This, too, will pass (I hope)
By Thoreau
The protests against the Burlington Coat Factory Recreation Center show a lot of what’s ugly and stupid in America. This video, where the protesters start ranting against some random black guy walking down the street, is particularly ugly. This is really ugly kulturkampf.
However, is it kulturkampf at its worst? America’s been through uglier stages (e.g. slavery, Jim Crow). Of course, we want to think that we are a nation that makes progress. Whether that is true or not, we aspire to it, so it’s not enough to say “Eh, not as bad as Jim Crow.” But perhaps comparisons with the past couple decades are warranted. Every summer, it seems that Americans find stupid things to worry about. Remember shark attacks and that kid who was too old for Little League? The anti-”mosque” protests are obviously far uglier, but as August winds down I wonder if this bit of cultural stupidity will fade as the kids go back to school, the weather changes, the holidays approach, and the elections focus our minds on things that may not be any more relevant but are at least different. Then again, the elections might just ramp the stupidity as they approach.
So that’s one hope, that this will turn out to be the usual summer stupidity, amplified by a bad economy. It’s not a confident prediction, just a hope.
Also, as ugly as Birtherism and “Sekrit Mooslim” talk is, let’s not forget the 1990’s. The Clintons were subject to constant investigations and rumors of dark misdeeds. We needn’t take up the merits of every single allegation and investigation–indeed, we could even stipulate merit in some particular investigation–to recognize that the overall atmosphere was hardly a measured consideration of the merits of serious allegations. There was a witch hunt element. There were rumors circulating of all sorts of murders in Arkansas. “Obama is a Muslim!” is in some ways the 2010 version of “Hillary is a lesbian!” While some of the paranoid theories about Obama have ugly racial tints to them, overall I don’t know that what Obama faces is, in sum, any worse than what Clinton faced. Then again, we have to see what will happen if Congress changes hands.
UPDATE: I just read Greenwald’s latest piece, where he argues the exact opposite regarding August insanity. I’m not blind to what he’s observing, and I fear that he’s right. Certainly the attitudes that underlie this will not end in September. However, one can hope (not the same as predict) that the intensity will die down, that the worst will pass.
Comment by VikingMoose —
August 23, 2010 @ 11:48 am
just lisen to rush – there’s still the anti clinton message.
it’s simply resuming the battle of the 90s.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 23, 2010 @ 1:43 pm
By wearing a skullcap on the island of Manhattan, that guy was being incredibly insensitive to the families of 9/11 victims. In a sense, he brought it on himself. Why must he be so divisive?
Really, that’s what this is about. Sensitivity. Didn’t you pick up on the abiding sensitivity towards people’s feelings emanating from those protesters?
Comment by Thoreau —
August 23, 2010 @ 1:45 pm
To play Devil’s Advocate for just a moment, there’s often a difference between the guys in the street with signs and the masses sitting at home and answer the pollster’s phone call. Still, the only way that it’s “insensitive” to have a Muslim recreation center in lower Manhattan is if we assign collective blame, so we’re right back to the conclusion of bigotry, irrespective of whether the people in the street are representative of the people at home.
Comment by Tom Jackson —
August 23, 2010 @ 2:46 pm
Partisan politics in this country are based on whipping up fear and hatred. (The Democrats do it, too, although the Republicans are so reprehensible they make the Dems look good by comparison.) I’m very uncomfortable with the way the anti-mosque campaign has provided an opening to publicly hate on a minority group. I hope the “intensity will die down” but all signs so far suggest the GOP thinks it has found a winning issue.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector —
August 23, 2010 @ 7:15 pm
Some perspective:
Nov 2005. Lowell, Massachusetts. Yet another screening of my film Final Solution [about the horrific massacres of Muslims in Gujarat State, India, in 2002] on a university campus in USA. [...]
Outside the venue, a group of desais gathers even as the film starts. They are here to oppose the screening of my film at their university, without having seen it. I invite them, but most aren’t interested. They await the Q & A session, where they plan to ‘ambush’ me. The ‘ambush’ is straight out of the Hindutva websites, an 8 point questionnaire for “enemies of Hindutva”; by now, I am a veteran of such ambushes. [...]
“How dare you call the Gujarat violence ‘genocidal’, thunders one. Far away from him, in another corner of the auditorium, another gets up to tell me “The mobs did not kill anyone. All people died in police firing. And the toll is not over 2000. It is just about 100″.
“Why don’t you make a film for Kashmiri Pandits”, asks another, his friend wonders whether my heart bleeds only for Muslims.[...]
“What about the burnt train”, thunders a Gujarati [expat], “what happened was a reaction to Godhra”. I pose a counter question: “Do you think post-911, every New Yorker should have gone out to on the streets to rape any Muslim woman, murder Muslim babies and kill old and young men? That New Yorkers should have burnt all Muslim cafes and shops, set fire to Muslim homes and that the NYPD should’ve helped them do it? That mobs led by local politicians should have ruled the streets of New York in the same way they did in Gujarat?” Like a proud American citizen, he recoils and says no.
