I am always amazed by the malarkey and bravado expressed by anti-immigration, populist and nationalist groups when they speak of war, racism and censorship. They speak of these social illnesses as if they had first-hand experience even though they have never seen or been victims of war, racism and state censorship.
Even so, they have lots of opinions about what war, racism and state censorship are. Sometimes they even surprise us with an occasional solution, albeit impracticable, to the challenges posed by our ever-growing cultural diversity as a society.
Some of these characters make incredible claims like being the oldest people on Earth, like Methuselah.
Here is an example: “That guy thinks it’s “his” society? Hey Enrique, where were YOUR family when WE fought against Soviet Union? Where were your family when the civil war raged here in spring of 1918 and my great grandfather barely made it alive from the prison camp?”
How old is this person anyway? 120 or older?
My answer to such a preposterous claim is the following: My grandparents fought in all of these wars.
It is clear that those that have never seen war are the first ones to glorify it. Their saber-rattling arguments not only have generous quantities of malarkey in them but are strongly peppered with bravado.
If some of them ever had the misfortune to go to war and were officers, they would be the ones that would lead their troops from behind.
Some of them make the most incredible claims on Migrant Tales as well. One of these is that racism is a minor problem in this country and the fault lies in the immigrant for not adapting. All these people have to do is sit on their behinds and watch how the world adapts to them.
And then we come to their absurd claims and hate speech that they spread wholesale on the net anonymously. Like questionable war heros they claim to be, they are the first ones who would rise and defend our right to free speech.
Hogwash.
I know what state censorship is because I lived under a dictatorship in Argentina during 1976-83. People got killed for what they published never mind what they thought. If they were lucky, they fled the country.
The most important matter I learned as a young journalist a long time ago was that words are weapons. Words can move mountains, even bring down dictatorships.