Can I call ’em or what?
On Sunday, I wrote about how the media and left-blogosphere were trying to move the Boston Bombing narrative to focus on what is wrong with how we treated the bombers as immigrants and away from the problem of Jihadism, Politically correct epistemic closure counterattacks Boston Marathon bombing reality:
As it became indisputable that the perpetrators were Chechen Muslims who expressed support for Jihad and al-Qaeda (although the full extent of their connections is not known), the narrative shifted.
Now the emerging narrative is that these killers were not part of a vast foreign conspiracy but isolated “lone wolves” who became disenchanted with American society, who were not fully integrated into society, who were unhappy with their lives here and thus became radicalized…
Framing the issue this way shifts the focus to American society, how the brothers’ became alienated by us, by our actions, how we need to look in the mirror not at jihadism….
If only we had been nicer, none of this would have happened.
In other words, it’s not them, it’s us. They were radicalized here, by us. Even if they don’t come right out and say it, that’s the implication.
Sure enough, it’s no longer an implication, it’s being stated out loud.
The bombers were just caught between two worlds, and our world did not sufficiently embrace them according to a Professor at American University, Opinion: Boston Bombings Show Muslims Between Worlds:
The suspected Boston bombers come from a Chechen tribal community that has been brutalized by the Russians in recent decades and from a Muslim community in the United States that has too often been impugned by the actions of a few….
Upon their arrival in the United States, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar joined a Muslim community that bore the scarlet letter of terrorism. Expecting hospitality, they felt alienated and disillusioned, even with all of the opportunities and privileges available to them as citizens of this country.
They opted for an act of violent nihilism, of devastation and death.
An author at Slate tells us that the bombers were just an example of The Reluctant American:
Those obsessively poring over emerging news about the Boston bombers should take a break from their iPhones and laptops and newspapers and read Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, (and see Mira Nair’s film version out later this week). The novel will go further in answering the general bewilderment about the Tsarnaev brothers than the little snippets of their lives we have so far, in answering the bigger mystery: “Why did young men who grew up and studied here, as part of our communities and our country, resort to such violence?” as Obama put it….
To understand the Boston bombers, we need also to understand and be honest about ourselves, the ways in which we both take in and don’t take in people from other countries, the trickier side of the American dream.
Melissa Harris-Perry and others at MSNBC could not resist the urge to complain about us (Noah Rothman via Rick Moran h/t Debra Heine):
“They don’t have the privilege of being anonymous – ‘they,’ speaking of people of color or other minorities – we don’t know yet, but we fill in the blanks,” said Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson. “We fill in the blanks with what makes us feel the most comfortable that this was an exceptional, extraordinary case that happened because they are this.”
“I keep wondering: is it possible that there would ever be a discussion like, ‘oh, this is because of Ben Affleck and the connection between Boston and movies about violence?’” Harris-Perry asked. “And, of course, the answer is ‘no.’”
“Given that they’re Chechen, given that they are literally Caucasian, our very sense of connection to them is this framed up notion of, like, Islam making them into something that is non-[unintelligible],” Harris-Perry continued.
“The point is that it’s important to say, ‘that is not us,” Dyson agreed. “We want to demonize the other. We have to distance it from the dominant culture.”
We’re also to blame because of drone bombing of terrorists, NBC’s Brokaw Blames U.S. Drone Attacks for Motivating Islamic Terrorists:
It’s all so predictable. And it’s all so much easier than addressing the problem.
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Comments
It was our fault that the Japs bombed Pearl harbor too.
I have a Japanese wife and I take offense at that comment.
You should know, that as I once tenderly said to my wife after I scraped up the side of her family’s minivan against a pole,
“The next time we flatten your cities … for God’s sake … when you rebuild, make the freaking streets wider!!”
These were just fun loving American boys, poisoned by the State sponsor of bigotry and hatred that is America.
These were just fun loving, hard working foreigners that were forced to live in the shadows, and were forced to strike back at an unjust and unfair immigration policy.
Again, the left using the results of their progressive policies to argue for the need of said progressive policy.
In this case, identity politics.
There was a wonderful essay posted on this very issue a few days ago, can’t remember where it was, possibly NRO.
When we had bomb throwing murderous anarchists 100 years ago, we hung them. Islamic terrorism is new, but plots against the Republic and public from such people are not. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was turned by someone (most likely his mother and probably some person(s) in Chechnya). He then dragged his brother along. Rather than blaming us (who are the victims) we should blame the perpetrators.
Who’s shocked?
I’ve been wondering if the victims and the people of Boston are going to continue to let themselves be lulled by the media into ignoring the danger before us. This should be a wake up call, but I guess we’ll see.
The inconsistency is what I find particularly offensive. These lefties talk one way when the subject is people who terrorize and kill Americans, including children. They talk a very different way when the subject is opponents of progressive ideology.
