The televised presidential debate on Thursday is probably one of the first times when Perussuomalaiset (PS) party chairman Timo Soini’s good-cop-bad-cop strategy was uncovered to the tee. His usual response, “I don’t support racism and hate speech,” didn’t work because it was unconvincing and even had a grotesque quality.
We should thank again the high school students of the city of Järvenpää for their good question that brought Soini’s political house of cards down.
The question inspired as well other presidential candidates taking part in the debate, namely Paavo Lipponen of the Social Democrats, Swedish People’s Party Eva Biaudet and Paavo Arhimäki of the Left Alliance, to continue to grill Soini and not let him off the hook as easily as in the past.
With young people like the ones we saw on television this week and their good questions, we can rest assured that Finland is in good hands and will not fall victim to nationalistic populism and hatred.
The startling discovery that one will make when studying Soini’s ideology and the PS is that at the end of the day he thinks just like those worst racists in his party. The big difference between Soini and those “bad cops” is that he is a good talker. Soini does not insult any group directly like some of his more cruder MPs.
But don’t be mistaken, it’s the same beast with the difference being that the message comes in sugar-coated words.
There is a very good column by Pekka Vasala of Kainuun Sanomat that catches Soini in his good-cop-bad-cop role.
How can a politician like Soini be against racism and prejudice when he prizes politically people like Jussi Halla-aho with the chair of the administration committee? How can he lead by example if he attracts Nazi-spirited members that belong to associations like Suomen Sisu and SKV? The PS chairman literally shakes your hand with a smile but then clobbers you with the other.
Once we understand how a political beast like Soini and the PS operate, we can begin to tackle an ever-growing social ill in this country: far-right nationalism, inequality, prejudice and racism.
It’s not complicated. It’s as simple as that.
How true. Mr Soini just like the ‘elites’ his party stands against is a fairly well educated, intelligent guy. (He has a Master of Social Sciences degree [valtiotieteiden maisteri] in Political Science from the University of Helsinki. In fact, he wrote his Master’s thesis on populism!) As such, Mr Soini is able to play the ‘good cop’ using his intelligence to steer away from explicitly racist or xenophobic statements, whilst allying himself closely to the more threatening (and I would argue, evil) views expressed by Halla-aho et al. behind closed doors.
One only has to observe the cleavage between what Mr Soini says and what he actually does to realize that his words are not 100% truthful. Should Mr Soini really find racism abhorrent, he would then act seriously to oust those allied to Suomen Sisu etc. from the party he leads.
I thank the Lukiolaiset from Järvenpää for exposing Mr Soini. Kiitos! 🙂
Hey Peter! Great to hear from you! If you look at what Timo Soini says and the party’s stand on immigration and cultural diversity, we can come to only one conclusion: Soini thinks pretty much like the anti-immigration extremists in his party. If I had to do a clip on Soini, I’d put him in a concentration camp with SS henchmen holding hiding behind his back. Soini would state with a poker face: “I am against racism and Antisemitism.”
Vasala’s comments, and the general tone of the questions pertaining to this issue at the debate, are more a reflection of the totalitarian sentiments that inform leftists’ ideas about race than they are about any of Soini’s or the PS’ proposed policies.
The premise of the entire discussion, the allegation that races do not exist/are not meaningful and/or the allegation that the massive dysfunction of particular immigrant demographic groups is not due to high frequencies of particular character traits in those demographic groups, but rather to a widespread-but-never-acknowledged-conspiracy (“racism”), rests upon such scant evidence, such dubious claims, and such obviously politicised ideological foundations that it cannot be taken seriously by any intelligent person.
People who hold such ridiculous beliefs should be ignored, and any questions they have should also be ignored. “Culture” and “education” do not change humans’ intelligence or behavioral traits, despite the bleatings of legions of deluded social pseudoscientists. Statistically, certain demographic groups are far more likely to behave in particular antisocial ways than are other demographic groups. Recognizing such patterns is an important part of not getting robbed or assaulted in many parts of the world.
