The Moral Confusion in the West

Last Sunday in "A Landmark: the Moment of Infamy we reported on an outrage in Duisburg, Germany in which the police - in order to deescalate a explosive situation with a raving pro Hamas crowd - broke in and entered the private premises of a Israeli sympathizer in order to remove two 'offensive' Israeli flags (see the post for video footage of the event).

Occurrences that like cross the ethics Rubicon in that police officers, servants of the state (i.e. of all of us), are seen bowing to an angry, intolerant mob.

Israel Matzav today has further information on the case and states that the incident has rightly upset a lot of people in Germany; this may not be the end of it. We sincerely hope so.

The mob is now known to have consisted of members of the Turkish Nationalistic/Islamist organization Milli Görüs (caption: logo/flag), here described as a wolf in sheep's clothing for activities other than folk dancing. Whatever aim they pursue, it prevents Turks from assimilating in Western societies and as such, is a hazard. The incident is evidence of the organization's true character and the inroads it has managed to make on the psyche of the German authorities.

The tolerance the West is showing for the intolerant is temporarily culminating in unbridled antisemitism not seen here since World War II. The Duisburg flag owner was brave enough to take a stance against it, but failed to find the servants of the law on his side to defend his rights and property.

Police spokespersons meanwhile have gone from defending their actions, to apologies (probably not even realizing why they are at fault - or am I too pessimistic here?).

The Social Democratic Party (SPD), whom for years have pushed the "multicultural" agenda like there's no tomorrow, now want a debate in the state's parliament about the outrage. Why?

Have they renounced multiculturalism as a pernicious ideology and do they no longer believe in the premise that all cultures are equally valid? Do they think Israel, a. has the right to defend itself, and b. has no option but to destroy a terrorist hell hole which brutally murders its own citizens, children included? I don't think so.

The party describes the essence of the matter as follows (read that carefully): "Why was the potential for danger during the protest so underestimated that police were forced into a situation in which they had to concede to the demands of violent (protesters) rather than (protect) the right to the freedom of speech of others?"

Israel Matsav's blogger Carl rephrases that as follows: "Actually, the central question is why police conceded to the demands of violent protesters rather than protecting the freedom of speech of others (...) If Europe wants to save itself from the Islamic onslaught, it had better learn the difference between those two questions."

The problem as usual is the relativist default position which is killing Western culture and debilitates the ability to defend against hostile self-realizationists.

The irony is, that while relativists see any absolutism as the epitome of evil (full stop), the Postmodern dialectic translates that into "any absolutism emanating from evil Western culture, 'oppressed' minorities" exempted.

- Caption: cartoon Henry Payne -

As long as that is the default morality propagated by intellectuals, the media and officials, the West is careering headlong into the abyss of cultural suicide.

The default position should be: Western laws and values prevail in this country and hence on we have a zero-tolerance policy with regard to any form of intolerance. Objectivity is key, no more compensating minorities for perceived inequalities. Any form of apartheid is unacceptable.

If that doesn't change - rapidly - we're doomed, doomed ...

- Filed on Articles in "In Defense of Liberty"

Puzzle of the Week: Connect the Dots

Let's do a little lumping, shall we! Not the postmodern version of "all who wear uniforms are Nazis", or "all white males are rapists", but some real equivalents on the philosophical level. Whatever infuriates the Leftist hypocrites is a source of amusement for the rest of us.

Question: What is the common thread in the following items?

Yahoo!News: "UK baby born without breast cancer gene"

(...) "The parents will have been spared the risk of inflicting this disease on their daughter. The lasting legacy is the eradication of the transmission of this form of cancer that has blighted these families for generations." (...) >>>

... and these nuggets from a less biologically sophisticated era:



Part 2/10 (short cut: the case is made in Part 1, but Part 2 explains it more in-depth); the rest of the historical series is available on YouTube, "New Age Inc.: NWO-Nazi Occult Aryan Worship".

