Is W. Niederhut an EF-JFKA Moderator?

[Benjamin Cole]

I recently posted on certain JFKA theories floating around X-twitter, to the effect that Mossad perped the JFKA and 9/11, and Jews are a scourge to the US. I think the EF-JFKA needs to know what the public thinks about the JFKA. There is a lot of poor-quality stuff out there. 

My post was deleted, and I received this explanation by W. Niederhut:

 

Ben,

   False claims that Anti-Semites post on X-Twitter (4Chan, etc.) are not appropriate thread topics here on the Education Forum.

   Nor is it appropriate for members to refer to historians and critics of the Mossad and/or the Israeli government as "Jew haters."  Some of the most highly educated and informed historians and critics of Israeli government policies are Jews, like Bernie Sanders and Norman Soloman.

    That kind of "Jew Hater" rhetoric is popular with Rupert Murdoch's MAGA propagandists, but it is predicated on ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.

So...is Niederhut a moderator?

And what does MAGA have to do with this? 

I asked another EF-JFKA participant, and they said Niederhut was not a moderator.

Just asking....

[Sandy Larsen]

9 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

There is a lot of poor-quality stuff out there. 

 

I don't know why anyone would want to bring "poor-quality stuff" to the EF Forum.

 

9 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

And what does MAGA have to do with this? 

 

MAGA information tends to be "poor-quality stuff."

 

9 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

So...is Niederhut a moderator?

 

If it says "Moderators" below his avatar photo, then yep, he's a moderator!

 

Edited Tuesday at 04:21 PM by Sandy Larsen

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Sandy Larsen said:

 

I don't why anyone would want to bring "poor-quality stuff" to the EF Forum.

 

 

MAGA information tends to be "poor-quality stuff."

 

 

If it says "Moderators" below his avatar photo, then yep, he's a moderator!

 

Sandy Larsen:

Thanks for your collegial comments.

I think exposing poor quality, and biased, JFKA research is a part of the EF-JFKA. 

I have seen lengthy posts by you, in which you attempt to this very same thing (by your lights). 

I contend the "Mossad perped the JFKA" is a very weak conspiracy theory, and I have a few fresh angles for explaining that point of view. 

If I am banned from presenting such views...well, as I say, so be it. 

[W. Niederhut]

4 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Sandy Larsen:

Thanks for your collegial comments.

I think exposing poor quality, and biased, JFKA research is a part of the EF-JFKA. 

I have seen lengthy posts by you, in which you attempt to this very same thing (by your lights). 

I contend the "Mossad perped the JFKA" is a very weak conspiracy theory, and I have a few fresh angles for explaining that point of view. 

If I am banned from presenting such views...well, as I say, so be it. 

     

8 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I recently posted on certain JFKA theories floating around X-twitter, to the effect that Mossad perped the JFKA and 9/11, and Jews are a scourge to the US. I think the EF-JFKA needs to know what the public thinks about the JFKA. There is a lot of poor-quality stuff out there. 

My post was deleted, and I received this explanation by W. Niederhut:

 

Ben,

   False claims that Anti-Semites post on X-Twitter (4Chan, etc.) are not appropriate thread topics here on the Education Forum.

   Nor is it appropriate for members to refer to historians and critics of the Mossad and/or the Israeli government as "Jew haters."  Some of the most highly educated and informed historians and critics of Israeli government policies are Jews, like Bernie Sanders and Norman Soloman.

    That kind of "Jew Hater" rhetoric is popular with Rupert Murdoch's MAGA propagandists, but it is predicated on ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.

So...is Niederhut a moderator?

And what does MAGA have to do with this? 

I asked another EF-JFKA participant, and they said Niederhut was not a moderator.

Just asking....

Ben,

     I'm Dr. Niederhut, a physician who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1983.  Informally, here, I have used "W" as a moniker.

     Before medical school, I was an American Studies major, (three years senior to John F. Kennedy, Jr.) at Brown University.

     And, yes, the Education Forum administration recently asked if I would be willing to assist the other mods here as a moderator.

     My interest here is in scholarly, evidence-based discussions about history, and intellectual honesty, in the tradition of John Simkin.

     To my knowledge, no one on this forum has endorsed Michael Collins Piper's theories accusing the Mossad of killing JFK.

      We have discussed that subject in some detail on previous threads-- most recently, on Mathew Koch's "Horseshoe" thread, and on James DiEugenio's "Gaza and JFK" thread, (based on a DiEugenio Substack essay.)

