Rehabilitating neo-Nazis

Posted on May 14, 2012 by jewamongyou

The movie “American History X” fresh in my mind, I’ve decided to start delving deeper into the pathology called “neo-Nazism” and efforts to cure it.
An organization called Fast Coexist, which is an online leftist publication, recently had an article about how to cure young people of their extremism, whether it be neo-Nazism, gangs or militant Islam. The Author, Paul Glader, interviewed specialist Judy Korn:

How do you rehabilitate a young Neo-Nazi behind bars?
“You talk with them,” says German social entrepreneur Judy Korn. In the past, German prisons showed films about Hitler and the Holocaust to try to reach such extremists. But Korn says re-integrating the young men happens with personal communication, not by showing them passive media.
And it turns out that helping Neo-Nazis change their ways requires the same five principles (see the sidebar below) that work on Muslim extremist youth and others who end up behind bars for violent or hate-motivated crimes. The chief skill to teach them: empathy.
“If you work with violent people, you can be sure at one point in their biography, they stopped having the ability to feel empathy for other people,” says Korn, who has worked with right extremists since she was a teenager. She said most Neo-Nazis her team of trainers work with in 10 of Germany’s 16 states come from abusive homes with alcoholism and other problems. “If you train people to feel empathy for themselves, you can train them to be and feel empathetic for another person.”
Korn’s organization–Violence Prevention Network–has worked with 500 such cases of incarcerated young skinheads, Neo-Nazis, and Muslim extremists in Germany since 2001. Her records show recidivism rates for the young men they work with is 30%, compared to 80% for all juvenile offenders in Germany. Her team of trainers can work with about 100 young people a year, but she would like to expand to work with more than 300. Other projects like Exit Deutschland also helps shuttle Neo-Nazis out of the scene, offering a witness protection type of program to young people who might fear violent retribution when they quit an extremist movement.

Clearly, a lot of ignorant, angry, and violent young men find a voice for their frustrations in movements such as neo-Nazism or skinheads. It goes without saying that if a person is willing to tattoo swastikas, or other Nazi insignia, on his flesh for all to see, he has little regard for societal norms – especially in a place like Germany. Along with this might come a readiness for violence. It would be interesting to observe a rehabilitation, done by Korn, and try to figure out if she is curing the subject of neo-Nazism or of delinquency in general. If the subject is a delinquent, and his Nazi creed is merely a manifestation of this, then curing him of his anger, low self-esteem and ignorance might also cure his Nazism. Some disturbed individuals are attracted to Nazism, not because they’re convinced of its tenets, but because this is merely an expression of their condition. The same could be said of any number of fringe movements. The individual might be convinced that he has attached himself to the movement through his powers of reasoning, but the underlying motivation is psychological.
But what about well-educated people who have become inflamed by the ongoing genocide of their own people, by the ongoing propaganda or by the pattern of abuse perpetrated by the elite few (many of whom are Jews)? In their case, ignorance is not the problem. Such people may be perfectly healthy psychologically. Their creed may be based on rational choices (taken to extremes, perhaps, by runaway emotions). Could this be the 30% recidivism?
Slyly, the author of the above article equates all right-leaning nationalism with neo-Nazism:

Rightist movements are on the rise in several European countries at the moment, causing increasing concern by officials. The EU recently created the Radicalization Awareness Network after Norwegian extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people last summer. It will spend $28 million in the next four years to help prevent extremism in Europe. While Germany has its share of ongoing problems with extremist communities, she worries about the right-leaning rhetoric coming from the political class in some Western European countries

This tendency shows that those doing the healing are in need of healing themselves. Time and time again we have seen how steeped leftism is in emotion, conditioning and mental flaws. Cold reasoning is near the bottom of the list of reasons why people subscribe to leftist ideologies. People like Korn may simply be replacing one mental illness with another. One religion with another. This might explain some of her success; most people need a religion as a crutch and it’s easier to jump from one religion-raft to another – rather than jumping in the water and swimming.

Posted in politics and attitudes of the pro-white movements, shenanigans of the Left and of non-white activists | 11 Comments

A happy funeral

Posted on May 12, 2012 by jewamongyou

From Yahoo news:

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — The funeral of a 28 year-old waiter in southern Egypt turned into a celebration when he woke up after being declared dead.

Hospital officials had pronounced dead Hamdi Hafez al-Nubi, who came from the village of Naga al-Simman in the southern province of Luxor, after he suffered a heart attack while working.

