Useful idiots

Here is a very good article by Anthony Browne in The Times:

"Elements within the British establishment were notoriously sympathetic to Hitler. Today the Islamists enjoy similar support. In the 1930s it was Edward VIII, aristocrats and the Daily Mail; this time it is left-wing activists, The Guardian and sections of the BBC. They may not want a global theocracy, but they are like the West’s apologists for the Soviet Union — useful idiots..."

NewsHog comments:

The mere fact that Anthony Browne writing in today's London Times conveniently "forgets" that by far the biggest British cheerleader for the Nazis was the London Times itself says volumes about the rest of the particulars of this piece of idiocy.

Harry's Place says:

By way of context, Newshog points out that Anthony Browne has entered into "friendly correspondence with V-Dare, an online journal of the Center For American Unity where you will find such gems as "black men have on average 3 to 19 percent more testosterone than white men".

Merely corresponding with racists does not make one a racist. As in the case of Neumann's correspondence with "Jewish Tribal Review", what matters is the content of that correspondence. Take this passage, for example:

Reading the emails almost brought me to tears. What came across so profoundly is the deep frustration and anger that people feel about their loss of national identity and the growing social fragmentation of Britain under the weight of Third World colonization, and their utter abandonment by the political class and most of the media which makes any discussion of this all important issue almost a crime.

It is clearly possible to oppose a particular immigration policy without being a racist. Similarly, it is possible to denounce Zionism without being a racist. The fact that racists may oppose either or both immigration and Zionism does not make all those who use such arguments racists.

However bigots usually give themselves away. It is usually a turn of phrase that provides the clue. At some point, the weight of evidence makes it more likely than not that a person is, in fact, a bigot who seeks - as Newshog puts it - to "hide ... bigotry under a smokescreen of faux concern".

I can certainly see Newshog's point in Browne's case. The argument which Browne makes about the fascist nature of radical Islamism appear to be part of a broader argument which he is making about "third world colonization". The case for treating radical Islamism seriously can do without his support.

Jogo, in defence of Browne, says:

Is it a crime to be "against" immigration and multiculturalism? That's what HurryUpHarry seems to be saying. What a sin -- to be against immigration. Holy immigration. "Friendly conversation" with V-Dare. O my god!

Even now, when your multicultural shit has hit the fan and EVERY person of commonsense can see the disaster it has brought upon your country, these leftist fools continue to wear their depraved ideas like badges of honor.

People are not wrong to accuse the Left of being the New McCarthyites. I don't toss around this word "fascism," so I won't use it. I'll say "totalitarians." Every day, as I face the bankrupty of leftist ideas, I go further and further to the right.

I do not think that it is racist as such to oppose immigration or multiculturalism, but I think that some of the imagery and language some of those who oppose immigration and multiculturalism use IS racist. The language of swamping and distorting uses of statistics ARE racist. The emotive language of "invasion" and "colonization" ARE racist. Browne and others like him rarely mention the large numbers of North Americans and Australians who legally and illegally immigrate or work in the UK, including very large numbers of visa overstayers from these countries.

Perhaps if the Stop The War coalition, Respect and the ZLeft are the useful idiots of Islamo-fascism, then Anthony Browne and UKIP are the useful idiots of just-plain-fascism? Their respectable warnings about numbers are of course not of the same order as race atacks, but they need to be treated with great caution.


Other links: The Daily Ablution: More Humiliation for the Grauniad, Media Guardian via The Smirking Chimp, The Devil's Kitchen: Using semantics to obfuscate, Prospect articles on race and immigration (including Nicholas Hildyard's demolition of the numbers game), Catherine Seipp on Immigration on National Review Online (via Clive Davis), Two-thirds of Muslims consider leaving UK, The less respectable face of the anti-immigration lobby.

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