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| Home Front: WoT | |
| A Double-Edged Sword | |
| 2023-10-22 | |
I used to wonder how Germans under Adolph Hitler came around to accept, support, or at least turn a blind eye towards the so-called "Final Solution", during the 1930s and ’40s. Well, wonder no more — I’ve seen it play out now in real time. Corked up resentments, envy and pure unadulterated hatred, given voice in classrooms, newsrooms, in social media and from the pulpits of certain churches, spewing from so-called leaders of various communities ... all spilling out, in the wake of October 7 ... it’s as sick-making as reports of all the rejoicing in the Arab streets, and the comments about how we Americans had it coming, after 9-11. To try and focus on the horror and misery inflicted on the innocent and the self-justifying replies from the usual pro-Palestinians boils down to something like the rationale from an abusive spouse — "Look at what you made me do!" All that being said, we are seeing a backlash of sorts, this time around. The loud, proud, and indiscreet Jew-haters are getting called out, substantially. Fired from jobs, having job offers rescinded, wealthy alums withdrawing support from various schools ... outrage from parties who heretofore were rather sedate. I can see several reasons for this — First, because the Hamas raid into Israel was so brutal, duplicating Nazi atrocities in Occupied Europe, right down to setting fire to houses to smoke out anyone hiding who might have escaped. Second — because the Hamas raiders videoed themselves doing so, every sickening second. They posted to social media, to boast of every revolting bloody detail — and more than just their sympathizers could watch. The rest of us can watch, too — if we have the stomach for snuff videos. It’s almost impossible to explain all that away, to claim exaggeration, war propaganda, bias ... when it’s all out there on the internet, unmediated by reporters and a media which likely has a bias of their own. The internet and social media have become a double-edged sword. We can see events unfiltered. Third — I do wonder how many Americans really have any warm feelings towards Islam and Islam-inspired wars of conquest. More than forty years since the Iran hostage crisis, twenty years since 9-11, how many years since the Beslan school murders, and the romp of ISIS and the new caliphate in the Middle East, a little more than a year since the debacle in Afghanistan ... it all adds up. Never mind how often in movies and TV series the obligatory Moslem character appears, whether in a historical epic or one set in the modern day. They are invariably painted as wise, kindly, tolerant, worldly, sometimes as a foil to bigoted and ignorant Christians, sometimes as a victim of the same. In the years since 2001, a fair number of American military personnel have served a rotation or two (or more) in Muslim-dominated countries and overall have been less than enchanted with what they saw there or experienced. Are we finally seeing a turning point? Discuss as you will and while we still can. | |
| Posted by:Grom the Reflective |