Next, another dot in our puzzle - meet the humanitarian, compassionate eugenics site "Future Generations", proudly introducing evolutionary science, genetics: "We advocate measures to improve the innate quality of humankind which are entirely voluntary. (...) If we ever hope to solve the problems which face our species, it's imperative that we first look at them objectively, and assess the scientific evidence without bias. (...) >>>

Since we have such favorable experience with the subject of eugenics there can be no possible objection against that proposal, can there? [sarc off].

That was for the coarse-minded materialists. This is how the elevation of mankind works on a higher level of consciousness.

And last but not least we have a special presentation by a Lutheran broadcaster (hat tip L.L.), reminding us "How we got here": through a set of maniacal depressive hippies with visions of lifting humanity to a higher ethical plane through LSD and psychotherapy, to strip man of layer after layer of evil social constructs, a course advocated by Hillary herself: beyond social engineering lies consciousness creation!

Forward your answer within the next 24 hours in a comment. The winner gets a 4x4 Dodge Durango (just kidding).

A Landmark: the Moment of Infamy (Update)

I'm not one for cross-blogging and living off other bloggers' scoops, but this is an entirely different matter.

I request my colleague-bloggers to put this story on their front pages, to disseminate it wherever they can on Facebook, Twitter, or through whatever other means at their disposal to expose this affront. Spread it far and spread it wide!

Enough is enough. We have been finding ourselves on this slippery slope on the way to hell for some time now. The media no longer find it useful to be objective, or even to pretend they are. Last week we saw them flinging kerosene on the Gaza fire as if there's no responsibility for honest reporting.

CNN went so far as putting up and taking down an obvious fake in the time-honored tradition of Pallywood Productions, only to reinstate it moments later.

A line will have to be drawn at some point. The mob will take it all the way to Gaza and Bamyan, no mistake about it. The question is, where does the culture of freedom and civilization draw the line?

I understand the police wanted to deescalate the situation, but there's also some point that the mob needs to be told in no uncertain terms where it gets off (preferably with democracy, prosperity and responsible citizenship still somewhat in tact). I suggest this is IT.

Perhaps the best place to drop this is at the front porch of the German Embassy in your country of residence. It's a good job that Germany has a special responsibility in the case.

WHERE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD IS EVERYONE, WHERE ARE THE LEADERS, THE GOVERNMENTS, IS EVERYONE WEARING BLINKERS!!!!!

Relativist thinkers deny the existence of good and evil. As a result they never stop believing there is the possibility of a compromise. But you cannot negotiate with evil. About what? About how much evil is okay? How many Jews it would be okay to Endloess? This is also the barrier which President-Elect Obama will hit once he starts negotiating with Iran and Syria.

Update:

If calls of "Hamas, Hamas, put the Jews on Gas" as is the case in the Netherlands aren't bad enough, what makes present case stand out so badly is that it involves police officers, servants of the state whose task it is to uphold and protect the law and basic civil rights.

These officers however first morally nodded to the mob by granting their wishes to remove the offensive Israeli flags, they also crushed privacy and property laws by breaking and entering the premises. As such, this case crosses the Rubicon, but possibly it has occurred before in a number of places.

Jihad Watch: "German police aids Jew-hating Muslim mob, removes Israeli flag from window"



Jihad Watch reader Oao just sent me this:

:16 AM Received from Muqata Blog Reader in Germany, Sebastian M.

Today, 10.000 people demonstrated against Israel here in my hometown Duisburg (Germany) and to express their solidarity with Hamas. So, my girlfriend and me put two Israel flags out of the windows of our flat in the 3rd floor. During the demonstration which went through our street the police broke into our flat and removed the flag of Israel. The statement of the police was to de-escalate the situation, because many youth demonstrators were on the brink of breaking into our apartment house. Before this they threw snowballs, knifes and stones against our windows and the complete building. We both were standing on the other side of the street and were shocked by seeing a police officer standing in our bedroom and opening the window to get the flag. The picture illustrate this situation. The police acquiesced in the demands of the mob.

