The Nuts and Bolts of Stormfront
The ease of partaking in a movement by simply clicking one’s mouse may seem too small of a commitment to really amount to much, but Stormfront has tried to counter this by adding incentives for greater involvement and dedication. Positive feedback on your posts helps graduate you to a higher member status with more site access; monetary donations grant entry into the secret VIP chatroom. Moreover, to create a greater sense of an immediate and tangible community, they added a list of the other members currently online, which often includes the high profilers within the movement like David Duke, Bob Whitaker (a former Reagan administration member in charge of security clearances, one of the few white nationalists to gain prominence in government despite being openly racist), and April Gaede (mother of Prussian Blue, the 14-year-old blonde twin girls who perform pop songs with racist lyrics, a sort of white supremacist version of the Olsen Twins) all of whom are just a click away. A section even alerts users of other members' birthdays.
View Prussian Blue music video below:
Click here to view ABC News' report on the group.
More importantly, the ease in joining has paid off in the long run through its ability to draw people into what can be an intimidating and scary communities. There are ignorant rants and overt hate, but the site prohibits discussions that aren’t “civil and productive, ” and have even taken down posts which seem too extreme or ignorant. Profanity is coded to appear as asterisks. The site prohibits anyone “advocating or suggesting any activity which is illegal under U.S. law.” (The rules are enforced, but they are easy to get around. There are no guns listed for sale, for instance, but plenty of advice on buying them, and no monitoring of private messages sent between members. Members discuss strategies for possible race wars, and ask for specific help in dealing with Jews and ethnic minorities causing problems. One can only surmise that the talk could lead elsewhere.) While the legal incentives for such a ban are clear, it also helps dispel the stereotype of ignorance and extremity. A more mainstream image furthers their cause politically and helps with recruitment.
Stormfront works hard to make the movement seem welcoming. The very medium of the internet portrays a more mainstream image, and self-selects only those with internet access. Stormfront’s Jaime Kelso conducts outreach on other websites and in the real world, which includes promoting the very use of the Internet. He personally found Stormfront through the benign Google, which is not surprisingly the most common way that people find the site. Members have even created videoblogs on YouTube to counter the stereotypes. Their efforts may just be working.
View a white nationalist's YouTube video response to a newscast on Stormfront:
View NBC newscast:
Click here to learn more about how New Yorkers organize on Stormfront.
Posted by Team B 8:26 PM