His family says grieving relatives took him home and, according to Islamic tradition, washed his body and prepared him for burial Friday evening.

A doctor sent to sign the death certificate found it strange that his body was warm. At closer observation she discovered he was still alive.

His mother fainted upon hearing the good news.

I once visited Luxor, and my impression was that there are no zombies walking the streets. But just in case, if you ever find yourself there, the word for “brains” in Arabic is “admigha”. Just in case…
I’m happy for the family. Hopefully Hamdi will enjoy many more years of life. But it makes me wonder. It seems that Islamic law requires a speedy burial:

In accordance with Muslim custom, the dead are buried before sundown or within hours after death. Muslims try to make sure that the body is buried on the day of death…

Hamdi was fortunate that his status was discovered prior to his burial. One shudders to consider what an unpleasant end he might have suffered had this not been the case. I’m guessing that thousands of Muslims are buried alive each year. No, I would not consider this a good thing.

Luxor street scene: No zombies

Posted in Muslims | 1 Comment

Neo-nazi at the DMV

Posted on May 10, 2012 by jewamongyou

I got my motorcycle endorsement yesterday. Miraculously I passed the drive test and I’ve been enjoying my scooter quite a bit. Among the others waiting for their test was one individual who sported a double lightening bolt insignia on his neck. This was the second time, recently, that I’ve encountered neo-nazi symbolism in my daily life. A couple of weeks ago, while visiting my relative in California, I also saw such symbols scrawled on the asphalt. But I doubt they were put there by neo-nazis; they were among other symbols such as the pentagram and “666” so it was probably just some kids trying to be as offensive as possible.
There’s a lot of anger among whites these days. This anger can be channeled toward positive things. It’s a shame that so much of it is being hijacked by skinhead groups whose projects seem to be counterproductive.
According to opposing views:

Ten alleged members of a white supremacist group called the ‘American Front’ were arrested in central Florida on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said members trained with AK-47s, shotguns and explosives at a fortified compound in St. Cloud, Florida, near Disney World, to prepare for what its leader believed to be an “inevitable race war.”
The felony arrest charges include paramilitary training, attempting to shoot into an occupied dwelling and evidence of prejudices while committing an offense, which falls under Florida’s hate-crimes law.
The group was led by Marcus Faella and his wife, Patricia Faella, of St. Cloud, FL. Faella reportedly said that his intent was “to kill Jews, immigrants and other minorities.”
Court papers said that “Faella views himself and the other members of the AF as the protectors of the white race” and that “the race war will take place within the next few years based on current world events.”

Well, neo-nazis crazies or not, they are right that there is going to be a race war. In fact, it’s already going on. If they were, indeed, planning on murdering random non-whites and Jews, then they clearly needed to be stopped. It’s a shame, however, that their rage and youth is being wasted on such foolishness.
I look at these people:

… and I see a great waste. I wonder how many of them joined American Front because they were brutalized by NAMs. I wonder how many of them were motivated partly by the incessant anti-white propaganda they were fed since they were born. Are any of them going to turn out like Derek in “American History X”? It would be so nice if reasonable pro-whites could have outreach programs where we could try to educate such people while they are locked up. As it stands, they would probably kill me if they could get away with it (for being a Jew). But there’s not much to worry about as long as they’re in prison. Perhaps a letter-writing campaign is in order. The results, if any, might be interesting.

Posted in crime and violence, politics and attitudes of the pro-white movements | 39 Comments

What constitutes "news"?

Posted on May 9, 2012 by jewamongyou

If news organizations published every crime, every celebrity comment and every political gesture, then the word “news” would quickly lose all meaning. “Dog bites man” = not news. “Man bites dog” = news.
If we can learn something from an event, that we can apply to our own lives, this should also qualify as “news” if it’s a sufficiently unusual/interesting story. Sometimes, it’s difficult to figure out why certain items were selected for front-page status. But this is what appeared on Yahoo’s front page today:

