Imagine Jews suddenly stopped existing - these groups won't suddenly be pacifists. Here in Sweden we've had strings of ethnic based abuse and torture against Swedes, usually against middle school boys (using slurs about Swedes while beating them, sexually assaulting them, robbing them, burying them up to the neck, pissing on them etc etc and filming it.) We ought to stand up for Jews and Israel because it's the right thing to do, but also to signal that this behavior will no longer be tolerated. These are not people you give an inch to and the west has already given a mile.
just like you're cheering on Israel's ethnic cleansing who had no business in Palestine to begin with i hope same happen in Sweden and migrants kicks you guys out. i will cheer on that too. until then you wont understand how it feels like foreigners kicking local out.
btw if your good standing for jws and Israel's need demolishing home of 1 million people and killing 31k and injuring 80k plus people and staving little kids then you really don't know what good or evil. west had no business in east. don't worry western empire is falling and hopefully east will be successful of kicking out western invaders with the help of emerging powers such as china who promotes peach unlike west.
I've never cheered on any war in my life, in fact I've been an anti war activist since I was 12 as a child in post 9/11 USA- do you know the spine it took to be anti war in post 9/11 USA??? Jews are indigenous to Israel, and they had the right to move and flee Europe just like millions of Arabs have fled to Europe to flee war imposed on them by fellow Arabs. The majority of Jews in Israel do not have European admixture but rather fled ethnic cleansing in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon etc in the 1930s - 1948+. Well if Arabs massacre Jews in the ME then you can't complain when they flee and try to make a safe home for themselves in mandatory Palestine given that it was mostly barren, they bought the majority of the land and the land that was taken was taken AFTER Arabs (not Palestinians, that is a political term for a group of people who were never a demographic unit until after it was convenient) started multiple wars against Israel. And lost.
Re the damage in Gaza, please educate yourself about urban warfare. John Spencer is the leading expert on that. Every military demolishes the buildings so there aren't 10000 sniper positions, and given how extensive Hamas tunnels were it's even more necessary. Civilians death is horrible but it's lower in Gaza than average for modern urban warfare. Praying that Palestinians force Hamas out so this can end and to keep their children safe.
Western Progressivism has done immense harm and the fundamental reason why was nailed decades ago by TS Eliot in this pithy quote: “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
While Progressive liberals have been indulging in nice, feel-good postures by valorising every ethnicity other than white European or Slavic, last Saturday we saw what - as you say - is the norm of human tribal warfare - the women get raped, brutalised (and often then killed), the men meanwhile just get quickly slaughtered. In 2020 the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war was made shockingly vivid Christina Lamb's 'Our Bodies Their Battlefield' which I reviewed here: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/life-in-the-shadows-of-metoo. "Her stories of rape, torture and sadistic maiming on a massive scale are so horrific that you are left emotionally punch-drunk and numb before you reach the end of the first chapter. But as a permanent record of brutality inflicted on literally millions of women – of a kind beyond the capacity of most people even to imagine – it is an invaluable document."
You say you hope that Progressive liberals will wise up now. I hope so too but I'm not holding my breath.
A prog woman said ‘we can’t say our system is best. Each culture is equal to other cultures.’ We were discussing a court case where an Islamic African raped a ten year old boy at a public swimming pool. His excuse, accepted by the court was it was okay in his culture. Me: “Okay. You are halal. Are you good with that?” She didn’t know what that meant. I said ‘if a group of Islamic men raped you because you are a slut, would that be okay? Because a slut can be raped at will.’ She was insulted. She was not a slut. “Yes. You are. You wear yoga pants, your head is uncovered. You wear bikinis at the beach which show your body. To them you are a slut, and you can be raped. But it is their culture and if five of them held you captive and raped you for five days and the police sided with them because that is their culture would you shrug and say well ‘if it their culture I guess it is okay.’ Because all cultures are equal?” She reluctantly admitted that was not okay.
Yes, our late-20th century version of 'Liberalism' and 'Progress' has led the most foolish and gullible among us into some bizarre moral positions. I wrote about this in the latest essay on my STB: 'Are We Making Progress?' https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/are-we-making-progress
The word “justify” is key to the progressives. Unfortunately, what it REALLY means is: “I know what I’m doing is bad and wrong, but I’m going to do it because it will further a cause that I like.”
There is a difference in scale. Subclinical levels of the same indifference to consequences might sometimes be socially useful but, if allowed to flourish, can create the nightmare we see today.
