美国国家公共电台 NPR Descending On A Montana Town, Neo-Nazi Trolls Test Where Free Speech Ends

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We're going to hear now what it's like to be trolled by white supremacists and also how hard it is for victims to do anything about it. NPR's Kirk Siegler takes us to Whitefish, Mont. That is where neo-Nazis¹ have aimed what they call a troll storm at Jewish residents. And we should note this story has some language that could be offensive to listeners.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE²: What is trolling? Well, for Rabbi Francine Roston, it meant when her personal information got published online, her phone number, address, then a barrage³ of harassing⁴ emails and Facebook posts.

FRANCINE ROSTON: The messages were very frequently Holocaust⁵ themed. We're going to destroy you, your people should have been destroyed, you should destroy yourself, you should go jump in an oven, we're going to come cremate⁶ you.

SIEGLER: Her voice starts to shake when she talks about it. Once an anonymous⁷ troller even posted that her two kids had better watch out.

ROSTON: And a few comments later, someone said the name of my son. And, you know, I...

SIEGLER: Roston is the rabbi of Glacier⁸ Jewish Community, a synagogue without walls, as she puts it, that serves Whitefish and the surrounding Flathead Valley.

ROSTON: I understand free speech but imagery directed towards Jews because they're Jews relating to the Holocaust, the message there is we want you dead.

SIEGLER: This trolling was promoted by a well-known white supremacist from Ohio by the name of Andrew Anglin, he's the publisher of a neo-Nazi website called The Daily Stormer. In articles on his website, he called for a troll storm against Jews in Whitefish. He also planned a march through the streets of town on Martin Luther King Day last year and told people to bring their guns.

ROSTON: At the core of Anglin's campaign was an old, old story of Jewish hatred⁹ that the Jews were taking over this pristine¹⁰ white town of Whitefish and driving out the whites.

SIEGLER: The Jewish community in the resort town of Whitefish is tiny. Roston took the threat seriously. The police chief told me they couldn't do a whole lot at the time because these trollers were mostly anonymous and they weren't showing up at her door threatening imminent¹¹ violence. So they said, go dark, don't engage.

ROSTON: Right. If you saw we have security system around the house that we never had.

SIEGLER: The police believe most of the trollers were coming from outside Whitefish, but Roston wasn't taking any chances. The local rabbi, a progressive social justice activist¹², bought a gun.

ROSTON: I had a friend fly out and train me in handguns, and I purchased my first handguns. I wanted to make sure that I could protect myself and protect my family.

SIEGLER: That planned march never happened. Anglin and the Nazis didn't show. Whitefish staged its own anti-hate rally in the freezing cold. Now, this kind of trolling has happened elsewhere for sure, but the events in Whitefish are noteworthy because of the timing¹³ and who was involved and how vicious it got. There's a lot of arguing over who's to blame, but pretty much everyone in this resort town at the doorstep to Glacier National Park says one person is at the heart of this controversy¹⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RICHARD SPENCER: Hail Trump¹⁵, hail our people, hail victory.

(APPLAUSE)

SIEGLER: That's the white nationalist Richard Spencer speaking in 2016. He lives in Whitefish part time. Locals say he's brought unwanted attention to this liberal-leaning pocket of Montana. About a year ago, there was a reported argument that began between a local realtor and Richard Spencer's mom. It was over a building Sherry Spencer owns in Whitefish, which was becoming the focus of a potential protest against her son. The realtor is Jewish and local news reports about the dispute got the attention of Andrew Anglin, who called on his neo-Nazi followers¹⁶ to come to the defense¹⁷ of the Spencers.

That Jewish realtor is now suing Andrew Anglin over his troll storm with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center. She's not giving interviews but her local attorney John Morrison is.

JOHN MORRISON: These are not informational, opinion or any other kind of protected First Amendment¹⁸ communications. These are assaults.

SIEGLER: Montana and the Flathead Valley around Whitefish in particular has long been a haven¹⁹ for extremism. In 1988, the state passed a strict anti-intimidation law, which Morrison says the trolling violated. But where is the line between protected speech and a clear threat of violence, like an alleged²⁰ verbal assault? The courts have generally said speech doesn't become illegal unless a threat is imminent. Mark Randazza, a prominent First Amendment attorney, says this is hard to prove and it should be.

MARC RANDAZZA: You hear that a lot from people who are trying to engage in censorship, that this isn't a First Amendment issue. Well, the fact that we're talking about it makes it a freaking First Amendment issue.

SIEGLER: Randazza is Andrew Anglin's attorney. I reached him in Las Vegas where he's based.

