Replies

This is a must read, to protect your children, it is long and more than likely won't all print, there is more at link.

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue6_2/ray/ as retrieved on Oct 4, 2004 04:37:09 GMT.

To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:cjlKfNChL3gJ:www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue6_2/ray/+extremist+subculture&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet

Google is not affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its content.
These search terms have been highlighted:
extremist

These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: subculture

Recruitment efforts of white extremist groups on the
Internet were examined using qualitative methods. There is
no evidence of a concerted effort to target children at
popular locations where children are active on the Internet.
Most propaganda writings are not well written and
persuasive. White extremists attempt to attract children with
text, MP3 music, and games, but their efforts are not well
organized and are more reactive than aggressive. Findings
are reported for the uses of the Internet, methods employed,
and how technology of the Internet contributes to these
activities.

Contents

Introduction
Purpose
Methodology
Results and Discussion
Internet Characteristics of Sites
Hacking, Electronic Terrorism, and Terror Guidance
Summary and Conclusions

Introduction

Growth of the World Wide Web raises concern about its "dark
side" and the need to guard children from pornography,
sexual predators, and hate groups. The Web can dispense
hate and terror and aid in recruitment by extremist groups.
Children and teenagers can be exposed to hate propaganda
and online hate recruitment, but there is little knowledge
about the actual practices of hate groups online in such
efforts. While many monitoring organizations warn about
hate groups online, the extent and nature of the recruitment
activities of white extremists with children has not been
studied in detail. This is a relatively new field of study, both
because of the nature of the content and the context.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the methods
used by white extremist organizations to recruit youths via
the Internet. The following research questions guided the
study:

1.To what extent are white extremists using the Internet to
target children?
2.What methodologies are employed by these groups in an
effort to appeal to children?
3.In what way does the technology of the Internet
contribute to these activities?

Methodology

Gaining direct access to extremist groups is impossible with
joining (Blee, 1991; Ezekiel, 1995). The approach used in
this study was an adaptation of observational research.
Observation of human behavior, or ethnography, is a
traditional technique for field settings. Unable to directly
observe the behavior of subjects, the analysis of their
products and messages on Web sites is the only way to
understand their behavior and intentions. Observation
provides knowledge of the context in which events occur and
enables the researcher to examine aspects that participants
are not aware of or unwilling to discuss (Hoepfl, 1997). There
is no knowledge of the observer's presence. Field notes
included descriptions of settings, activities, sounds, text, and
links, and all sites were saved for offline browsing to permit
more extensive analysis.

Subjects

There were 457 hardcore-white extremists groups in the
United States in 1999 (SPLC, 1999). Extremist groups can
also be classified as white supremacists, Neo-Nazis,
Christian Identity, and Holocaust Deniers, but they all share
a common message about white purity and superiority and
include Jews, Blacks, and homosexuals as targets of their
condemnatory attacks. Extremism is characterized by
dogmatic intolerance, expressed mildly or violently, and
inclines toward an inflexible obedience to an accepted
authority, shaped by a common ideology or sense of group
unity (Gardner, 1997). Among American white extremist
groups, the most distinctive trait is faithfulness to racial
purity. Much of their energy is invested in immunizing their
members from the effects of the mass media and on
recruitment (Billig, 1982).

The subjects for this study were those with prominent Web
sites: the Hammerskin Nation, National Alliance, Stormfront,
Aryan Nations, and the Word Church of The Creator
(WCOTC), selected after a literature review (Ferber, 1998;
HateWatch, 2000; Dees & Cocoran, 1996; Gardner, 1997;
SPLC, 1999).

Hammerskin Nation. In addition to the United States, the
Hammerskin Nation claims to have members in Canada,
Australia, Germany, and Britain. The Hammerskins practice
"leaderless resistance" and are organized into cells
supposedly like the Nazi SS divisions. On the Internet, it
functions as a clearinghouse of information and links for the
Hammerskin movement as well as for skinheads and other
white extremists. Links to white power music vendors and
information on a variety of topics of concern to young white
extremists are also available. Hammerskin Nation is a
neo-Nazi skinhead organization.

National Alliance. The National Alliance is the largest and
most active Neo-Nazi group in the United States. Its
emphasis on violence makes its Web pages distinctive among
those in this study. The National Alliance is a Neo-Nazi
organization with a high level of influence and leadership
within white extremism. While offering only a limited number
of links from its site, the National Alliance is linked to by
virtually every white extremist group or organization on the
Internet.

