Friday, June 04, 2004
Do you have a local newsgroup on Usenet? Mine is uk.local.hampshire and it makes good bigot hunting ground. Bigots are bullies & cowards who pick on those that are not in a position to defend themselves. Anyone with the simplest awareness of history will know that what the neo-nazis are now saying about Muslims they were saying about asylum seekers last year. Before that it was Asians, West Indians, the Irish in the 1950s and Jews in the 1930s.
The rightwing tabloids stir the pot with halftruths. I work with ordinary working class guys who would define themselves as decent & 'nice' who firmly believe that xenophobia is just fine (not that they would know the word). When I interject and say that one can't be racist and a nice person I am shouted down.
The nearest I have ever got to an honest statement was when a workmate said that he found non-white people frightening.
Naturally, there are also normal tolerant people at uk.local.hampshire and they too will confront the bigots.
I am quite deeply troubled by, given 20th century European history, how anyone with half a brain can be a racist. I suspect that this is unfair and the root of the problem is emotional rather than intellectual, it boils down to one's emotional attitude to the world and everything in it. Do I experience the world as welcoming or threatening. All the racists I know & have known seem to experience anything different as alien & threatening, anything foreign as dubious rather than interesting. This includes 'abroad' & the food there! I have also noted that these people have a generally negative attitude to life.
Think about it: how to be a happy fascist?!
The rightwing tabloids stir the pot with halftruths. I work with ordinary working class guys who would define themselves as decent & 'nice' who firmly believe that xenophobia is just fine (not that they would know the word). When I interject and say that one can't be racist and a nice person I am shouted down.
The nearest I have ever got to an honest statement was when a workmate said that he found non-white people frightening.
Naturally, there are also normal tolerant people at uk.local.hampshire and they too will confront the bigots.
I am quite deeply troubled by, given 20th century European history, how anyone with half a brain can be a racist. I suspect that this is unfair and the root of the problem is emotional rather than intellectual, it boils down to one's emotional attitude to the world and everything in it. Do I experience the world as welcoming or threatening. All the racists I know & have known seem to experience anything different as alien & threatening, anything foreign as dubious rather than interesting. This includes 'abroad' & the food there! I have also noted that these people have a generally negative attitude to life.
Think about it: how to be a happy fascist?!
