Difference between revisions of "Political Profiling"

Latest revision as of 03:17, October 15, 2020

Political profiling is an activity certain "watchdog" organizations engage in on various computer bulletin boards, chat rooms and wikis. An internet user's postings under either their real life identity or pseudonym may be "profiled" for their ideological convictions based upon editing patterns, interests, subject matter, common references or declared beliefs. The profile is then pigeonholed into predetermined character assessments published by the "watchdog organizations". Political profiling has been referred to as the rough equivalent of profiling all black males on the grounds that a certain percentage may commit violent crimes. In the sense that targeting minorities for special surveillance is called "racial profiling," the so-called watchdog organizations engage in "political profiling." Some "watchdog groups" hold law enforcement conferences, seminars and training sessions and publish manuals on this “profiling” behavior.

Introduction

Daniel Brandt, founder of the Wikipedia Watch website describes watchdog organizations that use political profiling as "private intelligence agencies" and remarks, as a private agency, they enjoy

Walter James O'Brien refers to them as "civilian agencies."^{[note 1]} And Laird Wilcox uses similar language in discussing their activities,

Some watchdog organizations have been criticized for the misuse of journalist shield laws to mask their domestic spying operations. Robert J. Friedman of the Village Voice commented:

Wilcox observes the watchdog's publications are designed to support the ideological agenda of a like minded group, and not provide “news.” Their publishing activities are only a small part of its program, most of which is fundraising, lobbying, and maintaining enemies lists.^[4] Wilcox, who is cited by the Military Law Review as one the "foremost expert analysts of right and left-wing extremism",^[5] and has published numerous books and articles on various extreme groups in America since the early 1960s, including American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists and Others by Prometheus Books, chronicles the excesses of the watchdog industry, and asks, "Who is watching the Watchdogs?"

Wilcox successfully demonstrates many of the watchdog's enemies are actually imagined enemies.

The Wikipedia® project has worked in close collaboration with several alleged humanitarian "watchdog" groups. The "Notable Wikipedia Experts" entrusted with this venture [1] are immune to all Wikipedia's published policies, WP:Attribution, WP:No self promotion, WP:Experts do not hold a place of privilege, WP:Citing self, WP:No personal attacks, WP:Civility, and WP:Wikipedia is not a battleground are the most often cited policy violations that go unenforced against these private organizations which are granted license to publicly slander at will.^[6] [2]

Links and Ties

The fallacy of composition consists in reasoning improperly from a property of a member of a group to a property of the group itself.... It occurs in two varieties: First, it falsely extrapolates a quality of one group member to all group members....Second, it is possible to transfer a quality of a member to the group itself.

The fallacy of division is the converse of the fallacy of composition. It occurs when somebody reasons falsely from a quality of the group to a quality of a member of group.

The converse fallacy of difference, on the other hand, renders a special judgment upon a group for a quality which is not special to it.

The fallacy of the perfect analogy consists in reasoning from a partial resemblance between two entities to an entire and exact correspondence.^[1]

Consider the following account of the “links and ties” of U. S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas offered by Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates. Berlet notes correctly that Thomas is on the editorial board of the Lincoln Review, a quarterly black conservative publication of the Lincoln Institute. Berlet claims “it is a far right group that has worked in coalition with… fascist and anti-Semitic groups.”

Berlet goes on to “link” Lincoln Institute head J. A. Baker with the Indiana Ku Klux Klan by virtue that Baker is on the board of the Council for National Policy and another board member is allegedly a former member of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan. Finally, Berlet says, The Lincoln Institute, with which Clarence Thomas has been affiliated in an official policy for close to ten years, was also a member group in the Coalition for Peace Through Strength. As author Russ Bellant discusses, the Coalition includes a number of racist, pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic groups." ^[2]

“Links and ties” is another name for argumentum ad hominem or guilt by association, which has both legitimate and illegitimate uses. If someone has been an active member of an ideological organization for many years, or a regular writer for an ideological publication, or routinely and regularly associates with a particular ideological crowd while professing sympathy and solidarity with them, and this has bona fide bearing on a particular issue, then the “link” or “tie” is probably significant.

This kind of analysis is subject to abuse, however. For ideological thinkers, a mere hint of “links and ties” may lead to great intuitive leaps that have no basis in fact.

Marxist or Nazi groups often demand great compliance with doctrine. It is unlikely that Chicago Area Friends of Albania, for example, would let someone become a founding member unless that person had been in substantial agreement with its ideological program. In most cases the existence of “links and ties” or past political associations should be viewed as a statement of where people were at that particular time in their lives.

Profiled groups

The following two subsections, "Theocratic" and Wise use, are taken from Understanding the Right Wing, by Scot Nakagawa ^[3] written about 1999 and lists various groups classified as "right wing" and "proto-fascist". This list and accompanying search engine terms have been expanded in the following years. Nakagawa accredits Political Research Associates (Chip Berlet, Surina Khan, and Jean Hardisty [retired]), the Coalition for Human Dignity (Jonathan Mozzochi, Steven Gardiner, and Gillian Leichtling), People for the American Way, The Institute for First Amendment Studies, Sara Diamond, and the Western States Center (Tarso Ramos).

