April 26, 2009

Innocents Abroad or Fool's Paradise

There is a major brouhaha going on among "Islam critics" because Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have announced that they may attend the Anti-Islamization Congress of the German Pro-Köln movement in May. Invectives are bandied about liberally and there is little room left between "Poster Girl for Eurofascists" resp. "publisher of the anti-Islam Internet hate site "Jihad Watch"" on one side, and "dynamo of energy and a paragon of courage and fearlessness" resp. "the leading voice of scholarship and reason in a world gone mad" on the other.

Whatever they are, neither Geller nor Spencer are doing themselves a favour by posting inane statements like the one claiming that one of the leading members of Pro-Köln isn't a Nazi because . . . he says so.
Manfred Rouhs, a Pro-Köln member of the city council, is not a neo-Nazi. Here is a statement from Rouhs:
"blah blah yabber yack yack..."
Unbelievable!

I have blogged about Pro-Köln and other branches of the "Pro"-movement before. They are not "Eurofascists" (what sort of hollow epithet is that anyway) and, as I said before, they are attracting quite a few wellmeaning, decent citizens who are just desperate because the mainstream parties are exposing them helplessly to the Islamic threat. But they are not, by no stretch of the imagination, either, the clear-cut democrats, freedom lovers and defenders of Western values as which American conservatives doggedly insist to see them.

I am committing a major transgression now. I am quoting -- horribile dictu -- from LGF, the blog of Charles Johnson, ring leader in the open season on Geller and Spencer. And appreciatively to boot, which makes me now a liberal pinko commie leftist and ally of Evil Charles. But whatever. In a comment, the German blogger Gegenkritik states:
Hey all. Something more about pro Köln: their "pro-Israel"-stance is relatively new, it's mainly PI-news-founder Stefan Herre, who appears at their demonstrations with israeli-flags. He was also the one to interview former CDU deputy mayor of district Cologne-Ehrenfeld (where the mosque will be built), Jörg Uckermann, who is now one of the leading figures of pro-Köln, and it was Herre who convinced him to to take a "pro-Israel"-stance.

Some years ago, pro-Köln was openly hostile towards Israel: here's a leaflet (Google translated) that was handed out by pro-Köln's student-organization, entitled "Solidarity with Palestine!". You'll find the typical anti-zionism in it: Israel is waging war against the Palestinians, Ariel Sharon is seeking for cruel vengeance, the German Goverment should not deliver weapons but put pressure on Israel.
Two years ago, pro-Köln defended the stance of the German Bishops, who compared the situation of the Palestinians with the Jews in the Warsaw-Ghetto (Here is a LGF-post about this).

To be fair, all this is still not a real Nazi-position, and it is the common stance of 90% of Germans. But there is more: their agitation against the planned Jewish museum in Cologne. The background: after the destruction of most Jewish buildings in Cologne in the Nazi-era, a private foundation was fundraising for a museum about the Jewish history in Cologne. The foundation got the building permission, but suddenly, nearly all media as well as the city council were against the museum.

The only newspapers that were still in favor of the planned museum, were those of the Axel Springer AG, who are often attacked by leftists, muslims and Neonazis alike because of their Corporate principles ("To promote reconciliation of Jews and Germans and support the vital rights of the State of Israel"). Neonazis and other Anti-semites often take this point to lament about the "jewish controlled media" ("Verjudete Presse" was the original slogan in the Nazi-era) and it's very clear that pro-Köln is referring to this.

All this shows, that pro-Köln's pro-Israel-attitude is essentially a fake.

The only thing that is wrong with this is that it was published at LGF and will so inadvertently support Charles Johnson's unconsidered, uncalled-for and crude smearing of everybody and his pet ferret of whom he doesn't approve as a "fascist". Had Gegenkritik sent this statement to some conservative bloggers it might have triggered off some second thoughts.

Might. But I doubt it.

Anyway, now, as it appeared at the dreaded LGF, it CAN NOT BE RIGHT in the eyes of those who know everything already. Wanna bet? Not facts count, but where they appear and whether one likes them.

My blog has a fair ranking at Technorati, specifically for a one-woman-effort, at one time it used to be in the fortythousands, but I am not complaining. My SiteMeter count varies greatly, depending on how much blogging I do. My best result ever was well over 400 page views a day. That was, interestingly, for this entry. So I know I am at least read. I am decrying for years now the grotesque, hysterical (but strategic) exaggeration of the "rightwing danger" in Germany. In fact, it is one of the main topics at this blog. I decry as well the fact that people who stand for politically non-correct ideas are denounced as "right wing populists" (ever met a "left wing populist", by the way?) or "right wing extremists". Believe me (but you won't) I know a Nazi when I see one and if Charles Johnson says so too, he is STILL right, although his may be the factuality of a broken clock.

