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This article first appeared in the UGN Library in 1995. Now, its message is even more urgent. We've updated the references to send cold chills about the current state of hate on the internet ...
This article by Stephen Pizzo originally appeared in the Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat on May 8, 1995. I previously uploaded it with the permission of Mr. Pizzo. I think the article should be printed by user groups. Parents should be aware of what their kids might come across on the Internet and well as for their on use. Appeared originally in the now defunct Web Review Magazine (c) Songline Studios, 1995
Ten years later -- how true is this today?
The day Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was gunned down by a religious nut, I was in the middle of helping edit a piece entitled Hate On The Net, for Web Review magazine. We'd spent the past few weeks tiptoeing through some of the most despicable web sites you can imagine. But if nothing else it drove home to us that what happened last week in Israel is the direct result of a mind-set that is spreading like a virus. And there is no better microscope through which to view that virus than the Internet.
Whether it's the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by a crazy white man, or the call for a black separatist state by a black megalomaniac 1995 has been a vintage year for hate. The hate comes in all colors and religious flavors. It would seem that every demographic group in the world now has their very own whacko brigade with an internet homepage.
For example, a group calling itself "Aryan Crusaders" threaten at their web site that: "We will do whatever is necessary to achieve a White living space and to keep it White. We will not be deterred by the difficulty or temporary unpleasantness involved, because we realize that it is absolutely necessary for our racial survival." "Unpleasantness"? Could that be a euphemism for blowing the brains out of those who oppose them? I suspect so.
Another group describing itself as "Christian Identity Online" offers an essay aimed at white folk who are attracted to black rap music and culture. These "Christians" call such white people "Wiggers." Cute, huh? I think Jesus would have gotten a real kick out of that play on words. After all you recall when Jesus warned his followers to steer clear of people of color, don't you? If He had it certainly would have come as quite a shock to His largely dark-skinned Semitic audiences.
African-Americans have their share of fruit-cakes as well. The Black Panther's homepage all but invites black kids to shoot cops at the slightest provocation. And until the Million Man March last month the Nation of Islam's homepage contained two inflamatory essays listing what they demand from white Americans, including cash reparations and a separate black state. Since the successful march those two links just load blank pages. This is almost certainly part of the effort to obscure the racist and radical views of Minister Louis Farrakhan as he tries to attract a broader power base within the black community.
But the public record can't be as easily erased as Farrakhan's Internet homepage. Farrakhan is on record calling Judaism a "gutter religion," whites "devils" and non-blacks (especially Jews) who do business in black communities "blood suckers." Though asked many times to retract those remarks, he has not.
And what do you do with "devils" and "bloodsuckers?" The question answers itself. Just as it did in Isreal. Days before Minister Rabin was shot he was vilified at a opposition rightwing Likud Party rally as a Nazi... the worst thing you can call a Jew. But did anyone explicitly suggest that he be shot? There was no need to say it. After all, if he was a Nazi....... well.
The point is that words - be they at public rallies or on the Internet -- matter.
And once spoken those who hear them should take them seriously. Israelis thought they could shine on their right-wing crazies by indulging them a little and by pretending that in a democracy even certifiable loons have a right to be listened to with respect. Last week they learned that loons don't return the favor.
The seeds of last week's assassination were germinated in the soil of hate and distrust: racial hatred of Arabs by militant Israeli settlers and distrust of their own government's policies and intentions.
Those same seeds have been planted and are being cultivated here on the Web. Ruby Ridge, Waco, Vince Foster's suicide, black helicopters, UN Troops taking over the US, AIDS and crack cocaine being spread by the CIA to kill blacks, quotes from the Talmud that "prove" a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, and sites that offer "evidence" that the Nazi's never really did try to exterminate the Jews. Each site justifies its hate with tortured logic, revisionist history, and outright lies. And just beneath the surface of their rhetoric is the clear threat that unless everyone wises up and adopts their demands blood must flow.
And so it has. Timothy McVeigh blew up 200 innocent people in Oklahoma, Yigal Amir killed one man a world away in Israel. Just two of the most recent manifestations of this virus. It grows in dark places and thrives on the ability to spread half-truths and lies unchallenged. The only disinfectant is light. Shoving it out of sight or ignoring it is exactly the wrong solution. Instead look it straight in the eye and challenge it head on.
So, at the end of this piece I offer some places to start. Go there. Read what they have to say because you need to know. It's time that journalists, politicians and citizens step up to the plate and all stop pretending that these screwballs are just part of the democratic debate. They are. But it's time we add that they are also crazy and dangerous.
Stephen Pizzo
Sr.Editor, National Affairs
Web Review Magazine
[From the editor: virtually all the links originally furnished with this article had gone dead. I have attempted to provide similar links to current information for those with the fortitude to search and learn more. ]
The Federal Government has a number of articles and reports on "Hate on the Internet" -- this Google search will list many in the past year.
Clusty does a great job of "clustering" web searches. Here is a focusted search on Clusty for Hate on the Internet
Hate On The Internet is a web page that allows you to safely "tour" a hate site, and learn the truth about it. Don't worry. The tour will only take you to a reproduced page of the hate site -- not to the site itself. But be prepared. Hate is ugly, and some people may be offended by the language and images revealed here.
Tolerance.org is a principal online destination for people interested in dismantling bigotry and creating, in hate's stead, communities that value diversity.
Tolerance.org says:
"The wonder of the Internet has been tarnished by hundreds of Web sites that spew hate. Using the Net, hatemongers can now reach into the room of any child who has a home computer. Their sites are often deceptive. Many attempt to disguise their message under a veneer of respectability. They use manipulation and lies to make their ideas sound almost reasonable. "
The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in 1971 as a small civil rights law firm. Today, the Center is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups. Hatewatch
Paul Gronke's specialities are the U.S. Congress, elections and electoral behavior, and public opinion. He provides this extensive report on research of Hate On The Internet
Had enough? Learn more? try this Google search.
Hate groups use US Internet servers
- report - In its eighth annual report on Internet hate speech, the Wiesenthal Centre said on Thursday it had logged some 6 000 websites in the past year used by racists ...Independent Online, South Africa - May 5, 2006 (More)
Pentagon surfing 5,000 jihadist Web sites
Sites use propaganda, video games aimed at recruits as young as 7 -- Tech-savvy militants from al-Qaida and other groups have modified war video games so that U.S. troops play the role of bad guys in running gunfights against heavily armed Islamic radical heroes, Defense Department officials and contractors testified. MSNBC News Services May 4, 2006
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