I wonder why they try to defend such barbarism for India. Long distance nationalism? A mistaken notion of what India is and what it needs? Or an implied assumption that NY is ‘civilised’ while India is ‘backward’ and hence rape, murder and mayhem are acceptable consequences?” It is a question I have posed to many ‘hostile’ members of my audiences – usually they have no answers.
– Rakesh Sharma
When violence against American Muslims becomes 1/100th as serious as anti-globo rioters’ violence against private property, or proggressives’ physical assaults of tea partiers–that is, when it starts to actually exist–then I’ll worry.
Comment by KWK —
August 23, 2010 @ 10:35 pm
@Sanity Inspector:
Have you had the chance to view Divided We Fall? If not, please do so.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector —
August 23, 2010 @ 11:10 pm
First I’ve heard of it, thanks. I’ll check it out.
Have you ever seen Steve Emerson’s 1994 PBS Frontline episode, on jihad in America?
Comment by dhex —
August 24, 2010 @ 9:03 am
just lisen to rush – there’s still the anti clinton message.
i’ve spent so much time around libertizzles i was googling for anti-clintonian prog rock.
i do think much of this is about the economy. ain’t no “fix” in sight, so the next best thing is “LOOKEE OVER HERE!” also, people have a weird idea of what constitutes the sacral these days – and a debased notion of what constitutes rights – which doesn’t help one bit.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 24, 2010 @ 10:45 am
You are a parody, and you don’t even know it.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector —
August 24, 2010 @ 7:54 pm
I hope not. You may recall John Leo’s observation some time back that since 9/11 there had been 100,000 hate crimes against American Muslims: one shooting, two bricks thrown through windows, and 99,997 limp handshakes and insincere hellos. Proggy violence is excused as an expression of The People Rising, but the anxiously feared backlash against Muslims simply does. not. exist.
Actually, I take that back. All the hateful language flying around did yield some mischief over the summer. Here in the greater Atlanta area, a small neighborhood mosque was the victim of arson. It was in a converted home, and the congregation was accepted as part of the community. In 2004 they even hosted a memorial event for a local man who was taken hostage and beheaded by al-Qaeda in Iraq. Yet this past summer, a man whose mind had been twisted by a steady diet of hate speech set the mosque on fire.
The hate speech was from the man’s home, Gambia, where he had gotten infected with Wahabbist extremism exported from Saudi Arabia.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 25, 2010 @ 11:30 am
Cabbie stabbed in NYC for being Muslim.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/nypd_charges_man_with_hate_crime_after_allegedly_stabbing_muslim_cabbie.php?ref=fpblg
Shades of Daniel Pearl.
These weren’t two hot-headed opponents who came to blows. This was an attempted lynching.
Stop whipping up the lynch mob.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 25, 2010 @ 11:31 am
And you’re taking notes. Stop whipping up a lynch mob.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 25, 2010 @ 11:33 am
Oh, speaking of Daniel Pearl: his wife had Imam Rauf speak at his funeral.
There are those who work to rip people apart over religion, like Newt Gingrich, Sanity Inspector, and Osama bin Laden, and there are those who work to bring them together, like Imam Rauf.
You’ve chosen your side, S.I. So have I.
Comment by Thoreau —
August 25, 2010 @ 11:55 am
joe,
I’m going to take that article with a grain of salt simply because:
(1) Initial allegations often turn out to be inaccurate. Let’s see if the DA sticks with the initial version of events once they’ve had a chance to review everything. I’ve read enough Radley Balko to not trust everything a DA says either, but at least the DA’s analysis comes after a more detailed examination, while a detective’s decision on how to treat something is, by necessity, based on preliminary evidence.
(2) I’ve also been worrying about mobs getting whipped up, and now I’m presented with a report that confirms my fears. A bit of caution is always in order when fears seem to be confirmed.
But, yeah, this is exactly what I fear. Even if it turns out that what I fear hasn’t yet come to pass, it would be better if we keep it that way.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 25, 2010 @ 1:06 pm
The poor cabbie who was attacked for being a Muslim in New York has released a statement:
THIS is why we don’t whip up lynch mobs and bully people trying to build a church. THIS is why saying, “Oh, they have the right to build their church, but…” isn’t acceptable. When people whip up hysteria against a religious, or ethnic, or racial, or national group, and demonize them, and call them the enemy, this is what you get.
Yes, Thoreau, it’s real. Slashed in the throat, like the Taliban do it.
Comment by Thoreau —
August 25, 2010 @ 1:09 pm
joe, I don’t doubt the attack. I’m just taking the reports on the _motive_ with a tiny grain of salt for another day or two. Sometimes stabbings happen for other reasons, and while I fear the worst I want to wait and see.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 25, 2010 @ 4:31 pm
More info coming out:
There, at about 6:15pm at Third Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets, he yelled, “Assalamu Alaikum. Consider this a checkpoint,” and then slashed Mr. Sharif across the neck.
