A lot of my friends are not racist. It’s not like they’re antisemites or something. They just hate Muslims. And refugees — from “those kind” of countries. And rightly so. Refugees represent a threat to their safety and security. After all, the few Canadian terrorists there have been have all been born in Canada. They’ve not been refugees. So, let’s not help get that ball rolling. Best to keep our terror homegrown and let foreign children drown, starve and get sold into slavery. Or better yet, get picked up by ISIS/ISIL, al-Shabab, or some other radical asymmetrical warfare group that will mold them into a real threat.
And seeing as so many of them love to show their support for things by splashing colour overlays on their profile pics (ex: French flag, Pride flag, Pink October), I thought I could help them out. This profile pic could clear up any wrong impressions people may get about them from their posts and comments. But perhaps I should make a translucent version as well.
In the months preceding the Canadian federal election I began to see this growing trend of “acceptable prejudice” from many friends and friends of friends on Facebook. That typical Facebook World of people you know, people you knew and people you never will. But, of course, that was Stephen Harper’s election plan after all — divide and conquer. That’s why he hired the detestable and despicable Lynton Crosby to be his Campaign Manager of Propaganda & Fear. And it worked. Because it seems most people have very little capacity for independent critical thought. What I saw, day in and day out, was quite saddening. People, they really are the masses.
All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.
I have a very low tolerance for intolerance, so most of my Facebook posts for the better part of 2015 were anti-Harper posts. And it got tiring. And heated. And somehow, Islamic cultural attire became the most important campaign issue facing the nation. I was honestly surprised at how many people are so vehemently anti-Muslim. And that this overtly racist sentiment (absolutely no different than antisemitism) is apparently quite acceptable to a great majority of people. Of Canadians. The idiotic fake driver’s license of a burka-covered face was quickly shared by an astounding number of people. Without even questioning its prejudice, let alone giving a half-second thought to its veracity.
By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.
I got into more than a few debates, dialogues and arguments with friends and strangers. And I realized — it’s not worth it. So in late September I decided that after the October 19th election I’d pack up my virtual Facebook bags and take a break. A two-week vacation, in fact. Two weeks from actual Facebook time that is. And I figured that if I spend an hour a day on Facebook that amounts to 365 hours a year. And that equals 15 days — or about two weeks. So on October 21st, with a very brief post simply asking people to get hold of me via email, phone or some other avenue, I stopped visiting Facebook.
And it’s been bliss.
However, after seeing news of the attacks in Paris I logged into Facebook to check on my friends who live there. I was relieved to see both are fine. (One of their friends was actually at the Bataclan. Thankfully, she made it out okay. Physically.) I then made the mistake of glancing at my newsfeed. I saw a friend of mine, his profile pic overlayed with the French flag, had a status asking people not to spread the hate because, obviously, all Muslims are not evil terrorists. The reply from a friend was as swift and seething as it was ignorant. But this, this is now par for the course in Canada. In the West. This is blatant, vocal racism is acceptable to a great many people. And there is apparently no shame in it. It even got “likes”.
I had only to scroll down one small flick of my finger to see another post of a similar vein. But this one, she was blaming the refugees! The people running away from the chaos! Her thoughts and prayers were with the people of Paris, but not with the millions of people displaced by war outside the French capital. Heartwarming. And, of course, she had people immediately support her call to close the gates and fuck ’em all.
Anyways, two ignorant posts were more than enough. I had confirmed my friends were safe and that was my reason for being there. It was time to quietly duck back out before I had another friend warn me about evil refugees and fucking jihadis. Maybe they don’t know The Forgotten Rebels were being sarcastic when they sang Bomb The Boats.
For some reason, those Facebook Call To Action (FCTA) “poster quotes” that people put up on their Facebook walls bother me. I guess it’s because they are the Bumper Sticker of the Internet Age and represent, to me at least, the dumbing down of humankind.
Sometimes they offer a warning, such as margarine being only one molecule removed from plastic (which is unequivocally false). Other times they dare you to re-post the FCTA on your own wall: “I doubt any of my friends have the courage to put this Stop Animal Cruelty message on their wall”. Does that take courage? Who is for animal cruelty? Posting a “Pro Animal Cruelty” on your wall would take a lot more balls, actually. And other times, there is no actual Call To Action, per se, just some information for you. That is false. Or an “unbelievable” photograph. That is Photoshopped. The thing they all have in common is that, if not outright lies, they give such a sliver of truth they should be considered as such. If you have enough time to post it, you have enough time to verify it on Snopes.
The FCTA making the rounds today is by FCKH8.com. It highlights a quote from last year’s anti-bullying speech gay rights activist and writer Dan Savage gave to a high school that caused some controversy (mostly at Fox News). And just to clarify things right from the start, I am not supporting bullying or hate. Nor am I a Christian. This is just a very misleading, reductionist statement, even if its overall sentiment is of merit.
Firstly, the bible says in quite clear and direct language “don’t own slaves”. At least twice. A fact that this FCTA not only ignores, but outright and knowingly lies about. If he knows about the Epistle of Philemon, he is most likely aware of the more significant Book of Deuteronomy. I’d never heard of either until I did a quick web search five minutes ago.
If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master. Let him live among you wherever he likes and in whatever town he chooses. Do not oppress him. – Deuteronomy 23-15
Secondly, Murder is arguably “the easiest moral question” of all time, not slavery, and that’s in the bible’s Top Ten List of how to live.
Thirdly, the bible was written 1500 years before the Theory of Gravity and claims a guy parted a sea that is a half-kilometer deep using telekinesis. Take it with a grain of salt. Is that one passage, “the shortest book in the New Testament”, the best argument you can make against using The Bible as justification for bullying?
Furthermore, Booker T. Washington was a Christian and it’s fair to say he was not pro-slavery.
I think we humans are capable of making new laws based on our current situations. Just as the US Constitution was written 3 centuries ago by men with single-shot muskets and swords, we don’t require thousand-year-old texts to tell us how to live.
Lazysupper 