And as you can see from the video, the mob applauded, cheered, and shouted "Allahu akbar" when the flag disappeared.

Video above from Jewish Odysseus (thanks to Phil).

Our credits go to Brian of London.

You can Digg It here.

Digest of the European Papers

Following digests were torn from the English language version of German meta newspaper digest Signandsight, the 'feuilletons' of Perlentaucher. Common thread in the week that was: the intractabilities of undefined morality.

This is fun! Here's one not getting half way in addressing the problem: the liberal "fear to give offense" is a major error of identification. Relativist philosophy and the postmodern dialectic are as far removed from the fear to offend as Marx is from dinner etiquette. Permanently reserving opinion on what's between The Jewel's dust sheets, it's really too bad this exquisite cover design will never see the light of day!

Perlentaucher 06.01.2009

It is twenty years since the fatwa was issued against Salman Rushdie. In an article orginially published in Spiked, British author Kenan Malik takes western liberals to task for their tendency to treat anything Islam-related with kid gloves. As in the case of Sherry Jones' novel "The Jewel of Medina", which Random House America pulled out of circulation although no Muslim had expressed objections to it. "The lesson of the Rushdie Affair that has never been learnt is that liberals have made their own monsters. It is the liberal fear of giving offence that has helped create a culture in which people take offence so easily." And he dispenses with the multicultural myth that the Rushdie Affair was about religion; it was all about politics: "Hardline Islamist groups used Rushdie's book to try to win political concessions. It subsequently became an issue in Britain as it turned into a weapon in the faction fights between various Islamic groups.

Take this as a stark contrast, highlighting the difference between immorality and amorality. It's lost on Mr Stark because he has no way of knowing:

Der Tagesspiegel 06.01.2009

Legendary US crime writer Donald Westlake alias Richard Stark died on New Year's Eve. In a final conversation with Dennis Scheck he explains the difference between American and French crime writing. "When an American crime novelist writes about a bank robber, the thief will want the stolen cash to pay for a desperately-needed operation for some little girl in a wheelchair. The French crime writer, on the other hand, will write about a bank robber because he robs banks. Which is why I take it as a compliment when people say I write like a Frenchman."

And talking of ethics, here's what you do when you run an orchestra made up of sworn enemies. You take the neutral position and pretend that a compromise is possible between good and evil (much like say, being a bit pregnant):

Der Tagesspiegel 07.01.2009

What can Brahms or Beethoven say about the current conflict in Gaza? Daniel Barenboim talks to Christine Lemke-Matwey about his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. "What should they say? What they always say or never say. It would be fatal to instrumentalise their music. But it is important that the orchestra takes a stand. And this is why we are showing the world that even in war it is possible to communicate with one another. And we will also be releasing a statement saying that the musicians in the orchestra have deep differences in opinion about who is to blame for what is happening in Gaza. We will not attempt to hide these differences which are extremely strong and go back a long way. When it's a matter of life and death, it is wrong to gloss things over."

Here are more edifying morsels covering the week from Germany.

Astroturfing Infiltrators Caught Red Handed

Gotcha! It has taken some time and effort to raise awareness of the danger of infiltration by fake 'grassrooters' (so-called astroturfers), who infiltrate the enemy camp to engage in a bout of flooding, swarming, the dissemination of disinformation, the dropping of compromising material and using psyops meant to demoralize the opposition (Hillary's Eeyores).

Ever since very early on in the US Presidential campaign I was accosted at the staunchly conservative forum Townhall for writing a comment that was somewhat critical of then Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, I have been suspecting this to be going on for some time.

It's one of those typical Postmodernist approaches to politics as all out war under the banner of "our end is so ethical that it justifies the use of immoral means".

With hindsight it makes the post "Confessions of an Astroturfing Troll" look entirely credible and genuine (at the time the story broke it still had a sense of the paranoia, or of a clever double bluff).