The efforts to play with the words Caucasus and Caucasian also represent a special kind of stoopid. I have taught a couple classes at Tulane as an adjunct and feel shame and embarrassment. Harris-Perry isn’t merely a lefty. She is shockingly dumb.
when is it never “our” fault?
we must be pretty damned important is every ill in the world is out fault.
maybe they should think about that and how that power can bite them in their collective ass.
“out fault” should say “our fault”
damned lyrica
“To understand the Boston bombers, we need also to understand and be honest about ourselves, the ways in which we both take in and don’t take in people from other countries, the trickier side of the American dream.”
_______________
Excuse me … Hahahahahahaha!!!!!
Now that you lefties feel a “need to understand and be honest about ourselves …”
Instead of pondering ways you “… don’t take people in from other countries …”
How about starting with your own fellow countrymen in “flyover country” you constantly malign and mock and demonize as the cause of not only all of this country’s problems … but of the world’s problems??
Why not cut them some slack and try to assimilate with them just a bit, eh?
And ponder this: Why is it that after you’ve disparaged them as “teabaggers” for the umpteenth time … they still don’t bomb you??
Yet, you sociopathic multicultists, (emphasis on the “cult”), who make all the excuses that a freakishly enormous benefit of the dunces’ doubt can bear for these scholarship-awarded, pampered murderers … can’t manage to place one iota of blame in the blood-stained hands of these assimilation refuseniks?
You had no tender, we-are-the-world qualms about seeing Timothy McVeigh for what he was (I’ll give you that).
But why stop at Timmy?
You like root causes?
I’ll give you the root cause of root causes …
Jihadist Islam!!!! Stick that in your coexist hash pipe and smoke it, you dumbasses!
Do I have to draw a cartoon of Mohammed to prove all this?
LukeHandCool (who might be a bit worked up about having to cram for accounting exams all the time recently … and who doesn’t have time for this … but then, he’s already clipped his nails and organized his sock drawer)
It is more than that. In the blue states I’ve lived in, if you don’t have some ethnic group that you claim allegiance to, then you are some kind of freak.
If people find out that there is some tribe of another that they think you should be part of, they start pushing you to join in “your” group and be part of the tribe.
I can easily see a couple of immigrant kids who happen to have been born in Chechnya getting pushed and prodded into joining Mosque Jihad by everyone they know the moment anyone finds out anything about them. Throw in an ardent mother and there is no escape from the old country.
As far as criminal code goes…
You Know, criminal code: That which by a society establishes norms, and limits on individual behavior..
…The “what” is paramount, and the “why” was of little consequence.
Now, with the advent of liberalism, the “why” defines the “what”.
When they say it is “us,” they must mean what is posted on the world wide web by anyone who hates America. That’s were these boys got their info.
I do think though – regarding immigration reform – that Chucky Schumer should personally sponsor more of these “nice boys” coming to America. They could live at his house or on his street. That way these “lost boys” can at least see how life was meant to be as a Democrat.
I have not read the, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, and availed myself of it’s introspective wisdom but I know one thing about fundamentalists. If you take all of the major religions in America, for all except one religion, it’s adherents, when they are fundamentalists, are better neighbors, better citizens, and more charitable. Muslims are the one exception. There is a good chance that the more they are influenced by their fundamentalism, the more they are likely to become a murderer or bomb-thrower. Repeated events bear this out.
“It’s not them, it’s us”
Oh … and never forget …
By “us” they mean “them” as in, “the approximately one-half of our fellow contrymen we don’t particularly care much for.”
Please multicultists, don’t speak for me or of me. Don’t selflessly volunteer an indictment of me to these murderers so you can feel good about yourself and them while you despise me.
” … we need also to understand and be honest about ourselves, the ways in which we both take in and don’t take in people from other countries, …”
My God. I married a foreigner—a Japanese woman—who is nearly impossible to live with. What more do you want from me??
LukeHandCool (who can live with it if only because of her fantastis Asian fusion cooking)
Giving people an entitlement living as soon as they get here lowers the chance of assimilation – they don’t go to a workplace full of Americans, they get an anonymous check or three every month. They were sent to Cambridge Rindge and Latin, Massachusetts’ “most diverse” high school, in ultra liberal Cambridge, where, if there is assimilation, one wonders to what? You can bet they were taught to hold on to their native Chechen Islamic heritage and eschew imperial capitalist American ways.
America didn’t turn these guys into terrorists – they never really lived in America. America-hating leftists at home and America-hating jihadist Chechen militants abroad made these guys what they are.
It’s our fault for letting those boys grow up in an area that normalizes hatred for America.
Progressives have imagined that white Americans are unhappy with the changing demographics of the country. And progressives are unhappy that in their imagination white Americans are unhappy.
