White “Pride” forums are abuzz after my post about YouTube’s selective enforcement of their hate speech policy. The post focused on the plight of Atheist bomb thrower Nick Gisburne whose rants against religion were happily hosted on YouTube for months. Until he posted one about Islam that is, and was banned almost immediately. To illustrate the hypocrisy of YouTube I presented five videos that YouTube had no problem with, two from suspected Salafist convert/conspiracy theorist Frank Weltner and three from generic White pride and/or White power adherents. (Yes, I know there’s a difference.)
The first video was one from the newly formed group Smoky Mountain Resistance, mainly because its first few seconds feature the White Pride Celtic Cross which would mean that YouTube staff couldn’t claim they didn’t know it was a White Supremacist video, even if they only watched 3-4 seconds of it. It also features propaganda about the government curtailing our freedoms that is suspiciously similar to beliefs of modern Communists. And Rosie O’Donnell. This fits in with the overarching theme of the site.
The point of the post was that free speech is free speech, Smoky Mountain Resistance has the right to spout their nonsense, which will indeed offend people. Nick Gisburne should have the same right. As should Michelle Malkin and Diane Vera and anyone else who wants to present their views to the world. The problem people on the Stormfront forums, who are in a virtual tizzy over this post, have is that they believe 3 things about this situation which are inherently untrue, and are caused by their rampant ignorance and decision to not actually read my post.
1) That I’m trying to deny SMR their free speech rights. This is patently false, I’m arguing that a privately owned corporation either enforce its supposed hate speech standards fairly or allow all offensive speech. If you’re going to suspend the account of Gisburne for offending Muslims, then Suspend Weltner’s account for offending Christians, Jews, Wiccans and practically every other religion (except Islam, thus my suspicion of his conversion) that he claims in various places to be plots by the Jews.
2) Like many people nowadays, many on the forum believe that freedom of speech means freedom from the consequences of speech, which is doesn’t. If you grab your White pride flag and wave it around, getting called a Nazi doesn’t interfere with your rights. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from your speech being critiqued.
3) On the mentioning of this or that hate group I am required in some way to “refute” them about something or the other. Or in the words of the esteemed Stormfront poster Son of Italy:
“This ‘Rob Taylor’ has my attention. A perusal of his website shows an obstinate refusal to actually refute anything, such as Weltners videos or the NPN expose.’ Isn’t that what a web log is supposed to be, at least on a perfuntory level? No, it simply sits there shrieking hysterical omens like some insolent, batty old woman on acid.
Excellent SMR video, though. If this is what the moron at Red Alert considers “hate” then matches are arsonists and guns are mass murderers. I believe I shall visit SMR now….thanks.”
Again, my post was about an entirely different subject. Why should I take time away from that point to refute Weltner or SMR? Should I, while blogging about why I love Halloween stop and refute the existence of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny? Do I really need to engage every crank on the Internet I disagree with?
White Supremacists of course would say yes, because at the core of their movement is a desire to engage others. The seek to attempt to convert people to their way of thinking not so much because they believe that well adjusted, worldly individuals can suddenly be convinced to join their hate cult, but because it reinforces their own sense of a special identity to be in conflict with others. The truth is that SMR was downright giddy to have been mentioned, in passing, on Red Alerts. They have an enemy now; all is right with the world.
Stormfront seems angrier about SMR being mentioned, not because they really think I slandered them, but because SMR, and not Stormfront, got the mention. Green doesn’t look good on top of a Nazi uniform, so Stormfront, consider yourselves mentioned. You’re still the big kahunas of hate.
As an aside, it seems that some people think that it is cowardly of me to not post my picture and a host of personal information about myself on the web so that they and their unemployed friends can more easily track me down. When I get a good picture of me I’ll certainly post it, and there is a wealth of information on me strewn throughout this site, so look around, you’ll find it.