It is well known that if the lie is big enough it is easily accepted by the masses. But 90 separate, uncoordinated incidences is a stretch even by the standards of those who have us believe, there's no such thing as a left wing press. They have been manipulating reality for so long and to such an appalling extent, that they can no longer distinguish their own manufactured truths from the real one.

Vigilance is from hereon the word in all corners of the conservasphere. Here's the full press release issued by Team Sarah activist, Susan B. Anthony List.

~~-:-~~

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 8, 2009
CONTACT: Joy Yearout (703) 875-3370 or jyearout@sba-list.org

Liberal Activists Plot to Defame and Destroy Leading Online Community for Conservative Activists, TeamSarah.org

Teams Sarah Uncovers Evidence of Dirty Tricks, Criticizes Huffington Post Story that Relied Upon False Information

Washington, D.C. – Today leaders of the Susan B. Anthony List responded to the recent discovery of a plot by liberal internet activists to attack www.teamsarah.org, a community dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process:

“Team Sarah recently uncovered a plot by liberal activists to frame our community for harboring hate speech and bigotry,” said Emily Buchanan, Executive Director of the Susan B. Anthony List and Team Sarah Site Administrator. “Liberal extremists at www.somethingawful.com concocted a plot to join Team Sarah under false pretenses and intentionally provoke our members by posting incendiary and bigoted remarks that violated our terms of use.”

Susan B. Anthony List President and Team Sarah Co-Founder Marjorie Dannenfelser offered the following statement:

“Two weeks ago, the Huffington Post published a story criticizing Team Sarah for the supposed racist behavior of its membership – yet had they exercised even the most basic of fact-checking, we could have informed them of the recent escalation in bigoted postings from liberal impostors, not from our bona fide membership.”

“Clearly Governor Sarah Palin’s influence has irked the Left. Here we are months after the election, and liberal extremists are still doing all they can to tear her down. Fortunately the truth will prevail. Team Sarah will continue to grow and its membership will continue to advance the values represented by the trailblazing governor.”

The coordinated attack by liberal bloggers was discovered on Friday, January 2, 2009. The Weekly Standard covered the incident on January 7, 2009. Over ninety impostors were banned from www.teamsarah.org last weekend after bona fide Team Sarah members reported violations to community moderators. Interlopers continue to be banned daily.

One of the attackers explained their goal: "What I hope is that the fake posters eventually number the actual posters so it would be impossible to tell who is real and who is fake."

After a cease and desist letter was sent by Team Sarah to the site administrator of www.somethingawful.com on Friday January 2, 2009, the offending forum was removed from the website, but new forums have since been posted. Attacks have continued, most recently including today’s planned 2:00A.M. mass posting of pornography photos in Team Sarah forums.

Team Sarah is a coalition of women dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process. Its political networking website, www.teamsarah.org, has grown to over 60,000 activists in the last four months. Co-Founders of Team Sarah include Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List, and Jane Abraham, the organization’s General Chairman.

www.teamsarah.org

www.sba-list.org

#diggcons Digg It here

Vlogs Speak Louder Than Words

- Cartoon by Robert Arial on Townhall -

The Apostate Who Came to Love his Enemy

While the West's useful idiots in their confused consciousness were once again hitting the streets of Paris, Amsterdam and New York; and the media have literally recast themselves as mouthpieces of Hamas and the worst the Gaza belt has to offer, indeed are now actively encouraging and firing on the 'Arab Street' in sheer hysteria; Fox News Special Report over the weekend aired an interview with a Palestinian young man of extraordinary strength and courage.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Hamas founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef. He experienced an 'epiphany' of sorts after hearing of Christ's message to love thy enemy (which by the way, must not be understood as a restriction on self-defense, or a call to pacifism).

Mosab secretly apostated from Islam and converted to Christianity, denouncing terrorism in general and his father's organization in particular. Since the interview was recorded, Al Qaeda have pronounced a fatwa on his life.

In the interview he describes Islam as a drug and the Koran as a self-contradictory book in which anyone can find a suitable message for the occasion: a sort of Truth of the Day, if you will.

