Friday, May 20, 2005

Beware The Links Between Conspiracy Theory and Anti-Semitism

Does the poster below offend you?

It should.

It is a symbol of the anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany that led directly to the Holocaust.



What, you may ask, does this have to do with the study of the UFO phenomenon? Unfortunately, more than you might think.

Jeff Rense has a very popular talk radio show, and an affiliated website, that are looked to by a lot of people for information about the UFO phenomenon, conspiracy theories, and other paranormal subjects.

However, that’s not all you get at http://www.rense.com/. In the past three weeks, for example, you will find the following “columns” –

1. 17 May – “Auschwitz Dead – From Four to 1 + Million – Or Less!” (www.rense.com/general65/aauc.htm) by Dick Fojut, who refers to the Holocaust as “the Aushwitz-Holocaust ‘legend’” and urges readers to “decide for yourselves whether the greater claim of 6 million murdered Jews is also false – or (to politically benefit the State of Israel) has been enormously exaggerated…”

2. 17 May – “Anne Frank’s Diary – Some Honest Questions.” (www.rense.com/general65/aan.htm) It makes the outrageous claims that the Diary was “very substantially adapted and enlarged [by Otto Frank] for financial gain” and that the result is “a fraudulent document… which helps promote sympathy for Zionism.”

3. 13 May 2005 – “The Holocaust Belongs to All of Us” by Jana Janus (www.rense.com/65/hol.htm) which includes the following “reportage” – “World War II and the Holocaust seem to have become the exclusive property of the Jews. They dictate what the facts are. They make the documentaries and the films about it. They control the publishing industry that prints the books and the textbooks on this subject. They get to tell everyone what to think about it… The Jews must not be allowed to OWN the Holocaust. They must not be allowed to consider it their exclusive property!”

4. 2 May 2005 – A column with the title “Zundel Update – Two POW Letters from a German Prison” by Ernst Zundel sympathiser Ingrid Rimland (www.rense.com/general64/zundelupdatetwoPOW.htm). For those not aware, Zundel is a notorious Holocaust denier and anti-Semite that Canada had the good sense, after a long legal fight, to deport back to his native Germany. To describe him as a Prisoner of War begs the question – just what war is he fighting, and against whom? Anyone who knows anything about the Zundel case knows the answer to that question.

This isn’t history, or political science.

This isn’t studying the Nazis, or the Holocaust, in order to learn something.

This is Anti-Semitism, plain and simple. It might not be as direct as the poster shown above (although in some cases it is), but that doesn't make it any better. Indeed, it might be even worse - anti-semitism, masquerading as "academic study" and the "free exchange of information." Mac Tonnies, at his excellent blog Posthuman Blues, recently noted the current of anti-Semitism that runs hand in hand these days with those who sit on the fringe of the conspiracy theory-ism (which is itself a fringe - see http://posthumanblues.blogspot.com/2005/05/forteans-as-populist-intellectuals.html). This echoes Jerry Clark, who once wrote, sensibly, “My experience is that if you scratch a conspiracy theorist, a bigot bleeds.”
(www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/1999/may/m14-002.shtml)

William Cooper was an excellent example (Michael Salla, take note).

Unfortunately, so are the postings that can be found at Rense’s website.

Now, Rense sticks a disclaimer on his website that states, in part:

"The posting of stories, commentaries, reports, documents and links (embedded or otherwise) on this site does not in any way, shape or form, implied or otherwise, necessarily express or suggest endorsement or support of any such posted material or parts therein."

The full disclaimer can be seen at www.rense.com.

No disclaimer, however, is sufficient to evade responsibility for providing a forum for this kind of material. It is not a question of freedom of speech (the cloak of intellectual respectability that Rense seeks to wrap himself in); it is a question of knowing right from wrong.

Rense’s disclaimer is moral cowardice - at best.

At worst?

Well, sometimes you are known by the company you keep.

