Angela Merkel, Stalin in Drag

 Back in the Pleistocene era in 1989 the Berlin wall went down.  Most of the East Germans, who had likely contemplated with envy the “freedom” enjoyed by the Jurgens and Gretas next door in the West, must have wondered with great anticipation what life in a post-Stalinist world would be like.  No Stasi knuckle crushing snoops in every crevice to monitor and record what you read, said, or might be thinking, no need to pretend that the stupid government propaganda was anything more than attempted manipulation and control.  How relieved and optimistic they must have been, and no one trying to peer into the future then, even with the wildest imagination, could likely have conjured up as a Frau-Fuhrer so ghastly a phantasm as the Teutonic Stalin-in-drag, Angela Merkel. 

A Stalinist world, such as the USSR, Mao’s China, Castro’s Cuba, or Erich Honecker’s DDR, is an alternative universe, one where everything is the opposite of what it is said to be and where just pointing that out amounts to a serious crime.  “Democracy,” majority rule, is the imposition of diktats by the bosses in the Politburo. “Equality” is rigid caste system of privileged party overseeers.  “Freedom” is a one-way ticket to forced labor in the Gulag for those unenthused about life in the workers’ paradise, getting shot trying to escape from East Berlin, or sliding off a crude raft and drowning in the waters off Havana.    

Which bring us to today’s Germany where Boss Merkel has resurrected and summoned the Stalinist Stasi who now pursue the unenlightened ones who exhibit, shall we say, inappropriate emotions.  No room for Germans who do not like the way that they are told to feel about what the apparatchiks are doing to them, a bit like it was in back in the DDR.  Consider, below, this Orwellian description of what German politicians and German police do to German people who fail to understand the proper boundaries of expression.  From a report on recent German government crackdown on social media users.

“In a coordinated campaign across 14 states, the German police on Tuesday raided the homes of 36 people accused of hateful postings over social media, including threats, coercion and incitement to racism. The still high incidence of punishable hate posting shows a need for police action,” Holger Münch, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office, said in a statement. “Our free society must not allow a climate of fear, threat, criminal violence and violence either on the street or on the internet.”

As officialese goes, this is hard to top for its sheer self-contradictory stupidity, and its bullying, sinister intonations. To begin, “The still high incidence of punishable hate posting shows a need for police action.”  "Hate posting"?  Well, this does sound serious: police action must ensue to stamp out, yes, hate posting. The German people are in grave danger.  But then, try not to laugh, as we learn that the Federal government launched a “coordinated campaign across 14 states” in a country of no less than eighty-one million people, to ensnare a grand total of 36 folks plunking away on social media. Sounds eerily like the Stasi of the DDR, searching far and wide, making sure that no one steps out of line with the approved thinking and guidance of Walter Ulbricht or Erich Honecker.  This does not describe the action of a government protecting the security and interests of its citizens: it is the work of a propagandizing regime of ideocrats chasing down a few hapless, harmless dissenters. With highly publized punishment for the recalcitrant few, you can cower the many.

These 36 people were “accused of hateful postings over social media” and please note the anonymity, a Kafkaesque nameless specter which accuses but cannot be identified, questioned, countered or even understood.  Who were the accusers and what was the exact nature of the accusations beyond the big old umbrella of “hateful”?  Vague and general works best for government enforcers.  “Hateful” in its normal usage is pretty subjective, but Merkel and the German political establishment have politicized the word so that it is objective, precise and, most important, applicable – “hateful” is disapproval or criticism of state-defined victims – but yet conveniently vague and abstract – producing “a climate of fear” – so as to be able to criminalize whomever they have determined has dissented from the state-imposed multi-cultural orthodoxy.  “A climate of fear” is a nice tool for the government bosses. They can pull it out when needed, supplemented with the lexicon of invectives – “xenophobe,” “Islamophobe,” “nativist” “fascist” -- and unleash their repressive organs, selectively, on whomever offends the the noble sensibilities of the moment.  