He is of the opinion that Islam only appears to be growing from the outside, but is actually imploding. He predicts this may happen within a decade.

Special thanks go out to L.L. Brown IV for his assistance. Here's the entire series:



- Part 2/6
- Part 3/6
- Part 4/6
- Part 5/6
- Part 6/6

- Filed on Articles in "Apostating Islam"

The Roots of the Unholy Alliance (redux)

From an article up on Pajamas by its CEO, Roger Simon entitled "Israel Alone", it transpires that the alliance between the broad Western Left and Islamism, is as yet mystery.

Although no Leftist, Simon labors under the purposely disseminated meme that Leftism is morally superior to any other political ideology because of its altruistic ideals for One Happy Egalitarian World in which all of humanity is to participate, voluntarily or otherwise.

I named that process the dystopia of paradise, in reference to the secularization of its religious roots and the catastrophic effects, whenever the lofty ideals are put into practice.

The author's reasoning follows from one specific definition of ethics, posited by philosophy's Mr Magoo, Emmanuel Kant. It is an approach to morality in which only the duty - the intention - to 'do good' counts. Intent is an end itself. In the Magoo book of ethics the effect - the result of a particular action - is entirely excluded from the equation; indeed it renders the action invalid as far as the field of ethics is concerned.

It is known as deontology and gives birth to immoral no-brainers as "it is wrong to lie to a murderer, even if it saves someone's life".

Following Kant's definition of ethics we have a variety of Leftists historically giving evidence of lofty ideals and the construction of Utopias, thereby going literally over dead bodies. But no Leftist has ever, ever apologized, conceded defeat, declared moral bankruptcy, or shown signs of remorse over the piled up human sacrifices. Instead they get posthumous tributes from the socialights in Hollywood.

Following such cataclysms they point to the lofty ideals - invoking Kant's built-in get-out-of-jail card - and blame not the principle of the thing but the brother-operators who have obviously made mistakes in implementation and execution.

Roger Simon and some of his commentators seem unaware not just of the ethics, but prove also ignorant of the root of Leftism. The last few years, the keen observer could have watched the Left shedding the thin layer of democratic principles, that were never part of the ideology to begin with.

The late adoption of democracy was part of the reconstruction efforts that are regularly exerted to prolong the life of the morally bankrupt beast. Social Democracy should have died when the experiment in the German Weimar Republic collapsed into full blown National Socialism.

Simon et al. express their surprise at the ease with which the Left have thrown all their traditional minority proteges under the bus in favor of the apparent antipod, Islamofascism: women, blacks, gays, transexuals, the entire laundry list of victim groups was declared irrelevant practically overnight.

It's not just simply a matter of the greater numbers of the masses (the loyalty of feminists and gays is simply taken for granted); it is also a case of reverting back-to-basics.

- Caption: "The Evolution of Socialist Strategies to Rescue it from Failure" (click to enlarge) -- Hat Tip: Dr Sanity -

Venture a guess to whom the following edifying words can be ascribed:

"A society properly founded on natural passion and religion will override the self-centered individualism that reason leads to, making it possible for individuals to form a new, collectivized, social organism. When individuals come together to form the new society ... "the individual particularly of each contracting party is surrendered to a new moral and collective body which has its own self, life, body and will." "The individual (...) puts in common his person and his whole power under the supreme direction of society's leaders," and those that do not summit to the state "should be put to death."

What the éminence grise of Leftism has to say about compulsory participation in religion, puts the combined efforts of the Ayatolla Khomeini, Oliver Cromwell, and the Inquisition to shame.

Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau is the Left's ground zero: a paying job to him was slavery and an indignity no human being should ever have to endure. The education of his kids he entrusted to the care of the Paris orphanage.

More pernicious than anything else, he outfitted the collectivist state with a persona, an animus, and a 'common will' to remind individuals of their duty to self-sacrifice to the whole.