      Your recent X-Twitter thread was not a scholarly, evidence-based history thread.  It was more similar to an Anti-Semitic 4Chan polemic.  Sadly, such things exist in our social media.  But the Education Forum isn't 4Chan or Truth Social.

      Also, another moderator has concurred that your inaccurate, derogatory reference to historians and critics of the Israeli government as "Jew Haters" is inappropriate for the Education Forum.   As I mentioned in my private communique, there are many highly-educated, informed Jewish intellectuals who have, at times, criticized the Israeli government.  Examples include Albert Einstein, Ron Unz, Bernie Sanders, and Norman Soloman.

     

Edited Tuesday at 03:14 PM by W. Niederhut

[Jean Ceulemans]

Wouldn´t it be interesting to have a topic where changes are announced that involve new moderators, admin, etc. Beginning with a list of current admin/mod´s.  One can limit postings there to admin/mod only.

Edited Tuesday at 04:26 PM by Jean Ceulemans
C

[Jonathan Cohen]

39 minutes ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

Wouldn´t it be interesting to have a topic where changes are announced that involve new moderators, admin, etc. Beginning with a list of current admin/mod´s.  One can limit postings there for admin/mod only.

Agreed. This is the kind of thing that should be more clearly announced to forum members, but I'm pleased to see Dr. Niederhut assume moderator responsibilities in light of the nonsense that has gone on here of late.

[Jean Ceulemans]

I noticed the topic "Moderator Reminders" had been merged with "Moderator Actions ... ", but that doesn´t seem to exist anymore? 

 

 

[Pat Speer]

9 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I recently posted on certain JFKA theories floating around X-twitter, to the effect that Mossad perped the JFKA and 9/11, and Jews are a scourge to the US. I think the EF-JFKA needs to know what the public thinks about the JFKA. There is a lot of poor-quality stuff out there. 

My post was deleted, and I received this explanation by W. Niederhut:

 

Ben,

   False claims that Anti-Semites post on X-Twitter (4Chan, etc.) are not appropriate thread topics here on the Education Forum.

   Nor is it appropriate for members to refer to historians and critics of the Mossad and/or the Israeli government as "Jew haters."  Some of the most highly educated and informed historians and critics of Israeli government policies are Jews, like Bernie Sanders and Norman Soloman.

    That kind of "Jew Hater" rhetoric is popular with Rupert Murdoch's MAGA propagandists, but it is predicated on ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.

So...is Niederhut a moderator?

And what does MAGA have to do with this? 

I asked another EF-JFKA participant, and they said Niederhut was not a moderator.

Just asking....

A bit of background is in order. 

When John Simkin started this place up it quickly became clear that a special problem arose every time anyone mentioned Israel's possible involvement in the assassination. First, someone would say that it's anti-semitic. Then the person starting the thread would defend his post by, as often as not, saying things that were obviously anti-semitic. Much as some here see the CIA as the boogeyman behind all things bad, these people would start pushing that Jews and Israel are the real boogeymen. And the discussion would eventually move on from the JFK assassination to the awful things done by Jews. This happened on a number of occasions. These threads would almost always end up getting closed by the moderators, as they had gone so far off topic (The JFK assassination) and had instead become nasty diatribes focused on one tiny fragment of our world. 

In any event, as a proponent of free speech, Simkin refused to "ban" this topic entirely. So it kept popping up. 

But then the shutdowns began. As I recall, there were several instances where the Forum came under cyber-attacks, where thousands of new members applied at the exact same time or some such thing. John, the creator of the Spartacus website, however, knew how to get to the bottom of it, and realized what was going on--that a pro-Israel hacker group had targeted the website as a source of disinformation and hate speech and was trying to shut it down. 

SO... the decision was made by John and approved by the moderators that we would severely limit discussions of this type in the future. 

Now...some were upset by this because they saw it as the Forum caving in to terrorists and stifling free speech. 

But to me it's the old "Shouting fire in a crowded theater" argument. 

The discussion of Israel as THE mover and shaker behind the assassination inevitably disrupts the audience, and threatens the life of the forum. So, yes, a modicum of censorship is justified, in my opinion. This is a privately-owned website, and the website owners and moderators have the right and even have the duty to limit content. I mean, think about it. There was a forum member who decided that the private sex lives of public figures was the key to understanding history...who began filling the forum with detailed posts of the (rumored) perversions of numerous public figures, including many who were still alive. I think you will agree that this was both a distraction from the matter of our agreed-upon discussion, and a possible danger to the forum--as it would drive the readers we hope to have away from the forum, and subject the forum to a possible lawsuit. 