All civilized societies, from the beginning of recorded history until the present day, have recognized the existence of racial differences. The acknowledgement of these differences is the first step towards enabling governments to create sound social policies.
Bleating about “racism”, on the other hand, is the first step towards the replacement of indigenous populations with dark-skinned foreigners, which is ultimately what Ricky and extremist Trotskyite supporters desire.
With young people like the ones we saw on television this week and their good questions, we can rest assured that Finland is in good hands and will not fall victim to nationalistic populism and hatred.
With 19% of the vote in the election with already PS been seen as the biggest winner in the next municipal elections with other political parties taking a more populist line when being critical of immigration and the eu and defending Timo against smear attacks and those who do not are set for political oblivion maybe in your world Finland has already fallen victim to hatred
“The question inspired as well other presidential candidates taking part in the debate, namely Paavo Lipponen of the Social Democrats, Swedish People’s Party Eva Biaudet and Paavo Arhimäki of the Left Alliance, to continue to grill Soini and not let him off the hook as easily as in the past.”
Regardless of the comments some PS members have made and events in other country support PS get in opinion polls grows and grows. Have their fanatic obsession in trying to prove Timo is a racist detached them from the reality that a large percentage of Finnish have made their views on Timo and PS already.
If the killing of mainly young people does not effect the support of PS. Why would they think that proving Timo and PS are racists would have more effect on the emotions of Finnish people than the deaths of 77 people?
Eduardo
Here is a summary of your post:
…those attacking racism are ridiculous, totalitarian, extremist Trotskyites and should be ignored. Claims about racism are dubious and have no evidence and no intelligent person can take them seriously.
…you then go on to suggest that certain groups are proven to be antisocial, massively dysfunctional, that culture and education do not change behaviour or intelligence, that if you ignore this reality you will be robbed of your precious belongings, and also that it will allow dark foreigners to take over white countries.
…any social scientist who provides evidence to contradict the above is not really a scientist, they are just deluded, whining, complaining, feeble pseudoscientistsand.
For all of this you offer absolutely no evidence, no source, no data, not even clear categories (which of these racial groups are supposed to be dysfunctional?). In fact, you are just indulging in pathetic name calling, with a supercilious, elitist, condescending tone.
My guess is you have no qualifications whatsoever in this field, no research experience, no evidence, and nothing to provide any credibility for your childish hatred and vitriol.
Paavo Lipponen of the Social Democrats a person with a frantic support for the EU
Something his party will not take into the next election as it being a election risk.
But will the SDP take his anti populist views into the next election?
Question
A question Question.
It seems that the single point you are reiterating again and again in all the comments sections of this site, regardless of the nature of the original article, is that nothing can stop the ‘populism’ in Finland, that all politicians must now bow down and accept that ‘populism’ and its policies are dictating the entire political debate and that because of this, it cannot be criticized, either as having racist undertones or as being socially divisive, and neither can it opposed, without suffering the complete rejection of the Finnish people.
How on earth do you come to that conclusion on the back of a 19% vote for PS in the last election?
Not only that, but it is certainly not clear how much of that vote was a ‘protest’ vote and so nothing at all to do with supporting a populist agenda, but rather expressing dissatisfaction with a perceived distance by Finnish politicians to the hardships of ordinary Finns.
Are you relishing in this populist limelight or are you opposed to it? You do not seem to be taking a coherent position but making rather random comments about it IMHO.
Mark, you have correctly interpreted the general thrust of my comment. Well done.
As far as research is concerned, there are mountains of empirical evidence demonstrating significant genetic differences between different populations that have been geographically isolated over evolutionary time periods. In fact, the basic principles of biology, as we understand it today, would make it statistically impossible for such groups not to have tremendously different genomes.