Rousseau laid the groundwork in which the proud, rustic tree of collectivist Socialism would grow, roots since soaked in the blood of millions of individuals and reduced to a putrefied, amorphic mass, a monument to Nothing, that is Postmodernism.

A comparison of the roots of Socialism and the secular characteristics of political Islam, renders the following illuminative chart:



The fundamental principles underlying both Socialism and Islamism explain the mutual appreciation and attraction and clarify why scores of Leftists hit the streets this weekend in support of a set of pathological murderers in Gaza who claim to act in the name of victimhood.

Surprised why the Left descends into fascism? On a philosophical level there's not much difference between the twin ideologies of Socialism and ... well, National Socialism. The cosmetic rifts lie in the choice of the totem and the field of implementation: the one variety seeks out ethnic roots as a religious surrogate (nationalism), the other limits that to the Germanic tribes (National Socialism), in the Italian Social Republic fascism was a amalgam of Socialism and corporatism, while in Communism the means of production were nationalized. All outlawed independent thought and action.

The principles as detailed in the chart are deeper and much more fundamental than that. They remain the same for The Unholy Alliance as a whole, made up by both Left and Right Socialism, as well as Islamism.

The Postmodern strategy of confusing the enemy has been successful enough as it is; very few people today can distinguish between fact and opinion, cause and effect, equality and identicalness, public opinion and truth, intolerance and diversity. The cacophony in the field of ideas is sheer endless.

Given the circumstances it would be a relief to know that the thinking part of civilization at least has done its homework.

- Filed on Articles in "The Dystopia of Paradise" and "The Unholy Alliance" -

Can The Propaganda War Be Won?

There was no doubt about it. Israel was caught off guard - or was simply beyond caring - and lost the propaganda war in the Hezbollah War in Southern Lebanon in 2006.

But now it looks like things are about to change. Andrew Ian Dodge in an article yesterday on Pajamas Media, "Israel Shakes Up the Information War" chronicles how Israel now gets its message out through Twitter and YouTube, thereby bypassing the entire hostile mainstream crowd.

The article relays the innovation of the Israeli consulate in New York holding a press conference on Twitter on their own hashtag stream for anyone to follow. Hashtag #AskIsrael to this day produces a variety of tweets, largely balancing #Gaza which is an echo chamber for Hamas fans (yes, they exist).

The IDF's video channel on YouTube is already far too popular to the taste of the lamestreamers, in this case a Postmodernist self-loather in Jerusalem.



Observe the word-smith at work in this Yahoo!News article, "YouTube becomes WarTube for Israel-Gaza fight" ... reporting that the ... "Israeli military campaign in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip is already fighting a rear-guard battle on the Internet" ... then erratically going on to relate two major coups, as follows:

"The Israeli military campaign in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip is already fighting a rear-guard battle on the Internet. Last week at the start of the war, Israel launched a YouTube channel that is primarily being used so far to showcase its air strikes. (See "Nowhere to Hide" post below for more...) "The blogosphere and new media are basically a war zone," in the battle for public opinion said Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman. The Israeli military site is fast-becoming one of the most viewed YouTube channels around the world. Along with the YouTube site, the Israeli military has just launched a new blog to feature more information.

This is a live example of a pomo attack on reality: hoping that readers will come away with the perception that Israel has already lost the PR battle, while subsequently mentioning the facts that belie it - as if they were of no consequence (facts are irrelevant: thought creates reality, hence the manipulation of 'perception').

And can someone please explain why a single Muslim family, stranded somewhere on a United States airport, has been Dominating the World's Headline News the entire day?

Twitter is proving to be a veritable cornucopia of information: we just lifted this digest of Editorials and Opinion on the Current IDF Operations off "Israel Politik", the site of the innovative Israeli Consulate in New York City (here's their page on Facebook).

Incidentally, in our recent post "Human Sacrifice in the Pit of Hell" (this title should be understood literally) we mentioned that Hamas, using the people of Gaza as a human shield is entirely consistent with the morals of collectivism: individuals doing their ultimate duty towards the whole.

