The Unoriginal Muse

My brother’s wife is a friend of the Mayor of Asunción (capital city of Paraguay). The mayor of Asunción spends rather a lot of time with the President of Paraguay, who has been known to occasionally have contact with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

I’M A FUCKING COMMUNIST!!!

Or at least I am if you apply the purity tests at LGF. Last time I checked the six degrees of association was an interesting theory about how everyone is only six contacts away from someone famous or noteworthy, not a test of their idealogical cohesion.

Someone better hide all those pictures of Bush shaking hands with saudi princes and chinese communists cos that makes him a rat-bastard communist muslim! At least according to the tests applied by LGF…

If you can’t already tell, I’m jaded. My pro-american sentiment has plunged rapidly over the past couple of weeks largely because of the sheer ignorance displayed by LGF posters. The historical integrity of national boundaries is called “isolated factions“, one of the founding organisers of Vigilant Freedom and SIOE is called “that ‘christine’“, and she’s “at it again”, as if having the temerity to defend against slurs and libel is somehow, well, wrong. They regularly attack Paul Belien and the Brussels Journal for “racism”, apparently taking the Belgian legal definition of that term which was designed to squash freedom of speech. So yes, my opinion of Americans has gone down rather rapidly in recent days. For a while I was willing to forgive the lack of knowledge about European history as just that; lack of knowledge. How many people would be interested in what this king did to that king in the 1500s after all?

But, then, that was from people who weren’t dictating policy to us. I don’t consider myself to be “European”. I’m British; more to the point I’m English. We’re different to them, separated by dint of geography long enough to evolve a radically different society, that forms the basis of much of the United State’s legal and societal mores today. However, we are often considered to be “European” by Americans, so when I see unqualified references to Europe from American posters I tend to assume they’re including us as a matter of course. And this pisses me off. Why? Because of what they say. Terms that would have Jesse Jackson up your arse so hard he’d pop out of your nose if they were applied to blacks are casually thrown at “us” from across the Atlantic with an arrogance I can only assume is brought about by that same lack of knowledge. The recent controversy over Vlaams Belang is an example of this; we’re all racists, nazis, white supremacists and bigots simply because we stand up for a party that, yes, has some controversy in its past. The guilt by association thing…

I have doubts about several members of VB, but their policies are about as unlike national socialism as you can get. Their own policies, if implemented, would prevent them from carrying out the kind of racial slaughter Charles and the LGF crew seem to be envisioning.

The comments I’ve been reading today have put my blood pressure up something rotten. People who have very little knowledge of the history of this place are pronouncing on recent events as if they know everything. Well, again, it’s forgivable if they’re willing to listen to some of the explanations. It’s unforgivable when they aren’t. It becomes not mere lack of knowledge, but willful ignorance, which might best be defined as being unwilling to learn. I despise ignorance. Despise it. Lack of knowledge can be remedied by a little education, but ignorance, the act of ignoring knowledge, cannot be forgiven.

The irony of this is, it’s that exact sort of ignorance that Americans are often criticised for - wrongly, in many cases, as lack of knowledge is assumed to be ignorance. But, again, why would they care about old kings if they aren’t getting involved? But now LGF is involved. Its commenters are trying to shout down the first attempt at organising a resistance to the Islamic threat because their lack of knowledge about the situation prevents them from making a proper assessment. That lack of knowledge became ignorance when they refused to listen to reason, when they started rejecting counter-arguments out of hand, when they started throwing accusations of racism and bigotry at people who only want to see their culture saved. These… people, are the very stereotype of ignorant, loud, obnoxious Americans that I have spent so many years trying to demonstrate didn’t exist.

It’s been a rude shock. I have friends in the states, from whom I’ve learned a great deal about American cultures, and who have learned a great deal from me about English cultures and history. I supported the Iraq war, and much of Bush’s foreign policy (though not all, obviously; some things, like the constant pressure on Israel to “compromise” with their would-be murderers, are just stupid) and I admired - still admire - the founding principles of the United States and its constitution. Unfortunately I am now faced with the knowledge that the US is full of very stupid people, who prefer to speak from ignorance rather than wait a moment to learn and speak from authority and knowledge.

I had planned to emigrate there at one point. I like the US, I love its culture and even some of the food. Not now… I wouldn’t be able to stand being surrounded by LGF commenters. I can imagine their reaction to this as well: “Good! We don’t want no euro nazi slimeballs here! It isn’t the Reich country for you white supremacist folks! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”

Based on insults hurled at Fjordman and other defenders of the SIOE conference.

The absolute irony of all of this is that these people seem willing to believe the European Union’s classification of VB as “far right”, which is just a codeword for neo-nazi. Quite apart from the fact that the Nazi party was not right wing in any way shape or form, they ignore the fact, the fact, that the EU is the real fascist threat. They are taking away our democracy, and yet I see LGF commenters praising the bastards for bringing “peace”. Peace! The EU claims it brought about peace when it didn’t even fucking exist! And now it’s taking away our rights, our nationhood, our freedom and these fuckers praise it!

According to their own reasoning that makes the whole of LGF a fascist organisation.

How’s that for guilt by association?