Stand with Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan -- with democracy and civilization against tyranny and barbarism
posted by Infidel753 at 2:50 PM
Individualist, pro-technology, pro-democracy, anti-religion. I speak only for myself and not for any ideology, movement, or party. It has been my great good fortune to live my whole life free of "spirituality" of any kind. I believe that evidence and reason are the keys to understanding reality; that technology rather than ideology or politics has been the great liberator of humanity; and that in the long run, human intelligence is the most powerful force in the universe.
God doesn't exist
Evolution happened
Global warming is real
Homosexuality is normal
Aging is a curable disease
The election was not stolen
Everything "spiritual" is a lie
Free speech is for everybody
Humans do not have "souls"
Men can't become women
Fetuses are not persons
Words are not violence
Taiwan is a nation
Pluto is a planet
3 Comments:
Well, that was a sobering read. Still, it's hard to argue with the points the author raises. Interestingly, of late, I've been doing quite a bit of reading pertinent to the subject of the OP. For example, I've just finished the book A Problem From Hell, America in the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power, which certainly didn't do good things for my blood pressure. I wasn't sure what pissed me off more while I was reading it: the various genocides it looked at (Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, Saddam Hussein's murderous campaign against the Kurds, the Rwandan genocide, and various outrages in the former Yugoslavia), or the outside world's reactions to most of those genocides (lots of hand-wringing, protests to the effect of "There's nothing we can doooooo!" and pointless squabbles over whether the genocides in question even were genocides anyway). I've also been reading quite a bit on the Third Reich and the Holocaust (something I'd hitherto gotten most of my information about from television documentaries), and have found that pretty sobering too. Particularly depressing has been reading about the experiences of Poland's Jews, who were all but wiped out during World War II (with most of the survivors being forced out of the country by post-war pogroms). From what I can gather, prior to the Second World War, Poland had a very vibrant Jewish community: something that would sadly appear to have been lost forever.
Some other random reflections:
One thing that infuriates me about the modern Left is the way so many people in it admire criminal groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. It reminds me of this anti-Tony Abbott rally I went to in my home city a couple of years back, which sadly brought out quite a few of the local left-wing lunatic fringe. Not only were there people at the demonstration carrying placards railing against such things as chemtrails and fluoride, but at one point, we were all exhorted by the rally organizers to start chanting in support of the Palestinian Intifada. "Fuck off!" I remember thinking at the time. "That's not why I'm here!"
Many, many years ago, I had an interesting conversation with one of my city's local rabbis (who's long since relocated to the UK), who told me that anti-Semitism is unfortunately alive and well in this particular corner of the world. Among other things, he said that he knew of some members of the South Australian Parliament who took rubbish like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion seriously. Sadly, they (or others like them) are probably still around.
As someone who was brought up Catholic, I learned a lot growing up about the persecution of the Church in the USSR and other Communist countries: something that, perhaps not surprisingly, gave me the impression that Catholicism (or for that matter Christianity in general) was the most persecuted religion in the Communist world. To my surprise (or not), however, I later learned that, in the Soviet Union at least, the most persecuted group of religious believers were - surprise, surprise - the poor old Jews (again).
I remember when Hezbollah got their noses bloodied by Israel, some ten years ago now. Sadly, despite its actions bringing horrible destruction down on Lebanon as a whole, that group apparently didn't find its popularity among many Lebanese waning terribly much as a result. Sort of reminds me of various class clowns I knew from my time at school, who remained inexplicably popular despite the fact that, more often than not, their stupid shenanigans would get the whole class in trouble.
Thanks for the linky love. {Smooches}
Comrade: Thanks for writing so effectively about an important matter.
Zosimus: It's an unfortunate pattern, all right. Compare the amount of media attention given to the wave of refugees in Europe (and how upset some Europeans are about it) with that given to the actual warfare and mass murder being waged by Dâ'ish (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq, of which the wave or refugees is merely a side effect. If Israel ceased to exist and Israelis had to flee to Europe as refugees, I'm not optimistic that they'd be treated much better than the Syrians are.
The fetishization of groups like Hamas is bizarre considering how many of those doing the fetishizing would be treated if they lived under the rule of such extremists. Israel is probably still the only place in the Middle East where one could live as openly gay or atheist as safely as in the West, though some countries like Jordan and Tunisia are becoming more liberal.
Islamic extremists have actually lost most of the popularity they once had in at least some Muslim countries, mainly because most of their violence is directed against Muslims they deem insufficiently devout. This probably varies from country to country, though.
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