Races exist, and race is important. Why? Because evidence has shown that our swarthy friends from the south are incapable of establishing or maintaining even the basic rudiments of human civilization, even when “whitey” gives them trillions in food aid, medical aid, developmental aid and every other imaginable type of aid. Demographic replacement in Europe means the end of Europe and of the Europeans.
Your impotent rage that at the fact that someone might disagree with your childishly deluded worldview amuses me, as does the strong language such disagreement elicits. Perhaps you will rob someone of his precious belongings? Go for it!
Eduardo, there is a big discussion whether races exist or not. So? What’s the point? As you know in Europe we use the term ethnic group as opposed to race. In the U.S. some groups use race like blacks and Hispanics. It all boils down to the same thing.
Just like people are not guided like robots by culture, genes don’t determine your personality. That is an outcome of your environment.
Genetics is interesting in that it can help us to avoid illnesses like cancer.
Eduardo
– “Your impotent rage that at the fact that someone might disagree with your childishly deluded worldview amuses me…”
hahahahaha. Yeah, right. I’m full of rage. 🙂
Race does exist and it is important. We are born into races and those races comprise traditions, beliefs, and history, all of which we absorb in the process of building our own identities. It is true that we often inherit our ignorance as well as learning.
But, what I don’t get about you is that you seem to think ‘us lefties’ are all about ideology, and I really don’t get that. For me, it’s not about anything more than being fair. I remember a chubby young lad from Pakistan who I used to play with when I was young, about 10 years old, at school, Ishmael. He was funny, smart, loyal and a good friend to me for some years. You know, though I knew he was different, the only dark-skinned in our class, it really didn’t register as something important. I miss that childhood, where people are people, and their skin-colour really doesn’t matter, although I know he was teased about it, for being chubby and for being dark. But it didn’t bother him so much. He just wanted to laugh and have fun. Of course, there is much more to that response, but it’s enough to say that he was just ‘normal’ for me and we never talked about it and I’m glad, because he was just my friend, and if we start to become the ‘representatives of our races’, then that seems so alien, so weird and ‘ideological’.
And for that reason, I find it so strange that now as an adult, and I have so much more experience of life and have known people of many different races and nationalities, and my feeling of friendship with many different kinds of people is just as strong, nevertheless, I know that there are people like you, who would ask me to process all of that through some kind of ideological lens that says certain races means certain things, and, in typically, in comparison to white races, these other races are somehow less. And that seems so alien to my experience, so strange, so forced, so ideological.
And so when you claim that it is me that is being ideological in defending a sense of human dignity, of fairness, of the humanity of the people I have known of different backgrounds, I am left feeling that there is something about you that is just not quite right! I tell myself that perhaps you have just had ‘different’ experiences to me. But somehow, I think that it is in fact you that is caught up in the ideology, and I’m rather sad for you.
If they want to criticize PS or stand against them then they can .You can either prove PS argument wrong or offer an alternative to the polices of PS .
But they don’t instead they still think that the weapon of the word “Racist” will be all they need to collapse the vote of the PS without understanding or wanting to admit they are completely wasting their time.
The three presidential candidates mentioned in the post are three examples of those people
You are a mistaken in thinking PS where the ones which has made Finland on a larger scale take a more negative view against immigration,
Even without PS Finland like many other countries in Europe would still take a more negative view against immigration as its just the situation in Europe now
So other MPs are not bowing down to populism or to the PS but they are getting frustrated with people who are failing to understand this is the way things are now.
The post is written with the belief they have achieved something and I typed my posts to show that they have achieved absolutely nothing
If PS only got 19% in election and that was a protest vote and not voters voting for the PS polices. Why then would other political parties now have a more coherent immigration polices than they had before the election?
Just because you think populists are racist xenophobic bigots don’t amuse that everyone agrees with you
–Just because you think populists are racist xenophobic bigots don’t amuse that everyone agrees with you.