Israel Politik touches upon the barbaric tactic in "Who invented the “Human Shields” method?": "Hamas has released an official statement declaring that Dr. Nizar al-Rayyan who was killed in a pinpointed attack earlier today is the father of the “Human Shields” method". He invented this practice to stop the Israelis from phoning the occupier of the home, warning him to evacuate it before a strike. The perversions of the Middle East are boundless.

Blogger-psychologist Dr Sanity has this to say in "If Hamas Really Gave a Damn ... about their women and children, then would all those brave, hooded, Hamas fighters hide behind them while courageously shooting off rockets into the Israeli civilian population? Or is that just one of those lovely little cultural traditions that motivate the political left to consider the Palestinians so morally superior to the Israelis?

Speaking of morals and 'double standards': there's this dialectical meme making its way through the cosmos that Hamas (or the PA, or Hezbollah) should be given more moral latitude than Israel, because it is the weaker party. If your mother is murdered by a rather small and weak fellow instead of a big and strong one, would that make the murder any more acceptable? The Hamas fan club thinks so.

Stay tooned for reporting the ground invasion of Gaza on #AskIsrael. (Boy, the lamestream media are so over! Has anyone told them yet?)

Updates:

- Here's an idea for joining the media war if you're on Facebook: Donate your Status to update the world about Qassams hitting Israel. Choose between Live Updates (variable, depends on how heavily Israel is attacked); Or, Daily Digest (once a day; a summary of the number of Qassams that have hit Israel).

- Honest Reporting have video petition up, demanding the MSM's news coverage starts conforming to reality. Sounds a stretch, but it does explain matters: apparently they rely on Hamas as their source of information (remember "false consciousness"?). You can watch and sign the petition on "Breaking Point".

- Fox airs an interview tomorrow with Mosab Hassan, renegade son of one of the founders of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. He's been in and out of Israeli prisons until he had a 'epithany'. Ever since he's living under an Al Qaeda fatwa.

- For those of us living in the EU and tired of the media's approach towards Israel, check out EU4Israel and their post "Hamas shooting at Israeli civilians from UN school in Gaza": "Hamas uses the same strategy used by Hizbolla in Lebanon, shooting at Israeli civilians from UN buildings. I wonder what Ban Ki Moon has to say about this?"

- Reuters: "Czechs, next EU president, defend Israeli strikes" (which is probably the reason Dutch TV pictured the Czech Rep. tonight as a haven for Neo Nazis).

- Remember, you too can bypass the lamestream by getting your information directly from the IDF Spokesperson Unit: updates on the site, the video channel on YouTube, and follow on Twitter.

Latest: "Overall, more than 25 Hamas and other terrorist sites were attacked since yesterday evening. The forces reported accurate hits. All of the Israeli forces returned to their bases safely. The IDF will continue to persistently strike any site used in Hamas’ terrorist effort and will not cease acting against all terror organizations and those who actively support them."

Breaking News:

- BNO News: "IDF: Second Stage of Operation Cast Lead Begins"

The Israeli Government issued the following statement:

A short while ago IDF forces began to implement the second stage of Operation Cast Lead. Land forces have begun to maneuver within the Gaza Strip.

The objective of this stage is to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of the Hamas in the area of operation, while taking control of some of rocket launching area used by the Hamas, in order to greatly reduce the quantity of rockets fired at Israel and Israeli civilians. (...) >>>

- Catch the latest stream of news on BreakingNewsOn

- Israel's Consul to the US, David Saranga answers the question why Israel has started a ground operation today?