Stormfont. Stormfront promotes a message of "White Pride
World Wide." A major purpose is the creation of a virtual
community for both white extremist families and singles.
The site provides direct or indirect links to a variety of
extremist sites on the Internet, such as neo-Nazis,
skinheads, and various Christian-identity groups that
espouse racism, anti-Semitism and Christian
fundamentalism. Stormfront is an Internet-based, Neo-Nazi
organization.

Aryan Nations. The Aryan Nations functions as a
clearinghouse of information and links for the Aryan
movement, skinheads, and other extremists. Numerous links
provide propaganda and erroneous information about
targeted minority groups, Christianity and the Bible, as well
as other topics of concern to white extremists including
information on acts of terrorism. Aryan Nations has been far
less cautious about avoiding or disguising linkages to
controversial materials such as bomb making, pirate radio,
and computer viruses than any other site in this study. Aryan
Nations is a Neo-Nazi, Christian-identity organization with
strong ties to the skinhead movement. At the time of this
study, the Aryan Nations was involved in a lawsuit, which it
subsequently lost and paid substantial fines. Since then its
Web site has been inactive.

World Church of The Creator. As a part of the White Identity
religious movement, the World Church of the Creator
(WCOTC) is both anti-Semitic and anti-Christian. While
WCOTC is a loose knit group, it is one of the fastest growing
white extremist groups (ADL, 1999). There is an effort to
appeal to skinheads on its Web site. WCOTC has made
inroads with many individuals and groups, which is
demonstrated by its organization, Skinheads of the Racial
Holy War, and its use of the slogan RAHOWA, which
comprised of the first two letters in each of the words in the
phrase.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection occurred during a two-week period in the
summer of 2000. Much of the Internet operates within the
public domain. Copyright-protected materials were examined
within the context of educational fair use (U.S. Copyright
Office, 2000). Primary documents published on each site's
server were the central focus of this study. However, direct
links to secondary documents were also included. No attempt
was made to collect files, images, or other data from areas
that are restricted by membership or fees.

Narrative notes were read, analyzed, and reanalyzed to
categorize data based on emergent themes. Using a process
of constant comparison, commonalties were found for data
and new categories were formulated for data that did not fit
into existing categories. Coding of the data followed a
method of a categorization into coherent classes for
emergent themes. The classes were mutually exclusive.

Results and Discussion

Evidence From Internet Search Engines

Children may accidentally enter a Web site when searching
for school-related information or free, downloadable MP3
music. For example, when researching such topics as Martin
Luther King, Jr. or the Holocaust, a child's search can turn up
sites such as "Martin Luther King Jr.: A Historical
Examination" or "What really happened with the Holoco$t
[sic]?" These sites appear to be authoritative, especially to a
juvenile, but each site offers historically inaccurate
information and extremist versions of historic events and
personages. For example, the alternative "King" site
(http://www.martinlutherking.org) contains pictures of Dr.
King with his family; the text on the links on the main page
provide no clue about what will follow, which is anti-King
propaganda. The site alleges that Dr. King was an agent of
communism, a disruptive force in American history, and
accuses him of numerous acts of plagiarism. Stormfront,
however, does not link its main site directly to or from the
"King" pages. Links to this site were provided by 48 different
Web sites, the bulk of them monitoring groups and
educational institutions using the site as an example of the
need for effective Web evaluation (WebTrends, August 25,
2000).

In the other example, "What Really Happened With the
Holoco$t?," there is a revisionist history and Holocaust
denial, hosted by the National Socialist Hitler Youth Legion. It
links to other revisionist and Holocaust denial sites, including
revisionist materials on Stormfront, Hammerskin Nation, and
National Alliance's Web sites. These and other Holocaust
denial sites are rarely listed on child-oriented search engines
such as Yahooligans and AskJeeves, the two most popular
search engines for children (MediaMetrix, June 2000). These
sites are accessible by using other search engines such as
Yahoo, AltaVista, or Fast Search, however.