An Arabic greeting. A “checkpoint.”
Skepticism is healthy when the heat has been turned up high, but this is what it is.
Comment by Thoreau —
August 25, 2010 @ 4:37 pm
joe, I suspect that in short order I’ll be able to (sadly) concur with your assessment of the motive. I just want to wait because, well, it’s often a healthy thing to do, and while the cops may have to run with the best theories they have at the moment, there’s no harm in a blogger saying “Yeah, I’ll probably agree with you tomorrow.”
So I’m not saying that you’re wrong, or even that I suspect that you’re wrong, but I want to wait 24 hours or so before I say you’re right. The likely conclusions to be drawn are very sad and ugly, so I want a bit of time before drawing them. That’s all.
Besides, friends have been pointing me to other news sources saying things that suggest something very different. I suspect that what you’re saying is more likely, but in the rush of initial reports, well, it’s always best to wait 24 hours before drawing the worst conclusion.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 25, 2010 @ 5:33 pm
I’m not criticizing you for waiting a day, Thoreau.
I’m just providing information.
Comment by GinSlinger —
August 25, 2010 @ 6:27 pm
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Muslim-Cab-Driver-Stabbing-Mosque-Madness-Blowback-4818/
Comment by Thoreau —
August 25, 2010 @ 6:41 pm
And that’s why I want to wait another 24 hours. It’s very possible that he was just working there for the paycheck, not the ideology, and is in fact opposed to the goals of the organization and is actually an anti-Muslim bigot. But it’s also possible that the guy had a psychotic breakdown or something, and what happened is not deeply-felt and long-standing animosity, but rather the latest message from the aliens or whatever.
Comment by GinSlinger —
August 25, 2010 @ 7:44 pm
Couple o’ stories are relating that he was incredibly drunk as well. So, who knows?
It’ll be interesting to see who wants to give the demagogues so much power as to turn the committed (if Enright was indeed among the committed).
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 26, 2010 @ 3:16 pm
But it’s also possible that the guy had a psychotic breakdown or something, and what happened is not deeply-felt and long-standing animosity, but rather the latest message from the aliens or whatever.
What does being drunk and/or ideology have to do with anything?
The problem with poisoning the atmosphere is that everybody breathes it. An emotionally-unstable persons gets into a highly-suggestible condition, and what does he do?
Well, what he does depends on what catches his fancy. The messages from the aliens aren’t actually from the aliens.
Comment by joe from Lowell —
August 26, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
Ideas don’t have consequences.
Social forces don’t influence behavior.
Actions are best understood without consideration of context.
Comment by GinSlinger —
August 26, 2010 @ 4:38 pm
So then, joe, true believers aren’t true believers at all, just victims of social discourse?
That would explain how opponents of supreme executive authority one day become lap dogs to power the next.
Careful, if you keep breathing you’ll be stabbing a Muslim any day now.
Comment by GinSlinger —
August 26, 2010 @ 5:04 pm
joe,
If it turns out the attacker was inspired by anti-Muslim bigotry, but that that bigotry had nothing to do with the Burlington Coat Center, what will you say?
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/08/26/who-is-michael-enright-tracing-the-suspect-in-the-taxi-stabbing/
Comment by Thoreau —
August 26, 2010 @ 5:09 pm
Ginslinger,
If he was motivated by bigotry, even if it wasn’t explicitly linked to the mosque incident, I still think it would be fair to say “Look, crazy bigots sometimes do this shit when they get sufficiently riled-up, so ferchrissakes don’t rile them up!”
joe,
Sometimes a mentally ill person, or a person massively under the influence of a drug, does indeed do horrible things that were in the air, e.g. Go after a widely-hated group. Other times, the voices tell the crazy person to go after anybody wearing red because, well, the voices don’t like red. So, a crazy person might stab Muslims because “those people are taking over our country with their victory dance mosque.” Or he might stab Muslims because “the voices tell me that pork is awesome and you don’t like pork so you must die!”
The previous paragraph is meant as a general statement on crazy people, not as a specific comment on the person accused of stabbing the taxi driver.
Comment by GinSlinger —
August 26, 2010 @ 5:26 pm
thoreau,
All fair. That’s presuming that he had to be stirred up. The WaPo article seems to be stretching to find a reason for this crime, and links it to the events in Afghanistan, not to any rhetoric about the Burlington Coat Factory.
But, you know, some people just do stuff, maybe motivated less by joe’s discourse, and more from seeing people die, and trying to find reasons for it.
Pingback by Resisting an epiphany…(The Sanity Inspector) —
August 29, 2010 @ 10:23 pm
[...] The people who roll their eyes at the commotion over Park51 do not understand or appreciate the power of symbols–intended or unintended. They do not understand the power of memory, of grievances unassuaged, and how they can be passed along year to year, generation to generation, to unpredictably multiplying effect. [...]