Ufologists have a responsibility to inform themselves of stuff like this, and then walk away from any invite to appear on Rense’s show. I know whereof I speak – a few months ago, I appeared on his show to talk about the Aztec case. I assumed he was just another radio host, and it was just another show, like SDI. I now know different, and I regret appearing on his show. I will not do so again, and I urge everyone in the UFO field to follow suit.

I've spent years, in and out of university, studying the Nazis, the Second World War, and the Holocaust. I take to heart the words of Martin Niemoller, a decorated WWI submarine commander who became a Protestant pastor and anti-Nazi (he spent the war in a concentration camp), and who wrote, after the war:

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out.”

We must never forget, and we must never hesitate to speak out.

That's my disclaimer.

Paul Kimball

For information on the Holocaust, see www.pbs.org/auschwitz/, www.ushmm.org (the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum site), www.vhf.org (Survivors of the SHOAH Visual History Foundation), and www.remember.org - all four are good starting points. Also, check your local video store for two films - The Wannsee Conference, and Conspiracy. And, of course, Schindler's List. For reading material, a good place to start would be with the testimony from the Nuremberg Trial, which can be found at most law libraries.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We must never forget, and we must never hesitate to speak out."

It’s a rather selective feel good form of amnesia, people play when they call up a crime to hang their moral ego and ideas on. They look around their tidy moral world and find

which part of history fits their paradigm and "Bang" the rest is history, except for that bit we select.


I ask, and these few sample post WW2 "Ethnic Cleansing Holocaust" events (below), how would you rate them?


1962 - Algeria - French = 1,000,000 dead [1]

1966 - Nigeria - Biafra = 1,000,000 dead [2]

1975 - Cambodia - Pol Pot = 2,000,000 dead [3]

1994 - Rwanda = 800,000 dead [4][5]

Oh and let’s don't forget the 27,000,000 Russians who perished - yes DEAD... Out of the total 40,000,000 WW2 DEAD.


Now some smart arse cynics may say - "these are not Holocausts". Where are the trains, diaries, camps, gas, exaggerated numbers, museums, lists, and a good old Hollywood movie?

What nothing? Well so old chap a 'rose is a rose by any other name', it all adds up to the same sum = DEATH.

He may also say - But wait where are the academic studies, Nazi, radio hosts, Forteans, Illuminati, Masonics, the stray UFO researchers, conspiracy theorist "that you can scratch" and any other grey image in his post electric black and white world.


The amnesia state echos - "Beware! The Links Between Conspiracy Theory and Anti-Semitism" Oh... that DEAD lot above... We digress back to conspiracy theorist, poster and Rense.


REF:
[1]. http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/algeria.html
[2]. http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/aug1999/nig-a17.shtml
[3]. http://www.cambcomm.org.uk/holocaust.html
[4]. http://www.theinternetparty.org/commentary/c_s.php?section_type=com&td=20040405000111
[5]. http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_rwanda_massacre.html

Alfred Lehmberg said...

Astonishing! Even ~pretending~ that you are an insentient and credulous mook who is taken in by a stealthy (?) bigot is to also say that you are ~not~ the highly educated, vastly experienced, extremely well read, brilliantly erudite, and incisive researcher that you would have us believe you to be. To report ~now~ that you didn't "know" about or fully understand the unsettling content and inclusive scope of Jeff Rense and his program (...and not before you used him to help peddle your now self-discredited video wares!) is a strain on any credulity! And, with this arduously saccharin, suffocatingly maudlin, and juvenilely piqued screed you have shown only ~your~ true colors, Mr. Kimball.

Those of the crass opportunist. Those of the easy betrayer. Those of the angered adolescent...

This latest crocodile tearing burst of reactionary dunderheaded-ness from you comes ~only~ as a result, I suspect, of you being taken to detailed task for other crap-tastic remarks you have recently made in your well-buggered blog... where it was mentioned by your philosophical opposition (now ~conveniently~ deleted, Sir!) that he held a friendship with Jeff Rense and that he was proud of it ... and in 12 short hours we have this... a whiny dismissal of courtesies extended to you by Jeff Rense in the past and an equally whiny attack on the character, motivations, and person of same.

