Demonization of Muslims

April 26, 2024Hate, Right-wing Extremismmeanderer007

As Justin Ling the host of the CBC series Flamethrowers said, “The demonization of Muslims became a sport. One that would ensnare millions of Americans. And it was disgusting.”As one visitor to right-wing radio said, “The Moslems are fighting the Jews. The Moslems are fighting the Christians. The Moslems are fighting the Hindus. The Moslems are fighting the Buddhists. They’re slaughtering the blacks. Even the Moslem blacks in African Darfur. Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, wherever you want.”

The right-wing radio talk-show host made his point of view, and that of the right-wing in America when he commented to that: “well they certainly are adept at slaughter, I give you that.”

fter the 9/11 attack the right-wing attacks against Muslims escalated exponentially. As Ling said, “Every week brought a new terror alert. George W. Bush led the invasion of Afghanistan, launching the war on terror. And conservative radio is on it.”

The 9/11 incident electrified the American right. They had a new Satan to replace the presumably vanquished Soviet Russian Satan. The Muslims were the new Satan. it was time to unleash the hate, and American right-wing talk radio was up to the tast.

Glenn Beck and the Gospel of Hate

April 24, 2024Hate, Right-wing Extremismmeanderer007

Following on the heels of Rush Limbaugh in the annals of right-wing talk radio in America, was Glenn Beck. In fact, Limbaugh took “credit” for Glenn Beck. “Glenn Beck is a result of my success,” claimed Limbaugh And he might be right.

The September 11, 01 attack on America by Al Qaeda followed a couple of years later in 203 by an American led invasion of Iraq, together, supercharged the right-wing in America. They had a new enemy for their gospel of hate. And the pundits of right-wing talk radio were in heaven. George W. Bush pushed the war as a “just war” to destroy weapons of mass destruction and to prevent another attack on America. He said that, and Americans believed it, despite the fact that Iraq had no such weapons and the United States had more of such weapons than the rest of the world combined. Only America and a select few other countries, has the right to such weapons. Everyone else’s use of them is somehow illegitimate.

Paranoia like that which has engulfed the United States leads to such magisterial leaps in logic. And the American right wing feasted on such claims. They saw American acting in rightful defense from attack by a dangerous other. A follower of Satan. It was a battle of civilizations and religions against each other. The Americans also believed naively that the people of Iraq would immediately drop their weapons and turn on their own leaders as soon as they caught a glimpse of the righteous leaders of America.

As Glenn Beck, one right wing commentator said, “I truly believe that these Mullahs are far worse than Hitler. Hitler was crazy evil. I believe these guys are biblically evil.” He also said, Nancy Pelosi and her acolytes want us to lose in Iraq. They want there to be chaos in Afghanistan. They want this. They’re rooting against their own country.”

The Dixie Chicks (later called “the Chicks”), until then were one of the most successful bands in America but when their leader said they were “disappointed in the president of the United States,” they were cancelled around the country. Radio stations across the country banned their music. Some radio stations hired steam rollers to crush their CDs. Some set up fires to burn their CDs and they became a favoured villain on American talk radio. All that for saying they were disappointed in their president!

Yet thousands of people also protested against the war on terror launched by George W. Bush. Glenn Beck organized a rally against those who opposed the war and their perceived “liberal” allies. He called these “rallies for America” and dozens were held across the country. Beck said Americans should pay more attention to the torture chambers organized by Iraq then spending so much time criticizing the American president. The rallies were huge in many America cities. There were more than 100 such events in America and Canada. Thousands of people waved little America flags. One of them at one of these rallies had a tattoo of the twin towers burned across his entire back.

The devoted followers of American right-wing extremists were ecstatic. They had a new enemy to replace the evil communists who had been successfully defeated, only of course to rise again in the form of right-wing populists or right-wing dictators.

Rush Limbaugh: The Father of Hate Radio

April 23, 2024Hate, Right-wing Extremismmeanderer007

In his State of the Union address in February 2020 Donald Trump introduced a man he called “Beloved by millions of Americans, the greatest fighter and winner you’ll ever meet.” That is a pretty big endorsement from the President of the United States.

That man was Rush Limbaugh. He awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Republicans in the Congress that day jumped up for joy. The Democrats were horrified. To Republicans, he was one of theirs. He was one of their heroes and he was being rewarded by their President. But who was Rush Limbaugh?

Limbaugh was the guy who helped propel Donald Trump to the US presidency. According to Justin Ling in his CBC podcast on Right-wing radio in the US, Limbaugh was the guy whose followers stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in part due to conditioning from Limbaugh.

Here is something Limbaugh said, “If any race should not have any guilt about slavery its Caucasians.”

Or this, “How many of you guys with your own experience with women, know that that ‘No” means ‘Yes” if you know how to spot it?”

According to Ling, “He is the guy who made the modern Conservative movement into what it is.” His great talent was to supercharge hate. Sort of like modern owners of social media. Both knew that hate sells.

The moment Limbaugh was crowned, according to Ling, was “the moment right-wing politics cemented its central role in American politic. And the role was the production of hate. Right-wing radio shows were hate farms!

