In the News Groups on paleo anthropology and archaeology, more than half of
the postings are by a small group of Christians and neo-nazis.

One such participant uses half a dozen aliases. He is a neo nazi living in
Florida. He posts the most outrageous anti Jewish and anti black material.
His postings would no doubt land him in jail in many countries. It is not
clear whether the material is illegal in the US. He lives in Florida. Other
list participants describe him as a "troll" which is a new term which
describes people who post material of a deliberately disruptive and
inflammatory nature. His real purpose is to disrupt the lists. He sees the
area of anthropology as being populated by left wing trendies( there actual
might be some truth in only this ). There are a number of web sites dedicated
to his postings. One gives statistical analysis of the number of postings to
particular web groups over a period of time. It was dozens per day. Postings
covered topics such as denying the Holocaust, suggestions of reintroduction
of slavery etc.

The psychology of all this is interesting. It is clear that the Internet is a
new form of communication which in some ways is unlike other types of
communication. Extremely political philosophy prospers in countries with
repressive governments and limited free speech. But the Internet can't escape
traditional extremes of discussion which exist in most societies. The burning
of books tradition becomes quoting bogus pseudo scientific data by such
posters which is not supportable by any reasonable analysis.

These groups also have a number of creationists who quote bogus scientific
evidence for Noah's Arc and other biblical traditions. The only way to
continue participating in those groups is to apply filters to the worst
offenders so they don't appear in your received postings.

Rob Curedale


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