Anonymous seized two twitter handles of the KKK, after Klan groups in Missouri threatened violence against civil rights protesters in Ferguson. The move is reminiscent of Stetson Kennedy infiltrating and humiliating the Klan in the 40s. Freakonomics called Stetson Kennedy the greatest single contributor to the weakening of the Klu Klux Klan. But it was the Southern Poverty Law Center, who won numerous and substantial civil lawsuits against the Klan, along with Federal law enforcement using racketeering laws written to combat the Mafia to target and seize assets of Klansmen that effectively bankrupted the KKK. Its cathartic to see Anonymous in action. But sixty four years ago, T.R. Fehrenbach was in Korea, witnessing the first war to occur after we had learned to split the atom, and struggling with the fact that despite nuclear technology, war looked much the same. And he remarked, Americans in 1950 rediscovered something that since Hiroshima they had forgotten: You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life—but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men in the mud. ” Today there is again the temptation to look to technology, to think that the internet and social media are the new battleground for civil rights. And certainly we should use the internet to the fullest, share information, coordinate, organize, win the war in the fifth domain. But it took court cases to defeat the Klan. Its not enough to raise awareness The left needs winners. Get a law degree. Start a business. Nate Silver, of fivethirtyeight, says if a problem is predictable, its designable. We can design solutions to problems as pernicious and seemingly intractable as racism. But we have to get out from behind the keyboard, and get in the mud. ted/talks/nate_silver_on_race_and_politics?language=en en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Poverty_Law_Center en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stetson_Kennedy theguardian/technology/2014/nov/17/anonymous-takes-over-ku-klux-klans-twitter-account
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:47:37 +0000
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