Thursday, March 11, 2004

Blog Mob


Quick, mark up the brushwood 10%! Maybe I'm being too cynical, but I'm a real Conservative so mass action scares me. Even the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert could have turned nasty if enough people had become convinced the Jews invented HIV. When I hear the news that bloggers are being urged to Unite Against Fascism, my spider senses start to tingle. PC sums up one reason why it's a terrible idea - the BNP being the party for people who believe the mainstream parties are abusing their triopoly to shaft the common man, it's hardly likely to be a convincing argument against the BNP if all three supposedly competing parties get together to shaft the BNP.

But there's more to it than that. Laban Tall hits a good few nails on the head. To make explicit his point: the BNPs rise isn't a result of the extremist ideals becoming mainstream, it's a result of mainstream ideals becoming extremist. We hear about a bloke being prosecuted for preaching against homosexuality, then we hear about some Mullah claiming Allah orders Muslims to kill the infidel, with nary the ghost of the hint of a charge. When did 'equal under law' get to be a Fascist concept ?

It's ironic that a twenty-four carat example of what's wrong with our politics has been all over the news this very same week. Does anyone believe that, if five honkeys had been busted at an Aryan Nation training camp in West Virginia, the Liberals would hail them as virtual heroes on their return ? Hey, you want fascists ? Al-Q will fulfil all your fascist needs and them some. They make Hitler look like Germaine Greer. But 'Unite Against Al-Q' is still on the drawing board. The Tipton Taliban and friends are an extreme example of a very nasty trend in the British Muslim community, yet Liberals not only donwannatalk'boutit, you're a Nazi for mentioning it.

Then again, there's a whole bunch of thugs the L3 get along just fine with. Where's the outrage over incidents like this ? Or the IRA ? Or organised crime ? Nada. So it's not the violence. Then there's Jonah Goldberg's challenge to the Liberals: apart from the racism, what is it you don't like about the Nazis ? Come to think of it, given the attitudes to Jews and the support for Mugabe prevalent in those circles it seems like racism is no big with the Left right now. So, there's a certain artificial quality to the L3 outrage about the BNP. Then again, who said the BNP was rising ? Sure they may get a few councillors but it ain't Nuremberg yet. LT rightly points out that the Liberals have already made off with many of our rights, under cover of fighting extremists. Is it overly cynical to wonder if they'll be making another trip to the well during this latest campaign ? And would they be so committed if they didn't think they could stretch the campaign against a particular bunch of idiots into a more general smear against anyone to the right of Tony Blair ? [incidentally, could the BNP's success in part be due to Liberals using the same language to condemn them as they use on people who want to cut the Arts Council budget ? Maybe people will take charges of fascism more seriously once the L3 stop using 'fascist' as their favorite epithet].

Similarly, Liberals have already succeeded in removing from the political arena much that it is arguably perfectly legitimate to discuss. So, the L3 response to the disenchantment of the public with politicians who will not address the issues they're concerned about, is to rope off a whole new bunch of issues from public debate. That doesn't sound like a winning strategy to me.

Here's where it's at: British Muslims are going abroad to learn how to use anthrax and the Liberals are worried about Whites voting the wrong way. When does it not get to be the grey meat's fault ? And if you are a pinkey person, living in the same town as the Tipton Taliban and their charming fellow travellers, how likely are you to heed the calls from your supposed betters (who live nowhere near you) to take the High Road and not vote for the British Nutcase Party ?

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