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The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 31 March 2000
Vol. 4, Number 28 (#409)
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CONTENTS
More On the Psychodynamics of Rightwing Authoritarianism
tallpaul, "The Unkindest Cut of All: More On What Really Motivates the
Defender of 'White Culture'?"
Web Sites of Interest
7 cites on Nazis and the Holocaust
More On Mattel and the Issue of Online Censorship
Declan McCullagh (Wired News), "Mattel Suit Takes GNU Twist," 28 Mar 00
Robert Lemos (ZDNet News), "ACLU slams Cyber Patrol tactics," 24 May 00
Rightwing Quote of the Week
What's Worth Checking: 10 stories
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MORE ON THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF RIGHTWING AUTHORITARIANISM
The Unkindest Cut of All:
More On What Really Motivates the Defender of "White Culture?"
What can we make of Randal H. Mason's post to a white-power Usenet news
group containing a forged news article form the Houston Chronicle on Black
women castrating white men? Both Mason's original post and the Houston
Chronicle's response are included below.
The Mason forgery is an excellent example of how Usenet serves as a
repository of material similar to folklore and mythology and how, by
examining this material using classical psychoanalytic methods, we can gain
greater insight into the psychological dynamics behind different political
tendencies.
Earlier[1] I published hard data on the use of sexualized language found in
Usenet posts by rightwing authoritarians, with particular emphasis on
language reflecting phallic narcissism and aggression.
Intense phallic aggression should result from two fears, lead to two fears,
or both.
The first fear is that the aggressor will be aggressed upon by others in
the same aggressive manner. The normal unconscious manifestation of this
would be a strong fear of anal rape. The second fear is that the aggressor
will be aggressed on in a manner to prevent him from engaging in future
aggressions. In classical psychoanalytic theory this would be a fear of
castration.
The two develop as reaction formations against fears or as fears
manifesting guilt over aggression.
In the former case, the dynamic would be something like "I fear being
victimized so I will become the oppressor." The second fear is "I aggress
upon then so I fear they will aggress against me."
At a deeper level of interpretation, the dynamic would be "I fear
castration/rape therefore I will be the castrator/rapist" and "I try to
castrate and rape them so they try to castrate and rape me."
The homophobia associated with the rightwing authoritarian can also develop
in a two-fold manner.
The reversal of initial fears can lead to anxiety over aggressive but
unconscious homosexual wishes. This is obvious in the reactive desire "I
will rape them before they can rape me" immediately leading to "I am not
the homosexual; they are." One first has the fear of homosexual
victimization, then the defense against this fear, and then a defense
against the active homosexual ideation in the first defense.
This is similar to the threefold unconscious dynamic Freud described for
paranoia: I love him; I hate him; he hates me.
A similar dynamic develops on a psychological level closer to the fully
conscious mind, reflecting various cultural identities and fears.
The weak are targets so the person who fears aggression must not appear
weak. He must appear "the manly man," he must not be the "sissy" or the
"wimp." To appear so is to invite the very aggression feared. He must stave
off aggression by being visibly more aggressive than any possible
opponents. Equally, the "sissification" of his opponents serves to convince
himself that they are not dangerous.
Yet the unconscious fears repeatedly slip out. In certain cases the
rightwing authoritarian is so obsessed that everyone around him is
homosexual or that every opponent he faces represents the homosexual
conspiracy. Or, as with the forged post below, the fantasies that break
forth into the real world are of people out to -- in the most literal
Freudian fashion -- castrate them.