“Incitement to racism” as a crime is particularly troublesome to contemplate since “racist” is now applied so promiscuously, particularly by leftwing politicians all over the planet, as to be meaningless beyond its intent as an insult, shorthand for “a stupid, mean-spirited right-winger, lacking in compassion for the unfortunate who has no place in our progressive society.”  In the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton claimed that half of Donald Trump supporters were “racists” and hence, “irredeemable,” which to a lot of people sounded rather hateful, not to mention, threatening. Unlike other crimes, e. g. murder, assault, burglary, jury tampering, it is impossible for one to prove that he is not a racist (no one I have ever heard of has of yet ever pulled off this feat), which makes it so handy and versatile.  Safe to say, no leftwing politician in the U.S in the last twenty years has not at some time resorted to calling someone he or she didn’t like a racist. And, speaking of “incitement,” and “hate speech,” reeved up on a steady stream of Trump-hatred from the likes of the NYT scribblers and CNN, MSNBC talkers, a leftist from the Bernie Sanders camp recently attempted to murder a couple of dozen Republican congressmen in suburban Washington DC.  

Let us now hear from the head German policeman, Herr, Holger Münch, speaking like he was trained by the editors of Pravda.  “Our free society must not allow a climate of fear, threat, criminal violence and violence either on the street or on the internet.”  Orwellian Newspeak like this leans toward first-person plural pronouns – “Our free society…” –  there is, of course, no “our”, in possession of a "free society."  This is an intentional misdirection which camouflages the master-slave relationship of the German people and their German governors, the actual power exerted by an elite, privileged class over those whom they regard as their inferiors, some of whom, many perhaps, who resent the imposed mass migration of needy third-worlders and who don’t feel free to complain about it. Of course, we don’t know what the “threats,” “criminal violence” and “violence” are that filled the social media messaging of these now 36 criminals tracked down by the German Feds, but one suspects that the laws upon which the prosecution will be based have been written with  a maximum, "enemy of our freedom" scope and flexibility as to assure conviction and that the presiding magistrates will spare no effort to inflict maximum punishment.  Examples must be made.   

One “climate of fear” that does not seem to trouble Holger Münch much comes from the spectacle of secular, liberated German women accosted in mass by young immigrant Muslim males whose views of women are shaped by the texts of a seventh century prophet from a desert, and whose behavior, coming from German men, would put them for long stretches in prison.   From New Year’s Eve, 2016:

“The world reeled following reports that as many as 1,000 women had been sexually assaulted - groped, robbed, intimidated and separated from their friends - at Cologne's central train station on New Year's Eve. Many of the perpetrators, it was alleged, appeared to be of North African or Arab descent…”  

Oh, yes, no jumping to conclusions too quickly: the “alleged” North African and Arab-descendent robbers, gropers and sexual assaulters numbered at least 1,000.  They collected around one gathering place in a single city in contrast to the 36 Die Herren und Damen in 14 different states at home on laptops posting mean, angry stuff on their Facebook pages, probably read only by the flunkies in the governments' PC surveillance department who sicced the policemen on them.  Who, really, should be afraid of whom?  In the new DDR only Angela and her Handlangeren get to say.  But let’s pursue the conversation about fear.  There was a lot of it on the streets of Cologne and elsewhere in Germany from the criminal violence of Merkel’s protected class of victims.  The perpetrators, however, are not the concern or target of the nouveau Stasi Federal police chief.  Instead, room for more of them must be made so that Frau Merkel’s globalist, multicultural, bona fides remain in tact.  This is a “climate of fear” that the Germans will be expected by Merkel and her crew to get used to.

The hate-speech/hate crime legislation that Germany, France, Great Britain, Canada and other western European countries have put into place is a predictable, logical extension of their capitulation to third world mass migration.  In the U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, who was instrumental in the passage of the 1965 immigration law that led to the flooding of the country with third world immigrants, later became a strong advocate in the Senate of hate-crime legislation.  Mass immigration and hate-crimes are hand in glove measures for leftists. First you flood the towns with aliens and then punish the locals when they complain.