… and I wanted to compare the two highlighted items. Though hundreds of thousands of Americans are encumbered by TSA intrusions every single day in America, it is rare that anything threatening is ever revealed as a result. The fact that Yahoo saw fit to include an incident where TSA actually found something (though it turned out, apparently, to not even be an actual threat) as “news” implies that we should do away with the TSA. If it’s so unusual that it deserves front-page news status, clearly it’s a “man bites dog” incident. The expense, humiliation, waste of time and loss of liberty is too high a price to pay for an occasional find like this one.
Or maybe not. Maybe the opposite is true and we are being told about this to show us how important the TSA’s work is. If they caught somebody with a gun, they might just as well have prevented another 9-11 attack.
If so, then we should be able to apply the same reasoning to the other highlighted headline. If an old man shoots an intruder with his Korean War service weapon, then it is very likely that many other people have protected their own lives (and those of their loved ones) with their own weapons. The only thing unusual here is that both the man, and his weapon, were so old.
If the TSA gun catch is to serve as a “teachable moment” for the rest of us (that we should accept TSA intrusions against our liberties), then so should the Korean War vet’s shooting of a home intruder – even if the only thing that made it “newsworthy” is the age of the man and his weapon.
Yes, I know I’m probably being too analytical with this, but I’m trying to found a science. The science of analyzing the behavior of news outlets. I don’t think there’s a word for this science yet. Perhaps Crimes of the Times can come up with a suitable name.

Posted in examples of propaganda, shenanigans of the Left and of non-white activists | 6 Comments

New explanation for the racial academic gap: Affirmative Action

Posted on May 8, 2012 by jewamongyou

They’ve tried just about everything to explain away the persistent achievement gap between the races. White racism, income disparity, low expectations, defective black culture – and now, in the ultimate irony, they’re blaming affirmative action. From Livescience:

Black and Latino students may be getting less critical, but helpful, feedback from teachers than their white counterparts, a new educational study indicates.
“The social implications of these results are important; many minority students might not be getting input from instructors that stimulates intellectual growth and fosters achievement,” study researcher Kent Harber, a Rutgers-Newark psychology professor, said in a press release.
This positive bias in feedback to minority students may be contributing to the achievement gap between white and minority students, a stubborn national problem, Harber said…
Harber and colleagues developed a poorly written essay that they gave to the teachers to grade, under the pretense that it was the work of a student. In some cases, the teachers believed the student was white, in others black and in others Latino.
The teachers believed their feedback would go directly to the student. [Poll: Were Your Teachers Tough Enough?]
The researchers found that, indeed, the teachers were prone to give more praise and less criticism if they believed a minority student had written the paper, as opposed to a white student.
The researchers also considered the support the teacher received from colleagues and administration. This turned out to be an important factor if the teachers believed the student was black, with only teachers who lacked support showing the bias. However, when teachers thought the student was Latino, they showed the bias toward positive feedback regardless.

In other words, discrimination in favor of NAMs* is holding them back. While there’s certainly some truth to this, the fact that the pro-NAM bias continues into the job market means that they suffer few repercussions from their inferior work. A fairly intelligent NAM can go through his entire life floating on the cloud of affirmative action and never even realize it or care. His burden in life is lightened from cradle to grave. Either the authors of articles like this don’t realize this or what they’re secretly concerned about is the welfare of white people – only they can’t say so openly for fear of being called “racist”.
I just saw that Amren posted this article as well. There are some good stories in the comments over there.
* Non Asian Minority

Posted in examples of propaganda, government/corporate discrimination against whites, shenanigans of the Left and of non-white activists | 7 Comments

Keep the one-drop rule for American blacks

Posted on May 7, 2012 by jewamongyou

The one-drop rule comes in many forms, and its impact on the targeted race/ethnic group will vary. When the ethnic group is small, such as the Cherokee, it can rapidly lead to destruction through dilution. One does not need a PHD to realize that, within a few generations, most “Cherokee” will be Cherokee in name only. They will be about as much “Cherokee” as the rest of us are “Neanderthal“. The Neanderthal are generally considered extinct.
The one-drop rule has been gradually whittling away at the pygmies for thousands of years. According to Livescience:

The Pygmy and Bantu populations separated genetically about 60,000 to 70,000 years ago; then roughly 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, they started interbreeding.
Some Pygmy women, after having sex with a Bantu man, have given birth to half-Bantu babies, a phenomenon that integrates Bantu genes into the Pygmy population. These women and their offspring stay in the Pygmy village, and so don’t mix with the Bantu. However, offspring resulting from mating between a Pygmy man and Bantu woman are rare, so the Bantus don’t have many Pygmy genes…
The data revealed height had a genetic component related to Bantu ancestry: The more Bantu ancestry an individual from the Pygmy tribe had, the taller that individual tended to be. One part of the genome, on chromosome 3, was especially important in this trait, the researchers said.