Related:

- David Horowitz's Facebook Notes: "Malignant Progressives Wish Israel the Worst"
- Victor Davis Hanson (Pajamas): "Surreal Gaza"
- YNet: "Palestinian police ban pro-Hamas protests"
- Politeia: "Human Sacrifice in the Pit of Hell"
- Politeia: "The Western Press and Their False Consciousness"

- Filed on Articles in "The Press from Hell" and "Middle East Peace" -

The Western Press and Their False Consciousness

This post was first published on Modern Conservative on December 30, 2008

~~-:-~~

Last Sunday we heard the BBC's reporter on the ground in Israel, Jeremy Bowen, utter the momentous words: "Gazans have a strong ideology for resistance and martyrdom."

Let's analyze this assertion for a moment. Ideology - as in Islamism; resistance - as in insurgence against 'occupation'; martyrdom - as in suicide bombing. Isn't that the 'narrative' of the Gaza belt and those other places where the scions of peace hold sway?

Increasingly we hear evidence of Western reporters taking on - what is termed in their anti-philosophy - a 'false consciousness'. That needs clarification for those not versed in Critical Theory. With false consciousness Carl Marx meant the downtrodden thinking and talking within the reference frame of their oppressors. With some imagination you might also explain it, as living in another, subjective 'reality'.

Postmodernists have taken the notion a step further and believe quite literally in parallel existences of the various minority collectives, be they gays, blacks, women, Muslims, the masses, the Chinese ... whatever the inequal group, it has its own parallel reality in which the inhabitants have their own 'narrative'. (Here's the Wiki explaining polylogism somewhat further.)

The Western press show evidence of having voluntarily taken up an Islamist 'consciousness'. (Caution: do not try this at home without the proper medical attention: psychosis or split personality syndrome may ensue. This seems to be happening frequently to North Africans living in Europe, who fail to assimilate.)

As if taking on a 'false consciousness' is not enough, the MSM now rely for their reporting on locals on the ground in Gaza, emphasizing that "the IDF won't allow them to go there" themselves (as if this were Mugabe's Zimbabwe).

Despite the 2007 bloody Hamas coup in Gaza - an Islamofascist thuggocracy - on the phone we have a range of professionals making the impression Gaza is actually a normally functioning democracy: human rights activists, business consultants, university professors, and representatives of civic organizations are painting the reality on the ground in terms of flowery Arabic rhetoric, the narrative of the mother of all massacres, of holocausts on women and babies under the age of ten.

During the prolonged US Presidential campaign we saw the press entirely giving up the pretense of objectivity. Subsequently the combined SMS mutated into a fully fledged member of the Obama campaign team. In the reporting of operation "Cast Lead" we witness them unashamedly taking up the consciousness and 'narrative' of the party that consistently spouts anti Western hatred. Postmodern dialectic is communicated in an idiom of self-loathing, reverse morality, and false equation with the aim to alter perception.

As far as can be discerned from the comfort of the armchair, Western consumers are still paying for the advertisements that are the lifeblood of cable television? Or are we? Come to think of it, the overbearing AIG commercials haven't hit the screen now for some time. Whatever happened to the rallying statements emanating from the sub-prime bundler that used to be CNN's prime sponsor [sarc off]?

Footage comes to us increasingly in unfiltered, raw technicolor in the tradition of the Middle East - yet more evidence of a cultural shift. Whereas not so long ago a dead body was deemed too realistic for the after-dinner evening news, today we get the bits and pieces raw for breakfast, courtesy of Al Jazeera's Western competitors and their correspondents on-the-ground.

What's more, a brand new Postmodern 'rhetorical' technique has hit the media: pundits and commentators who rather specifically and emphatically self-identify as political moderates, or even claim to be politically agnostic or independent, then confessing they "really need to tell you the truth", followed by unabashed leftist or pro Islamist narrative.

A win-win situation is created. The pundit gets out the perception that even moderates think this (whatever the subject happens to be) is far beyond the pale; the media creates an impression of moderation and even-handedness. A more dishonest lot than the followers of subjectivism is yet to walk the earth.

At this stage it is as yet unsure where the culture war will take us next. One thing is for sure however: we are looking at a guerrilla-of-the-mind that is unprecedented in recorded history.

- Filed on Articles in "The Press from Hell" - Digg it!