We have written on this blog that EVERY party in Finland has its racists. The difference, however, is that the PS has capitalized on anti-immigration sentiment by spreading urban myths. At the end of the day, it’s Finland that suffers because you scare away skilled labor.
And about the racists in the PS. Yes, there are many of them. What worries me a lot is that their are anti-democratic far-right populists that use anti-immigration to get some legitimacy. These types of politicians, in my opinions, are opportunists. They can fool some but they will have a difficult time fooling many on Migrant Tales.
Question
– “Just because you think populists are racist xenophobic bigots don’t amuse that everyone agrees with you.”
If I had said that, then I could understand you disagreeing. I have written in detail on this blog about how populism links to racism, so I think it’s not exactly fair that you throw that rather superficial accusation around.
– “You are a mistaken in thinking PS where the ones which has made Finland on a larger scale take a more negative view against immigration,”
True enough, but when a national political party gives a platform for such views, then they become normalised.
Lord Parekh in the UK once said of multiculturalism that it “basically means that no culture is perfect or represents the best life and that it can therefore benefit from a critical dialogue with other cultures.”
This is a mature view of what multiculturalism is and probably reflects how most, though not all, people in the UK view it. I have to question whether Finland has a long enough experience with multiculturalism to arrive at this kind of viewpoint as a whole.
“You are a mistaken in thinking PS where the ones which has made Finland on a larger scale take a more negative view against immigration,”
True enough, but when a national political party gives a platform for such views, then they become normalised .
But that’s my whole point.
Can you now call the views of PS as being racist as even you have said those views have been normalised.
And can you try and stop those views by declaring them as racist in a society which has made them normal
Which those candidates seemed to think they could for which I made the conclusion they where not going to achieve anything as the numbers where not on their side
The anti populist supporters are heading for a serious division and eventual split on how to confront PS
Question
– “Can you now call the views of PS as being racist as even you have said those views have been normalised.”
Oh, come on, Question, I’ve replied to this already on another post. This is getting bloody tedious. Don’t you read what people say in response to you? Just because a majority or even a sizeable minority think something is okay doesn’t make it okay. Otherwise, slavery, apartheid and Nazism would have been considered by history to have been perfectly legitimate expressions of ‘national opinion’, above moral reproach. And history most certainly does not view them as such.
And where exactly is the split in how to respond to PS? Do you really think that PS are the first populist party to ever ply their grimy trade in European politics? Naive, or what!
. They can fool some but they will have a difficult time fooling many on Migrant Tales.
You are being a bit insulting nearly a quarter of the population of Finland if you believe they do not have the intelligence to see through PS.
But like Mark said PS only gained 19% in the election which does hold some power but not enough to stop a block vote against them. So why would a government as a whole and not as individualis bend to them if there was not a need to
Your view what you see as racist is the opposite to the majority so why would you think you could achieve anything when the numbers are against you
The split will come from:
A Those who will think the answer is to challenge their views or offer a alternative
Or
B Those who think the answer is to just keep on calling them racist
You may think what the PS say is unacceptable and you can use this blog for that reason.
but if you want to use this blog in a attempt to try and stop PS then you wont be able to
because you can not get your head around the fact that people have a different opinion to you as you seem to be suffering from solipsism
I think you are B
Question
– “what the PS say is unacceptable”.
It is unacceptable. And it’s unacceptable because it changes the entire human rights landscape in Finland. I undermines tolerance, human rights and the sense the discrimination on the basis of race is unacceptable.
On the contrary, PS use a minority issue, and minorities as a subject in order to generate support. That support is basesd on the idea that Finland is somehow culturally under threat and that ‘immigration’ needs control, even though immigration into Finland is quite minimal in a European context. However, there are those within the party who think that Islam is a great threat to European identity and do not like the idea of several different cultures, to varying degrees, living within the same nation.
Such an idea in this day and age is frankly warped, dangerous and ignorant of the history of such xenophobia, rampant nationalist and fascism in Europe.
