Why I X-Ray The Liberty Net

In a recent email Robert Jennings, editor of Fadeaway zine (29 Whiting Road, Oxford, MA 01540-2025) wrote regarding my zine:

"I am still wondering why you bother to monitor the loons on the ‘Liberty Net’. These people are clearly drop-the-net whackos. I always wonder how people like that rationalize their beliefs, the ones they scream out so clearly and hysterically, when the government doesn’t turn into a communist dictatorship, they do not get rounded up and put into concentration camps, and the world continues spinning merrily along totally ignoring their rants and beliefs? It must be daunting, at least, to realize how completely wrong and also how completely inconsequential they actually are in the passing parade of the real world. Or maybe not. Delusional people always seem to have an excuse to explain why things don’t happen the way they believe they will. They also seem to be able to come up with even more stupid reasons to keep on believing the things they do."

Robert had also commented on my coverage of the Liberty Net in a previous email. He raises a good point: Why give them so much attention?

When I started my zine, Ray X X-Rayer, one of the freethink/fringe topiX I wanted to cover was conspiracy theories. From time to time I listen in to the live Liberty Net (www.3950.net) late Saturday night / early Sunday morning gatherings (or later through archived recordings) so I can learn about latest hot topics and theories circulating in the superpatriot movement. Also, the delusional thinking, as Robert refers to it, shows me how Lib Netters justify their outlier beliefs.

People should be aware of the superpatriot movement, at least knowing the difference between ultra-right-wing and conservative beliefs. Some superpatriots think conservative radio bloviator Rush Limbaugh is too "liberal," that he's just a shill for the Mega-Conspiracy. They prefer to get their truth from someone like the late William Cooper who thought the world was being controlled by the Illuminati. Before he committed suicide-by-cop Cooper had many intense fans following his shortwave radio program, "Hour of the Time." Among them was Timothy McVeigh.

From what I hear on the Lib Net it's doubtful that any of those ham radio operators would go to such an extreme. Their weekly gatherings provide an outlet to blow off tremendous steam. But at the same I wouldn't be completely surprised if someone linked to it took drastic action. You never know.

And there's also the entertainment angle with the Liberty Net. One time there was discussion about an incident from years ago, the controversy over someone nominated to be the US diplomat to Luxembourg. The man happened to be gay. Why was this a problem? A Lib Netter stated that such an appointment would make America look bad. The diplomatic nominee would bring AIDS to Luxembourg.

Comedy writers can only strive to write such lines.