[Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Pierce T . Wetter III]

On Jul 18, 2004, at 4:18 PM, Jean-Michel FAYARD wrote:

> Pierce T.Wetter III a écrit :
> >  Contrast this with just a casual reading of my European sources, and
> > they seem more racist then we do lately. I hear anti-semitism is on  
> > the
> > rise in Europe...I hear about beatings of guest workers...I hear  
> > you're
> > thinking about not letting Turkey in the EU.
>
> Anti-semitism is on the rise in Europe ?
>
> You probably have heard of the disgusting story of Marie L.(24 years  
> old) who was attacked in the subway of Paris, France, by 5 mueslims  
> and black people, who began to be histeric when they thought she was a  
> jew (she is not), cut her hair and her clothes, painted on her back a  
> swastika and hurted her baby. The most disgusting part of the story  
> was that ~20 people watched the scene, and nobody reacted.
>
> The story made instantly the cover of all radios, tvs, newspapers, and  
> get comments from highest politicians.
>
> Except...
>
> the whole story was a fake from A to Z., as discovered by the police a  
> few days after. She was just an alone woman who wanted to attract the  
> attention from her family and friends.

 Nope, hadn't heard of that.

 I was thinking of things I've read like this:

http://www.newstatesman.com/site.php3? 
newTemplate=NSArticle_People&newDisplayURN=200406280017

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/jj20040315.shtml

http://www.iht.com/articles/122394.html

Here's a survey article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3234264.stm

 Here's a counter-point:

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1111892

 One interesting thing for me is that a melting-pot American, I see  
many differences between peoples as insignificant. Its such a part of  
our culture that its hard to explain to a European, but most americans  
can't quite grasp where other peoples see differences. As an american  
of German/Irish/English/Scottish descent, it is very hard for me to  
grasp the difference between say, a Serb and a Croatian... When the  
Economist talks about the "French"
above for instance, I kind of see that as racist...

 So its hard for Americans to grasp Sunny/Shia/Kurd in Iraq, or  
Tutwilli/kawilli in Africa. We see them as one people...because they  
live in the
same place.

 How exactly are the Swedes and the Norweigans different again?

> I doubt this fact get the same media coverage as the fake incident.

  Sure, controversy sells, the status quo doesn't...preaching to the  
choir
there...

> My advice : it's not like there isn't any problems, much of them  
> caused by the bloody, endless and hopeless conflict in  
> Israël/Palestine (a situation not helped by all the errors of the Bush  
> administration, sorry again, sad but true),

 or the errors of the EU, or the errors of various Arab countries, etc.

> but don't overestimate it. By doing that, you feed the propaganda of  
> Sharon and a certain extremist lobby influent in Washington : only in  
> Israël are we safe, anywhere else is the ennemy for us, jews[1], in  
> short, frighten people and they will unite themselves around the  
> leader, no matter what, and you can make them do whatever you want.
>
>
>
> [1] the moment people become to think again themselves as "jews" and  
> not citizen, french, european, whatever, is the moment you can begin  
> to be frightened.

  I think anti-semitism can be a very subtle problem. Israel in part was
created by Britain to get support in WWI from the (nonexistent) cabal  
of Jews that was supposedly running things...

  Reference: The Peace to end all Peace, a book I can't reccomend it  
enough.

 Pierce