But go ahead, keep imagining that the people who oppose such a backward regressive step into the darkest history of European politics know fuck all about anything!
If you went to up to a group of PS voters and gave your opinion about PS and explained why you should not vote for them. What do you think they would say?
I agree with you and I wont vote for them or would they tell you just to Fuck off
If you are serious about stopping the PS my questions are trying to understand why you think you are going to stop them when its all based around your opinion of them and not those who vote for them
Countries like France Germany UK and Holland once had only a small amount of immigration and look at the situation they are now in.
As PS are not anti immigration but want a immigration policy which does not make the mistakes other countries had made so its important theses are considered now when thinking ahead
Being opposed to Islam is not a political issue of the far right anymore but a social one. The views of the left wing Pim fortuyn put a end to being against Islam as a political issue of the far right and made it into a social issue
Are you genuinely serious in using this blog to hopefully to stop PS? .
Or do use it just to keep your self created image of PS going?
Question
– “Countries like France Germany UK and Holland once had only a small amount of immigration and look at the situation they are now in.”
Yes, what situation are they in? Have you ever lived in the UK? Have you ever mixed with people of different origins? It’s really no big deal. Most people in the UK, regardless of their background, feel British and understand and accept that Britain was once an empire, and that the population of Britain today reflects the mixing and movements of people within that empire.
My kids are mixed nationality, and mixed race – Finnish and Celtic. Are you going to tell me that they are a mistake????? Go ahead. Pin your colours to the mast!
If you look at those countries and take the benefits of what immigration has brought and then take the problems immigration has brought the problems will outnumber the benefits which is a immigration policy which has failed.
What PS want and what Finland as a country should want is the reverse where the benefits outnumber the problems,
Question
So, you dodged the question, you coward. Let’s try again. Are my kids a mistake?
Rather, you want to make some kind of ‘total’ judgement, do the cons outweigh the pros. Since when did you start weighing up the value of people or citizenship on the basis of some imagined ‘average benefit’?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that problems always get more attention that things that run along smoothly. It’s a bit like being in the car, doing 120 km/h in a 120 zone. The only people who pass you are the ones speeding, and so you can easily imagine the world is only full of speeding drivers, because the rest, by definition, are not visible.
As to whether multiculturalism can foster a sense of Britishness among those whose direct ancestors come from elsewhere, check this LSE research out:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/2011/04/14/multiculturalism-immigration-support-white-population/
– “Are you genuinely serious in using this blog to hopefully to stop PS?”
This blog is Enrique’s and I’m sure he would answer you. But last time I checked, it was called ‘Migrant Tales’ and sought to give voice to migrants and issues affecting migrants.
The only reason that PS come into the frame in this blog is because they set out an anti-immigration stance. My own view about PS is that they combine nationalist, populist and fascist support, and that all of these political strands have made a comeback into the political mainstream in Europe.
How can this blog stop PS, Question? That’s a ridiculous notion. The only thing people can do here is offer an opinion or be critical. Are you trying to stop Migrant Tales by being critical of the blog? Probably not. It’s all part of the fabric of democratic discussion, is it not?
In Finland, the benefits of immigration already far outweigh the negatives. However, if you wish to see it differently, go ahead. If by the only tangible ‘negative’ you mean that racist Finns have to suffer the torment of seeing and hearing immigrants on these shores, then fuck em, welcome to the world. No one should have to apologise for their race or the fact that they happen to be in a particular country, whether through trying to find a better life or escaping persecution. If fucking idiots like you have a hard time with that, then fuck you. You get all you deserve!
Since when did you start weighing up the value of people or citizenship on the basis of some imagined ‘average benefit’?
Most asylum seekers are illiterate and uneducated and will be no benefit to society which means asylum is a immigration negative.
If your children are of European descent then they should have no trouble assimilation into Finnish culture as they are also come from a similar society and environment so there will be no culture shock
–Most asylum seekers are illiterate and uneducated and will be no benefit to society which means asylum is a immigration negative.