It would seem fairly obvious that the reason Pygmy women like Bantu men is that they are taller. So the same selection process would be at work among the Pygmies; those Pygmy men who had more Bantu blood would tend to have a mating advantage due to their taller stature. Would the mating prospects of Pygmy women suffer if they are taller? Perhaps, but she could go and get herself pregnant by a Bantu man. Thus the cycle would continue and intensify. Of course, if this trend had been a strong one for the past several thousand years, then by now there would be no Pygmies left. My guess is that interbreeding was minimal, due to transportation limitations and an overall lower population, until recently. Now that Africa’s population is exploding, and jungle barriers are falling, the days of the Pygmy are numbered.
There are not many Pygmies left in the world. For them to take on outsider genes, and then consider the offspring “Pygmy” is a death sentence for their genetic legacy.
American blacks are already a mongrel population. Whenever a black man mates with an Indian woman, or an Arab woman,  or an Asian woman, the offspring are considered “black” (or sometimes “mixed”). Barack Obama is strict in observing this rule. Even in the minority of cases where a black woman mates out, her offspring are still considered “black”. If all immigration from Africa ceased, and black birthrates remained reasonable, the end result would be that “black” in America could mean anything. We would have “blacks” with blond hair and blue eyes, “blacks” with epicanthic folds, “blacks” with Mideastern features and some who retain sub-Saharan African features. In other words, the American black race would become extinct due to the one-drop rule.
So, if the one-drop rule means that we will eventually have a black American population that is so mixed it’s barely recognizable, then let’s keep it. Many problems would be solved this way. There is no chance that the Negro races will become extinct; Sub-Saharan Africa will always remain Negro. It is in our best interest to cease importing more Negroes from Africa. Europe and Asia should do the same. If this is done, then the Africans will be forced to find solutions to their own problems.
If I were king of the world, I would confine Africans to Africa and repatriate their diaspora. Then I would give them guidance to try to make their nations as prosperous and healthy as possible. With African doctors and scholars forced to stay home, Africa would be much better off. With African riffraff forced to stay home, the rest of us would be better off. With Africa confined to Africa, the rest of the world could work on confining Islam as well.

Posted in immigration/ Hispanics, miscegenation | 5 Comments

"I'm sexy and I know it"

Posted on May 5, 2012 by jewamongyou

A 6-year-old student has been suspended from first grade for singing “I’m sexy and I know it” to a female student. From the headline, we might think that this is yet another case of zero-tolerance polices leading to ridiculous results. But the article goes on to say:

School officials said D’Avonte was suspended for sexual harassment after he sang and the line  to a female classmate who was standing in a lunch line. Unfortunately,  it wasn’t the first time he’d serenaded this girl with this particular lyric.

Aurora School District’s Media Relations Specialist  Paula Hans, said in a statement:

“Aurora Public Schools is committed to providing equitable learning for all students. We have policies and protocol in place to prevent any disruption to the learning environment. Due to privacy laws, we are unable to discuss appropriate disciplinary consequences about a specific student.”

District policy, as outlined in the student handbook, states that sexual harassment “must have negative effects on the learning or work of others.”

D’Avonte’s mother, Stephanie Meadows, told ABC7  News that her son had had disciplinary problems before this week’s infraction.  Last month, she said, he was sent to the principal’s office for singing  the same song  to the same girl.

This time, however, he was “shaking his booty” near the girl’s face, Meadows told ABC7 News.

We don’t know the race of the victim, but whatever it might be, this type of behavior is all too common for black kids. Even if we leave aside any biological theories that black kids are naturally inclined to become sexually active/aware earlier than other kids, we are still left with the cultural reality that this is so. White/Asian kids should not have to put up with this sort of behavior. They do not deserve to have their childhood ruined at the altar of multiculturalism.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Denying racial segregation to our children is a form of child-abuse.

Posted in government/corporate discrimination against whites, racial differences and how they manifest themselves/race science | 8 Comments

How the definition of the word "nation" has been switched

Posted on May 4, 2012 by jewamongyou

I recently bought a copy of “History of the World War” by Francis March and Richard Beamish (published 1919). It’s interesting to read history from the point of view of contemporaries, before enough time had elapsed to sort things out properly and look back objectively. The book is clearly (and admittedly) biased but I still find it very educational.
For example, it’s interesting to see how much American English has changed in less than 100 years. It’s rather shocking really. The authors explain Professor Tomas Masaryk‘s position in favor of a union between the Czechs and the Slovaks and the founding of a common state (pg. 53):

Professor Masaryk called attention to the fact that there is a peculiar discrepancy between the number of states in Europe and the number of nationalities – twenty-seven states to seventy nationalities.  He explained, also, that almost all the states are mixed, from the point of nationality. From the west of Europe to the east, this is found to be true, and the farther east one goes the more mixed do the states become…
Since the eighteenth century there has been a continuing strong movement from each nation to have its own state. Because of the mixed peoples, there is much confusion…