Now progressives tell us that Muslims are unhappy.
So if whites are unhappy with the country, and muslims are unhappy like the country, and progressives are unhappy that whites and muslims are unhappy, are the guys on “Duck Dynasty” the only happy people left in the country?
These lefties don’t like labels?
Good. Then we need to label them.
They are Enablers.
Label the Enablers.
When I was a Revolutionary Marxist, we were all in favour of as much immigration as possible. It wasn’t because we liked immigrants, but because we didn’t like Britain. We saw immigrants – from anywhere – as allies against the staid, settled, conservative society that our country still was at the end of the Sixties. Also, we liked to feel oh, so superior to the bewildered people – usually in the poorest parts of Britain – who found their neighbourhoods suddenly transformed into supposedly ‘vibrant communities’.
If they dared to express the mildest objections, we called them bigots.
http://www.onmanythings.com/2013/04/03/peter-hitchens-on-britains-immigration-policy/
The Battle for Britain has been lost. US soon to follow.
The first two paragraphs are a quote from Peter Hitchens.
Oh please. The younger one arrived as a 9-year-old. If he was so alienated, why did he stay when both of his parents left the country (apparently upon his attaining the age of majority)? And the older one was so alienated that he married a white woman and had a child with her. Friendless, yup.
This liberalism is a classic (erroneous) abuse/fear response: “if somehow it’s my fault, then I can fix it and stop it.”
“This liberalism is a classic (erroneous) abuse/fear response: “if somehow it’s my fault, then I can fix it and stop it.””
Or “then I don’t have to confront the real problem, which would be politically incorrect …”
Or … “if I blame a tolerant scapegoat (tea party), I avoid responsibility, and receive a head pat from Obama and Hollywood starlets.”
I’m no psychologist, but the abused response can be to defend the abuser. But I suppose as you said, they then alter their own behavior to accommodate … and hence enter crazy world, where the left resides. 🙂
“Vibrant” is code for “Crime.”
And if you’re on the other side of the vibrant equation, you’ll be on the receiving end of some vibrant crime.
How do we “fully integrate” members of society and still maintain the glory of a diverse society? Our strength is in our diversity and we should be unified about that.
I have always favored unified diversity as opposed to diverse diversity.
We’ve always had diversity.
It’s called “individuals.”
“Diversity” as the connotation goes today is one big giant scam.
Go to some extremely successful, culturally rich East Asian countries where, racially speaking, you’ll find dearth of “diversity” deserts.
Current “diversity logic” would dictate that they should be impoverished in so many ways. Ain’t the case.
Just like us, they have a diversity of individuals.
LukeHandCool (who wants to be the first on record predicting it won’t be long before we see terms such as MPI, “melanin pixels per square inch of skin” in common use as the bean counters come up with new ideas)
Exactly. As if every light-skinned Jew is an Einstein. Most people, white, black, brown, or whatever, do not even aspire to his insight.
The Left’s concept of “diversity” serves to denigrate individual dignity and actually devalues human life. Unfortunately, their concept also facilitates exploitation and manufacturing prejudice, and therefore division, to advance their political, economic, and social standing. It really is a profitable scam. It’s just amazing that they are able to manipulate so many people, so easily, but not without leverage, both legal and doctrinal.
It’s ironic that the most reverent followers of MLK, are also the most likely to denigrate his legacy. Perhaps his insight was overly ambiguous or too nuanced for those people to appreciate, let alone comprehend. Perhaps they have ulterior motives.
Indeed … the hypocrisy of Schumer. “Don’t you dare use this violent act by immigrants that chose their previous culture over an American culture, in the immigration debate”.
But Sandy Hook immediately evoked a pre-planned gun control campaign, with the kids and parents used as props constantly. And in Sandy Hook it was actually “gun control”, the gun free zone policy, that was most responsible for the children being left unprotected from the bad guys. No matter … they control the message and medium.
I keep thinking, “surely the left has jumped the shark now”. But for 40 years the education system and calm attractive news anchors have conditioned a majority to drool when they ring the bell of leftist outrage. Hollywood is in on the act, both off stage and in scripting.
But drug cartels and radical Islam are most certainly central to the illegal immigration debate. They scream that we (tea party “racist bigots”) treat them as “slaves” and second class citizens, and a majority salivate on command in agreement. All the right buzz words are spoken, and the Pavlovian response is automatic. Feigning outrage is a strategy.
But these second class citizen slaves escaped their own countries “tyranny”, and illegally sought refuge AND free stuff. They are not American citizens of any class. They are invaders, demanding we submit to their demands, rather than fix their own countries.
1. New Boston Bombing narrative: “It’s not them, it’s us”
The new narrative is correct, technically.
Weakness attracts predators.
2. In January I posted:
Now we’ve had a mini-9/11, and the Left can’t even react with America the Beautiful.