Well, I'm fooled by your red herring disclosure, Mr. Kimball. I'm not surprised by your attack on what remains of courageous journalism in these United States! I'm ~not~ astonished by your lack of balance, you're imposition of cant, and your stupefying bias. This is all par for your neo-conic course.

I am surprised; however, by your ~easy~ willingness to harm the reputation of a man who has only extended you courtesy... only because he was a favorite of someone else provoked to oppose you... myself.

I won't waste my time defending Jeff Rense to ...you... here. It's a waste of time and frankly you're not worth it, but were Jeff Rense the anti-Semite that you make him out to be, Mr. Kimball, he would not publish ~me~!

I am decidedly less than an anti-Semite, Sir! I may have even slipped over the line into full-tilt Jew ~Booster~. ...But nothing is beyond investigation. Nothing is above exploration. Nothing stands outside inquiry. No ~thing~ is past analysis. Rense understands this even as you, obviously, cannot.

This would, of course, include ~your~ motivations, evaluations of ~your~ mushy consistencies, ~your~ corrosive methods, and ~you~ yourself. You've pointed a finger, Mr. Kimball. Can you weather the three pointing back? We'll see.

On Jeff's site is a quote by Noam Chomsky. I'll use it here because it's true and I know it is sure to jerk a knot in your tightly curled little tail:

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

I suspect you won't believe in it at all, Mr. Kimball. Sincerely, scratch a bigot, by way of contrast, and Kimball bleeds.


alienview@adelphia.net -:|:-
www.AlienView.net

Paul Kimball said...

Alfred:

That you cannot seem to grasp that there is a HUGE difference between legitimate historical or political analysis of an event like the Holocaust, and Holocaust denial (Ernst Zundel, for God's sake??) and anti-Semitism tells me all I need to hear about you, and Rense.

Paul Kimball

Alfred Lehmberg said...

...All you need to hear, eh?

Easy words... if myopic, if conflicted, if exclusionary, if convenient, if badly focused, if unthinking, if corrosively reactionary...

Apparently you're content to let evil like that caper in the shadows outside your polite attention for a little of the old "blissful ignorance"... That's the coward's way Mr. Kimball.

What about Barry Chamish, Sherman Skolnick, Henry Makow, Brad Steiger, and... wait for it... Stanton freaking FRIEDMAN... this is forgetting a plethora of Jews consistently praising Rense for his explorations of dodgy Zionism... Why do you suppose ~these~ Jews don't perceive Rense's anti-Semitism? Hmmm?

No, Mr. Kimball, your day-late-and-dollar short protestations now are decidedly limp, boyo. Better the devils you can read about than the ones about which you never hear. I like 'em up where I can take shots at 'em. Why don't you? Verily, with regard to you and your buggered blog, the other side of truth... is a simple, unvarnished, and patent lie... what the other side of the truth has ~always~ been.

I wonder what else you have lied about... sincerely.

alienview@adelphia.net -:|:-
www.AlienView.net

Paul Kimball said...

Mr. Lehmberg:

So, where would YOU draw the line? Would you publish old articles from Der Sturmer without comment? Or perhaps new ones? The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion? Or do you even HAVE a line??

Your abdictation of any moral responsibility is simply stunning.

As for Stan Friedman, ask him yourself what he thinks of the crap that appears on Rense's website. I don't presume to speak for him (although I did speak TO him today); neither should you.

Do you even KNOW who Ernst Zundel is??

Paul Kimball

Alfred Lehmberg said...

Now you see, there you go chasing the self-invented shadows which seem to be your hallmark. The issue is not what Friedman thinks of the "crap" on the Jeff Rense site (which tellingly seems to stay off his program _not_ so oddly enough) it's what Friedman thinks of ~Rense~ that is the issue. I suspect that there is respect there Mr. Kimball. I suspect you think so, too. Friedman GETS it. You might take a lesson.