In the same news release cited above, Heiko Mass, the German Justice Minister, is now said to be pushing for a new law that targets “hate speech” on social media.  As the elites’ strategy of the ethnic replacement of their native populations becomes a painful reality to them, it becomes politically necessary to ramp up the criminalization of the inevitable expression of resentment that results, and to punish resistance and opposition to the planned destruction.  The criminalization of speech based on emotion is one more step toward completing the soft totalitarian society desired by the left with its coerced uniformity of thinking and behavior.  Somehow, somewhere down the road we will all be equal the way, God, no, sorry, history intended.  Don’t worry, be happy.

Two Racisms

Now, it's a known fact that racism comes in two forms: that practiced by whites— heinous and inexcusable, whatever its motives— and that practiced by blacks— quite justified, whatever its excesses, since it's merely the expression of a righteous revenge, and it's up to the whites to be patient and understanding.

Raspail, Jean (2014-12-03). The Camp of the Saints (1973) (Kindle Locations 3661-3663). Trine Day. Kindle Edition.

Over forty years ago this apothegm appeared in a prophetic novel, The Camp of the Saints, a masterpiece of acid mockery, mesmerizing in its devastating satirical scorn for the ubiquitous Leftist grandstanders with all of their preening, self-righteous rhetoric of “caring” about the oppressed, their relentless, fatuous grievance mongering, and delusion-fed hypocrisy and shameless duplicity.

Raspail’s noted double standard endures, thrives even, and gathers an increasing stench of invincible dishonesty.  Racism some forty years post-Camp has mutated into the most useful, versatile, resilient “ism” ever invented, the gift for the Left that never stops giving. 

Only whites can practice racism in its virulent, malignant form because, as the Left insists, whites are “privileged”, neo-Marxist-speak for the domination and exploitation of one advantaged class or group (white) over another (black).  Those in oppressed group, as Raspail notes above, get to be as vicious as they care to be because they have longstanding legitimate grievances to pursue and scores to settle.  Racism for the Left is really about power, and like every malady that plagues society, in Marxist social mechanics it is eliminated when the righteous oppressed overthrow the benighted oppressors (in Marxist lingo: “the expropriators are expropriated”).  For the Left the notion of racial progress in America is an illusion.  The breaking down of the barriers of segregation, the victories of civil rights movement mean nothing.  As President Obama says, discrimination is in our DNA.  It is long past time for whites relocate at back of the bus and be content as janitors.

In a simpler era before the Left had hammered the notion that “white folks” are all (collectively) and uniquely racist into one of their sacred dogmas, sorting out those who were racists from those who were not was a relatively straightforward matter.  Racists then self-identified, some, quite proudly and defiantly.  Others, perhaps neither so confident nor bold would admit privately, maybe even grudgingly and more tentatively the views of the openly bigoted. 

Then, not every white person of European origin was a racist.  Some, many whites, as even now, were actually appalled by the racists they observed.  How else, one might ask, over the years, without some renegades from this majority oppressor race did America end slavery, dismantle Jim Crow and twice elect a black man as President with a plurality of white votes? And, how else is it that now merely the threat of being labeled a racist makes most whites crumple up, scramble to apologize to anyone and everyone, and promise to do whatever it takes to show how free they are of racial prejudice.

Times indeed have changed.  No white person other than the flotsam on the far fringe wants to be labeled a racist.  No sin is less forgivable.  You can prey on young interns, be a serial philander and a phony philanthropist (Bill Clinton), abandon your girlfriend to drowned in the back seat of your car (Ted Kennedy), try to blow up the Pentagon and a lot of people in it (Bill Ayres), slander, foment riots, consort with gangsters, skip your taxes (Al Sharpton) – all in the end is forgiven and forgotten as long as you are reliably, as they say now, “progressive”.   But for those whose bonafides do not list leftward enough, when the professional overseers of racial rectitude sniff out in a word, gesture, or symbol, that has the faintest whiff of “racism”, exile and banishment follow.  Remember Jimmy the Greek? Even the slightest suspicion that one of the “privileged” whites in any position of influence and authority does not spend every spare moment ruminating on how awful it is to be black in America can kill a career.   Just recently the President of the University of Missouri capitulated (groveling and apologizing, Mao-era Cultural Revolution style) to the demands of clique of black students led by the son of a multimillionaire and resigned. His offense?  He was insufficiently tormented by the horrors endured by black students at the Missouri campus – which were?  Well, that is where you have to use your imagination.      

