Little green footballs

Here's an almost-year-old but fascinating New York Times article I ran into, on the Little Green Footballs blog. I'm paraphrasing heavily, but basically he started out as one of these "anti-jihadist" lunatics, but at some point realized, as he put it in 2009 to the Washington Independent, that:

“I don’t think there is an anti-jihadist movement anymore,” Johnson said. “It’s all a bunch of kooks. I’ve watched some people who I thought were reputable, and who I trusted, hook up with racists and Nazis. I see a lot of them promoting stories and causes that I think are completely nuts.”

So, why do I post a link to this now? Some of you might guess.

Last week, Finland's premier racist web forum was shut down for the night (HS). Conflict and controversy erupted, because Finnish racists are mobilizing themselves into a political party for the next parliamentary elections, with the solidly unimaginative title of "Change 2011". The founder of "Change 2011" decided to quit the web forum and the whole party (HS), in part because he found out that - shockingly - the party founded on rampant islamophobia and racism is full of crazy racists.

I wonder what he thought these people were on about when they posted their racist rants online and went on to form a web forum seemingly dedicated to bringing together Finnish racists? I mean, what did he think their political line was going to be? What puzzles me about both of the above examples is really just that. What kind of people did they think they were going to be associating with?

I have to admit it is somewhat fun watching this "movement" implode.