[net.politics] One Oaf's Opinion type 'n' now, y'all

oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold) (08/10/85)


>>	Me, the oaf	(Also non-quoted lines).
>	Don Black
	 >	Various people on the net love that term "Nazi."  
	 >	I'm a dummy.  I don't understand what a Nazi is.  
	 >>		    ******************************
 //******>> [SHORTENED FOR BREVITY] 
 ||	 >>					[All quotes by Don Black.]
 ||
 ||	 >>    If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, smells  like
 ||	 >>a  duck,  lives  in the swamp with the ducks, and presumably
 ||	 >>hopes to produce future generations by <@%$>, who  am  I  to
 ||	 >>question  whether it's a duck?  (Now, as to whether you're a
 ||	 >>dummy...) [Oded Feingold]
 ||					(I corrected how you 
 ||					spelled my name.)
 ||
 \\******>>	Shortened for brevity, perhaps.  More likely
		shortened for the additive inverse of clarity.
		The excised quotes were
	>  After all, there are  approximately 40 million Jews worldwide.
		A standard claim of those who assert the holocaust never
		existed.  Nobody has ever been able to find 26.5 million 
		of those Jews.
	>    The UN to this day has no legitimacy, and neither does the 
	>Israeli State.
		...
	>     As for Hitler not killing any Jews, well, I guess there are 
	>pro's and con's of the subject, aren't there?  I suppose the subject 
	>has been "proven" in a courtroom.  But that's relatively easy to do 
	>when the jury's been brainwashed, and the judge has been paid off.

    If  you  think I called you a Nazi out of thin air, rest assured I
had logical reasons, provided by yourself, and  I  pointed  them  out.
Also  you think WRONG, since I called you no such thing.  I said I was
unable, on the strength of the evidence you  so  kindly  provided,  to
claim you aren't one.  Not the same thing.

    I happen to think you're a KGB agent, hired to spread second-level
disinformation   under   guise  of  a  Klansman  and  neo-Nazi.   Said
disinformation, when exposed, will lead to more favorable  perceptions
of  Soviet  intentions  and  a  very  strong  reaction in favor of gun
control, perhaps outright confiscation:  O, ye fools who have read  so
far, read on and be educated.

		 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

    You  proclaim  the  existence  and  malevolent power of a sinister
clique including the  Communists,  and  some  kind  of  conspiracy  to
enslave the USA.  Samples:
	>     One also has to realize that the Israeli State was formed 
	>by the edict of a One-World-Government organization,...
		...
 	>     Every war the United States has been involved in since the turn
	>of the century has had only one reason:  to further the causes of the
	>One-World-Government, Internationalist Slave-Traders.  Call them what 
	>you will, be it Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateralists, Bilder-
	>bergers, Aquarians, Illuminati--they're all one and the same.

    But  manifestly,  no such organization or conspiracy can be found,
except of course, our friends in Moskva, and  your  self-contradictory
(and often nonsensical) postings:
	>while the greater threat from a Communist Mexico is
	>totally ignored.
		...
	>It is fairly obvious that we are being set up for an invasion of
	>the American mainland by Communist forces.
		...
	>assault from Cuba into Florida and the Gulf states--
merely provoke a backlash of disbelief.  "If he makes so little sense,
and is so full of random hatreds, and hates the Communists so  much...
	>     So today, when the knifepoint of Communist slavery is right in
	>our belly, we do nothing to stop it from slicing our hearts out.
then clearly, the Commies are not as bad as he says."
    Does the audience still seek confirmation of "self-contradictory?"
Another  example  from  the  same  posting that included the preceding
quotes:  [From Mr. Black's Memorial Day address,  a  fitting  time  to
stir patriotic fervor, and a suspension of healthy skepticism.]
	>     But this time the Rockefeller/Rothschild Internationalist 
	>clique  has  made  one fatal mistake.  What sane person, pray
tell, would accuse the Rockefellers or Rothschilds of being in  league
with   Communists?    Aren't   they  the  consummate  capitalists,  by
definition?  Why on earth would they team up with the Bolsheviks,  and
lose  their  fortunes?   Or, assuming they could retain their fortunes
and privilege  in  a  Soviet-run  world,  why  would  these  aesthetic
sybarites want to see their world turn as gray and unhappy as it would
become under such conditions.  Better to own a  beautiful  world  than
control an ugly one, no?
    So what is Mr. Black up to?  Why would  he  bother  to  leave  his
credibility  so  vulnerable?   Assuming he really meant it, wouldn't a
slightly less hysterical tone  accomplish  the  same  task  with  less
likelihood  of  failure?   How can we reconcile such absurd flights of
rhetoric with his obviously keen mind?  The answer may surprise you...


