PORN KILLS LOVE

All right. All right all right. Boldly, if stickily, stepping away from peanut butter.

Gordon D. Hall started collecting information on extremist groups in 1947. Before that, as far as I can tell, he had never formally studied these groups. I'm not sure he finished high school. I don't know even know how old he was or what color shoes he wore in 1947, but word on the street is he started collecting around then. Maybe it was a fluke thing. Maybe he accidentally got a flyer from White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and had a notion. Or perhaps he had delusions of spydom and got really into giving himself pseudonyms and P.O. boxes all over New England. Or maybe he thought if he collected fanatically enough, and for long enough, he'd start touring and giving lectures (which he did) and that he would gather enough fame to live comfortably without steady employment (which he didn't, in a big way). Or maybe he expected to sell the collection to a library for a tidy sum (which he did, but i'll get to that).

Who in tarnation was Gordon Hall? This guy is nowhere online. Nearly fifty years of collecting and he never published anything, never taught formally, only made small appearances before religious organizations and private schools, spreading awareness of...somethings.

Sometime in the past few years, someone took Gordon's collection--literally tens of thousands of letters, pamphlets, magazines, and other stuffs--and dumped it all into about 250 cardboard boxes, which were sold to the John hay library. five days a week, 7 hours a day, seven people pore over this collection, one box at a time, letter by newsletter, and one of these people is me. I open a cardboard box nearly spitting with mailaphernalia, not knowing what strange or terrifying scratchings will make their way into my hand.
i read:*

"Racial Greetings Mr. Beach [pseudonym],
We are pleased to know you are not Irish, Jewish, or a Nigger. Here is our latest newsletter and a pamphlet me and the other leader wrote up a couple years ago when we first started this organization. It says our mission, which is to save the Holy White Race, wich [sic] as you know Communist Jews and Negros are plotting to destroy. If you want to join our fight, we would be greatful [sic] for your donation. Heil Hitler!"

i read:
"Dear Mr. Hall, Thank you for speaking at my middle school I learned a lot, especially about Black Panthers who are not just a type of animal. I am very interesting in learning more about this group, would you please send me the packet you mentioned in your talk. Sincerely..."

i read:

"DEAR GORDON,
...I SHOULD NOT BE IN THE POSITION I AM IN. IT HAS BEEN THIRTY YEARS SINCE I LENT YOU 2,000 DOLLARS. I SHOULD NEVER HAVE TRUSTED YOU.... SEND THE MONEY TO L---- WITHIN THE NEXT TEN DAYS."

i read:**

"Father was the undisputed head of the family, the backbone and strength of independent America. Right after the plans for world enslavement were perfected and districuted to Jewish leaders throughout the world by the learned elders of Zion, the Jewish-controlled press began to undermine Father. Very soon they reduced Father to equality with our women folk, climaxing in woman suffrage...DESTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY is a key principle of communist demoralization. our children have actually been stolen away from us by the hateful Jewish World Enslavers."

and by the same enlightened author:

"They take Negro jungle throbbings designed as a warm-up for savage ecstatic orgies and force our sheeplike public to accept them as 'great music'. They force us to admit as complete equals the stupid, childish, amoral Negro race, which has YET to produce ONE contribution to civilization, ONE great man, ONE civilized country."

There are pictures of mangled fetuses, articles about "loudmouth homosexuals who want to deny your rights to oppose them," and, of course, Jesus clipart. There's leftist stuff too, but it's not as (how to say?) thrilling.

A bit of light summer reading? I comfort myself with the probability that most of this stuff is written by two fuckheads in a basement in Missouri, and by listening to the soothing liberalism coming out of my Internet waves (?) in the form of This American Life. Also, that there is free tea downstairs in the lounge. And my next paycheck is growing real steady.

*quotations are approximate
**direct quotations