So lines have to be drawn. 

Re-posting on this website the diatribes against Israel one can find elsewhere is over the line, IMO. 

P.S. I became way too controversial a long time ago and am no longer an active moderator, so this is not an "official" explanation for Ben's decision. But am offering this post for historical context...

 

[Ron Bulman]

3 hours ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

I noticed the topic "Moderator Reminders" had been merged with "Moderator Actions ... ", but that doesn´t seem to exist anymore? 

 

 

Jean, the "Moderator Reminders" thread was merged with "Moderator Actions" by Mark Knight to conserve space on the main page to allow for more space on it for current topics before they disappear to the second page and beyond.  He has not said so, but it seems Mark then Hid the Moderator Actions thus creating one more space for a current topic on the main page.  It is still there for Mod's and Admin's to see, as both topics are for Moderators.

[Ron Bulman]

13 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Nor is it appropriate for members to refer to historians and critics of the Mossad and/or the Israeli government as "Jew haters."  Some of the most highly educated and informed historians and critics of Israeli government policies are Jews, like Bernie Sanders and Norman Soloman.

Under "Forum Rules and Membership Behavior," "General Posting Behavior":

Members are responsible for what they post on this board. A member will not use this board to post any comment or which is demonstrably false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually-oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law. 

To me, implying anyone is a "Jew Hater" is defamatory, abusive and hateful.

 

Racism:

Racism will not be tolerated on this forum. Action will be taken whenever and wherever it is seen on the forum.

Under "General Comments":  If members need to consider whether a link, a word or a sequence of words will be acceptable -- to post or not post before posting -- then we would advise not to post such words or terms.

Any of the above would qualify for a 10 point warning under "Other Behavior" in the warning system, incurring a one-day suspension.  As Ben's 10 points from Marks warning and suspension on July 2 are still active this would have automatically doubled a new suspension to two days.

Possibly how I might have handled this if I'd seen and noticed it first, along with possibly hiding the thread. 

[Paul Brancato]

14 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I recently posted on certain JFKA theories floating around X-twitter, to the effect that Mossad perped the JFKA and 9/11, and Jews are a scourge to the US. I think the EF-JFKA needs to know what the public thinks about the JFKA. There is a lot of poor-quality stuff out there. 

My post was deleted, and I received this explanation by W. Niederhut:

 

Ben,

   False claims that Anti-Semites post on X-Twitter (4Chan, etc.) are not appropriate thread topics here on the Education Forum.

   Nor is it appropriate for members to refer to historians and critics of the Mossad and/or the Israeli government as "Jew haters."  Some of the most highly educated and informed historians and critics of Israeli government policies are Jews, like Bernie Sanders and Norman Soloman.

    That kind of "Jew Hater" rhetoric is popular with Rupert Murdoch's MAGA propagandists, but it is predicated on ignorance and intellectual dishonesty.

So...is Niederhut a moderator?

And what does MAGA have to do with this? 

I asked another EF-JFKA participant, and they said Niederhut was not a moderator.

Just asking....

Ben - I didn’t see your original post. Is it your point that you think this theory isn’t worth exploring, and you just wanted to show the kind of crap that floats around on X?

[W. Niederhut]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

Ben - I didn’t see your original post. Is it your point that you think this theory isn’t worth exploring, and you just wanted to show the kind of crap that floats around on X?

Paul,

     We've already "explored" the Piper book and dubious theory on two recent forum threads.  To my knowledge, no one here puts any stock in it.

     Ben's thread wasn't based on any scholarly research or new material about the Piper thesis.  It was simply crap floating around on X.

     Should the Education Forum be a repository for crap floating around on X, in your opinion?

     

     

     

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Ben - I didn’t see your original post. Is it your point that you think this theory isn’t worth exploring, and you just wanted to show the kind of crap that floats around on X?

PB-

Thank you for your collegial comments. 

Yes, I wanted to show what kind of feces is on X, regarding the JFKA.

In this case, it was anti-Semites, posting that the Jews perped the JFKA and 9/11. 

However, let me point out that I have recently posted on a book that blamed Mormon mafia for the JFKA, and on Woolsey's book that LHO was a Russian asset. I panned both explanations, and noted that the author of the Mormon book explicitly stated his hostility to Mormons in the preface of his book. 

