IDSG Ep79 Tom Metzger Part 2 & The Origins of Online Hate
This week, we finally get to the conclusion of our coverage of Tom Metzger (Part 1 here), which takes us on a journey through the early history of hate online.
Content Warnings.
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Intro links:
This Podcast Has Been Declared a Riot: https://this-podcast-has-been-declared-a-riot.simplecast.com/
Even More News, “Reddit and Robinhood for Rubes.” https://evenmorenews.libsyn.com/reddit-and-robinhood-for-rubes-ep-132
Computer/Hacker History:
Livescience, “History of Computers, a Brief Timeline.” https://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html
Hackers: History of the Computer Revolutin, by Steven Levy. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/hackers/9781449390259/
Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier, by Bruce Sterling (full text at Project Gutenberg). http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/101
Main Podcast Links:
1985.Cyberhate PDF: simson.net/ref/leaderles/1985.CyberHate.pdf
Chip Berlet, “When Hate Went Online,” adapted from a talk given in 2001, Revised 7/4/2008. https://www.researchforprogress.us/topic/when-hate-went-online/
“While investigating the assassination of Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg by neonazi White supremacists, the FBI began to unravel hate group telecommunications by tapping the modem telephone line of Robert Miles.
[…]
“The three earliest race hate BBS systems were: Info. International Network, Aryan Liberty Net, and White Aryan Resistance (W.A.R.) Net.
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“Next to come online (in late 1984 or early 1985) was the White Aryan Resistance BBS in Fallbrook, California, under the auspices of Tom Metzger. Metzger announced the “W.A.R. Computer Terminal” in War ‘85, the newspaper of his White Aryan Resistance (Metzger, 1985). It originally ran on a Commodore 64 with a 300 bps modem (Sills, 1989). Today, most modems run at 56,000 bps, but back then, 300 bps was cutting-edge technology. According to Metzger, “Already White Aryan comrades of the North have destroyed the free speech blackout to our Canadian comrades” (Metzger, 1985). One of the first messages sent out by Metzger was directed at “any Aryan patriot in America who so desires” to arrange for local cable access channel broadcast of Metzger’s new cable TV program “The World as We See It,” later renamed “Race and Reason.” During this same period, there were over one dozen call-in telephone hot lines with recorded messages containing racist and antisemitic material.”
Overthrow, April/May 1985.
“One of our correspondents made an interesting discovery last month. She found the telephone number for one of the bulletin board systems operated by American Nazis. With this number she
was able to log on and get the information that the media has lately been all bugeyed about. Now we are prepared to talk intelligently on the matter.
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“Our point here is simply this: you computer hackers and phone phreaks that are reading this have the ability to uncover and analyze circumstances in ways that most people can’t. Some of you have the ability to recognize touch tones by ear.…
This week, it’s another of our occasional News Roundup episodes. This time Jack takes the lead (and Daniel hits the whiskey) for a discussion about Jimmy Dore platforming a Boogaloo Boy. Plus a couple of other stories, the painful return of an old segment, and a very special but silent guest appearance.
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