Do you mean over 50%? Can you give me the source. Thank you.
–This blog is about migrant tales but it has become more political and it is skirting on the edges of being more politically driven than socially driven.
What is the difference between “politically” and “socially” driven?
–Could 10,000 Finnish people move to Africa and automatically fit into African society without no signs of complications.
Where do we live now? Africa? No. In Finland. Ever heard of the saying “two wrongs don’t make a right?”
This blog is about migrant tales but it has become more political and it is skirting on the edges of being more politically driven than socially driven.
And before you call me a “Nazi” .
Could 10,000 Finnish people move to Africa and automatically fit into African society without no signs of complications
Even though immigration into Finland is quite minimal in a European context.
In Finland, the benefits of immigration already far outweigh the negatives.
You have actually described how a successful immigration policy works.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha !!!!!!!!!!!
No more to say really… Game set and match to me
Question
– “game set and match to me”
Interesting how you reduce the wellbeing of people to a matter of intellectual gamesmanship. Never hear of the adage, ‘pride precedes a fall?’
– “Most asylum seekers are illiterate and uneducated and will be no benefit to society which means asylum is a immigration negative.”
You make the mistake of thinking that the asylum system is an exercise in economics. It is not. Asylum is fundamentally a humanitarian activity. And usually, when someone has been abused, we do not ask them if they can read before we decide to help them.
Also, even a we did do a an economic analysis, we would not single-mindedly ask whether people can read, but whether they can learn to read. Likewise, a mother who stays home looking after five kids is being very productive in economic terms, considering the low rate of replacement in Finland.
– “before you call me a Nazi”
You’re not a Nazi – you are just an ignorant person trying to pretend their prejudices have some kind of intellectual foundation. Good luck with that.
Mark quoted some old idiot who said that “no culture is perfect or represents the best life and that it can therefore benefit from a critical dialogue with other cultures.”
There is a hierarchy of “cultures” just as there is a hierarchy of individuals on earth. The most civilized, the most prosperous, and the most advanced cultures are those established by Europeans. Slightly further behind them are the cultures of East Asia – here the typical north-south gradient of cultural superiority also prevails. Less advanced are the native cultures of the Americas, which before contact with Europeans were characterized by widespread human sacrifice, no knowledge of the wheel, and stone-age technology. In last place come the Africans and the natives of Australia, who no thinking person could consider human in any meaningful way.
This hierarchy, of course, corresponds to the frequency of genes in those population groups that provide selective advantages – genes that code for qualities such as intelligence, non-aggressiveness, altruism, and cooperation.
A “critical dialogue with other cultures” is one of those completely meaningless phrases that pernicious ideologues, usually in governmental employ, use in order to cheerlead for population replacement. Non-European cultures, and particularly African cultures, have little or nothing to offer civilized societies. This fact should be openly acknowledged.
–There is a hierarchy of “cultures” just as there is a hierarchy of individuals on earth.
Eduardo, I am sorry to say that your evolutionist views of other cultures was ditched in the nineteenth century. Here is a link: http://www.anthrobase.com/Dic/eng/def/evolutionism.htm
Question
lol
After sixteen comments in this thread, setting out a ridiculous Gish Gallop of half truths and outright fabrications, you rounded it off with that last remark.
So I hereby award you the SD WEITZENHOFFER PRIZE
Näiden ihmisten kanssa kiisteleminen on yhtä toivotonta kuin shakin pelaaminen pulun kanssa. Se kaataa kaikki nappulat, paskoo pelilaudalle ja menee nurkan taakse leuhkimaan kavereilleen voittoaan.
The most amusing thing is that you keep banging on about how calling the PS a racist party will increase its support in Finland. Of course if you really believed this and wanted to see the PS increase its support, then you would encourage us to keep calling attention to this racism.
I think this image sums up the PS quite nicely.
Mark
Good stuff from you today – thank you.