Save your tests and questions and lawyerly dodges for those who respect them, Sir. I do not.

...But the protocols of Zion? ...Discovered reference to them years ago... on the Rense site. Your lot was mum on them, predictably...

...and I suspect Zundel's a pig, but one of the porcine "despised" who Chomsky alluded to in his quote... what would ~your~ point be? A weak parry? A disengage? A feint? Certainly no THRUST!

You stepped out of line and beyond the bounds, responded in anger like an infant and a mea culpa is your only real recourse. You know this to be true, Mr. Kimball.

The other side of truth ~is~ a lie...

alienview@adelphia.net -:|:-
www.AlienView.net

Paul Kimball said...

For those who have read the comments, here's the path you need to follow to find the TRUTH:

Start with:

http://www.rense.com/general45/smear.htm (which comes from the Rense team, and not a third party).

Then, follow the link within that article about Zionist - Third Reich collaboration (remember - this is an article written by the Rense team), which leads to:

http://www.rense.com/general34/ZAND.HTM

This is an article by Mark Weber, of the Institute for Historical Review - one of the world's leading organisations dedicated to Holocaust denial. At this point, you should wander over to the IHR website:

www.ihr.org

Always remembering that it was www.rense.com that sent you there.

Ahh... the IHR, which has described Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel as "a German-born civil rights activist and publicist." What kind of stuff did Zundel publicize, you ask? Why, all sorts of stuff, best summed up by the title of one of his screeds, "The Hitler We Loved and Why."

Read on at the IHR site, until you can't stomach anymore, again, always remembering that it was www.rense.com that led you there.

Try the following:

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p421_Weber.html - "Fred Leuchter: Courageous Defender of Historical Truth." Then go rent Errol Morris' excellent documentary about Leuchter and his Holocaust denying, Mr. Death.

Then try:

http://www.ihr.org/news/050427_meeting.shtml - "Irving, Weber Speak on Hitler's Place in History," where you can find known Holocaust denier (masqerading as a historian) David Irving teaming up with IHR chief Weber (who has appeared numerous times on the Rense radio show)for statements like: "While it’s true that winners write history, that alone does not entirely explain why Hitler and the Third Reich continue to be portrayed in such a distorted and prejudiced way in our society. This widespread and enduring bias with regard to Hitler and his regime, concluded Weber, is a reflection of the Jewish-Zionist grip on American cultural and political life."

And so on, and on, and on...

Then, just for good measure, find the link on the IHR site that takes you to Zundel's site, the Zundelsite, at www.zundelsite.org

And never forget how you got there - www.rense.com, a one way conduit to hate propaganda, Holocaust denial, and anti-Semitism.

Canadian author / politician / lawyer Warren Kinsella once called this a "Web of Hate" (a book that Mr. Lehmberg would do well to read).

He was absolutely right.

Paul Kimball

Paul Kimball said...

Mr. Auchettl:

Some interesting names there, affiliated with www.rense.com.

Sherman Skolnick? The Sherman Skolnick of:

www.skolnicksreport.com

Try www.skolnicksreport.com/gsecrets2.html

Henry Mankow? The Henry Mankow of www.savethemales.ca, home of "exposing feminism and the New World Order."

Barry Chamish? The Barry Chamish of www.barrychamish.com?

Have you read any of their stuff? No wonder Rense likes them.

As for Stan, like I said, Mr. Lehmberg shouldn't presume to speak for him. I know I don't. I am hoping he will speak up on this issue in the future, but that's for him to decide.

The world is indeed full of shadows, most of them cast by guys like Rense and his posse. They're the same shadows my grandfather's generation thought they'd vanquished 60 years ago.

Paul Kimball

Carol Maltby said...

