@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 19:02:42 -0500 (CDT) Sender: •••@••.••• Subject: Letter: Nazism & America >I have taken some heat on that particular piece, as you can guess. People >like Reagan & Gingrich look so clean, seem to talk reasonably, and don't >seem to advocate violence -- how could they have anything in common with >what we think of as fascism or nazism? I would very much like to see the original article, if that's possible. -- David L. Allwardt WWW: http://www.execpc.com/~allwardt ==== "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." -- Marcus Aurlieus @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Since it's been six months, and we have a lot of new subscribers, the original posting is repeated below. It went out soon after the Oklahoma bombing. Here's the worst example of "heat" I've received: Date: Mon, 16 Oct 95 03:30:34 0400 From: Ryan Wilson <•••@••.•••> Organization: ALPHA To: •••@••.••• Subject: Die liberal scum! X-URL: http://paul.spu.edu/~sinnfein/nazi.html I grow oh so tired of yet another crying liberal pice of shit. The liberals day is over. The movement that was started will be crushed under the heels of our boots. Gay rights, Human rights, Civil rights? We will see. Aryan man has awaken. -rkm @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 05:02:47 -0700 From: •••@••.••• (Richard K. Moore) To: Multiple recipients of list <•••@••.•••> Subject: cj-4/24> Re: Nazi rise to power Nazism, Militias, and the Abuse of History Richard K. Moore 24 April 1995 It always fascinates me how absolutely any postition can be "substantiated" by selective quotes from history, just as you can justify anything you might want to do by finding some particular isolated quote from the Bible (or the Koran, or the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook.) I find much of the recent revisionist thinking about Nazism disturbing, especially the blurring of distinctions among different varieties of totalianarism. Hitler & Stalin may have been equally reprehensible, but their ways of seizing and maintaining power were very different. I've lived in Germany, and over the years have read many books and articles about the rise of nazism, from diverse perspectives, and I believe one has to very careful in trying to unravel what it was all about. >>From what I've seen, I think one of the clearest central thruths about Hitler is that he was anti-liberal. He despised the democratic process, despised diversity of opinion, and built his constituency by lying about history and by inciting hatred and mistrust of government, labor unions, liberals, subtleties of political thought, intellectuals, gays, and nearly all minorities. He appealed to a simplistic, jingoistic version of "traditional German" values, and referred selectively to religion when it suited his propagandistic puposes. The core of his enemies-lists was what is today mis-called the "liberal elite". Yes he hated Jews, and he exploited native German anti-semitism, but he rounded up labor leaders and democratic spokesman long before he launched the formal holocaust. When he invaded Poland, his first act was to round up and shoot liberal political leaders and activists, even before the smoke had cleared from his Luftwaffe bombs. The Warsaw ghetto pogrom came much later. Hitler's rhetoric was at core indistinguishable from what we now hear from the Limbaugh's and the right-wing talk radio hosts, and in a more disguised form, from the Gingrich's. He then, and they now, try to blame society's ills on those dis-empowered groups which have the least say in public policy. They blame the victims, and the public then and now seems to revel in those kinds of easy answers. Stephen Brown wrote: "The Nazis actually did not ignore government infrastructure to take power. They used to democratic process to dismantle it and grant absolute power to Hitler. The Weimar constitution, unlike ours, was filled with exceptions to every single rule. The government could infringe on individual freedoms without worry." In this regard, I invite you to recognize that these same "exceptions to every single rule" are being systematically introduced into our own legal system. This has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats -- it's been happening on a fully bi-partisian basis. The "war on drugs" and "anti-terrorism" are being used as an excuse to suspend the Bill of Rights. Protection against illegal search and seizure? -- Goodbye. You may think drug dealers are the only victims (houses confiscated for minor drug offenses), and not give a damn, but once the constitutional protection is gone, anyone in disfavor with the government can have their property confiscated, without benefit of judicial process. Right to freedom of speech and assembly? -- Goodybe. You may think Moslem fundamentalists are the only victims, and not give a damn, but once the government can prosecute anyone associated with anyone who later commits a violent act (as with the World Trade Center prosecutions), meaningful political activity is a thing of the past. Especially when the government is willing to sponsor illegal acts by agent provocateurs, as it has done for decades, so it can then arrest legitimate political leaders. Now with the Oklahoma bombing, one of the first things we hear is that the intelligence agencies should be beefed up and given a freer reign -- hardly a surprise, but hardly an appropriate response. Does anyone really believe the militia orgnaizations are not already thoroughly infiltrated by government informers? Is anyone that naive? White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said Sunday that "Federal undercover agents have been infiltrating paramilitary groups suspected of planning crimes but got no warning of the devastating bombing in Oklahoma City." But who decides which warnings percolate up to the White House? Many books by former CIA agents reveal that the agency passes on exactly what it chooses to, based on what spin they want policy makers to be exposed to. We then have former FBI agent Oliver "Buck" Revel saying on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "Mr. Panetta's statement that some of these groups are being monitored is inaccurate. I only left six months ago and we had no investigations on any of the militias." Maybe and maybe not. The last thing we'd expect in a public statment by a still-in-favor ex-FBI agent is the truth. Such statements are made for their poltiical effect, not to reveal the true extent of intelligence activity. The US government itself funds terrorist organizations, as is a matter of public record in the case of Iran-based organizations (to name one example already published in Newsweek). The CIA protects drug cartels all over the globe. When Reagan sent Perot on a fact finding mission to Vietnam to look into the POW situation, Perot reported that our intelligence agents were too busy dealing drugs to help him with the investigation. Reagan relieved him of his assignment at that point. When Noriega was arrested in Panama, supposedly to stop his drug dealing, the drug-bankers were put right back in power, and Panama remains the banking center for the international drug trade. This is not unknown the US government. In a backhanded sort of way, the Michigan Militia is right -- the government _is_ undermining our freedoms and selling out to international organizations -- but it's multinationals who are taking over, not the UN. The militia's error is not so much in their political analysis, which has elements of truth -- their error is in thinking the answer lies in stockpiling rifles and launching their own conspiratorial movement. Their enemy is not liberalism, it's corporate-sponsored authoritarianism. If they want to preserve the Constitution, they should put their guns away and build coaltions with all the millions of other folks who value freedom and democracy and the Constitution. By their strategy, they're helping to bring about the very dictatorship they rightly fear. Richard @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore <•••@••.•••> Wexford, Ireland (USA citizen) Editor: The Cyberjournal (@CPSR.ORG) World Wide Web (shared with cyber-rights): http://jasper.ora.com/andyo/cyber-rights/cyber-rights.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~hwh6k/public/cyber-rights.html FTP: ftp://jasper.ora.com/pub/andyo/cyber-rights You are encouraged to forward and cross-post messages and online materials, pursuant to any contained copyright & redistribution restrictions. For commercial re-use, contact the appropriate author. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
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