151369054. A straightforward look at the Grove by an undercover journalist posing as a waiter.
==Notes==
==References==
Category:California
Category:Conservative deceit
Category:Conspiracy theories
Category:Crime
Category:Organizations
Category:Sexism