FOOTNOTE
[1] "What Really Motivates the Defender of 'White Culture'? An initial
exploration via a new net-based psychoanalytic methodology," TINAF Vol. 3,
Number 99 (#363), Friday, 3 December 1999
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WEB SITES OF INTEREST:
"An Interim Report to Congress" Required By the Implementation of the Nazi
War Crimes Disclosure Act (P.L. 105-246)
<http://www.nara.gov/iwg/report.html>
Law and the Holocaust: Biddle Law Library
<http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/holocaust/holocaust.htm>
The Holocaust -- Lecture Notes and Study Guide: U. of Arizona
<http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/holocaust/holocaust.htm>
Literature On the Holocaust: maintained by Al Filreis
<http://www.english.upenn.edu/%7Eafilreis/Holocaust/holhome.html>
Ghetto Fighters' House -- Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum
<http://www.gfh.org.il/>
Holocaust Internet Sites: N. Harris College Learning Resource Center
<http://www.nhmccd.cc.tx.us/contracts/lrc/kc/holocaust-internet.html>
Women and the Holocaust
<http://www.interlog.com/~mighty/>
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MORE ON MATTEL AND THE ISSUE OF ONLINE CENSORSHIP
Mattel Suit Takes GNU Twist
Declan McCullagh (Wired News)
28 Mar 00
BOSTON -- Mattel's claim of victory Monday in a lawsuit over its
Cyberpatrol filtering software may be premature.
The toy giant said during a court hearing here that it had acquired
intellectual property rights to a program that reveals Cyberpatrol's
secret list of off-limits websites and settled the case. Mattel said it
planned to use its new copyright in court to ban Internet copying of the
"cphack" utility.
But cphack's authors released it under the GNU General Public License,
which appears to permit unlimited distribution of the original cphack
program, even if Mattel now owns the copyright.
"Once you do that you can't revoke it," said Bennett Haselton of
Peacefire, a group opposed to filtering software that temporarily put
up its own cphack mirror site.
The Free Software Foundation's GPL agreement says that "the recipient
automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy,
distribute or modify the program."
Translation: A copyright holder can't change his mind.
"GPL is software that cannot be revoked," said Eben Moglen, a law
professor at Columbia University and FSF general counsel. "Anyone
downstream who possesses a copy of the software may redistribute it.
"It's a very amusing case," Moglen said. "If people are going to
respond to free software they don't like by trying to wipe it out,
they're in for some real trouble."
A spokeswoman for Mattel reached late Monday said she didn't know what
the effect of the GPL would be.
But she said cphack authors Eddy Jansson and Matthew Skala had signed a
contract with Mattel and if there was any deception, "they'd be in big
trouble."
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ACLU slams Cyber Patrol tactics
Robert Lemos (ZDNet News)
24 May 00
The American Civil Liberties Union criticized Internet filtering software
maker Microsystems Software Inc. and its parent company Mattel Inc. on
Friday for attempting to limit free speech on the Internet.
The civil rights group's charges stem, not from the Mattel lawsuit accusing
two international hackers with violating the copyright agreement of its
Cyber Patrol software, but with the tactics of Mattel's lawyers in pursuing
a temporary restraining order in the case.
"The problem is that (Cyber Patrol and Mattel) are censoring free speech,"
said Chris Hansen, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties
Union. "They served a host of ISPs (Internet service providers) and Web
sites with the subpoena."
The subpoenas -- which were sent out by e-mail last Saturday -- attempt to
stop the distribution of two utilities: One which lets children turn off
the Cyber Patrol's filtering, and the other which allows users to look at
the complete list of filtered sites.
"They've sent out spammed copies to try and get ISPs to take down the sites
that are hosting the software," said Hansen, who added that many ISPs will
do so because they believe it's not their fight. "We have decided it is our
fight," he said.
ACLU steps in The ACLU announced on Friday that the organization's
attorneys would be representing three U.S. Web site operators who posted
copies of the programs and have been subpoenaed by attorneys for Mattel and
Microsystems. A week ago, U.S. District judge Edward F. Harrington granted
Mattel a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the publishing of the
programs on the U.S. Internet.
The three Web operators -- Waldo Jaquith of waldo.net, Lindsay Haisley of
fmp.com and Bennet Hasleton of peacefire.org -- were subpoenaed along with
two dozen others because they posted the programs, or linked to a site
which had done so, on the Internet.
The programs -- called cphack.exe and CP4break.zip -- have been "mirrored"
on a large number of Web sites following Mattel's civil suit filed against
the hackers Eddy L.O. Jansson of Sweden and Matthew Skala of Canada.
