h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'White supremacist groups around the country are moving aggressively to recruit new members by promoting their violent, racist ideologies on billboards, in radio commercials and in leaflets tossed on suburban driveways.

Watching with mounting alarm, civil rights monitors say these tactics stake out a much bolder, more public role for many hate groups, which are trying to shed their image as shadowy extremists and claim more mainstream support.

Watchdog groups fear increased violence from these organizations as they grow. But perhaps an even greater fear is that the new public relations strategy will let neo-Nazis recast themselves as just another voice on the political spectrum - even when that voice may be advocating genocide.

"The concern is that this will bring them new members and money, and that they will get some real traction in mainstream politics," said Mark Potok, who tracks hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. "We are completely in favor of the 1st Amendment. [But] they poison the public discourse with ideas like Jews are behind it all and need killing."

The National Alliance, which calls for ridding the land of minorities, has led the drive to raise the profile of white supremacists.

The local chapter spent $1,500 on MetroLink ads here in St. Louis last month, plastering nearly every commuter train car in the city with a blue-and-white placard declaring "The Future belongs to us!" and listing the group's website and phone number. The same chapter bought airtime on local talk radio last fall, urging whites to unite and fight for the survival of "white America."

"We want to use mainstream advertising to say to the public: We're not a shadowy group. This is what we believe in, and we're proud of it," said chapter leader Aaron Collins. "We're trying to give people courage. We want to show them, if you stand up for what you believe in, you're not going to be crucified."

With that goal in mind, other chapters of the National Alliance have posted billboards in Utah, Nevada and Florida. The group has also coordinated massive leaflet drops, distributing 100,000 racist fliers in a single night in states as regionally diverse as New Jersey, Alabama and Nebraska.

The National Alliance even bought a membership list and mailing labels from the Florida Bar Assn. last year so it could send an eight-page recruitment letter, complete with anti-Semitic cartoons, to 2,500 criminal defense lawyers.'

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-adna-supremacists13feb13,0,6585056.story


Swing to the right, indeed!

Not surprising given the goverment and F** media induced of environment of paranoia and in F**'s case borderline to patently racist language... It's bound to give confidence and sucker to these parasites.

No kidding! What is it with the fear down there?

<>

Scary stuff! It makes me think of the film 'Cabaret'...

Well, life *is* a Cabaret, old chum.

"We're trying to give people courage. We want to show them, if you stand up for what you believe in, you're not going to be crucified."

Courage. HUMPH! Not going to be crucified, (as long as you're a white so-called Christian) is what I *think* they meant to say.

"The local chapter spent $1,500 on MetroLink ads"

Good. They're entitled to their views. They're also entitled to spend their money. And if they *want* to spend their money, fine. The US *is* still a democracy, right?

H.

Its a repbulic, well that's what I was told by "The Kid" recently.

Ive said it before and I'll say it again, as bigotted as such people are I think thay have a good effect on politics.

They have herein the UK I dont care what gets people talking politics and taking part in it (within reason) as long as they get a littel more involved and the effect og the BNP here where I live has been to make local politics a little more hig profile. I t has caused some people to expose and others to see just what racism is all about. What's more I have a grudging respect for their frankness, something sadly lacking from more moderate politicians, who only look moderate because they veil their more extreme and unpalatable ideas.

Kilroy "what have the dirty murdering arabs ever done for us?" Silk was a MP for the UKs largest left wing party

Whatsmore I think they'll be good for American politics because your Bernie Crosshouses' and such like in the KKK and other groups will hopefully split off some of the republican "majority".

one love

'The US *is* still a democracy, right?'


You tell me. Many aren't sure.

Need I even mention that a manager of state-sponsored terrorism has been nominated to be in charge of all American spies?

Now, I'm a little bit influenced by Newfie Bullets right now, but this seems like Brown Shirt material to me:

'Santa Rosa Junior College's oak-studded campus is aflame with controversy triggered by the anonymous posting of red stars and a reference to communist indoctrination on 10 faculty office doors.'

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050302/NEWS/503020303/1033/NEWS01

Oh, this is a bit of a worry, isn't it? It's very intimidating, and the sort of McCarthyist thing that's getting too common....

McCarthy? No you need to back a handful of years further to the last group of people who went around putting up stars on the homes of those they didn't like...coughnaziscough

and if you don't already think facism is on the rise - not only in America, but in other places as well...coughItalycough...then I suggest you check out a few of the essays here:
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/

David Neiwert is an award-winning freelance journalist who has written extensively about the U.S. Militia movement, white supremacists and the rise of facism. He is not a kook or a liberal reactionary of any kind, but a very scholarly journalist who is an excellent researcher and extremely well-read on the subject of fascism and rightist violence.