All these groups and the person associated with them have been the target of "political profiling", as discussed by Laird Wilcox. Dr. Dobson and Paul Weyrich, among several others, have been viciously smeared in Wikipedia, in violation of Wikipedia's own policies on Neutral Point of View {NPOV}, WP:What Wikipedia is not (WP:NOT), WP:Attribution, and a host of other policies. Wikipedia claims immunity under Sec. 230 of the Internet Decency Act of 1998 which exempts a hosting facility from liability for content.

"Theocratic"

• Concerned Women for America (CWA)
• Christian Coalition
• Focus on the Family (Dr. James Dobson)
• American Family Association (AFA)
• Traditional Values Coalition
• Free Congress Foundation (Paul Weyrich) [3]

Wise use

• Alliance for America
• Evergreen Foundation
• Sea Lion Defense Fund
• Environmental Conservation Organization
• People for the West
• National Wetlands Coalition

"Hate groups"

The organizations listed below were taken from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report ^[4] written by Berlet. Berlet classifies these groups as "hate groups", and some of the defamatory smears have made their way into Wikipedia, despite numerous violations of Wikipedia's stated policies.

• The American Cause
• American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
• American Immigration Control Foundation
• The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• Castle Rock Foundation
• Center for American Unity
• Center for the Study of Popular Culture (David Horowitz)
• Federation for American Immigration Reform
• Free Congress Foundation (Paul Weyrich)
• Institute for the Study of Man
• Ludwig von Mises Institute (LvMI) [4]
• New Century Foundation
• John M. Olin Foundation
• Pioneer Fund [5]
• Rockford Institute
• Scaife Foundations
• U.S. Inc.

Various profiles

The profiling process of these watchdog organizations begins with identifying certain organizations, both high profile and marginal, determine their ideological content measured against the ideological views and prejudices of the watchdogs themselves, then link them in some way to extremism through an outrageous guilt by association smear. Numerous examples abound over the past 10 years, and Wikipedia has increasing become the seat of their operations. Examples include,

• Daniel Brandt was the victim of a much publicized ongoing defamation based upon his split with an anti-Trotskyite cabal on the extreme left more than 15 years ago;
• James Dobson is linked to racism and the Ku Klux Klan [6] through a convoluted series of accusations intended to undermine the so-called "Christian Right" (which is interchangeable with "Christian Fascism" [7] in Wikipedia);
• Senator Thad Cochran is slandered with invective aimed at another person;
• Paul Weyrich is linked to "Christian Fascism" which is defined as a Protestant movement, despite his being a devout Catholic, because of Weyrich's organizational work for the Republican party beginning in the late 1970s; [8]
• David Horowitz is slandered as operating a "hate group" because of opposition to reparations; [9]
• The Ludwig von Mises Institute is profiled as "neo-confederate", allegedly advocating segregartion, slavery, and lynchings because an author dared criticize Abraham Lincoln for passing an income tax during the Civil War. [10]

Wise use movement targeted

A particularly shocking and dangerous example of guilt-by-association targeting and profiling occurred when two New Mexico grandmothers found themselves suspected of being terrorists after appearing on a radio talk show where they criticized the federal government and the United Nations. Kay Stone and Jean Vallance were investigated by New Mexico Department of Public Safety (State Police) after appearing on KINN radio in Alamagordo in June, 1998.

State police Lt. Bill Bowers called the station and spoke with talk show host Mike Shinaberry, who was asked about the couple and Maude Rathgeber, the Otereo Republican party chairwomen, who had also been on the show in the past. According to Shinaberry:

According to The Dallas Morning News, which covered the story from the beginning:

The two women were also investigated by the military officials at a nearby Air Force Base:

All of this came about by the issuance of a manual entitled The Extreme Right: An Overview containing in large part material from a leftist "watchdog" organization to law enforcement agencies.^[6] According to news sources:

Shinaberry was spurred to investigate this manual. Speaking again with Lt. Bill Bowers he was told “that the federal government had asked state police to create a—he used the term 'intelligence database'—to make lists of people who might be radicals.” He also noted that the manual suggests an anti-government continuum of groups that apparently run from the most peaceful to those with a reputation for violence, with no distinction made between them. As it happened the contents of the manual were leaked to the public after the police inquiries into the two women.

Ranchers and loggers erupted in anger at the manual’s juxtaposition of the wise use movement with Nazi and Klan groups....Local government officials, concerned about the impact of federal policies on rural economies, also objected to the manual.

Darren White, the Governor’s cabinet secretary for the state police, apologized for the manual and issued a written apology dated 9 July 1998:

The "Watchdog" organization manual and others like it continue to be circulated among law enforcement officials nationwide, even though its effect is to target ordinary American citizens on the basis of the values, opinions and beliefs.^[7] The Wise use movement was the target of political profiling and placed on the this leftist Watchdog list because it frequently takes positions contrary to the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society.^[8]

See also

• Big Tech
• The Bell Curve

Notes

References