I believe I have established over the years the reputation of an intellectually honest blogger and a diligent researcher, and, as the Gegenkritik-blogger proves, I am not the only one who dares to question the wishful thinking of only too many conservative Americans who seriously think that Germany, that little country from which went out so much good and so much evil, Germany, with its almost twothousand years of history, Germany, with its multitude of age-old people, cultures and traditions within such a limited territory, Germany, which therefore never achieved true national unity, Germany, shaken in its foundations by the Reformation, something from which it is still suffering, Germany, that, historically, always took a different path from other West European nations, is just as easily comprehensible as their own relatively recently colonialised empty slab between two oceans. They seriously think that, because they know yodelling and Panzerlied, that they have a grasp of the German culture and mind and that they know better than educated, thoughtful, native Germans. There is, after all, Babelfish or Google to deliver quality translations of German copy from which one can then cherrypick what one would like to believe. THIS ARROGANCE MAKES ME SICK!

Not that the LGF-blogger is any more hot on fact-finding. The other day he informed us that Politically Incorrect, the major Islam-critic among the German blogs is a "pro-fascist German website". How he can know that without any knowledge of German is beyond me, but it would be presumptuous to presume presumptuousness only in the conservative camp. PI is blog number one among ALL political blogs in Germany, which shows how dearly in need we are of that sort of information. As I am contributing to its English section, I will now carry the title "Euro Fascist" awarded by one of the biggest jerks in all of the Internet with pride.

While I was writing this, one of the people at PI sent me an email with the link to an entry, reporting that Geller and Spencer have cancelled their participation in the Pro-Köln event. Egads! I wish Geller and Spencer (and a host of other American conservative Islam-critics) were able to read what the scummy rabble followers of Pro-Köln in PI's comment section, freedom-loving clear-cut democrats and defenders of Western values all of them, are saying about those two innocents and life in general.

But lucky for them, they can't. As it is, dream on!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...
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The_Editrix said...

Actually, if you'd bothered to read a very brief fraction of my blog and not just the admittedly offensive tag you'd have seen that I am infinitely more critical of my own country than of America.

And you last paragraph is pretty racist, don't you think? So a German, born after WWII, is not allowed to have any opinions on the strength that he is German?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The_Editrix said...

My good woman, you are a guest here at my blog, so please behave like one.

If you had bothered to read further than the offensive tag, you'd have seen that I have tags called "Ungratefulness" and "Thank You America", both dealing with what we Germans owe America.

I repeat: If you had bothered to read even a tiny fraction of my blog you'd have noticed that everything you say is supported by this blog. Stop making a fool of yourself.

You CAN read?

Until you haven't done so I consider this discussion closed.

Terry Morris said...

Nora,

We're a pretty screwed up bunch over here in America. If we'd take the time to remove the beam from our own eye, then maybe we could see clearly enough to help our international neighbors to remove the motes from their eyes.

As far as LGF is concerned, all I can say is that I went there a couple of years ago following a link from another site (my recollection is that it was a GoV article), and I found it to be completely and utterly unserious. Certainly not conservative by any stretch of the imagination. Later, of course, I learned of Charles Johnson's infantile methods and ways, and my first impression of his site was confirmed.

But you're right, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Not that I'll be visiting LGF in search of those rare and elusive pearls. If I learn of them it'll be indirectly through your site and/or others willing to tread that unhallowed ground. I'm afraid I'd feel compelled to take a long shower if ever again I darkened Johnson's door. Particularly after reading some of the stupid-*ss, worshipful comments the lizards (or whatever it is they're called) leave under his posts. But anyway...

The_Editrix said...