True. Without some level of indifference to consequences, the Wright brothers would’ve just stayed on the ground, Tesla (the guy, not the company) wouldn’t have innovated, and there could be no military...etc. And life would be a lot less exciting. 😉
Should we really be looking to T. S. Eliot for advice? This is also the guy who said he didn't want any Jews in his community: "The population should be homogeneous; where two or more cultures exist in the same place they are likely either to be fiercely self-conscious or both to become adulterate. What is still more important is unity of religious background; and reasons of race and religion combine to make any large number of free-thinking Jews undesirable."
I often think of a (very offensive) meme that captures the naive oikophobia of western progressives: https://imgur.io/WTsN68H?r
Recent events and the laptop class’s smug analysis has shaken me. Feminists, students, lgbt people, journalists etc who live in the safest, most prosperous, most free world humanity has ever known, casually cheering on barbarism as though the leopard would never eat their face... No exaggeration, I am shaken and disturbed. I waffle between “they really mean it!!!” and “they lead completely disembodied larp lives and they have no idea what they’re speaking into being”, not sure which is worse.
Utterly terrifying and sadly true. Luxury beliefs DO have consequences. We are seeing that in the streets. Of course immigrants are holding fast to their identity and religion. The West has all but abandoned theirs. We do nothing but disparage our own civilization not realizing that we are spitting on the very foundation that brought us the prosperity, comfort and peace that makes us the outlier in human history. I'm afraid that very dark days are ahead.
Thought more about it. Mezzuah on outside where it belongs. No more hiding. Will fight this ignorance my way...through education and STANDING UP FOR ME/US.
My son who is in his 20s wears a Star of David on a neck chain. He was in Sweden in summer 2022 and a total stranger, another young man at a bar, came up to him and told him to hide it. That is wasn't safe in Sweden if he wore it out. One night with friends, he couldn't get into a club. In Brooklyn, he puts it under his shirt in certain neighborhoods. The risk of violence is high in many places. The current of antisemitism is strong, not as something to claim victim status about but as a fact.
I am not a Jew, but all that I could think watching this over the weekend is that we must ensure that the United States is a safe place for the Jews. As Americans, we cannot ensure that Israel or any other country will be safe for the Jews - we can try to influence things, we can send aid, we can take positions, but we cannot control it. But we can ensure that this country is safe, and we must. The fact that the cancer of antisemitism is resurgent in the US is deeply shameful, and the moral imperative to counter it is as great now as it has ever been.
Thank you for saying this. And for saying the quiet part as well: many more men than women usually die. And they are also tortured and maimed. Not just women. And this is absolutely normal, historically.
But it is also normal that we (including the men) care more about the women and children than the men. Attacking women and children has always been one of the best ways to punish an enemy, or to get men to fight and die.
It never ceases to amaze me that so many people fail to understand the irony of publicly denouncing the western values that are the only reason they even have a platform on which to denounce anything.
Four Lions is so good on this. The terrorists flip-flop between screaming about the evils of the decadent west and idle chit-chat which reveals how much they love about British culture.
My God I’ve been hammered by these events. And it’s super rare that a war or events overseas will hit me this hard. If the disgusting barbarism of Hamas wasn’t bad enough what utterly sickens me Is people in western countries actively celebrating the rape slaughter etc of Jews, shouting anti semantic slogans etc, as you say exploiting the very civil liberties given to them by western civilisation.
I sincerely hope if anything good comes out of this, it’ll be a HUGE wake up call to progressives especially and everyone in the west. If we can’t hold our own this is the barbarism that will take hold...
I was 11 years old when 9/11 happened. I didn't have a TV so I never saw footage, but I heard what had happened from friends. And then I remember all the people who celebrated it as they changed for death to America, and I couldn't understand why anyone would celebrate such acts (whatever their view of American foreign policy). The events of the weekend were so much more distressing. This time, as an adult, when I see the protests, I understand what is going on and it's so much worse than I could have imagined aged 11.
Louise, I have followed your work for a long time as you know. I think this is the most important article of yours that I have ever read, albeit depressing and horrifying.
On Suella Braverman's comment that multiculturalism is a failed experiment - I believe it's an experiment nobody has ever tried to make work.
Yes, I'm aware that this hot take resembles the tankie line that "real socialism has never been tried", but let me explain. Progressives have never bothered to improve integration, because they are blind to the problems, or believe that wishful thinking alone will resolve them. But I reserve my greater ire for conservatives, who are fully aware of the problem and yet also make no attempt to solve it, instead seeking to exploit the situation by egging on the tensions in order to drive public opinion against immigration altogether. In between, there are staggeringly few people trying to tie these communities together. Even basic things like free English lessons would go a long way.