Evidence From Sites Designed Specifically for
Children and Teens

Creativity for Kids. This is a Web site developed by the World
Church of The Creator (WCOTC) that offers downloadable
coloring book pages and crossword puzzles about "white
pride" in a subtle "kid-friendly" format. Materials are written
at an age-appropriate level. The site invites children to
e-mail questions about the online crossword puzzles. While
WCOTC packages hate messages within the context of a
religion that is anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, and anti-everyone
except whites, its children's section mainly promotes white
pride. This site was linked to by only 13 different Web pages
and the majority of links to this page were from extremist
monitoring sites and other WCOTC pages (WebTrends,
August 25, 2000).

Stormfront for Kids. The site is purported to be the Web page
of a pre-teen boy, who shares his understanding of the world
with his peers, but it is the official "kid's" page and is a highly
organized and technologically savvy production. If offers a
free download of "White Power Doom" as well as two white
power MP3 music files. One page was dedicated to a
discussion of the dangers of Pokemon for white children and
white culture. Several innocuous links to materials on Celtic
culture were also provided. The link to a special children's
and teens' chat forum was inoperable. Children visiting the
page have comprehensive access to all of Stormfront's online
materials as well as to its extensive list of external links.
Linkage to the site, however, is limited. A WebTrends search
of the page's URL revealed 37 links to the site; its host site,
Stormfront, is actually linked to by over one thousand
different Web pages (25 August 2000).

Aryan Nations Youth Corps (ANYAC). This site functions as
the "youth counterpart of Aryan Nations" (Aryan Nations, 6
August 2000, p. 5). It is designed for "young WHITE ARYAN
PEOPLE dedicated to the preservation and building of a
racially pure homeland" (p.5). Other than a basic outline of
what it means to be an Aryan youth, the site is quite limited
in information and appeal. There are no internal or external
links associated with the page. However, children who
manage to find the page can access plenty of information
regarding bomb making and other violent acts by selecting
the Aryan Underground link on Aryan Nation's main page.
ANYAC is linked to by 61 different Web pages, according to
an AltaVista search conducted using WebTrends'
popularity-tracking software (25 August 2000).

Hammerskin Nation. This Web site is geared toward teens
and young adults with links to all other extremist groups in
this study. Links to a variety of other Hammerskin and
skinhead groups are provided. The site offers free MP3
downloads and a banner link to Panzerfaust Records.
Panzerfaust Records is a Minnesota based music label which
specializes in the production and distribution of radical
pro-White rock music. In German, Panzerfaust means
armored fist.

Additional links to other white power music vendors make the
site appealing to teens. Hammerskin Nation employs
cutting-edge Internet technology and a user-friendly layout
to appeal to its audience. Announcements of events such as
concerts as well as up-to-date information on white power
news and events enhance the site's appeal. A variety of chat
forums serve as a place for youth to meet and share ideas
and information. This site also has also engaged in targeting
- by name, organization, and e-mail address - its enemies.
Despite an obvious effort to appeal to a youthful audience,
Hammerskin Nation's official policy is to not allow
membership for those under the age of twenty-one. Only 45
links to the page were listed by AltaVista (WebTrends, 25
August 2000).

Evidence From the Discourse Analysis

Name Calling

All the extremist groups studied employ various propaganda
techniques, but especially name-calling. This technique
arouses prejudices by labeling the object as something the
target audience should fear or hate. The purpose is to sway
the audience to reject a person or an idea because of a
perceived negative association of the idea or person with the
symbol. The front pages tend to promote "white pride" rather
than messages of violence or of ethnic or racial hatred.
WCOTC and Hammerskins use epithets more than older,
more established groups, such as the National Alliance and
Stormfront. Older, more educated white extremists, such as
Don Black of Stormfront and Dr. William Pierce of the
National Alliance, lead the latter organizations. The term
"mud race" is a popular euphemism for non-whites, but just
a few clicks into any of these Web sites reveals language that
is much more direct, such as "nigger." WCOTC openly
defends use of this pejorative term:

"This is a deliberate choice of words. As we state on
page 49 in NATURE'S ETERNAL RELIGION, if we are
for White Racial supremacy then we must stop giving
them credit and respect which they did not earn, do
not deserve, and never did. Again, it is very strange
that the same people who are so affronted by the
niggers not getting their "proper respect" are totally
unconcerned about the vicious, unwarranted attacks
by the niggers and other mud races upon the White
Race and will not lift a finger in the defense of their
own kind. They seem to deem it quite proper that the
niggers should be loyal to their race, the Jews should
be loyal to their race, but when the White Man is
asked to show a loyalty to his own race, he is
immediately denounced, even by members of his own
race, as being a racist, a bigot, a Nazi, and many
other derogatory smear words that the Jews have
concocted." (WCOTC, no date, p. 3)