RANDAZZA: If you believe in freedom of expression, you have to believe in it for Nazis and Klansmen and pornographers and anybody else you might find to be objectionable.

SIEGLER: Randazza stressed to me that he too thinks the memes and the anti-Jewish slurs²¹ were awful. Richard Spencer's mom also condemned²² the trolling. But Randazza says when you put tools in place to restrict speech, it can backfire later.

RANDAZZA: Mr. Anglin, all that he intended to incite²³ and all that he did incite was people expressing themselves.

SIEGLER: People in Whitefish are torn over this case. Their town is dependent on tourism, and they don't want any more negative attention. But on the other hand, the trolling got really hateful and personal. The Rabbi Francine Roston told me that she thinks one of the trollers was the father of someone she knew. And the trollers didn't stop at just the Jewish community. They started going after anyone in town they even thought was Jewish and local businesses that had anti-hate signs posted in their windows.

Before I left Whitefish, I met Jennifer Runnels. She and her young family live in this old farmhouse²⁴ on the outskirts²⁵ of town. Her husband inherited it from his grandfather.

JENNIFER RUNNELS: I have my curing rack right over here.

SIEGLER: She has a soap-making business and when she heard about the trolling, she decided²⁶ to put together gift baskets to give to the trolling victims.

RUNNELS: And I'm not sure who told the news. But the news was there and they interviewed me, so I was on the news that night talking about what we were doing. And then the next morning, I was on The Daily Stormer.

SIEGLER: Andrew Anglin's website. Then came the emails and the posts on Yelp²⁷ about her business.

RUNNELS: I got fake reviews that said my soap was made with the fat of Holocaust victims.

SIEGLER: She was scared at first, but then she tried to shrug²⁸ it off.

RUNNELS: They are very misogynistic²⁹. They like to use names like whore and slut and bitch.

SIEGLER: Runnels told me people here are sort of resigned to the fact that there may not be any recourse for the trolling victims.

RUNNELS: There was nothing anybody could do, and the police told us that.

SIEGLER: And she says she and her neighbors are bracing³⁰ for it all to come back if the lawsuit³¹ moves forward. And they'll speak out again, she says, and hold more rallies and protests. Lawyers for Andrew Anglin have filed motions in federal court to dismiss the case, but the judge has yet to rule. Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Whitefish, Mont.

1 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

4 harassing   

v.侵扰，骚扰( harass的现在分词 )；不断攻击（敌人）

参考例句：

• The court ordered him to stop harassing his ex-wife. 法庭命令他不得再骚扰前妻。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was too close to be merely harassing fire. 打得这么近，不能完全是扰乱射击。 来自辞典例句

5 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

6 cremate   

v.火葬，烧成灰

参考例句：

• She wants Chris to be cremated.她想把克里斯的尸体火化。
• Laowang explains: "Combustion is cremate, degenerating is inhumation. "老王解释道：“燃烧就是火葬，腐朽就是土葬。”

7 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

8 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

9 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

10 pristine   

adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的

参考例句：

• He wiped his fingers on his pristine handkerchief.他用他那块洁净的手帕擦手指。
• He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。

11 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

12 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

13 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

14 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

15 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

16 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

17 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

18 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

19 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

20 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

21 slurs   

含糊的发音( slur的名词复数 )； 玷污； 连奏线； 连唱线

参考例句：

• One should keep one's reputation free from all slurs. 人应该保持名誉不受责备。
• Racial slurs, racial jokes, all having to do with being Asian. 种族主义辱骂，种族笑话，都是跟亚裔有关的。

22 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

23 incite   

v.引起，激动，煽动

参考例句：

• I wanted to point out he was a very good speaker, and could incite a crowd.我想说明他曾是一个非常出色的演讲家，非常会调动群众的情绪。
• Just a few words will incite him into action.他只需几句话一将，就会干。

24 farmhouse   

n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房）

参考例句：

• We fell for the farmhouse as soon as we saw it.我们对那所农舍一见倾心。
• We put up for the night at a farmhouse.我们在一间农舍投宿了一夜。

25 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

26 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

27 yelp   

vi.狗吠

参考例句：

• The dog gave a yelp of pain.狗疼得叫了一声。
• The puppy a yelp when John stepped on her tail.当约翰踩到小狗的尾巴，小狗发出尖叫。

28 shrug   

v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等)

参考例句：

• With a shrug,he went out of the room.他耸一下肩，走出了房间。
• I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.我很佩服她能对错误的批评意见不予理会。

29 misogynistic   

参考例句：

• And it brings out everything that is most noxious and misogynistic about the right. 而且，这种情绪也流露出右派思想中最为保守有害，歧视女性的那一面。 来自互联网

30 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

31 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。