Muslims *can* integrate; surely Sadiq Khan and Humza Yousaf are proof enough of that. It's just a case of getting this to work more widely. You might be sceptical that the government can persuade millions of people to change their behaviour, but they successfully managed to get us to stay indoors for the best part of a year (and even, rather creepily, to rat out our noncompliant neighbours), surely getting people to learn some basic English would be a breeze by comparison, if only the will were there.
"I reserve my greater ire for conservatives, who are fully aware of the problem and yet also make no attempt to solve it, instead seeking to exploit the situation by egging on the tensions in order to drive public opinion against immigration altogether."
Many Tories, including Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak support substantial levels of "legal" migraton. And net migration is higher under the Tories than under New Labour.
"Even basic things like free English lessons would go a long way."
Shamima Begum - and many other home-grown Islamists - have perfectly good English.
I fear the question of Muslim integration might be rather more difficult than you suggest.
This is why I deliberately used "conservatives" with a small c. I'm not talking about the Conservative Party here (although Tories have the different problem of their rhetoric being totally out-of-kilter with their actions on immigration, in a way that satisfies neither the progressives who hate the rhetoric, nor the small-c conservatives who hate the fact that immigration continues despite the rhetoric).
"I reserve my greater ire for conservatives, who are fully aware of the problem and yet also make no attempt to solve it."
Given that it's ultimately the government that will have "to solve it" (and given, also, your mention of Suella Braverman), I assumed the by "conservatives" you meant the Tory party!
As I said previously, I think solving it will be rather more difficult that you suggest.
Well I suppose that, being a Scottish nationalist, Humza Yousaf literally is trying to destroy the UK, but fortunately he's pretty rubbish at it, and I don't think Scottish independence has ever looked further away since 2014 than it does right now.
Come now. I also think it's absurd for the police to be arresting people for tweets, but I wouldn't call support for such measures "destroying the UK".
Well, firstly the reason he wants to arrest people for tweets is so he can arrest people who complain about further steps he takes to destroy the UK, e.g., the Muslim grooming gangs.
But on a deeper level, what used to be called "the rights of Englishmen" is one of the main things that made the UK what it is.
I realise i sound like an unreconstructed Marxist. But it's class. Upper class x gets along fine with upper class y, in whatever upper class enclave they find themselves in.
Canada has done a lot with integration. Toronto is an amazingly diverse city. I lived in a fairly South East Asian suburb of a city near Toronto and rented a basement from a Pakistani family. One daughter wore traditional dress and another dressed like a typical Canadian teenager. I saw young boys playing street hockey, as I had. This moment of mass immigration has not been planned for. Climate change supporters have indicated this would happen for decades. Militaries have been planning for it. Civil institutions have not. There has been ethnic conflict here recently. However, the troubles were only put to rest in the 90s, so I wouldn't claim any high ground for my ethnicities.
This has nothing to do with climate change. Go around the world and find me a place that has benefited richly by diversity. You won’t find it. The restaurants are better. And some multi ethnicity seems to bring good results. But beyond say 20%? No. And I can’t think of anywhere where lots of Islamic immigration has been good. Or African. And Toronto is not doing well. It is a hole.
Weak leadership. Everywhere. Third world despots always have millions wanting to leave. Justin letting in 100,000 a month! Biden letting in 250,000 a month. Massive deficit spending by all Western nations. Merkel for some unknown reason wanting to destroy Europe. Which she did. Silly leftists, such as yourself...no offense, as I am assuming you are young and naive...not being raised properly. By that I mean an entire generation of kids who have never solved a problem on their own. If they had they would be more cautious. But Mommy took care of it. So they can’t foresee issues and consequences arising. 2-3mm a year in sea level rises is NOT an issue.
Focusing on the issue then, you are stating that despots are forcing people to leave their countries and that is why there are so many people trying to make it and, as you enumerate, sometimes making it across the borders?