References to Authority

References to authoritative sources serve a useful function
for white extremists. For example, Aryan Nations offers the
following information that it claims comes from the Sydney
Morning Herald,an Australian newspaper:

"Most victims of race crime - about 90 per cent - are
White. Almost 1 million White Americans were
murdered, robbed, assaulted or raped by black
Americans in 1992, compared with about 132,000
blacks who were murdered, robbed, assaulted or
raped by Whites. Blacks are committing more than 50
times the number of violent racial crimes of Whites."
(Aryan Nations, 6 August 2000).

This is an obvious propaganda technique, presenting
erroneous information, not providing alternative sources to
show more than one side of an issue or variable estimation.
The actual article is not formally cited on the page so
checking the facts becomes a greater effort than many
readers will be willing to undertake. Of course, children who
have yet to develop critical thinking skills may not question
authenticity anymore than do millions of adults who respond
to hoax anonymous, unsigned, unsourced e-mail messages
(e.g., http://www.snopes.com/).

Deference to Documented Authority

The Aryan Nations uses the American Declaration of
Independence for justification and imitates it in its Aryan
Declaration of Independence
(http://www.nidlink.com/~aryanvic/declar.html). A list of
grievances about the current federal government, akin to
those about the British monarchy, is offered as justification
for this call to action against the federal government.
Another example of this technique is a reference to Samuel
Adams' speech at the Philadelphia State House, made on 1
August 1776 (Stormfront, 14 August 2000, p. 1) on
Stormfront's main page. The following excerpt is offered in
an effort to legitimize Stormfront's agenda:

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility
of servitude better than the animating contest of
freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your
counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands
which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen." (Stormfront, 14 August 2000, p. 1).

This quotation is taken out of context and used in conjunction
with other quotations from notable Americans including
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The quotation
suggests a natural ally for a group professing to offer its
resources to "those courageous men and women fighting to
preserve their White Western culture, ideals, and freedom of
speech and association... ." (Stormfront, 14 August 2000, p.
1).

Stormfront's Web site offers numerous quotations from
famous Western politicians and philosophers. Each quotation
is an anachronism.

Religious Authority

Some white extremist groups, such as Aryan Nations, cloak
themselves in religion, particularly Christianity, to bolster
their claims. Others, such as the World Church of the
Creator, bash Christianity, preferring instead their own
version of a whites-only Godliness. It is interesting that many
extremists call themselves reverend, such as the Reverend
Matt Hale of the World Church of the Creator and Reverends
Mike Teague and Richard Butler of the Aryan Nations.
Religious arguments, which may appeal to some adolescents,
often appeal to divine authority, as in this example:

"WE BELIEVE [sic] that the Cananite Jew is the
natural enemy of our Aryan (White) race. This is [sic]
attested by scripture and all secular history. The Jew
is like a destroying virus that attacks our racial body
to destroyer [sic] Aryan culture and the purity of our
Race. Those of our Race who resist these attacks are
called "chosen and faithful" John 8:44;
1Thessalonians 2:15; Revelations 17:14." (Aryan
Nation, no date, p. 3).

Aryan Nations also uses the Bible to sanction action: "Psalm
149:6 Let the high Praises of God be in their mouth, and a
two-edged sword in their hand... ." (Aryan Nations, no date,
p. 2). Stormfront uses biblical scriptures to justify its racial
philosophy and to encourage action. At Stormfront, Christ is
portrayed as anti-Semitic (Stormfront, 14 August 2000).

Scientific Authority

Scientific ideas, particularly Darwinian evolutionary theory,
are used as a justification for many of the ideas promoted by
the groups, in particular the National Alliance, Stormfront,
and Aryan Nations. Like the Nazis before them, they rely
upon a blend of science, ignorance, and mythology to prop
up their arguments. For example, the National Alliance
advises:

"The culture of a race, free of alien influences, is
telling evidence of that race's essential nature. The
African Negro with a cow-dung hairdo, a bone
through his nose, and teeth filed down to sharp
points, in other words, presents to us a far more
accurate image of the Negro essence than does the
American Black in a business suit who has been
trained to drive an automobile, operate a typewriter,
and speak flawless English ... . Negro culture
inferiority is the consequence of the physical
inadequacy of the Negro brain in dealing with
abstract concepts. On the other hand, the Negro
shows an ability approaching that of the White at
mental tasks requiring only memory. That is why the
Negro can be trained relatively easily to adapt to
many aspects of White culture ... . It has been well
known since the large-scale intelligence testing of
U.S. Army recruits in World War I that the average
Negro IQ is approximately 15 per cent below that of
the average White. Apologists for the Blacks have
tried to explain away the earlier test scores as being
due to the effects of segregated schools and Black
poverty; i.e. they claimed the tests were "culturally"
biased." (Pierce, no date, p. 1).

Institutional Authority

Individuals or organizations cited as information sources
often have apparently impressive credentials that may not
bear up under scrutiny. One example is the Institute for
Historical Review (IHR), a Web site linked from Stormfront,
WCOTC, and many other extremist Web sites. IHR (no
date) offers revisionist perspectives about the Holocaust,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill,
WWII, Fred A Leuchter Jr., Stalinism and other topics. The
site is a sophisticated propaganda effort. Information is
neither balanced nor historically accurate. Anne Frank, Simon
Wiesenthal, Elie Wiesel, and the U.S. Memorial Holocaust
Museum are attacked in numerous articles published by the
Institute's online journal. For example:

"Influential organizations and much of the western
media promote a quasi-religious Anne Frank cult. She
has become a kind of secular saint. Along with many
other Belsen camp inmates, Anne came down with
typhus, from which she died in mid-March 1945. She
was not killed or murdered. Anne Frank perished -
like millions of others, both Jewish and non-Jewish, in
Europe during that terrible time - an indirect victim of
history's most devastating war ... . Few people
realize that Anne, along with father and sister, and
thousands of other Jews, "survived"
Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her father, Otto Frank, came
down with typhus and was transferred to the camp
infirmary there to recover. He was one of thousands
of sick and feeble Jews who were left behind when
the Germans abandoned the camp in January 1945,
shortly before it was overrun by the Soviets. He died
in Switzerland in August 1980 ... . If the German
policy had been to kill Anne Frank and her father,
they would not have survived Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Their fate, as tragic as it was, cannot be reconciled
with the Holocaust extermination story." (Weber, M.,
no date, p. 1).

After earlier efforts to deny Anne Frank's existence failed,
IHR and other Holocaust deniers now attempt to use her
death from typhus to disprove the Holocaust, although they
also deny that she wrote the diary. IHR has no association
with any legitimate historical organizations or history
departments. Links to Holocaust denial sites such as
Zendelsite, Revisionism.com, the Blacks and Jews
Newspage, as well as other Holocaust denial Web sites
around the world reveal the true purpose of the site. The
belief of white extremists about the Holocaust as a hoax
created by Jews, is explained in this passage:

"[The Holocaust] along with Christianity, ranks as one
of the biggest lies and biggest hoaxes in history.
Privately, among themselves, the Jews published the
growth of their total world population between 1938
and 1948, as increasing from approximately
16,600,000 to 17,650,000, an increase of over a
million. This would be an outrageous impossibility, if
it had been decimated by 6,000,000 during this same
period ... . It has reaped tremendous dividends for
them. Having worldwide monopoly of the propaganda
machinery, they were able to put that lie across with
little or no opposition." (WCOTC, no date, p. 3)

Writings archived on the National Alliance and Stormfront
Web sites, as well as content linked to by these and all of the
other sties included in this study attempt to cast doubt on the
reality of the Holocaust by denying historical facts and by
attacking survivors and witnesses. By alleging that the
Holocaust is part of a world-wide Jewish conspiracy to
maintain power and generate money via a "Holohoax"
industry, as the term "Holoco$t" suggests.

"For many years, scholars and researchers have been
delving into the history of World War II, and their
research has cast a lot of doubt on the commonly
accepted 6 million figure for Jewish losses in that
war. Now undoubtedly you've heard Jewish
spokesmen decrying this movement among historians
and researchers to bring our history books into closer
accord with the facts. This movement is usually called
"revisionism," because of the belief of its adherents
that the history of wars is usually written by the
victors, and the victors often have a lot of reasons for
lying: covering up their own atrocities, and justifying
extreme actions taken against those they wish to
paint as "evil." But what these Jewish