To understand the Boston bombers, we need also to understand and be honest about ourselves, the ways in which we … don’t take in people from other countries, …”
Uh huh.
What’s the whitest place in America? Somewhere so snow-driven white that “the other” would stick out like a sore thumb?
How about North Dakota?
Seen the biggest viral video of the day?
The funny profanity gaffe of the new news anchor on the North Dakota TV News … the hispanic gentleman … next to the lady of Vietnamese descent … in North Dakota.
That’s how afraid of “the other” North Dakotans are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_uX1RczgQA
I’ve long observed that local newsreaders are not hired for their journalistic skills. They are pawns in the diversity game. The more exotic the spelling of the name, the more exotic the appearance, the greater likelihood they will be hired. The quality of their ‘newsreading’ or ‘reporting’ has little, if anything, to do with it. Not many Jerry Dunphy’s around these days.
In all fairness to her, when she starts tripping over her words I think it’s because her bilingual brain is switching back to thinking-in-the-Vietnamese-language mode and, as she tries valiantly to spew the words out in English, the voice in her head is saying in Vietnamese,
“F***ing sh*t!! What did he just say??!!”
One of my business partners is a Vietnamese woman, who escaped at age 5 from South Vietnam on the back of her grandmother who literally climbed a rope ladder to get on board a departing ship the day before Saigon fell. She grew up is SoCal and is 100% Valley Girl, without a trace of an accent, though she can speak Vietnamese fluently, of course. Great lady.
Gosh, I hope she doesn’t feel like “the other.” Have Americans hugged her enough? Hopefully yes, but hopefully not to the point of borderline molestation. Public hugging of strangers is part science and part art. You got it get it just right or they’ll be bombing us for hugging them too hard or too much.
An accountant in an office I worked in was a Vietnamese dude with a similar story. He’s living the American dream now. He didn’t seem to feel alienated. Unlike the dead bomber brother, he made an effort to make friends with other Americans. Why aren’t these alienated “others” more often Asians? Something to ponder.
I currently work with a Chinese woman from Burma. She doesn’t miss the attacks on ethnic Chinese that occur in Burma (like those that also occur in Indonesia and Malaysia and the Phillipines, etc.).
I doubt she’s doing anything fishy with pressure cookers. Although she does catch a little hell when she microwaves fish at work sometimes. I don’t mind, if only because she brings me dim sum sometimes.
I’m of the opinion that the search for ‘understanding’ is the ultimate Quixotic quest, a utopian fantasy, at serious odds with reality. I don’t believe any amount of ‘understanding’ will prevent such actions in the future. I’ve seen no evidence for believing otherwise. Furthermore, there’s no way to measure the effectiveness of ‘understanding’ or anything done as a consequence of ‘understanding’, to know anything has been thereby prevented.
I understand that certain people are evil and must be dealt with. The evil should know they will be dealt with if they commit evil. Fairly, with due process, with a presumption of innocence, but dealt with when confirmed to be evil. Removing those who have committed evil from the general society, however that is accomplished, is the only way to truly protect it.
By “us” they mean anyone but them.
[…] liberal narratives in one sense, but good in another: They’ve been grasping for ways to say “it’s not them, it’s us” and now they’ve got an easy one, Obama’s stewardship of Afghanistan notwithstanding. […]
New narrative: it’s them AND their friends in the media.
Yeah. I love how the left want nothing to do with us … talk about feeling like “the other,” … until there’s a charade of noble self-reflection to perform … and suddenly we’re conscripted into the “us” army … as the grunts on the front lines.
It’s all too bizarre. I’m watching a good chunk of my fellow countrymen lose their minds in compulsive displays of self-delusion.
Surely you folk are teaching everyone that comes to your country how to kill you…..
After all… isn’t that the purpose of a countries internal security….
Equal rights
Excuse me, but these poor, misbegotten yoots went to a public high school which prides itself on how “socially just” it is. Not only that, the school district takes great pride in pointing out how many of their students are not members of “the majority” (I guess we are those “Others” they keep referencing)
For Heaven’s sake, they even have a picture of smiling school children on the Cambridge Public Schools home page THAT INCLUDES A YOUNG LADY IN A HIJAB.
How much more accommodating are we supposed to be?
Maybe if we made more of an effort to assimilate these kids into American culture, rather than celebrating in-house segregation (which is all that “diversity” does), these two kids wouldn’t have felt so alienated.
We think of them as “Others” because they themselves insist on highlighting their vaunted “otherness”…..
“Muslim community in the United States that has too often been impugned by the actions of a few”
I’d like to point out here that the Tea Party has too often been impugned by the actions of … NONE.
It’s our fault for granting the little punks asylum and giving them taxpayer funds for school. We should have sent their asses packing back to Chechnya.
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