The Simon Wiesenthal Center has a long and somewhat noble history of tracking down escaped Nazi war criminals, with the exception of those who got good jobs with NASA. ("Oh, come let me tell you of Wernher Von Braun…"). But, now, fifty years after the end of the war, the War Criminal supply has started to dwindle; those few not moldering in unmarked graves in some god-forsaken South American cesspool are moldering in nursing homes in equally god-forsaken places like Florida, and frankly, charging into Shady Vale Rest Home (conveniently located next door to Shady Vale Cemetery) and hauling out some octogenarian drooling on his shoes doesn't make for good copy.

Now, in a fair world, the Center would just disband. After all, it was started to find Nazi war criminals; it's found most of them and the rest won't live long enough to make a good show at their trials - might as well just say, "We done good", and go home, right?

Wrong.

After all, the Center is a massive non-profit organization that employs lots of people and provides countless thousands with a good tax write off! It can't go out of business, just because there are no more remnants of the Third Reich hiding in Bolivia! Like nearly all do-gooder organization, the organization has become an end in itself.

But you can't say that. You can't send letters to people, asking them for money, and not have some good excuse. So what to do, what to do, what to do…

Easy. Do what everyone does. Invent a new enemy.

And there's a perfect one out there, too. The Internet. A massive anarchy composed entirely of pedophiles, geeky Star Trek fans --- and neo-fascists. Sen. Exon is hunting down the pedophiles, the Star Trek fans are (mostly) harmless, so that leaves the neo-fascists for the Wiesenthal Center to go on about. And go on they do.

Before I go too much further, let me clear one issue up. I'm Jewish, and reasonably proud of my ancestry. My ancestors were chased out of every decent country in Europe, came here with nothing more than half a name (don't you love Ellis Island?), and still managed to do quite all right for themselves. My people are survivors, and that's a good thing. And in an ideal, sane, world, my ancestry wouldn't matter. Truth should be truth, no matter who speaks it. But we do not live in a sane world. It takes a Thomas Sowell, or even a Louis Farrakhan, to point out that the welfare system is murdering blacks. Only a woman is allowed to defend the right of people to produce and view pornography. Only a homosexual can criticize the AIDS establishment. And, of course, only a Jew is permitted to critique such things as the Wiesenthal Center.

Back to the Center, then. While they might have begun by hunting down war criminals, they are now engaged in the vigorous pursuit of thought criminals…and thus, have become little better than the fascists they claim to be fighting.

Recently, the Center sent a letter to nearly all the major online services and Internet access providers, urging them to stop allowing people who promoted "hatred" to use their systems. It's not censorship, they say, no no - every private provider has a right to decide who to allow access to. This is true. Calls for boycotts and denial of service are, indeed, protected speech.

And so is calling those who do such things book-burning censors, which is precisely what I am calling those in charge of Wiesenthal Center, and, by inference, those who continue to support them.

The answer to wrong ideas - ALWAYS - is better ideas. There is nothing stopping the Wiesenthal Institute from putting up their own web page (which they have) and having people post to Usenet debunking Neo-Nazi lies (which they do). Were they to stop there, I'd have no comment.

But they do not stop there. It seems that while you can rebuke people directly on Usenet (and, indeed, the bulk of the posts in revisionist or 'white power' newsgroups are such rebukes), you can't do so as easily on the web. There are people saying things on the web the Center doesn't like, and I've yet to meet a censor who can sleep nights knowing there is something outside of his control.

What is especially chilling is their reason, stated quite openly: With the advent of the Internet, and especially of the Web, free speech has suddenly become real. It was of no concern to allow your random loon to run off a few flyers and hand them out on street corners, so long as he was kept away from television, radio, major publishing houses, newspapers, etc. Free speech is fine -so long as you can prevent speaker from reaching audience. But now, thanks to the web, EVERYONE has equal access to the same audience. My web page can reach as many people as the Center's. So can Aryan Nation's. And that really scares those who like to think they run things, such as Sen. Exon, or think they should be running things, such as the Center.

So the Center is going out and "requesting" that services such as AOL and Netcom stop providing space to any organization the Center doesn't approve of. It's obvious that they aren't going to stop with "requests". If the Exon bill passes, and it most likely will, the next step is going to be banning so-called "hate speech" on the Internet, along with stiff penalties for anyone who dares to hold an opinion not government approved and FCC licensed. The anarchy of the net will end. There will be order. A New Order.

Sound familiar? I thought it might.

Addendum: I was going to post the above as is, but I am a fair-minded fellow, and willing to grant the benefit of the doubt. If a representative from the Wiesenthal Center contacts me, and send me a certified, notarized document stating that the Center, and any group it is affiliated with, supports, funds, or receives funding from, will fight fully and without reservation any laws, in America or anywhere else the Center operates, that would impose any form of criminal or civil penalty for any form of expression, regardless of its nature or the medium used, then I will retract my above statements and issue a full and public apology. Also in this document must be included a binding contract, fully certified by an attorney, that should the Center violate this promise, they will donate the sum of $100,000.00 (One hundred thousand) (in 1996 dollars) to any organization or organizations of my choice.

Addendum Deux:Even if the Center does not wish to agree to my generous offer, I will, in the interest of free speech, place a link to any commentary or rebuttal to the above on my web page, so that anyone who reads this document can get "the other side" with just a mouse click, on the sole condition that my page is reciprocally linked. Unlike Rabbi Cooper, I believe that free debate is superior to suppression of dissenting views.

The closest thing to a reply to those who point out the censorship tactics of the SWC is located here.

Back To Main Page