These days we would call such mixing “diversity” – unless it’s in Africa, in which case we would call it “a legacy of colonialism”. Whatever we choose to call it, it is a cause for “much confusion” and bloodshed.
Powerful forces opposed the “continuing strong movement” March wrote of. Though the movement did claim some successes, in the end, its enemies gained the upper hand. They sought to equate “nationality” with “citizenship in a state” and they have largely succeeded. Today, when most people speak of “nationality”, they refer to membership in a political entity (in which an elite possesses a monopoly on the use of force). This membership is usually conveyed by accident of birth. A Pashtun, who happens to be born on the Afghan side of the border is “Afghan”. His cousin, also Pashtun, would be “Pakistani” simply because he was born a few miles away. I am fairly certain that a large number of Pashtun do not accept this new version of nationality. Good for them I say. A nation is blood. Citizenship in a state is incidental. A nation is tradition and heritage. A state is politics and corruption.
Naturally new nations can be founded out of a collection of various nationalities. This is a natural process and the founding of Rome is a good, historical, example. Israel appears to be another example, whose transformation has been occurring before our very eyes.
But the wholesale dividing of all land on Earth (except, perhaps, Antarctica) into various nation-states, at the expense of many smaller nations, is something we should view with suspicion and apprehension – even if it is inevitable. We should be asking: “You want us to give up our bloodline, heritage, language, history and identity so that we can rally under the banner of a bunch of politicians? Why?” If America is a “concept nation”, I want to know which concepts America stands for that other nation-states do not stand for. Do we stand for freedom? Less government? Rock ‘n Roll? Don’t other states have these things? These are questions that even leftists ask. They conclude that a one-world government makes sense – since we all (in theory) believe in the same principles. This is easy for them; leftists generally have no nation at all.

Posted in libertarian thought, pan-nationalism and multi-culturalism | 4 Comments