Racism is now an obsession of the Left and it is ubiquitous, manifesting itself in such subtle and nuanced forms that detection requires highly trained specialists in the hermeneutics of racial sensitivity.  Racism, that is, white racism, never abates.  It is a wonderful abstraction that easily mutates. It has taken on so many different forms that even the specialists can barely keep up with the inventory: institutional racism, systemic racism, economic racism, environmental racism, overt racism, covert racism, casual racism, legacy racism, etc.  The deep thinkers employed by the New York Times can be counted upon, as they usually do, to bring enlightenment to this unfortunate preoccupation and generalize about people about whom they know little and loath greatly: thus, the inimitable Nicholas Kristof and his recent column “Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist?” Perhaps Kristof should change his name to Rip Van Winkle.

Racism is now detected in the form of “micro-aggressions”, the irony somehow escaping the “diversity” and “multicultural” specialists who occupy Vice President and similar lofty positions at universities and companies.  We now have an entire industry made up of “professionals” whose job is to detect in the speech and behavior of their fellow employees these micro-aggressions that signal the racist attitudes.  They reign in a kind of dictatorship over communication legitimized somehow by the demand for “sensitivity” which seems to be unbounded and insatiable and now trumps once highly regarded values and freedoms such free speech, intellectual humility and civility.

It is safe to wager that no Multi-cultural or Diversity Vice President anywhere will ever be on record saying that under her tenure racism and bigotry have diminished and race relations have improved. Aren't they hired to make things better?  So why do we need them? Again, one marvels at the irony and it is astonishing to note how no one seems to comment on the perversity of the entire enterprise that composes the “Diversity industry”, a euphemism for an extortion machine.  These positions are created and filled by people who have every incentive to make things worse.  If the whites (privileged simply by virtue of being white) who inhabit these organizations were not the closet bigots they supposedly cannot help being, why would we need these professional scolds, intolerant and censorious to the core, to lecture us incessantly on inclusion and tolerance?  So imagine the relief they typically feel when some incident (a racial slur, real or imagined) occurs assuring them that we are permanently locked in a time where all the lunch counters and public restrooms are “Whites Only” and “We Shall Overcome” is the only choice in the hymnbook.  Everyday is “Groundhog Day” – Bull Connor is Sheriff and all Republicans are Lester Maddox. Wait! I believe he was a Democrat.  

Racism in today’s multi-racial America has little to do with race and everything to do with power. Racism is the “unity of evil under which all opponents are gathered.”  (Petr Fidelius, ‘Totalitarian Language’, The Salisbury Review 2 (2) (Winter 1984); Scruton, Roger (2015-10-08). Fools, Frauds and Firebrands: Thinkers of the New Left (Kindle Locations 4267-4268). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.)  Racism is this “unity of evil” they see in their “enemies”, as President Obama calls his political opposition.  It is an integral part of the political modus operandi of Left used to demonize the opposition.  Racism is also an exemption for rioting, looting, murdering policemen and almost any loutish behavior you can imagine because the white power structure has made conditions intolerable.   

Black Lives Matter, Black Power, Black is Beautiful – whatever form the au currant racial chest thumping chant from the grievance industry takes – it is nothing but agitprop aimed at racial intimidation.  The Left, constantly crying racism against their opponents, supports black chauvinism no matter how crude or stupid its manifestations. If they were seriously opposed to what racism really is – targeting a racial group and disparaging it – they would they would condemn the grievance mongering and racial animosity of the likes of Al Sharpton and Barack Obama and attempt a real, as they say “honest conversation about race.”