The next phase in the case will begin Monday, when Mattel will try to win a
preliminary injunction against the hackers and their supporters, further
prohibiting the posting of the programs on the Internet. The ACLU intends
to argue that its clients should not be included in the case.
Irwin Schwartz, a partner with Schwartz and Nystrom LLC., which is
representing Mattel, stressed that the main case has little to do with free
speech.
'No first amendment issues here' "There is no first amendment issue here,"
he said. "The first thing is that this has nothing to do with government
censorship."
Pamela Samuelson, professor at the School of Information Management and
Systems, University of California at Berkeley, disagreed.
"I think that the people who wrote it were not doing it to steal but to
engage in study and analysis and developing a non-infringing program," she
said. "Learning something that Mattel and others would rather they didn't
learn."
While the issue will be fought in the courts, Web sites protesting
filtering will have their speech curtailed, said ACLU's Hansen, likening
the two dozen e-mailed court documents to filtering the Internet by
subpoena.
"Mattel doesn't need this court order," he said. "All it has to do is put
all the mirror sites on its blocked list." Then, no user of its software
will be able to download the bypass utilities from another site, he said.
Underscoring that point, the Peacefire site owned by Haselton is currently
filtered by Mattel's Cyber Patrol.
"We have looked for ways to not block Peacefire. But off its main page we
have found that it has information on how to hack into multiple products,"
said Sydney Rubin, spokeswoman for Microsystems.
"We have blocked Peacefire because there is almost no way not to block it."
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RIGHTWING QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
For those who believe that fascism is only a thing of the past
From: "Randal H. Mason" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newsgroups: alt.politics.nationalism.white
Subject: Houston Castrations!
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 11:02:23 -1000
I found this article posted on the net. Some really disturbing disgusting
stuff. According to this article a black woman in texas has been picking
up young white men in bars and having them take her home for sex, once
there she drugs the mans drink. She takes off his pants while he is still
awake and procedes to give him oral sex, then when he wakes up his
testicles and the head of his penis are cut off and gone. What the hell is
happening in this world?
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African American woman wanted in string of castrations
Houston Chronicle
23 Feb 00
FORT WORTH - Reports have been coming into local police stations from
victims in hospitals about a growing number of disturbing crimes in the
area. An African-American woman who goes by the name Sandy has been
meeting white men in bars, druging them, and then castrating them according
to local reports. There have been 9 such incidents since December 22,
1999.
Those interviewed did not want their name published, so the first victim
interviewed will be refered to as John. According to John, a student at
the University of North Texas, "I was at a bar with some friends getting
some drinks when a good looking thirty something year old woman squeesed
close to me at the bar. I told her excuse me and she told me no problem.
She asked me my name and I told her, then she asked if I was having a good
time at the bar, i said yes. She asked me if I wanted to have a better
time"
At this point "Sandy" as she has called herself to every victim, drove
'John' to his off campus apartment. Once there she went to his kitchen and
started making drinks. "I said I don't usually drink this much and that I
was fine, but she insisted that I have one of her special made drinks. She
said she could make the best Gin N Tonic in all of Texas. Finally I
accepted and when she sat next to me at the couch I drank with her."
The couple started getting into sexual activity. "She undressed me, and
then we moved to the bedroom. I was feeling very hazy, but I thought it
was the alchohol. Every time I tried to remove her panties she would stop
me and say not yet." After about 20 minutes 'John' passed out. "I just
felt really tired and I couldn't hold my eyes open. The next thing I knew
I woke up with a pain in my crotch."
What happend next has been labeled in the Houston area as the most horrific
crime in recent memory. "I felt my crotch and it stung, and my fingers
were bloodied. I looked down there and saw that there was a lot of white
cotton balls taped on top of my penis. When I removed them I realized that
the head of my penis was gone." Not only was the head of 'Johns' penis
missing, but so were both his testicles.
Next to his bed taped to his closet door was a photo copied black and white
message which was originally folded four times. The message was found with
each of the 9 victims who experienced almost the exact same incident. The
said "Call 911 immediatly or you will die. This will be a message to all
white men in this country that you can't fuck with black people any
longer!"
