How to talk to a LaRouche follower (if you must)

Update [2005-11-28 10:14:50 by deano]:This diary was meant as an Open Thread for LaRouche, I was just curious if Kossacks had some insight into his advocacy. Although, I do honestly question the welfare of his followers.

I kid. But seriously, have you ever been approached on the street by a Lyndon LaRouche follower? Well I have a few times, most recently the other day. The guy was pretty friendly, not a jerk or anything, but assumed that I was pretty uneducated, which is ironic considering I was outside a university.

At first, I was slightly annoyed. He started asking me a whole bunch of questions about standardized testing and whether they gauged knowledge, and when he felt that I wasn't prone to just buy his points, I was pretty money, he started to get into the LaRouche ideas on epistemology and history. I actually did have to go, so I left.  But I walked away from the conversation half wondering about the guy's well-being, had he been brain-washed?, and half wondering  if perhaps my conception of what LaRouche stood for was really as crazy as it is often characterized.

::More::

Well, I did have a point of reference. About two years ago, an open-minded, younger Dean, actually did take the pamphlet the LaRouche guy handed out. All I remember was that it was absolutely nuts.... but I can't remember why I categorized it that way! Was it because it was conspiracy oriented in nature? Did I think it was just a bunch of half-baked, pseudo-philosophical junk? Or was I just being biased and not reading it with an open mind?

So I did some research, and by some research I mean I didn't do anything more than a google search, and I came up with these links:

Lyndon LaRouche - Wikipedia

Pro-LaRouche:
Executive Intelligence Review
LaRouce in 2004

Criticism
Public Eye 1, 2

So basically since I have nothing insightful to say, I was wondering what you guys thought. Is he a total nut or is he a figure who has been aggressively smeared and labeled an extremist like Noam Chomsky?

What do you think of Lyndon LaRouche and more importantly why?