Times Change, Online (Guerrilla) Tactics Don’t
Alan Rosenblatt has unearthed a most fascinating artifact: a guide to online activism produced by a white supremicist in the days before the World Wide Web was all that wide. Alan ran across it in the late 1990s and recently found it again, and he’s published it on his site in part because he doesn’t want it to disappear. Why?
First, it’s a glimpse into the self-justified worldview of a genuine and sincere racist who is not ranting like a crazy man, which has anthropological value on its own. Second, it’s a comprehensive guide to promoting an unpopular stance, in this case one associated with illegal acts, while alienating as few people as possible and simultaneously staying out of jail — a line that radical groups of all political stripes sometimes walk. Finally, as Alan points out, the guide shows that online social media outreach began before what most of us would now consider the internet even existed.
4 comments July 8th, 2009 Trackback Bookmark on del.icio.us