Neither post was banned. 

There have been many other explanations of the JFKA that I have posted on, and which I explained differ from my view.

As I have often stated, I suspect a small group of conspirators, working out of the Miami Station of the CIA, are the most likely suspects in the JFKA (see Larry Hancock's book SWHT).

I think you may lean to Nazi or ex-Nazi involvement in the CIA. That is fine, and for all I know perhaps some Nazis were involved, perhaps as cat's paws, or interlocutors between Miami and an unidentified higher-up inside the CIA.  After all, one could not send an order to perp the JFKA down through the normal channels. There needed to be cut-outs. 

Well, so it goes. I have enjoyed your commentary over the years, even if we disagree on the possible true perps of the JFKA. 

The point of a EF-JFKA is to see other views. I am bored with my views by now anyway. 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

Add on:

If moderators start banning posts because "the topic has already been covered in another thread"...well, we all will be mute. 

[Benjamin Cole]

7 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

A bit of background is in order. 

When John Simkin started this place up it quickly became clear that a special problem arose every time anyone mentioned Israel's possible involvement in the assassination. First, someone would say that it's anti-semitic. Then the person starting the thread would defend his post by, as often as not, saying things that were obviously anti-semitic. Much as some here see the CIA as the boogeyman behind all things bad, these people would start pushing that Jews and Israel are the real boogeymen. And the discussion would eventually move on from the JFK assassination to the awful things done by Jews. This happened on a number of occasions. These threads would almost always end up getting closed by the moderators, as they had gone so far off topic (The JFK assassination) and had instead become nasty diatribes focused on one tiny fragment of our world. 

In any event, as a proponent of free speech, Simkin refused to "ban" this topic entirely. So it kept popping up. 

But then the shutdowns began. As I recall, there were several instances where the Forum came under cyber-attacks, where thousands of new members applied at the exact same time or some such thing. John, the creator of the Spartacus website, however, knew how to get to the bottom of it, and realized what was going on--that a pro-Israel hacker group had targeted the website as a source of disinformation and hate speech and was trying to shut it down. 

SO... the decision was made by John and approved by the moderators that we would severely limit discussions of this type in the future. 

Now...some were upset by this because they saw it as the Forum caving in to terrorists and stifling free speech. 

But to me it's the old "Shouting fire in a crowded theater" argument. 

The discussion of Israel as THE mover and shaker behind the assassination inevitably disrupts the audience, and threatens the life of the forum. So, yes, a modicum of censorship is justified, in my opinion. This is a privately-owned website, and the website owners and moderators have the right and even have the duty to limit content. I mean, think about it. There was a forum member who decided that the private sex lives of public figures was the key to understanding history...who began filling the forum with detailed posts of the (rumored) perversions of numerous public figures, including many who were still alive. I think you will agree that this was both a distraction from the matter of our agreed-upon discussion, and a possible danger to the forum--as it would drive the readers we hope to have away from the forum, and subject the forum to a possible lawsuit. 

So lines have to be drawn. 

Re-posting on this website the diatribes against Israel one can find elsewhere is over the line, IMO. 

P.S. I became way too controversial a long time ago and am no longer an active moderator, so this is not an "official" explanation for Ben's decision. But am offering this post for historical context...

 

PS-

I think you misunderstand my now-banned post. 

I was citing a particular X-host as an example of the some of the biased and very-low quality JFKA research, in this case spirited by overt anti-Semitism, on the JFKA. 

I hate to say it, but X-hosts are read by thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of people. That is "where the action is" now on the internet. 

I said nothing about the virtue, of lack of it, of the Israel government. 

W Niederhut, of his own volition, brought up other issues, including MAGA (?) and that some reputable scholars look poorly upon Israel. 

If I recall correctly, Niederhut places some faith in theories that Mossad perped the JFKA and the 9/11 disaster, and made references to "dancing Israelis"---evidently some type of blue-collar workers, natives of Israel, who climbed atop a van and celebrated the 9/11 event---as evidence of Israel or Mossad involvement in the 9/11 event. 

Well, I will re-post again on what I see as very low quality research on the JFKA, on X or Youtube.

This is the news environment we in the JFKA research community operate in, whether we like it or not.

(BTW I post often on Mark Groubert, who has quite a large audience n Youtube, and I tend to agree with his work. So I am not always a Negative Norm.)