Paul, I've been doing substantial research over the past year on the way Rense gives credibility and attention to neo-Nazis and white supremacists. They, in turn, seem to feel he's on their side. I've documented a lot of that kind of chatter on the net.

I'm having trouble accessing the original bulletin board thread, however. I'm waiting to hear if it's a problem with the people who are hosting that archive, or with my own computer, to give you links. If I can't get it fixed soon, I'll try to send you the more concise version.

Anyone who takes Rense's disclaimer at face value has no business calling themselves anything but a "true believer."

Paul Kimball said...

Carol:

Much obliged. I couldn't agree more, obviously.

Paul

Paul Kimball said...

John:

Yes, all the events you cite are truly terrible, terrible tragedies. No need to tell a Canadian about Rwanda. One of ours tried to warn the world. Nobody listened, until it was too late (see "Shake Hands with the Devil" about General, now Senator, Romeo Dallaire).

Still, the Holocaust is unique, for a variety of reasons. As Airey Neave, a man I greatly admire, wrote in "Nuremberg" [he was at the Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals in 1945 - 1946]:

"It will be many years before we can afford to forget the Nazis. Before our eyes, the problems of race and terrorism are a frightening reminder of Hitler's example. He lived by terror and his methods appeal today to the young and rootless all over the world. Those who use terror to gain their political ends are the heirs of his Revolution of Destruction, however much they may claim to represent opposing doctrines. The whole experience had a deep influence on my future life. I came to regard Nazism as a continuing threat to the world."

Sadly, Neave, DSO, OBE, MC, Croix de Guerre, US Bronze Star, Dutch Order of Oranje Nassau, was assassinated in 1979 by Irish terrorists, while serving as a Conservative MP and opposition spokesman for Northern Ireland.

Carol Maltby said...

"What about Barry Chamish, Sherman Skolnick, Henry Makow, Brad Steiger, and... wait for it... Stanton freaking FRIEDMAN... this is forgetting a plethora of Jews consistently praising Rense for his explorations of dodgy Zionism... Why do you suppose ~these~ Jews don't perceive Rense's anti-Semitism? Hmmm?" -- Alfred Lehmberg

Is the enemy of your enemy always your friend?

"Plethora" would mean an overabundance of Zionist-fighting Jews. Surely you don't mean that.

If it's more in their self-interest to have a soapbox on Rense's site with millions of pageviews than it is to take the time to research in depth the politics behind some of the articles which Rense reprints on his site, what do you think most people will choose?

That question of why a website that frequently gives free publicity to neo-Nazi thought would feature some Jewish writers is one that does come up over and over.

It has variations in other spheres as well. Think of Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, or all the working class people who voted for Bush's re-election, despite that fact that he and his friends do nothing but screw them.

Perhaps they might fill the role of what Lenin referred to as "useful idiots."

Blogger madison721 had this to say in "Let's You and Him Fight - Games Narcissistic Leaders Play":

"One tends to think of hatred, a/k/a bigotry, as being a two sided phenomenon - that is, one group hates the other, or a dominant group discriminates against a minority. In truth, because of the narcissistic element, hate is a tripolar phenomenon, wherein a narcissistic ruler pits two groups against each other, either the rulers' subjects against an outside enemy or a preferred group of subordinates against a despised group within the ruler's jurisdiction."

http://journals.aol.com/madison721/TheViewfrommyKitchen-APoliticalB/entries/15

There are plenty of people who would be delighted to sit back and watch Jews fighting Zionists. What sort of relationship do any of us choose to have with them?

Carol Maltby

Carol Maltby said...

Part of it may also be that the columnists mentioned are longtime Rense contributors, whose tenure at the site predates Rense's more recent promotion of overtly racist, anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi material.

It's important to realize that while Jeff Rense's website has long shown an antipathy toward Zionism and the behavior of Israel, it's only in the past couple of the years that it has changed to include outright anti-Semitism that attacks Jews as Jews.

Paul Kimball said...

Carol:

Again, well said, and I couldn't agree more.

Paul