No. Despots always have millions living under them that want to leave. Always. Nothing has changed other than Merkel, Macron, Biden, Trudeau have all said ‘everyone can come and we will
Now, in defense of the various attributes you have assigned to my character, I am sending you this playlist. Left and Right are not what you have been told. If you can find the lyrics to these songs, you may be able to start questioning the people who have given you your talking points (I'm assuming they are from somewhere other than various internet forums). Furthermore, if Mum has solved all my problems, she has my deepest gratitude:
Your first reply suggested problems with the American border. 8 million people looking for refuge. I am considering your point in regards to Canada, Germany, and France. However, the US border has become far stricter in the last decade. A partially constructed border wall, trial man-sized skill saw bladed floating walls, and an ICE detention center performing an hysterectomy on a women against her will are three examples of the changes I have heard tell of. Your perpetual huddled masses theory does not make sense in an American context. If there are always millions living under despots that want to flee, then there should be far fewer refugees now than in the 80s and 90s. I'm not certain about the European context. I know almost nothing about Europe. I can report that there have been news stories of some immigrants leaving Canada for the United States in the past year. However, the number of people seeking residence in Canada is small in comparison to the United States. As well, our geographic boundaries would make the despot theory mostly unmeasurable. The Tamil refugees are a good example that supports your theory. They braved an ocean journey with no sure sense of their acceptance here before they left. However, those cases are still an exception in the Great White North.
Thank you for this Louise. Whenever my mind rages against progressives a picture of you enters it and I am reminded that good-hearted people can have bad ideas instilled in them by evil professors in cloistered universities. So I thank you for that. Decades ago I served in the United States Army Ranger Regiment and visited places such as Israel, Jordan, Egypt and others in the Middle East and saw firsthand what these immigrants are capable of and what they bring to the table. I won't soften that statement. Once people's bellies are full they fall back on the ideologies of their childhood and the socialization of their upbringing. I thought England would have learned its lesson after the bombings the stabbings and the systematic rape and torture of its young girls but unfortunately it isn't until the laptop class feel the knife at their throat and perhaps not even then that they will see the light. I'm afraid it's coming. God help us all.
Thank you Louise. Still can't comprehend the so called feminists, human rights activists, and journalists could justify all these evils. The humanists have lost their humanity.
To be fair, most woke folk are horrified by recent events and struggling with their cognitive dissonance. Very few are seeking to defend the actions of Hamas. Even Jeremy Corbyn felt compelled to utter platitudes about peace in the Middle East rather than applauding the brave freedom fighters in their struggle or whatever else he might have been expected to say.
My jaw hit the floor at the last paragraph. This is a truly fantastic article. I would argue tho, instead of the sentiment “it could happen here” I think it’s already happened/happening here. In a micro way. I read Ayan Hirsi Ali’s book “Prey” and I see direct parallels
The term ‘decolonisation’ is used as if it might explain the violence. The violence we’re seeing in Israel has nothing to do with decolonisation. That’s a disingenuous excuse. The ethnic violence we’re seeing is the direct result of envy, hatred, ignorance & religion. That envy, hatred etc. has led to an occurrence in my Australia that I never could have contemplated as possible; gangs of ill educated, hate filled youth screaming “gas the Jews”.
> we’re seeing is the direct result of envy, hatred, ignorance
But that is precisely what "decolonization" means. The "colonized" are envious of the "colonizer's" ability to build and maintain a prosperous society, and that leads to hatred.
I can remember before the Manchester concert bombing, feeling that that sort of thing could never happen here. As you say, we are not outside history. Michel Houellebecq is, if you can take his style, good on this.
Imagine Jews suddenly stopped existing - these groups won't suddenly be pacifists. Here in Sweden we've had strings of ethnic based abuse and torture against Swedes, usually against middle school boys (using slurs about Swedes while beating them, sexually assaulting them, robbing them, burying them up to the neck, pissing on them etc etc and filming it.) We ought to stand up for Jews and Israel because it's the right thing to do, but also to signal that this behavior will no longer be tolerated. These are not people you give an inch to and the west has already given a mile.
just like you're cheering on Israel's ethnic cleansing who had no business in Palestine to begin with i hope same happen in Sweden and migrants kicks you guys out. i will cheer on that too. until then you wont understand how it feels like foreigners kicking local out.
btw if your good standing for jws and Israel's need demolishing home of 1 million people and killing 31k and injuring 80k plus people and staving little kids then you really don't know what good or evil. west had no business in east. don't worry western empire is falling and hopefully east will be successful of kicking out western invaders with the help of emerging powers such as china who promotes peach unlike west.
Ethnic coeansing? LMAO. Israel is 20% Arab mostly Muslim. Lebanon puts Palestinians in refugee camps. in Israel they are doctors and heads of banks.
And tell me dipshit where are the Jews of Egypt, Yemen. Iraq, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria?