Eduardo has replaced Tiwaz as our resident neonazi troll.
I set you a little test in another thread, Eduardo. Are you afraid to answer it?
Ricky, did you even bother to read the link you posted? It reads “Evolutionism postulates that societies develop from simpler to more complex organizational forms, a simple formulation, which hardly anyone would disagree with, even today.”
This is exactly my point.
Justicesatan, I’m not interested in your championing of letters by some random octogenarians to the HS. If you want to propose some ridiculous “The Saami language underlies all civilization!”-ideas, then write them down here, for all to enjoy. In my view you have already discredited yourself with your utterly bizarre ideas about language and linguistics.
Eduardo
Can you understand any Finnish at all? What you said about the letter from Arvi Hagelin to Helsingin Sanomat very strongly suggested that you had merely run the text through Google Translate, which entirely fails to convey the sense of the message in this case.
Above you say that Pekka Vasala’s article in Kainuun Sanomat is
. This again suggests that you did not even begin to comprehend what Vasala actually wrote. Your Gates of Vienna soundbite does not connect in any way with the gist or specific content of the article, but is simply more neonazi trolling.
There is a very good reason why nobody has ever published Bluff your way in Finnish. You are now demonstrating this for all of our bilingual readers.
Ricky
On a side note, can you, or anyone confirm that this is the same Pekka Vasala who won a gold medal at the Munich Olympics?
Good question, JusticeDemon. He doesn’t look like the gold medalist but I’ll try to find out.
Eduardo
– “gradient of cultural superiority”
I see. So you have replaced ‘racial superiority’ with ‘cultural superiority’. Wow! You racists are so innovative.
– “Evolutionism postulates that societies develop from simpler to more complex organizational forms, a simple formulation, which hardly anyone would disagree with, even today”.
hahaha. Evolution doesn’t postulate anything. Human beings postulate. And for every moment of genius, there is a eternity of stupidity.
So, you are a biologist now, hey, Eduardo? And your wonderful vision of cultural (stroke biological) superiority is based on ….
– “the typical north-south gradient of cultural superiority”.
hahahahaha. This is not science, this is supersitition. Are you really trying to convince people that something as arbitrary as ‘north vs. south’ is responsibly for the good and bad in the world, the best vs. the worst, the superior vs. the inferior. Let me hear it again, the north-south gradient of cultural superiority.
Well, that was any shred of credibility you had with your pseudo-learning just disappearing in a puff of smoke, Eduardo!
I am a Finnish American, and I have been following this blog for nearly a year. This is the first time, however, that I have commented. If you are not familiar with Tim Wise, I highly recommend his lectures and essays. He’s one of America’s best and well-known antiracist essayists, authors and educators.
In this short video he talks about the effects of the economic crisis in America, and he illustrates, much better than I ever could, the pathology of white privilege. http://youtu.be/0yCAlSVq_GY
Here, he speaks in much more detail about The Pathology of White Privilege: http://youtu.be/Y2mjvFNOwmc
Finally, this is Mr. Tim Wise’s website: http://www.timwise.org
Hi Addi, and welcome to Migrant Tales. We are very happy to have read about your views.
Thank you for sharing Time Wise with us. If we want to learn about a social ill like racism, the United States would be a good place to start.
We hope to read more about your opinions on the topic.