Hateful Words Matter

April 21, 2024Domestic Terrorism, Hate, Right-wing Extremismmeanderer007

William Cooper, another frequent right-wing radio speaker or host, later that year after the bombing in Oklahoma said Timothy McVey had attended his offices seeking help, which he said he would not give. He did not care what they did, but he would not support them. He talked about how two people who looked like McVey and his partner Terry Nichols had vaguely tipped him off and gave his people a copy of The Turner Diaries which, among other things, talked about committing acts of violence to start a race war! This became a familiar trope among the far-right.

The FBI found a copy of that book inside McVey’s Ryder van. Added to that, as Justin Ling said on his CBC podcast about right-wing radio,

It is clear that Cooper did influence McVey and despite his insistence that he does not support violence and terrorism, he literally spent years calling his listeners cowards for not doing anything about Waco. And then one of his listeners did exactly what he was telling them to do!

One thing is clear from all of this: words matter. Particularly, hateful words have consequences, especially when they are frequently repeated to resentful people with grievances.

Many years later, Donald Trump learned valuable lessons from such right-wing commentators. He too was able to fire up his supporters. Bigly!

Nature is Stupendous

April 20, 20242024 Trip to South West United States, Religious Quest in the Modern Agemeanderer007

For a number of reasons, I did not take very many photos this year in Arizona. I was bedevilled by problems with my camera, my knee, and most importantly my brain. But I did take a couple. I will try to show you some of them, especially as I contemplate seeking to walk beautifully in the world as Professor Moriarity enjoioned us.

As he sought walk beautifully in nature , Professor John Moriarty wanted humans to be like God.

It was if, God on the 6th day of creation, were to say
out there, nature is stupendous. Stupendous in its waterfalls, stupendous in its glaciers, stupendous in its storms, stupendous in its silences, stupendous in little things, stupendous in daisies, stupendous in little snow drops, stupendous in cow’s calving, go out there in the great places and small places because small places are also stupendous, allow yourself to be whelmed and overwhelmed by nature. Allow yourself to be even terrified by it.

Parts of nature are too great for the human mind. We should never try to rule it or dominate it. If you are over awed by nature your attitude to nature won’t be one of dominance over it. As Moriarty said, “now it behooves us not to be a carrier of those ideas of the universe.”

Original Sin

April 19, 20242018 Trip to Southwest USA, New Attitude to Nature, Religious Quest in the Modern Agemeanderer007

According to Professor John Moriarty, my guide on this particular meander, things went wrong right at very beginning with the first chapter of Genesis. In chapter 1 verses 26 and 28 where God is saying “let us make man in our image and likeness where God gives man a divine mandate to rule over the earth, to subdue it, and have dominion over it.”

It followed directly from that the world was created by God for “man’s use and benefit.” Moriarty compared this to saying the earth, which is a jewel hanging in space, is more like a sink or a toilet bowl—i.e. for the use and benefit of humans.

I would characterize this as the original sin. Right from the start, Moriarty says, “our attitude to the earth was all wrong.”

In Job, God withdraws the commands to rule the earth. There in Job he says man cannot and will not haver dominion over the behemoth. Jesus was “Grand Canyon deep in the world’s karma,” according to Moriarty. So it is not a bad thing that many are in religious collision with his holy book. This is as it should be.

Moriarty asks if one can be “not rebelliously but religiously, in collision with the Holy Book?” Is that even possible? He says Man must resist that command. Just as if a man was commanded to have dominion over his wife, and the wife must refuse, so many must refuse the command to rule the earth. If God said to man rule over that dog, the dog could not manifest his nature to man. So too with the world.

As a result, Moriarty rejects this early commandment of God. That is a bold move. Instead, Moriarty seeks to walk beautifully over the earth. That is Professor Moriarty’s religious quest.

Seeking to Walk Beautifully on the Earth : A Surreal Meandering Adventure of the Mind

April 17, 2024New Attitude to Naturemeanderer007

John Moriarty, was lecturer I encountered briefly, in 1967-68 at the University of Manitoba where he taught English literature and I was a humble but eager freshman student trying to soak up as much knowledge as I could. It was an incredible experience being lifted from a small town to what I thought was the intellectual centre of the universe.

I have posted about him once in the past so this post is a bit repetitive because it has taken me a long time to meander back to it. That is how meandering works. Slowly.

After that year I never saw him again. I lost complete track of him. I didn’t know what he had done after that year. Did he return to Ireland? Did he get to teach at another Canadian or American university? I did not know.

Moriarty had been a beloved Professor by many students, even those, like me, who never took an actual course or class with him, but just heard him lecture a few times.

Since then, thanks to the Internet I have learned that Professor Moriarty died in 2007. Thankfully, some fans recorded a lecture he gave a couple of years before he died, and posted with it one photograph on YouTube. Listening to the talk brought me back to 1967. This was a remarkable experience.

I was astonished when I listened to it, that the good Professor had been absorbed with some of the same issues that have been tugging at me for years now, mainly around the subject of the necessity for a new attitude to nature and what indigenous people of North America can teach us about that. That was precisely his search. He said, at the end, it was a search for the Navajo Cradle.

I want to blog about some of the things he talked about in his lecture and add my own comments to them for what those comments are worth.

For me this has been an experience of delight. He called his lecture, learning to walk seeking to walk beautifully on the earth. What a great idea.

That epitomizes what I have beeb talking about more prosaically as new attitude to nature.

The Meanderer

The opinions and photos of John E. Neufeld as he meanders through life