No one does ethnic cleansing as well as Muslim Arabs. Now kindly take your shit and peddle it elsewhere
I've never cheered on any war in my life, in fact I've been an anti war activist since I was 12 as a child in post 9/11 USA- do you know the spine it took to be anti war in post 9/11 USA??? Jews are indigenous to Israel, and they had the right to move and flee Europe just like millions of Arabs have fled to Europe to flee war imposed on them by fellow Arabs. The majority of Jews in Israel do not have European admixture but rather fled ethnic cleansing in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon etc in the 1930s - 1948+. Well if Arabs massacre Jews in the ME then you can't complain when they flee and try to make a safe home for themselves in mandatory Palestine given that it was mostly barren, they bought the majority of the land and the land that was taken was taken AFTER Arabs (not Palestinians, that is a political term for a group of people who were never a demographic unit until after it was convenient) started multiple wars against Israel. And lost.
Re the damage in Gaza, please educate yourself about urban warfare. John Spencer is the leading expert on that. Every military demolishes the buildings so there aren't 10000 sniper positions, and given how extensive Hamas tunnels were it's even more necessary. Civilians death is horrible but it's lower in Gaza than average for modern urban warfare. Praying that Palestinians force Hamas out so this can end and to keep their children safe.
Lol ok, "healer" 🙄 What a humane response to ethnic based violence. I can feel the Middle East healing already, thank you Tim! ✌️ 🕊️
Western Progressivism has done immense harm and the fundamental reason why was nailed decades ago by TS Eliot in this pithy quote: “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
While Progressive liberals have been indulging in nice, feel-good postures by valorising every ethnicity other than white European or Slavic, last Saturday we saw what - as you say - is the norm of human tribal warfare - the women get raped, brutalised (and often then killed), the men meanwhile just get quickly slaughtered. In 2020 the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war was made shockingly vivid Christina Lamb's 'Our Bodies Their Battlefield' which I reviewed here: https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/life-in-the-shadows-of-metoo. "Her stories of rape, torture and sadistic maiming on a massive scale are so horrific that you are left emotionally punch-drunk and numb before you reach the end of the first chapter. But as a permanent record of brutality inflicted on literally millions of women – of a kind beyond the capacity of most people even to imagine – it is an invaluable document."
You say you hope that Progressive liberals will wise up now. I hope so too but I'm not holding my breath.
A prog woman said ‘we can’t say our system is best. Each culture is equal to other cultures.’ We were discussing a court case where an Islamic African raped a ten year old boy at a public swimming pool. His excuse, accepted by the court was it was okay in his culture. Me: “Okay. You are halal. Are you good with that?” She didn’t know what that meant. I said ‘if a group of Islamic men raped you because you are a slut, would that be okay? Because a slut can be raped at will.’ She was insulted. She was not a slut. “Yes. You are. You wear yoga pants, your head is uncovered. You wear bikinis at the beach which show your body. To them you are a slut, and you can be raped. But it is their culture and if five of them held you captive and raped you for five days and the police sided with them because that is their culture would you shrug and say well ‘if it their culture I guess it is okay.’ Because all cultures are equal?” She reluctantly admitted that was not okay.
Yes, our late-20th century version of 'Liberalism' and 'Progress' has led the most foolish and gullible among us into some bizarre moral positions. I wrote about this in the latest essay on my STB: 'Are We Making Progress?' https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/are-we-making-progress
The word “justify” is key to the progressives. Unfortunately, what it REALLY means is: “I know what I’m doing is bad and wrong, but I’m going to do it because it will further a cause that I like.”
Aren’t those two statements the same thing, really? Lots of recent writings on the “dark triad traits” in a bunch of different Substacks...
There is a difference in scale. Subclinical levels of the same indifference to consequences might sometimes be socially useful but, if allowed to flourish, can create the nightmare we see today.
True. Without some level of indifference to consequences, the Wright brothers would’ve just stayed on the ground, Tesla (the guy, not the company) wouldn’t have innovated, and there could be no military...etc. And life would be a lot less exciting. 😉
Should we really be looking to T. S. Eliot for advice? This is also the guy who said he didn't want any Jews in his community: "The population should be homogeneous; where two or more cultures exist in the same place they are likely either to be fiercely self-conscious or both to become adulterate. What is still more important is unity of religious background; and reasons of race and religion combine to make any large number of free-thinking Jews undesirable."
