ANTI-AMERICANISM

There is a sad article here by Carol Gould -- an American Jewish lady -- which outlines her experiences in London. I will not try to excerpt it. I think most people need to read it in full. She describes the hate that is nowadays often poured out at Americans and Jews in both Britain and Europe. I think what she describes needs to be placed in context, however, and I will try to do that. For a start, Australians often get pretty contemptuous treatment in Britain too -- and it is not new -- they always have got that. And that angers many Australians. What outsiders usually fail to realize, however, is that the British are even more mocking of other Britishers. Compared to how a middle-class Englishman from the Southeast regards Scots and anyone born North of Watford, Australians are in fact fairly well accepted. And don't even mention what Yorkshiremen think of Lancastrians! Englishmen are strongly prejudiced against other Englishmen too.

The way to deal with British prejudice against anyone outside their own circle is to return the compliment. When I am in London, I give as good as I get and that does usually defuse the prejudice. For instance, it is (or was) not uncommon for the English to make disparaging remarks about Australian wine. I reply to that as follows: "Australians are like the French. They make a lot of wine and most of it is pretty rough. And the stuff that is too rough even for them to drink they sell to the English". That always wins the bout! And another old one: "I hear that Australians are all latent homosexuals". Reply: "No. That's just a rumour put about by Australia House to attract all the English immigrants". So that is normal English prejudice and how to deal with it: Return fire!

But anti-Americanism involves something else as well: Politics -- Leftist politics in particular. And from the French revolution onwards, Leftists everywhere have always been a violent and aggressive lot. Just read the various accounts in the news (e.g. here) about various GOP offices being invaded and vandalized in the USA right now. And many American Leftists are not just anti-GOP. They are anti-American as well. Read here if you doubt it. So if Leftists in America are violently anti-American, should we be surprised to find that British Leftists are too? And Britain (unlike Australia) is undoubtedly much more Leftist than America. It was only Margaret Thatcher who put a stop to their decades of insane socialism, with the government running half of Britain's businesses. And since Carol Gould is part of the "Arts & Entertainment" world, which is violently anti-American everywhere (do I need to mention Hollywood?), she obviously was meeting Leftists all the time. And the poor soul was identifiable as part of the enemy group by her accent.

So Carol Gould had three strikes against her: She was an identifiable outsider to anyone in Britain. She stood out as a member of the "enemy" to anyone who was a Leftist. And she was a Jew. No wonder she had a hard time! Her comments about antisemitism are a bit misleading, however. She says: "England, sadly, has the distinction of being the very first country to expel its Jews". What she is referring to happened in 1290! Yes. 1290, not 1920. In more recent times, however, Britain has been a refuge from persecution for Jews who could make it to there. And Britain's Fascist leader in the lead-up to World War II used to EXPEL from the British Union of Fascists anybody who made antisemitic remarks! I kid you not. But although Britain is less antisemitic than Europe, antisemitism does exist there and presumably always will. Jews have always been the scapegoat for stupid people who do not understand what is going on.

So Britain does have a vocal anti-American Left -- particularly among the intelligentsia -- but to regard them as representing the whole of Britain would be naive.

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ELSEWHERE

Some pungent reflections on the Australian Left sent in by a reader here.

A good comment from another Australian reader: "Howard's success is partly due to his policies but also to his ongoing reliability and predictability. Whether or not you like him, most Australians could predict what he will do in any given situation, which is a lot more than could be said for Latham. To me, predictability is a major theme in successful conservative politicians and in Conservatism, and to a large degree comes from the shared values so missing amongst the
Utopians".

Interesting: John Kerry's surname is an adopted one. He has no Irish in him at all. The Irish in me is glad of that! John Kerry's ancestral surname was "Kohn" (the German version of "Cohen"). In Leftist parlance, I think that makes Kerry a "neocon"!

The best poll of all: "Standing above today's proliferation of competing and contradictory political polls, there's only one type of poll that can claim near-perfect reliability going all the way back to 1884. It's probably one you aren't even looking at. And it's declaring George W. Bush the winner. The type of poll I'm talking about isn't the usual public-opinion survey. It's organized betting on the election. To participate in such a poll, you have to be willing to put your money where your mouth is".

There is an article here which foresees an imminent takeover of the U.S. Democratic party by the far-Left. I look forward to it. They won't win elections that way -- as Australia's recent example showed.

A comprehensive report of a recent "anti-war" conference here. Excerpt: "This convention was a fine Orwellian display, complete with doublespeak, ritualized hatred, and the policing of "thought crimes." All who disagreed openly were barred from the radical teach-in at the public school. I was only there because I went in "under cover."... These people want America destroyed, and are not shy about it."

Some Norwegians think the Nobel Peace Prize committee have shot themselves in the foot by awarding it for tree-planting. They think it makes the prize ridiculous. I myself think it has long ago been rendered ridiculous by giving it Yasser Arafat and other murderers. If it really were awarded for promoting peace, John Howard should have got it for liberating East Timor.

I liked this post from Roger Simon: "Bring back Lord Haw-Haw. That crypto-fascist propaganda machine known as the BBC splatters a headline this morning "Israelis force down Lufthansa jet," writing as if Israel were being war-like in requiring a plane from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv to land in Cyprus for inspection after a telephoned bomb threat. I wonder what the once-mighty Beeb would have said if the plane had exploded. The entire article is scandalous propaganda indeed worthy of Lord Haw-Haw". ["Lord Haw Haw" was of course the Irishman whom Hitler used to broadcast wartime propaganda to Britain.]

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH and SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftism is for most Leftists a desire to sound good rather than a desire to do good

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