    There  are  TWO  American  audiences  that  Don Black is trying to
reach, and he  expects  to  stir  opposing  reactions  in  each:   The
interplay  between  the  two,  and  the  resulting  stratification and
internecine hostility in American society, displays the genius in  his
(well,  more  likely Colonel General Viktor Vissarionavich Bogdanov's,
of the 12th Propaganda and  Psychological  Warfare  Directorate,  KGB)
scheme.

    First,  there  are  the  true  believers; people of low education,
sophistication, and mental equipage.  They are  economically  buffeted
by  a  changing  world and their manifest inability to keep abreast of
things, and stricken in their pride by everything from civil rights to
feminism   to   gay   rights.    These  are  the  farmers,  unemployed
manufacturing workers, Vietnam Vets unsuccessfully  reintegrated  into
American  society,  bikers  who  never grew up, prudish and ultimately
dissatisfied mothers, and other marginal types  who  join  KKK,  Posse
Comitatus  and  similar  organizations.   Their lives are dominated by
disappointment, fear and hatred, and "leaders" like Don Black and Rev.
Jim  Wickstrom  (also  undoubtedly a plant, with rhetoric identical to
Mr.  Black's when it comes to "one-world international slave traders")
whip  up  for  them a vainglorious fantasy life of taking to the hills
and fighting off the Commies and  tax  collectors  (in  no  particular
order) with their pitiful, illegally automatized weapons.  They find a
cohesive philosophy in Messrs. Black's and Wickstrom's  Fundamentalist
Christianity,
	>	     		     *  *
	>	   		   ***  ***
	>	 In Hoc Signo    *****  *****	Vinces
	>	
	>			******  ******
	>	 		 *****  *****
	>	  		  ****  ****
	>	   		   ***  ***
	>	    		    **  **
	>	     		     *  *
[in this sign we will win] and a sense of worth in believing they (and
this country) are the Chosen  of  God.   Coincidentally,  that  latter
belief  is  bolstered by fanatical hostility to the "other" contenders
for that title, namely the  Jews,  and  you'll  find  Anti-Semitism  a
significant  part  of  their  belief  structure.  This is the class of
people Don Black wants "behind" him, believing his words.

The second group is far more important:  It consists of solid citizens
in  positions  of influence.  Mr. Black has no hope of convincing them
with his apparently childish fulminations.  Rather his  scheme  is  to
_alienate_  the  intellectuals,  and by dint of shrill accusations and
nonsensical rhetoric convince them of Mao's favorite dictum  [item  27
out of 402 in the little red book]:  "Whoever is the enemy of my enemy
is my friend.  Whoever is the friend of my enemy  is  my  enemy."   If
people  get  disgusted  enough  by  his postings (and speeches, if the
papers report them), they'll  look  more  favorably  at  the  Soviets,
simply because he "opposes" them so vehemently.

There's one more thread to tie in, namely gun control:  Note that  Mr.
Black  is  apparently  fanatically  against it, claiming the citizenry
needs its guns to fight off attacking Soviet ground forces, let  alone
common  criminals.   Also, note that he makes no secret of his support
for automatic weaponry in the hands of private  citizens  --  he  even
posted  a  message telling how to convert a legal semi-automatic AR-15
to an illegal fully automatic one.

    Why?

