"This computer kills fascists: #24

[Paul Kneisel <tallpaul@xxxxxxxx>]

"This computer kills fascists: #24: Sunday 14 Sep 1997"

                     CYBERFASCIST ACTIVISM:
    FROM USENET TO THE WEB / FROM ANTI-SEMITISM TO HOMOPHOBIA

I was originally scheduled to give a presentation at the recent
International Symposium on Fighting Hate on the Internet sponsored
by the League For Human Rights in Toronto on grassroots
organizing. Unfortunately, I had to cancel since I did not think
my health permitted me to *guarantee* that I could make it. This
meant that it would have been unfair to the organizers to try to
attend and then cancel at the last minute.

I have been expanding my planned presentation on grassroots anti-
hate organizing to deal with our need to have a net free from
control by cops, courts, corporations, chairmen, or commissars
(C5C).

Working on the presentation led me to catch up on some research
about what the cyberfascists are doing after last year's defeat of
<rec.music.white-power>. You probably remember that the group was
smashed by a 33,000-500 vote in the biggest turnout in Internet
history. This significantly demoralized the fascists and caused
many to give up on Usenet news groups as a prime focus of action.

But there are other areas of the net they still use.

There are also other issues besides Holocaust Revisionism. Denying
the reality of the Nazi genocide against Jews is the most powerful
way of revitalizing fascist ideology; it is not the only way.

Classical fascist anti-Semitism has a dual role. It first
scapegoats the Jews and lets dissatisfied social elements project
onto the Jews all of society's problems. Anti-Semitism also serves
as a focus or training for a broader hate-based activism. This
means that one learns from pogroms and then moves to gay bashing
or smashing labor unions. It may be easier to scapegoat Jews than
gays or lesbians as responsible for social problems, but it is
just as easy to start attacking lesbian couples with baseball bats
and then move to desecrating Torahs than the other way around.

As I tracked cyberfascist behavior since the white-power music
debate, I discovered that some fascist behavior had shifted from
the previous concentration on overt anti-Semitism to a heavily
homophobic orientation.

This is, of course, only my conclusion. But in the next post or
two I'll provide some pointers to fascist web sites and documents.
These will let you examine the data and reach your own
conclusions.

That is a key reason why we need an uncontrolled net where data
can flow freely without being blocked by the C5C forces I
mentioned earlier. Technology aside, there is but a slim
difference between burning books and blocking the data stream so
nobody can access it.

But all of this is the basis for more posts in the future.

We resist hate to make life more joyous; there's little purpose in
letting the conflict get you down. So remember when you're hard at
work fighting fascists (or only have time to express occasional
displeasure) to always keep a smile on your lips and a song in
your heart.


--tallpaul
  Fascism: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical
           right to forget.

(No permission required for noncommercial reproduction.)