American History X

Posted on May 2, 2012 by jewamongyou

While visiting a relative recently, she recommended I watch the movie “American History X”. She said it offers a refreshing perspective on racism. I told her that anti-racism is code for “anti-white” and she replied that this movie is anti-everybody, whites, blacks and so on. I replied that I’d spend two hours of my time watching “American History X” if she would, in turn, watch “A Conversation About Race” with me afterwards. We had a deal.
Though my relative is intelligent, she clearly is not very adept at recognizing propaganda. “American History X” is propaganda. Though it does appear to give air time to pro-white sentiments and grievances, it does so in such a way that the vast majority of viewers would not take seriously. Movies are, by nature, visual tools. When things are said, in a movie, by rough-looking teens who sport swastika tattoos, their words do not have as much credibility as the words spoken by a civilized-looking character. This is why defense attorneys make sure their clients are dressed well in front of a judge and jury. People are not rational creatures.
Thus, when the main character, Derek, speaks to his mob about the evils of illegal immigration, his words ring true – until the very graphic depiction of their attack on an immigrant-owned store (and its employees) is shown directly afterwards. At that point, his entire speech loses its appeal. Just as the viewer is repulsed by the destruction and torture that follow, so too will he reject the views that brought about these acts. Clearly this was the intention of the producers.
Similarly, when we see a dinner conversation where Derek’s father is explaining the evils of affirmative action, the audience may sympathize with him – until he makes a general statement about “niggers”. At that point, all his valid objections to affirmative action dissolve into naught.
The movie features several graphic depictions of violence. All but one is perpetrated by whites:
1) The movie opens with some black gangbangers trying to steal Derek’s truck. He responds by shooting one of them to death and then killing the second. After this orgy of blood, the look on Derek’s face clearly shows how delighted he is with his deed. He smiles a very devilish smile for the cameras. The truck theft was simply an excuse for Derek to dispatch some niggers.
2) I have already described the graphically depicted attack on the immigrant-owned store. The implication is that this is what white pride and anti-immigrant sentiment naturally lead to.
3) While in prison, Derek learns that his white friends are not really friends at all. In fact, they have no redeeming qualities. We are treated to a disturbing depiction of Derek getting raped by other skinheads. What provoked this attack? It seems Derek had met a black inmate who was friendly and funny. We are to believe that neo-Nazis (and, by extension, all pro-whites) are oblivious to the fact that there are some nice, and funny, black people. For Derek to meet such a black man is a revelation to him. Apparently, he had lived in a cave until then.
4) In what appears to be a flashback to the original shooting scene, we are shown how Derek forces one of the gangbangers to put his teeth to the curb – and then brutally kicks his head in. Later, we hear a description of the sound that man’s head made as it was smashed into the concrete. Very graphic indeed.
5) The last graphic violent scene of the movie, and the only one committed by a black, is when Derek’s younger brother (Danny) is shot by the brother of one of the gangbangers he’d killed. In contrast to Derek’s satanic expression of joy, the black shooter bears an expression of anger and revenge. He didn’t kill for the joy of killing. No, he killed as revenge for an incident the previous day. This last shooting, though shocking since we’ve come to know and love the victim, is no more graphic than any other shooting we see on T.V. or the movies. It could have been a shooting from an old western.
Not surprisingly, the only morally sound powerful character in the movie is the school teacher (who also has two degrees). This is “Dr. Sweeney”, played by Avery Brooks. Sweeney can do no wrong. He is godlike, morally impeccable, caring, soft-spoken – and black. There were other characters who are morally upright in this movie: Derek’s mother and sister always oppose his evil ways – but they come across as victims. Derek’s mother is a chain-smoking, pitiful character who never even considered that bringing home her Jewish boyfriend might cause a scene with her neo-Nazi sons and friend. His sister is merely an incidental character whose only purpose seems to be to suffer abuse at the hands of Derek and his worthless friends.
American History X would have us believe that the only flavor of pro-white is the neo-Nazi flavor. That white skinheads are the ones mostly responsible for ransacking stores and committing prison rape. After all, blacks would never do such things.
There are a couple of worthy scenes. The basketball scene, where the white teenagers challenge the blacks and beat them honorably is a good one. One of the white teens, at some point, says something to the effect of “Why should we walk with fear in our own neighborhoods?” The school bathroom scene, where some black kids are beating up a white kid for allegedly telling on them for cheating is another good one. In that scene, Danny confronts the blacks with a look of courage and essentially drives them away. Those two scenes do inspire white pride and a wish that more whites could be more like them.
But good propaganda must have some truth mixed in. It must have something its proponents can point to and say, “See! They do show both sides of the story.” In my opinion, the good parts of American History X do not make it a good movie. Instead, they make it good propaganda.
As for A Conversation About Race, my relative enjoyed it and did find it thought-provoking.

The only kind of pro-white there is according to Hollywood

Posted in book/movie/video reviews and links, examples of propaganda | 15 Comments

Call me a conspiracy theorist but…

Posted on April 30, 2012 by jewamongyou

It seems to me that the internet is getting slower, more buggy and more downright frustrating. It’s gotten to the point where it’s almost unusable. In my daily life, I use various computers, at home and at work. They’re all slow and the internet connection on all of them (each one supposedly “high-speed”) reminds me of the dial-up connections of yore.
It goes without saying that, as more and more of the Earth’s teeming billions get online, there will be more traffic, more demands on already strained systems, more malicious software, more spam and more mistakes at all levels. This is to be expected.
But let’s face it. There are powerful forces that view the internet as a rival, as a dangerous force and as something that needs to be contained – or even controlled. The leftist media, though it uses the internet itself, does not like the freedom of speech that comes with it. It does not like the proliferation of unorthodox, unapproved, opinions. It fears the challenge to its own monopoly on “news” and entertainment.
Government uses the internet, but there can be little doubt that some government entities view it with suspicion and loathing – at least when others (who view those same government entities with suspicion and loathing) have equal access to it.
Conservatives and religious groups also use the internet, but they’ll do anything in their power to prevent others from viewing material they consider “offensive”. For some of them, the internet is a tool of Satan to infiltrate the minds of our young with pornography and all sorts of deviance and decadence.
Lots of powerful people have secrets and sometimes those secrets get leaked – usually through the internet. Witness Wikileaks.
Until recently there has been (we think) a balance of power between the various foes of the internet. The rest of us benefit from this balance, because the result is our own freedom of speech. But would I be particularly paranoid if I wrote that there might be some willful sabotage involved with the recent slowness? I don’t think it’s very far-fetched at all. Perhaps the balance of power is giving way to some sort of unholy alliance. Maybe religious conservatives are working together with government officials and leftist ideologues in order to curb the power of the internet – or at least make it gradually less attractive for the average joe.
I apologize for the lack of links in this post; I’m away from home and working on my very small travel laptop.

Posted in freedom of speech issues | 11 Comments