And the brownshirts are definitely out there.

Personally, I think O'Reilly is the head of the Brown Shirts, and his campaign of misinformation against Ward Churchill, the right to free speech, and the autonomy of Universities is the most obvious sign. For those who have been watching the Churchill story (which is only being covered by Fox, since it isn't much of a story), here's a good analysis of the statements that have got Bill's national socialist knickers in a knot:

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views05/0214-20.htm

Social Nationalists would be a better way of putting it. But then the Nazis didn't even know what an Aryan is.

You had to go and mention Ward Churchill, didn't you?

LONG POST ALERT! IF YOU DON'T REALLY CARE, OR HAVE A VERY LONG ATTENTION SPAN, STOP HERE.

Here in Churchill's home territory, the story is getting a bit more press than elsewhere, and convincing some people that the brownshirts are already in office.

The evolution of the "Churchill scandal" has been interesting to watch.

All quotations below are taken from the Rocky Mountain News, one of Denver's two daily newspapers.

It started with a simple reporting of facts.

January 11, 2005 started the process with an article under the headline "CU prof's essay sparks dispute" and provided examples of some of Churchill's more controversial statements, citing the following examples:

"In his essay Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, CU professor Ward Churchill argues that:"

"• The Sept. 11 attacks were in retaliation for the Iraqi children who were killed in a 1991 bombing raid and for economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations following the Persian Gulf War."

"• Hijackers who crashed jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 were "combat teams," not terrorists."

"• The people killed inside the Pentagon were 'military targets.'"

So far, so objective.



His statements resulted in people trying to find reasons to get him fired from his tenured position at th University. The OFFICIAL reason, after all, can't be that he holds unpopular views.

Hmmm... Try to dig up some unethical behavior that they can use to justify firing him?

February 5, 2005 saw an article under the headline "Prof's genealogy is sketchy; he offers little clarification." This was a lengthy article questioning Churchill's claim to Native American ancestry.

And something the editorial columnists, who don't have to pretend to be objective, could sink their teeth into.

On February 15, 2005, there was a column entitled "Campos: Freedom unused is abused"

It opened with by presenting "proof" that Churchill's claim to Native American ancestry is the only reason that he was hired by the (relatively respected) university in the first place. The "logic" presented is this. Churchill claimed to be Native American on his job application. Churchill was hired. Therefore, Churchill, who has been a professor t the University of Colorado for 27 years, was hired solely on the basis of his claim to Native American ancestory.

It closed with this paragraph shrill bit of hysteria.

"If even the extraordinary protections of tenure don't lead us to condemn a fraud of this magnitude in unmistakable and unapologetic terms, then we don't deserve them. What else is academic freedom for?"



Then it started getting, to me, a bit scary.

The politicians got into the act, demanding that Churchill be fired. University faculty, understandably, didn't want the government controlling who can teach. So, we had a February 25, 2005 headline reading "CU faculty protest Churchill inquiry."

Is it really possible to read the first two paragraphs of this article and got feel a bit of a chill?

"A full-page ad taken out by 200 University of Colorado faculty members calls for the school to drop an inquiry into the writings of professor Ward Churchill."

"Under pressure from [Colorado Governor Bill] Owens, the [Colorado State] Legislature and the CU Board of Regents [also elected officials], the university began an investigation of Churchill."

If the politicians are trying to make decisions about who is or is not an acceptable university professor, based on the person's opinions, not teaching ability, what color are their shirts?

NBY

the essays on the site I mentioned above talk about the current situation not in terms of busy/cheney et al actually being facists, but about how they have played certain facist cards such as using propaganda to villify political opponents, encouraging hate speech and eliminationist rhetoric, appeals to patriotism and so-called traditional values to create an atomosphere that is ripe for a facist takeover. Murdoch's efforts at Faux certainly fit with that.

Spend an afternoon browsing sites like the Free Republic bulletin board or Little Green Footballs and tell me the brownshirt aren't out there.

I suggest we take up a collection and buy Bill O'Rielly a gift. Maybe something in a sort of light milk chocolate colour....

I look at a right wing site every so often, www.frontpagemagazine.co and they are obsessed with Ward Churchill.

Is Bush's Triumph of the Will far off?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7102438/site/newsweek/

shouldn't that be triumph of the (George) Will?