I often think of a (very offensive) meme that captures the naive oikophobia of western progressives: https://imgur.io/WTsN68H?r
Recent events and the laptop class’s smug analysis has shaken me. Feminists, students, lgbt people, journalists etc who live in the safest, most prosperous, most free world humanity has ever known, casually cheering on barbarism as though the leopard would never eat their face... No exaggeration, I am shaken and disturbed. I waffle between “they really mean it!!!” and “they lead completely disembodied larp lives and they have no idea what they’re speaking into being”, not sure which is worse.
Any Peter Turchin fans here?
Utterly terrifying and sadly true. Luxury beliefs DO have consequences. We are seeing that in the streets. Of course immigrants are holding fast to their identity and religion. The West has all but abandoned theirs. We do nothing but disparage our own civilization not realizing that we are spitting on the very foundation that brought us the prosperity, comfort and peace that makes us the outlier in human history. I'm afraid that very dark days are ahead.
For the first time in my life I am personally frightened. I was told it would very safer if I took the mezzuah off my door. I will not.
Thought more about it. Mezzuah on outside where it belongs. No more hiding. Will fight this ignorance my way...through education and STANDING UP FOR ME/US.
Where are you based Cynthia?
Arizona,
My son who is in his 20s wears a Star of David on a neck chain. He was in Sweden in summer 2022 and a total stranger, another young man at a bar, came up to him and told him to hide it. That is wasn't safe in Sweden if he wore it out. One night with friends, he couldn't get into a club. In Brooklyn, he puts it under his shirt in certain neighborhoods. The risk of violence is high in many places. The current of antisemitism is strong, not as something to claim victim status about but as a fact.
I am not a Jew, but all that I could think watching this over the weekend is that we must ensure that the United States is a safe place for the Jews. As Americans, we cannot ensure that Israel or any other country will be safe for the Jews - we can try to influence things, we can send aid, we can take positions, but we cannot control it. But we can ensure that this country is safe, and we must. The fact that the cancer of antisemitism is resurgent in the US is deeply shameful, and the moral imperative to counter it is as great now as it has ever been.
Put it back on the outside....I am old but I can still fight for freedom.
Mine is now on the inside also. Springs actions are frightening.
I meant Spain...sorry.
Thank you for saying this. And for saying the quiet part as well: many more men than women usually die. And they are also tortured and maimed. Not just women. And this is absolutely normal, historically.
But it is also normal that we (including the men) care more about the women and children than the men. Attacking women and children has always been one of the best ways to punish an enemy, or to get men to fight and die.
It never ceases to amaze me that so many people fail to understand the irony of publicly denouncing the western values that are the only reason they even have a platform on which to denounce anything.
Four Lions is so good on this. The terrorists flip-flop between screaming about the evils of the decadent west and idle chit-chat which reveals how much they love about British culture.
Good article but I wish it wasn't
My God I’ve been hammered by these events. And it’s super rare that a war or events overseas will hit me this hard. If the disgusting barbarism of Hamas wasn’t bad enough what utterly sickens me Is people in western countries actively celebrating the rape slaughter etc of Jews, shouting anti semantic slogans etc, as you say exploiting the very civil liberties given to them by western civilisation.
I sincerely hope if anything good comes out of this, it’ll be a HUGE wake up call to progressives especially and everyone in the west. If we can’t hold our own this is the barbarism that will take hold...
Was agreeing with my husband last night that this is the most distressing news event of our lifetimes, much more distressing than 9/11
I was 11 years old when 9/11 happened. I didn't have a TV so I never saw footage, but I heard what had happened from friends. And then I remember all the people who celebrated it as they changed for death to America, and I couldn't understand why anyone would celebrate such acts (whatever their view of American foreign policy). The events of the weekend were so much more distressing. This time, as an adult, when I see the protests, I understand what is going on and it's so much worse than I could have imagined aged 11.
Louise, I have followed your work for a long time as you know. I think this is the most important article of yours that I have ever read, albeit depressing and horrifying.
Thank you Zahira
On Suella Braverman's comment that multiculturalism is a failed experiment - I believe it's an experiment nobody has ever tried to make work.
Yes, I'm aware that this hot take resembles the tankie line that "real socialism has never been tried", but let me explain. Progressives have never bothered to improve integration, because they are blind to the problems, or believe that wishful thinking alone will resolve them. But I reserve my greater ire for conservatives, who are fully aware of the problem and yet also make no attempt to solve it, instead seeking to exploit the situation by egging on the tensions in order to drive public opinion against immigration altogether. In between, there are staggeringly few people trying to tie these communities together. Even basic things like free English lessons would go a long way.
