Hate Group Recruitment on the InterNet
Ordinary Internet users might not suspect that the
alt.fan.oj-simpson newsgroup would be a place to find neo-Nazis but, sensing the racial tensions generated by the
Simpson case, the extremists flocked there, making this
newsgroup a case study in the use of this technique. An
examination of the postings to the alt.fan.oj-simpson group
shows that some familiar neo-Nazis were indeed trolling the
Internet for new recruits:
Kleim,
Kaldenberg,
George
Hawthorne of Resistance Records, which spreads the neo-Nazi
Skinhead message through music, and some others took the
offensive. In a variety of voices, ranging from relatively
moderate to provocatively obscene and scatological, each
declared that white people are now victims and should not
take it anymore. Many closed their messages with an
advertisement for the World Wide Web addresses of the
National Alliance and various other white supremacist sites.
(Hawthorne also pushed the site on which he peddles his
records.) One self-identified
Christian Identity "minister,"
Obviously, these activists believe that there is an
enormous potential audience for their virulent anti-black
and anti-Semitic messages.
Kaldenberg is certain of it. In
one posting he crowed, "I have gotten over 100 email [sic]
in 36 hours because of my posting. I posted the Aryan Update
number there and it has been ringing off the hook."
Kleim also believes that Net is the way to recruit.
"There are millions of people who agree with us," he told
.net, a mainstream, Internet-oriented magazine printed in
England which did a piece on Internet extremists. The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
[
Previous |
Index |
Next ]
Exploiting Another Racial Issue
"[They]
feel isolated and helpless because they don't know who to
contact to network with others who feel similarly....
USENET, in combination with the Web, offers an unparalleled
opportunity for our Movement to get our views and, more
importantly, our facts across to the general public.<4>