Thank you kindly, Enrique. I’ll leave it at this for now.: “The American situation is very peculiar, and it may be without precedent in the world. Many white people, it seems, carry in them a carefully muffled fear that black people long to do to others what has been done to them. No curtain under heaven is heavier than that curtain of guilt and lies behind which Americans hide: it may prove to be yet more deadly to the lives of human beings than that iron curtain of which we speak so much-and know so little. The American curtain, of course, is color. We have used this word, this concept, to justify unspeakable crimes, not only in the past, but in the present. One can measure very neatly the white American’s distance from his conscience-from himself-by observing the distance between himself and black people. One has only to ask oneself who established this distance. Who is this distance designed to protect? And from what is this distance designed to protect?” ~ James Baldwin
But I have very high hopes for the United States, and this is just one reason for that hope.: http://youtu.be/zrp-v2tHaDo
Eduardo
Maybe Ricky installed an automated bullishit detector 😉
Really, though, on reflection, your posts strike me as completely indefensible, the way you are setting up races, ethnicities and demographic populations as being somehow intrinsically better or more capable in a moral, political or social sense. There are so many reasons why Africa, for example, suffers the way it does, and much of it is political and economic influence of the West exploiting African labour or even the lack of proper institutional frameworks that protect the labour force or provide citizens with effective services. That you would blame these problems on skin colour or ethnicity is abhorrent. Not because it’s a horrible idea and we cannot begin to imagine if it was right, but rather because it goes against the evidence, both sociological, political and experiential. You just have to open your eyes for a second to understand that that kind of idea is just hogwosh.
It’s not only racist, it’s supremacist, it’s fascist and it’s elitist social-Darwinism. It’s a poisonous combination of fallacies and arrogances. But, history tells us that for those of a certain authoritarian disposition, these theories are grease to the mill of oppression.
How on earth did you fall into this garbage, Eduardo? Who corrupted your mind in this way? You must realise that you swim in marginalised intellectual waters (both in terms of science, sociology and political theory), and that they are marginalised for a reason – because they contain horrible fallacies about human nature!? Do you not make any connection with this ideological superstition and the worst excesses of European politics?
I really wonder at what happened to you Eduardo! Obviously smart, but so derailed in your intellectual efforts.
Mark
Bullishit detector. I like that word. Bullishit: shit that is used to bully people. Most particularly pseudo-intellectual rubbish formulated to forestall questioning of an otherwise indefensible position. The aim is to silence criticism by causing readers or listeners to doubt that their expertise suffices to challenge outrageously unfounded claims. This is generally achieved through a Gish Gallop through a wide range of generally unrelated disciplines (such as biology, linguistics and the history of ideas) in the hope that the reader or listener will bow to the bullishitter’s assumed superiority in one of these disciplines.
–Bullishit: shit that is used to bully people. Most particularly pseudo-intellectual rubbish formulated to forestall questioning of an otherwise indefensible position.
Well said, JusticeDemon! Did you read the Hitler and Göring quotes? Pretty scary, no?
JD
I will take credit for that, though it was wholly accidental, as I’m sure you’re aware. Still, it really does reflect a clear reality.
These rambling, elaborated and disconnected ideas of a ‘grand nature’ are often a feature of mild (or not so mild) schitzophrenia. Generally they are coupled to delusions of grandeur (or supremacy or elitism), to conspiracy theories, and to notions of being the ‘saviour’ of soceity through their brand of ‘enlightenment’.
While sympathetic to Eduardo’s predicament, on the other hand, I find his complete disassociation from real people and the real world somewhat chilling.
–While sympathetic to Eduardo’s predicament, on the other hand, I find his complete disassociation from real people and the real world somewhat chilling.
Sad case that can lead to some pretty ghastly things in society. Thank you Mark!
JD & Enrique
Gish Gallop, that’s a good one, JD.
N.B. Oh, yes, and if I go on about linguistics, biology or the history of ideas, it is because I have a first class degree in Communication Studies with Biological Sciences. I wouldn’t say that that makes me an expert in those topics, just better able to smell the bullishit of others. 🙂
Mark,
Thank you so much for exposing Eduardo. He is basically inducing the kind of fear that ignorant people need in order to hate another racial group. For instance, he mentions some societies as “civilized” and yet, could not cite any examples. What people like Eduardo must understand is that we as a people, are different because of the environments we are raised in, and not our race as the difference genetic make up between races is statistically insignificant.
Eduardo will come across to the uneducated masses as a well informed man, however, to the educated (like myself), he is grossly ignorant.