[Wikipedia-l] Helga and other Internet kooks

Wed Sep 4 15:37:51 UTC 2002

daniwo59 at aol.com wrote:

>In 1933 a small group of Jews declared war on Germany (in response to the 
>government's official policies of anti-Semitism). Germany responded with an 
>official boycott of all Jewish shops and eventually launched an all-out 
>campaign to murder all the Jews of Europe. 
>
The sort of event where a small extremist group purporting to represent 
a larger community performs irrational acts is not unknown to history. 
 Equally common is the tendency of governments and the public press to 
fan the flames of discontent by taking these groups at their word in 
their claims of being representative.  Often, as was the case in 1930s 
Germany, the extremists fit hand in glove with preconceived notions.

I find the overreaction of governments far more frightening than the 
original acts of the extremists.  Of a sudden, in response to a single 
extremist event the freedoms and liberties of everyone in a society are 
revoked.  It then takes many years (and incidentally big profits by many 
lawyers) to sort out the damages, even in a society that makes a big 
deal of proclaiming the freeedom it offers.

As important as it may be to keep a watchful eye on the extremists 
(which is not done by surpressing reports of their activities), it is 
also important to apply the same dilligence to the activities of 
governments.

Ec  