Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Liberal Telepathy.

The late satirist Michael Wharton envisaged a world in which racism could be detected not by what people said or do but by the prejudons they emit. It seems that the future has arrived with an outbreak of liberal hacks developing the ability to infer racism in a wide variety of people, particularly people waving things like facts around as if there's no tomorrow. Take Jasper Gerard in the Observer in response to Migration Watch reporting that one in four children born in the UK have at least one foreign born parent:
Should my children be sent 'home'? I only ask because Migration Watch and commentator Stephen Glover declare 25 per cent of babies born in Britain have at least one foreign-born parent
.....
'OK, they might look white, but what if they are darkies underneath?' seems to be the message. 'Good God, Binky, dagos are polluting British bloodlines.'
You see his wife was born in Istanbul and being a liberal he assumes that if he and his family are doing fine then there cannot possibly be any problem with integrating different immigrant groups. Obviously neither Migration Watch or Steven Glover suggested anyone here legally should be deprted. Of course I don't possess Liberal telepathy so I may be wrong. Jasper Gerard actually wrote a good article 7 or 8 years ago which puts him on a higher pedestal than Dave 'not the guitarist from Slade' Hill. Hill seems to be upset that people have had the temerity to question Trevor Phillips's unique interpretation of history, whereby Gerard's in laws defeated the Spanish Armada:
the anger directed at Phillips is revealing. It demonstrates not only the fear and paranoia of Britain's seething classes but also their ignorance about the history of which they are self-appointed guardians. Indeed, it shows that they know nothing about history in general
As opposed to knowing nothing about history in specifics. Presumably if Trevor Phillips had claimed that the Battle of Britain had been won by the Klingons it would still be the people who dissented from this view who were fearful and paranoid. In the thread which ensues Laban Tall demolishes Dave Hill's case by demonstrating that ignorance is concentrated only on one side of this 'debate'. For all Hill's raging against 'know nothings' he isn't very keen to actually know about the subject he is pontificating on so he falls back to mind reading:
I can detect only too easily what lies behind many of the attacks on Phillips.
Facts & knowledge would be my answer, but I'm pretty sure Hill means racism. There are people who are concerned about immigration because they dislike foreigners and equally no doubt there are a few nutters who hate Trevor Phillips because he's black but it is all too obvious that the cry of racism is simply being thrown around without good cause in order to preempt debate and shield members of the great and the good from substantive criticism. I realise that I've written quite frequently about the frivolous use of 'racism' to undermine debate and there is a reason why I do so. Playing the racism card without any good cause is immensely damaging to free speech in the short term and in the long term risks creating racial antagonisms and hostility where it has not previously been major problems.

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