Muslims *can* integrate; surely Sadiq Khan and Humza Yousaf are proof enough of that. It's just a case of getting this to work more widely. You might be sceptical that the government can persuade millions of people to change their behaviour, but they successfully managed to get us to stay indoors for the best part of a year (and even, rather creepily, to rat out our noncompliant neighbours), surely getting people to learn some basic English would be a breeze by comparison, if only the will were there.
"I reserve my greater ire for conservatives, who are fully aware of the problem and yet also make no attempt to solve it, instead seeking to exploit the situation by egging on the tensions in order to drive public opinion against immigration altogether."
Many Tories, including Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak support substantial levels of "legal" migraton. And net migration is higher under the Tories than under New Labour.
"Even basic things like free English lessons would go a long way."
Shamima Begum - and many other home-grown Islamists - have perfectly good English.
I fear the question of Muslim integration might be rather more difficult than you suggest.
This is why I deliberately used "conservatives" with a small c. I'm not talking about the Conservative Party here (although Tories have the different problem of their rhetoric being totally out-of-kilter with their actions on immigration, in a way that satisfies neither the progressives who hate the rhetoric, nor the small-c conservatives who hate the fact that immigration continues despite the rhetoric).
Thanks for clarifying.
"I reserve my greater ire for conservatives, who are fully aware of the problem and yet also make no attempt to solve it."
Given that it's ultimately the government that will have "to solve it" (and given, also, your mention of Suella Braverman), I assumed the by "conservatives" you meant the Tory party!
As I said previously, I think solving it will be rather more difficult that you suggest.
> Muslims *can* integrate; surely Sadiq Khan and Humza Yousaf are proof enough of that.
For some values of "integrate". Those two are still trying to destroy the UK, they're just doing it using its own institutions.
Well I suppose that, being a Scottish nationalist, Humza Yousaf literally is trying to destroy the UK, but fortunately he's pretty rubbish at it, and I don't think Scottish independence has ever looked further away since 2014 than it does right now.
I'm not talking about Scottish independence. I'm talking about his support for quasi-totalitarian anti-free speech laws.
Come now. I also think it's absurd for the police to be arresting people for tweets, but I wouldn't call support for such measures "destroying the UK".
Well, firstly the reason he wants to arrest people for tweets is so he can arrest people who complain about further steps he takes to destroy the UK, e.g., the Muslim grooming gangs.
But on a deeper level, what used to be called "the rights of Englishmen" is one of the main things that made the UK what it is.
Thanks for all the (many, many) 'likes' Eugine....but isn't it time you subscribed!
I would. Free speech is the bedrock of all rights. Get rid of that and society falls. Quickly.
Class though.
I realise i sound like an unreconstructed Marxist. But it's class. Upper class x gets along fine with upper class y, in whatever upper class enclave they find themselves in.
I've no theories as to why.
Maybe it's simply upper class manners.
1) Sadiq Khan is the son of a bus driver, is he really upper-class?
2) Why do lower-class people not get on with each other? Where's the (also sounding like a Marxist here) solidarity?
"Even basic things like free English lessons would go a long way."
Free Swedish lessons has really worked out great for Sweden has it?
Mixing more with these groups just exposes your group to the problems they cause more.
Canada has done a lot with integration. Toronto is an amazingly diverse city. I lived in a fairly South East Asian suburb of a city near Toronto and rented a basement from a Pakistani family. One daughter wore traditional dress and another dressed like a typical Canadian teenager. I saw young boys playing street hockey, as I had. This moment of mass immigration has not been planned for. Climate change supporters have indicated this would happen for decades. Militaries have been planning for it. Civil institutions have not. There has been ethnic conflict here recently. However, the troubles were only put to rest in the 90s, so I wouldn't claim any high ground for my ethnicities.
This has nothing to do with climate change. Go around the world and find me a place that has benefited richly by diversity. You won’t find it. The restaurants are better. And some multi ethnicity seems to bring good results. But beyond say 20%? No. And I can’t think of anywhere where lots of Islamic immigration has been good. Or African. And Toronto is not doing well. It is a hole.
Do you see a connection with the displacement of populations due to environmental collapse, e.g. rising costal tides, and immigration?
Rising water levels? You think 1/2” over 13 years has caused 8 million people to crash the US border!! You can’t be serious.
Sadly leftists really will believe these absurdities.
To what do you attribute the rise in immigration rates?
