Evil Fiction

Writer Orson Scott Card unloads on another book…that includes as the unquentioned context the whole of the Paleswinian gospel of anti-Israel propaganda.

The Chief has to concur with his analyses:

Let me tell you about an audiobook that I hated. I didn’t hate it because it was badly written — it was mediocre in the way that mediocre thrillers usually are, and that means it would ordinarily have been tolerable. No, the reason I stopped listening to Steve Berry’s The Alexandria Link is that this book is evil.

I don’t mean it’s about evil. I don’t even mean that it is evil-porn, like those horror books whose authors are pervertedly devoted to thinking up cool ways to torture and kill people.

I mean that this book, to the degree that it is read by people ignorant of history (i.e., practically everybody), will move us closer to a future in which our society permits or even approves of the murder of Jews and the destruction of the state of Israel.

Check out the specifics in the article.

Berry and his ilk have chosen to support lies that justify the murder of Jews — no, wait, the bigots call them “Zionists” now, don’t they, the way segregationists said “nigra” so they didn’t use the actual N-word — but at the same time, in a moral contortion that deserves to be in a sideshow, they still claim the mantle of “tolerance” and consider their enemies to be the neanderthal bigots.

Guess what, kids: You’re in bed with Adolph Hitler and with the bombers of innocent people in Palestine. You are attacking people who are no more deserving of attack than, say, Americans who live in rich communities on the coast of Georgia (where Berry lives), on land stolen from Indians and long worked by the labor of black slaves.

This book has to be prime grist for Hollywood’s mill. (Hopefully not…but probably so!)

Anti-American feelings soar among Muslims, study finds

This is an interesting poll in a number of respects, especially to an American conservative point of view.

Firstly, there’s a LOT of dislike out there, and it seems to be getting worse for the most part.

Seven per cent believe that the events of 9/11 were “completely justified”. In Saudi Arabia, 79 per cent had an “unfavourable view” of the US.

7% of the Islamic world is about 100M people – nothing to sneeze at.

It is also well worth noting that the standard liberal reasoning about the origins of radicalism in the cesspools of economic malaise are erroneous:

Gallup’s Centre for Muslim Studies in New York carried out surveys of 10,000 Muslims in ten predominantly Muslim countries. One finding was that the wealthier and better-educated the Muslim was, the more likely he was to be radicalised.

There are some areas of possible leverage that can provide a basis for real understanding:

The Gallup findings indicate that, in terms of spiritual values and the emphasis on the family and the future, Americans have more in common with Muslims than they do with their Western counterparts in Europe. A large number of Muslims supported the Western ideal of democratic government. Fifty per cent of radicals supported democracy, compared with 35 per cent of moderates.

What really struck the Chief, is that the Islamic radicals were driven to their opposition to the US for the same sort of “culture war” issues that drive US conservatives crazy:

Religion was found to have little to do with radicalisation or antipathy towards Western culture. Muslims were condemnatory of promiscuity and a sense of moral decay. What they admired most was liberty, its democratic system, technology and freedom of speech.

If this is accurate, the Chief has more in common with some of these people than he thought he did. Go figure.