Chapter 5: Pledging Allegiance--Hatred as Patriotism

OVERVIEW

If we believe absurdities we shall commit atrocities.

--VOLTAIRE

WHILE NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES HERALD THE INTERNET AS THE CURRENT REVOLUTION IN COMMUNICATIONS, THEY OFTEN IGNORE ANOTHER ASPECT OF ITS LOW-COST, WORLDWIDE AVAILABILITY: HATE GROUPS HAVE FLOCKED TO THE INTERNET TO USE IT AS AN INEXPENSIVE AND EASY WAY TO RECRUIT NEW MEMBERS AND COMMUNICATE WITH EXISTING ONES.

As early as 1995, Don Black, the ex-Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan and owner of the white supremacist Stormfront website (http://www.stormfront.org), said that the "… Internet has had a pretty profound influence on [the white supremacist] movement whose resources are limited. The access is anonymous and there is unlimited ability to communicate with others of a like mind" (New York Times, March 13, 1995).