    Let's expand a previous quote:
	>     But this time the Rockefeller/Rothschild Internationalist clique
	>has made one fatal mistake.  Those of us who survived the Viet Nam era
	>have learned the lessons of warmaking all too well, lessons we will 
	>not easily forget.  WE WILL BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO USE OUR SKILLS one
	>more time to keep our Nation and People free.  
The  federal  government  already  identifies  Posse  Comitatus  as  a
terrorist organization, and the KKK has been known as one for  a  long
time.   [I  don't  know whether they enjoy the official designation at
present.  Probably not, since they're so fragmented.]  The people  who
undertake  their  depredations  are not the Blacks and the Wickstroms,
but the poor psychos who really believe.  Because  they  are  amassing
automatic weapons, they are becoming a match, in individual cases, for
local police departments.  In future, they can  be  expected  to  grow
stronger,  and  engage in raids, robberies, assassinations, attacks on
synagogues (which are already  taking  place,  for  example)  and  the
issuance  of vigilante "justice," probably against prominent leftists,
liberals, Jews, Blacks,  Hispanic  politicians,  and  immigrants,  for
example  from  SE  Asia.   [KKK involvement is suspected in attacks on
Cambodians in East Boston this summer.]   These  outrages  will  bring
heavier and heavier police reaction.  Due to the armament these groups
possess,  and  their  fanatic  nature,  there  will  be  a  series  of
increasingly  bloody  confrontations  between  these  people  and  the
authorities, possibly involving the national guard if  the  police  in
some location find themselves outclassed.
    Such  incidents will build strong pro-gun-control sentiments among
ordinary citizens and conceivable Agents of Influence,  including  the
technological  professionals.   Even  a proponent of personal defense,
such as myself, might consider myself better off if guns were strictly
controlled  than  if  I  had  to deal with automatic-weapon attacks by
multiple assailants with my little eight-shooter (or even fourteen...)
Not that the claims of guns-against-Russians ever made sense, but with
that  ostensible  excuse  among  the  survivalists,  and  a  worsening
domestic picture, more Draconian laws can be expected to come down the
pike.  The role of us well-to-do netters (ahem)  will  be  to  support
such  legislation,  our  resistance  to  gun  control  sapped  by  the
relatively  chaotic  national  scene  and  the  known   stupidity   of
anti-gun-control rhetoric.  Also to advocate and support authoritarian
measures, given the perverse and limitedd type of class  warfare  that
Mr.   Black's  friends  and rhetoric seem to advocate.  As part of the
general abreaction to neo-conservative excesses, one can  expect  that
politicians   advocating   vigilance  against  the  Soviet  Union  and
sacrifices to provide for the common defense will have a tougher time,
being tarred by their association with the people committing outrages.
Hence US arms policy will move more toward appeasement  while  at  the
same  time domestic policy will become harsher.  What better method of
weakening our defenses  abroad  and  increasing  dissatisfaction  (and
turmoil) at home?
    If it seems I have rolled over full circle and indicated that  the
Soviets  would  indeed like to invade us, rest assured I meant no such
thing.  USSR would be crazy to do anything like that, given that  they
can  accomplish  their goals (of making opposing nations compliant) by
less drastic means.  [They'd  be  crazy  to  do  something  like  that
anyway,  but  that's another issue.]  As the US continues to move into
conventional inferiority with the USSR, the Soviets can support  their
friends,  hurt  ours,  support  revolutions, garner the sponsorship of
national liberation movements, intimidate the Europeans into unlinking
their   defense  from  our  own  (and  extracting  tributes  of  trade
privileges, if nothing else) without spending a drop of Russian  blood
[not  that they're afraid to...], while we exhaust ourselves resolving
the violent internal contradictions that Mr.  Black and his cohorts so
assiduously pursue.
    Not that Mr. Black's work is the "enslavement" of the US  --  that
would  make  little sense, given that WE'RE the Soviet breadbasket and
research establishment, and we'd be far less efficient if we knowingly
did  it  all  for them.  Just a general weakening of American resolve.
No biggie...  We all play our little parts, some  more  dramatic  than
others.
    Besides, if the Russians ever invaded, or "enslaved" the  US,  Mr.
Black  would  be  the  first  one up against the wall and shot --- his
demagogic skills, and knowledge of what's really going on, would  make
him  far too dangerous to be let loose.  I wonder if he'd confess at a
show trial, like the 1930s purge victims, giving their deaths as  well
as  their  lives  to  further  the people's revolution, already in the
monster's hands.  [Of course  not  --  what  occupying  general  would
bother with a trial?]  Ah well, idle speculation.

    Before  I  leave,  I'd  like to look at Mr. Black's protestations,
not as nicely done as the rest of his propaganda:
	>    THE name of the game apparently is that if you can't make 
	>a logical argument against what's being said, then by all means 
	>discredit the person.  All's fair in love and war.
		...
     	>    It's too bad that the net has to be subjected to "Ad
	>Hominem" slurs.  But I suppose if They let me on the net,
	>They can let this kind of crap continue.  C'est la guerre,
	>n'est-ce pas?

    No, it's not too bad.  It's part of the job:  You were supposed to
draw  the  lightning,  thereby defusing the suspicion.  Of course, you
were expected to protest, but THAT you could have  done  better.   5.2
out of 10, and that's being generous.
		 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
    Is it now clear why I have called you "Comrade" these many months?

PS:  Donald, you're clearly  an  American,  no  mole.   Did  you  fool
yourself too, in the end?

-- 
Oded Feingold	{decvax, harvard, mit-eddie}!mitvax!oaf	    oaf%oz@mit-mc.ARPA
MIT AI Laboratory    545 Tech Square    Cambridge, Mass. 02139    617-253-8598