Terry, you're not any more screwed up than we are at our end. It is just that your mistakes are usually more far-reaching than the mistakes of others. The problem is, at your end, an overabundance of good will and a refusal to see things based on facts, not on ideology (wishful thinking) and a black and white worldview. I hadn't visited LGF for many years, based on simple boredom and I found the latest, topical, posts, like you, via a search engine. I learned of CJ's actions only through third parties, for example VFR, but they speak for themselves. I had never heard of the "lizards" or other intimate details of LGF before I discovered the Hitler-travesty about which I have blogged. But back to my original point. What is so difficult to understand about the fact that nationalism has a different face in Europe? I guess America was founded on Old Europe's shortcomings, no? And while nationalist non-Nazi parties are thinkable outside Germany (although I'd look at any European nationalist party thrice before I'd label them "patriotic" in the American sense), any party that is based on a German nationalist concept (which is not bad a priori from a strictly logical point of view) will turn out to be anti-American and antisemitic, because, after Auschwitz, German nationalism is based on those two pillars. That is an empirical (not logical) truth, sad as it may be. All I can say to an American is that there is literature about it, there is the German media, it's all there, accessable to everybody on a daily basis. Oh! You don't speak (or read) German? Too bad! At least stop making presumptions then. That is all I ask. But it's hard to give up that warm, fuzzy feeling of mutual and shared patriotism in the belly for the harsh truth, isn't it?

It will never cease to befuddle me that an impeccable thinker like Lawrence Auster is seriously AMAZED that somebody like Haider rubbed shoulders with Saddam Hussein and is asking himself whether that wasn't detrimental to his (Haider's) political career. (I don't have the link, but maybe you remember it.) The step to ally himself with Saddam was exactly what made Haider mainstream-fit, even for those who didn't like his rightwing rhetoric. I repeat: Any party that is based on a German nationalist concept will turn out to be anti-American and antisemitic, because, after Auschwitz, German nationalism is based on those two pillars.Now I read in the entry at Politically Incorrect that announced Geller's and Spencer's retirement from the Pro-Köln event that it was not based on the shady credentials of that group, but on CJ's smear-campaign. I am asking myself, WHAT Johnson might have done to those two stalwarts of Western values safe sending a malicious virus to their computers. This statement (should they have made it) is the height of shamelessness.

Off my soapbox now!

The_Editrix said...

To fill the gaps in this comment section, here are the comments deleted by the author:

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Zeeva Daveed has left a new comment on your post "Innocents Abroad or Fool's Paradise":

I respect your sentiments logically, but from the stand point of an American talking to a German that uses tags such as, "America shut up" I find myself dismayed - you made a good point in my comment section, yet you make many prejudicial points that now prove my conclusion that the Germans are still amongst the most arrogant of people in Europe.

I am of German decent and that decent saved my father and his family out of concentration camp only to be used by the Nazi's.

I am not sure what your background is, nor do I care right now. I thought I was going to find an unbiased now I realize I have found the the typical all americans are bad like "Sadly No."

How about you Germans shut-up! You have nothing to "really" be proud of thanks to Hitler and WW11.

Posted by Zeeva Daveed to The Editrix' Roncesvalles at 26 April, 2009 21:09


Zeeva Daveed has left a new comment on your post "Innocents Abroad or Fool's Paradise":

German's are the racists. I know one right here in America, who like you bashes America and America, yet could not live in her native Germany due to a 37% unemployment rate, yet Americans are dumb and stupid? I think the Germans are arrogant! You are arrogant just as the ungrateful German that lives here and is blessed here in America.

German's say they have learned from their past but it has been shown that most anti-Semitism still comes from Germany with the highest percentages right out of Germany.

It is hard to be forgiving with that type of a track record and the still ever so righteously arrogant critical Germans.

Shut your mouths! Loshon hora!

Posted by Zeeva Daveed to The Editrix' Roncesvalles at 26 April, 2009 22:19

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So much about "I leave when I choose, not when you dictate Miss Arrogant hypocrite."

I take this opportunity to remind my readers of my rules which can be reached via a link in the right sidebar. "Free Speech" is something that applies to the relationship between the state and the individual. It does NOT apply between two individuals. If I don't like a post enough, I will not publish it and if I think a post ought not to be deleted by the author, I will re-publish it.

Epaminondas said...

If anything all you are doing is pointing out that what actually exists IN OBJECTIVE REALITY in Germany is not what is in the mind's eye of certain anti jihad personalities in the USA.

True of all.

That seems to me to be more an OBSERVATION than an opinion.

If this was all simple, trained dogs could tell us what was objectively true.

Unfortunately we really have to dig, and STILL cannot be sure

The_Editrix said...

I am not quite sure what you are saying. Are you saying objectivity is in the eye of the beholder and thus doesn't exist?

But then you are bringing "observation" up, which is a good thing because that's exactly the point. All this is really more about observations than about opinion. I am sure I can make observations because of my socialisation a foreigner wouldn't. The same applies of course vice versa.

But as I said, I am not sure whether I got the full meaning of your message.