Dr. Edward R. Chow treated 'John' and 3 other victims this month in the
incident. He mentions "Whoever did this is one sick individual. Not only
did they remove both the testicles and scrotal sack, but also the head of
the penis, which is much harder to repair. None of the victims will be
able to father children, or even achieve an orgasm for the rest of their
lives." He mentions that the weapon used in the severing was a "Fish
gutting knife, like those found in hunting stores.... It is amazing that
none of the victims have died."
Police have no leads yet as to the criminal or criminals involved. If
caught she could face up to 25 years in prison. Police say they are
looking for a 5"5' woman, approx 120 pounds, long brown wavy hair, with a
mole near the bottom left of her chin. She goes by the name Sandy and
frequents bars around the Univeristy of North Texas. She is in her mid
thirtys, and all victims she has chosen have been between the ages of
21-26.
Any information leading to the conviction of 'Sandy' will recieve a $10,000
reward put up by the familys of the victims. Any leads please call the
Houston Police.
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WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING
stories via <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story5/>
Monika Unsworth (Irish Times), "All-Ireland anti-racism move urged," 22 Mar
00, "An all-Ireland approach is needed to tackle issues of racism and
cultural diversity, a report launched in Belfast yesterday has found. The
Equality Commission's chief commissioner, Ms Jean Harbinson, said the
importance of racial issues was increasingly being recognised. Growing
European and international interest in promoting the issue had led to a
greater confidence in addressing it." <1486.txt>
Guardian/Observer, "Police Arrest 100 In Race Hate Crackdown," 23 Mar 00,
"A police crackdown on known racists has so far led to 100 arrests and 16
people being charged. Scotland Yard detectives detained people on suspicion
of offences ranging from racially aggravated criminal damage, distributing
racist literature, harassment, grievous bodily harm and threats to kill
after a series of dawn raids across the capital. Met officers also made two
arrests in Reading, Berkshire, in connection with the BBC TV series
MacIntyre Undercover, in which reporter Donal MacIntyre infiltrated the
world of alleged football hooligans." <1487.txt>
Irish Times, "Fanning the flames ," 26 Mar 00, "Instead of welcoming the
much needed labour supply which its growing Moroccan immigrant community
provides, the Spanish town of El Ejido is becoming synonymous with racism,
as two recent killings spark a violent right-wing backlash. Paddy Woodworth
reports from Andalusia on escalating racism, a story which echoes changing
Irish attitudes to 'outsiders' No one is quite sure exactly where or what
El Ejido is, not even the people who live there. It is still in the process
of inventing itself, violently torn between northern Africa and southern
Europe, and apparently unable to contain both identities. El Ejido is where
the immigration issue really bites." <1488.txt>
Tracy Wilson (Los Angeles Times), "Witness Describes [Skinhead] Killing of
Woman -- Court: Testimony comes in conspiracy and perjury trial of
Beverlee Sue Merriman, whose son Justin is accused of raping and murdering
20-year-old Katrina Montgomery," 25 Mar 00, "After raping Katrina
Montgomery in front of two teenage gang members, Justin Merriman stabbed
the 20-year-old woman in the throat and beat her over the head with a
crescent wrench as the two watched in horror, one of them testified
Friday." <1489.txt>
Mary Robinson (Daily Star), "Time to fight racism with action, not words,"
23 Mar 00, "The rise in Europe of a far-right nurturing nostalgia for the
Nazi past; the recent attacks on migrants in southern Spain; anti-foreigner
attitudes in several of the economically better-off African countries;
institutionalized racism in some police forces and prison systems: this
grim and, sadly, incomplete list is a stark reminder that bigotry and bias
are alive and well as we marked on Tuesday the first International Day
against Racial Discrimination of the new century. Tackling racism and
xenophobia must be one of our top priorities. It is clear that the
affirmation in the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights 'Everyone is born free and equal in dignity and rights' has not
become a reality. Where one is born and one’s status often determine the
rights one can effectively claim and the dignity one enjoys. International
