The Evil European

What do we believe and more importantly, why do we believe it?

Nosemonkey down at Europhobia posted a letter that he sent to the satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’. He was responding to an article about the EU. In that article, the director of something called the ‘The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre’. This centre turns out to be one guy and a blog.

Now, there is nothing wrong with one guy and a blog. Some very serious work is done by bloggers. However, this particular ‘centre’ appears aint one of them. Nosemonkey does know what he is talking about. He has knowledge, he has ‘credibility’.

The second article I read was regarding the ‘50 cents army’. These are employed by the Chinese government to post pro-government, for want of a better word, propaganda to message boards. This has been done mainly in Chinese, though English language message boards have also been hit, namely during the Olympics. Popular opinion can not always be seen as being a credible reflection of peoples feeling in this case (I will talk about this in another blog…being popular dont make you right!).

Both examples focus on two aspects of credibility in discussions, be it knowledge or popular opinion. With the shift from dead tree media to on line, these discussions are becoming more common, but how do we believe what is being said to true, be it from ‘centres’ or popular sentiment?

Credibility can be built up over a long period of time, by having a physical presence within a known community. However, that is not always practice, or even safe, and can result in very closed discussion between the usual suspects.

Its an issue that is going to become of increased importance.

And to be weak is strong.

The powerful always look to being seen as weak or victims to justify their actions, while seeking to portray those in weakness as being powerful.

"As ever, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little doubt as to who is the real victim. The resort to military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood, self-pity and self-righteousness."
Israeli War: Eye for an eye? The eye is for an eyelash

As is always the case with this particular conflict I have to make a number of statements.
I am not anti-Semitic, I am not a member of Hamas, I am not a mooslim terrorist and evil dooer, I believe that Israel has the right to exist and be a free and peaceful land, I am not a Nazi etc.

The fact is that what happened to the Jews plays a very strong role in my world view. As a child I learnt about the plight of the Jews over the centuries and the Holocaust. I studies and Anne Frank and ending up cry when I finally visited her house in Amsterdam. The persecution of people for who they are is wrong. The abuse of state power is wrong. Discrimination and bigotry is wrong. These tenets form a core of my being (I'm not very good with words but I am sure you get the drift).

That is why I believe what is going on in the Gaza strip and West Bank is wrong.

I also be live in creating a better future. Recent discussions about Gaza always bring up the past, the persecution of the Jews, how the early state of Israel was nearly wiped out. To build a future you need to know about the past, but not live in it.

If Israel is going to have a future, it has to deal with not just its own past, but the past of those living in Gaza and the West Bank, and in doing so, acknowledging the injustices that have lead to the present. Then maybe everyone can look to the future.

New year, resolutions, all that shit will not be discussed here.

I have discovered World of Warcraft, which is fun, finding getting a job is harder than I thought it would be, and starting to reconcile having a PhD means I am not stupid, though I am very aware of the limits of what I know.

I have been posting a huge amount on my Facebook profile and have discovered a side of people I would not normally see (or want to see). Everyone seems to be closet Daily Mail readers....or maybe I am just very intolerant.

I have discovered that any criticism of the USA automatically makes me anti-American, while the same criticism of any other country brings no response.

I have also discovered a casual racism exists against the evil mooslims which is no real surprise but it comes from people I would have expected more from.....this is in real life and Facebook.

The problem with services like Facebook is that they are very shallow in terms of interactions. You cannot get across any subtlety, which can lead to misinterpretation and confusion on both sides.

I have also discovered I love White Russians.