Weak leadership. Everywhere. Third world despots always have millions wanting to leave. Justin letting in 100,000 a month! Biden letting in 250,000 a month. Massive deficit spending by all Western nations. Merkel for some unknown reason wanting to destroy Europe. Which she did. Silly leftists, such as yourself...no offense, as I am assuming you are young and naive...not being raised properly. By that I mean an entire generation of kids who have never solved a problem on their own. If they had they would be more cautious. But Mommy took care of it. So they can’t foresee issues and consequences arising. 2-3mm a year in sea level rises is NOT an issue.
Focusing on the issue then, you are stating that despots are forcing people to leave their countries and that is why there are so many people trying to make it and, as you enumerate, sometimes making it across the borders?
No. Despots always have millions living under them that want to leave. Always. Nothing has changed other than Merkel, Macron, Biden, Trudeau have all said ‘everyone can come and we will
Give you tons of free stuff’.
Now, in defense of the various attributes you have assigned to my character, I am sending you this playlist. Left and Right are not what you have been told. If you can find the lyrics to these songs, you may be able to start questioning the people who have given you your talking points (I'm assuming they are from somewhere other than various internet forums). Furthermore, if Mum has solved all my problems, she has my deepest gratitude:
Tax Man - Revolver
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xYCntCKHy6I&si=4J5LQAWgsnTYey_R
Revolution 1 - The Beatles (White Album)
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OmsXsIv2Ppw&si=nhGGhY1OGJK6WFyK
Let it Be - Let it Be
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=AbNFLI720_U&si=2TsloELmotZ0ae-0
No one gives me talking points.
Your first reply suggested problems with the American border. 8 million people looking for refuge. I am considering your point in regards to Canada, Germany, and France. However, the US border has become far stricter in the last decade. A partially constructed border wall, trial man-sized skill saw bladed floating walls, and an ICE detention center performing an hysterectomy on a women against her will are three examples of the changes I have heard tell of. Your perpetual huddled masses theory does not make sense in an American context. If there are always millions living under despots that want to flee, then there should be far fewer refugees now than in the 80s and 90s. I'm not certain about the European context. I know almost nothing about Europe. I can report that there have been news stories of some immigrants leaving Canada for the United States in the past year. However, the number of people seeking residence in Canada is small in comparison to the United States. As well, our geographic boundaries would make the despot theory mostly unmeasurable. The Tamil refugees are a good example that supports your theory. They braved an ocean journey with no sure sense of their acceptance here before they left. However, those cases are still an exception in the Great White North.
Thank you for this Louise. Whenever my mind rages against progressives a picture of you enters it and I am reminded that good-hearted people can have bad ideas instilled in them by evil professors in cloistered universities. So I thank you for that. Decades ago I served in the United States Army Ranger Regiment and visited places such as Israel, Jordan, Egypt and others in the Middle East and saw firsthand what these immigrants are capable of and what they bring to the table. I won't soften that statement. Once people's bellies are full they fall back on the ideologies of their childhood and the socialization of their upbringing. I thought England would have learned its lesson after the bombings the stabbings and the systematic rape and torture of its young girls but unfortunately it isn't until the laptop class feel the knife at their throat and perhaps not even then that they will see the light. I'm afraid it's coming. God help us all.
Thank you Louise. Still can't comprehend the so called feminists, human rights activists, and journalists could justify all these evils. The humanists have lost their humanity.
To be fair, most woke folk are horrified by recent events and struggling with their cognitive dissonance. Very few are seeking to defend the actions of Hamas. Even Jeremy Corbyn felt compelled to utter platitudes about peace in the Middle East rather than applauding the brave freedom fighters in their struggle or whatever else he might have been expected to say.
Meh
My jaw hit the floor at the last paragraph. This is a truly fantastic article. I would argue tho, instead of the sentiment “it could happen here” I think it’s already happened/happening here. In a micro way. I read Ayan Hirsi Ali’s book “Prey” and I see direct parallels
The term ‘decolonisation’ is used as if it might explain the violence. The violence we’re seeing in Israel has nothing to do with decolonisation. That’s a disingenuous excuse. The ethnic violence we’re seeing is the direct result of envy, hatred, ignorance & religion. That envy, hatred etc. has led to an occurrence in my Australia that I never could have contemplated as possible; gangs of ill educated, hate filled youth screaming “gas the Jews”.
> we’re seeing is the direct result of envy, hatred, ignorance
But that is precisely what "decolonization" means. The "colonized" are envious of the "colonizer's" ability to build and maintain a prosperous society, and that leads to hatred.
I can remember before the Manchester concert bombing, feeling that that sort of thing could never happen here. As you say, we are not outside history. Michel Houellebecq is, if you can take his style, good on this.