standards have been set for the prevention and elimination of
discrimination, but social and political realities undermine the promise of
human-rights law." <1490.txt>
Richard Stewart (Houston Chronicle), "KKK wizard photo angers Byrd family:
Magazine features man who defaced grave," 24 Mar 00 , "The family of Jasper
dragging death victim James Byrd Jr. said Friday that they are upset by a
glossy magazine's photo of a Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard who placed a KKK
sticker on Byrd's grave. ... Byrd, a 49-year-old black man, was killed on
June 7, 1998, when he was chained by the ankles to a pickup and dragged for
three miles. His dismembered body was found on a road in front of a black
cemetery east of Jasper. Three white men were convicted of capital murder,
and two were sentenced to die for the slaying. The April edition of Details
magazine shows a photograph of 19-year-old James Roesch, imperial wizard of
the Knights of the White Kamellia, and his wife, April, standing beside
Byrd's grave in Jasper City Cemetery." <1491.txt>
AP, "Hate crime victim sues white supremacy groups," 27 Mar 00, "A black
man who was beaten and stabbed by a group of skinheads has filed lawsuits
against white supremacy groups he contends sparked the attack by advocating
violence. Randy Wordell Bowen, 24, of Murrieta, filed civil rights lawsuits
last week in U.S. District Court and Riverside Superior Court. Bowen named
the Hammerskin Nation, the Western Hammerskins and the group's chapters in
Riverside, Hemet and San Diego. The lawsuit is an attempt to hold the
groups responsible for encouraging crimes against minorities, said Andrew
Roth, an attorney representing Bowen." <1492.txt>
AP, "Man challenges federal judgment," 27 Mar 00, "A Christmas Valley man
who waged a hate-mail campaign against two women he thought were lesbians
is fighting the federal judgment against him. Howard J. 'Bud' Burrows said
in court papers that he is judgment proof and therefore isn't required to
pay the $257,000 that U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis J. Hubel order him to
last month. Hubel ruled Feb. 22 against Burrows, 70, and his wife, Jean,
66, after hearing arguments and witnesses in a lawsuit filed by one of the
women, Jo Anne Simpson." <1493.txt>
AP, "Anti-Gov't [Patriot Leader] Activist Faces Trial," 20 Mar 00, "An
anti-government activist who employed the tactics of the Montana Freemen by
allegedly producing phony checks and issuing the verdicts of a self-created
'court' against IRS agents and federal judges could face one of those
judges this week. Peter Kay Stern, a retired engineer and chief justice of
a self-described 'common-law' court, was scheduled to stand trial today
before District Judge Lacy H. Thornburg on charges that include threats to
kidnap two of Thornburg's judicial colleagues. Stern has been held without
bond since his arrest in September. A federal magistrate ruled there was
'evidence of threats and weaponry which could be used to kill law
enforcement'." <1494.txt>
AANEWS (American Atheists), "Death Toll Rises In Uganda Cult Inferno: Ten
Commandments Sect One Of Growing Number Of Religious Movements," 21 Mar 00,
"Uganda's Daily Mirror newspaper is reporting that the death toll has
passed 500 from last Friday's mass sucide/murder spree involving a
religious cult. Members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten
Commandmants of God reportedly entered their church and doused themselves
with gasoline and ignited a conflagration. Police authorities say that
they are investigating the fire as a suicide and murder, since some of the
victims have been identified as children. The sect is one of a number of
cult groups mushrooming throughout Uganda and the East Africa region. Many
offer followers a charismatic leader or prophet who teaches a synchretic
blend of fundamentalist Christian, new age and traditional animist beliefs,
often with apocalyptic overtones. The Movement for the Restoration of the
Ten Commandments of God was led by a former opposition politician, Joseph
Kibweteere, with the assistance of several excommunicated Roman Catholic
nuns and priests." <1495.txt>
* * * * *
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
__________________________________________________________________________
FASCISM:
We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
(No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)
- - - - -
back issues archived via:
<ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/>
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