“You Muslims must die!”

Wadea Al-Fayoume a 6 year old Palestinian American boy was just stabbed to death in Illinois by his landlord shouting these words. His mom Hanaan was stabbed as well and in critical condition.

Link

  • GarbageShoot [he/him]
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    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Think about it critically: How often is someone murdered in the USA specifically for being Irish? Even though they were once a wildly minoritized group, only a few steps in standing above the demonizing black people faced at certain points in history, and to this day lots of stereotypes that would suggest the Irish being thought of as alcoholic, violent untermenschen get tossed around casually, and yet today throughout the country you would need to search and search to find anywhere that someone would encounter actual violence, let alone be murdered for simply looking Irish, especially a child. Could you find literally one or two alcoves? I assume so, it's a big country with many cults and similar social formations, but that is nothing, nothing compared to the institution of Islamophobia (or anti-black racism) in this country.

    Murderous racism does not simply spring from the Earth fully-formed. It is cultivated, groomed, and endlessly reproduced by segments of the powers that be for specific social purposes. Treating it as simply something that happens due to random chance and the moral failings of individuals is a product of the liberal refusal to consider systemic solutions to problems.

    • dmonzel@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Yeesh. All I meant was that you can't blame all of this on the media, and that even if by some miracle, all media stopped with their panicky bullshit, there would still be a good contingent of racist fuckwads who would continue to carry out violent acts.

      I'm not saying we shouldn't try making progress, I'm just saying there's more to it than one point of radicalization.

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]
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        1 year ago

        You are still avoiding the question: "Where does racism come from?" Does it just emerge in the souls of Bad People from no previous source, or is it transmitted? Where is it transmitted from?

        Racism as we see it is a symptom of the imperialist social order, not a primary mover. There is no reason to believe that if we overturned that social order and made deliberate effort to root out the reactionary warping it has inflicted on the minds of useful idiots, that we would see incidents like this beyond the highest level of freak deviation from the norm, rather than the mere spike that the event in the OP represents. The world can be better, humanity can be better, but it requires looking more closely at what is currently making them worse.

        • dmonzel@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Racism is a learned behavior, and there isn't one single source. This is what I have indicated multiple times. I'm unsure as to how this has become an argument.

          • GarbageShoot [he/him]
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            1 year ago

            How is it learned? Do the owls teach it? Do the ferns? Perhaps the wind?

            • dmonzel@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              ... bro, are you ok? You're making zero sense.

              Just to appease you, one of the possible *many *ways to learn how to be a racist would be from the behaviors of the people around you, such as family and friends. The point I'm making is that the media is not the sole point of radicalization and that while them cleaning up their shit would help, it wouldn't completely eradicate racist fuckwads.

              I'm not sure what you think I'm saying, but I'm just saying there's more to it than just one single thing. Now chill the fuck out.

              • GarbageShoot [he/him]
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                1 year ago

                My point is simply that it works on a basis of vectors of transmission and vectors can be addressed. We must also agree that those friends and family got it from somewhere, right? It is not simply that the Johnsons have been passing down racism since their first patriarch, John, independently invented their specific instance of racism 3000 years ago, right? These things exist in environments where they are indeed transmitted useful idiot to useful idiot, but can only fester as they have because of interested parties inventing and perpetuating these ideas, deliberately creating environments in which they fester. Your racist uncle is going to appear as much more of a crank if he doesn't have white society echoing his words through insinuation at every moment.

                It is difficult to legislate basic interpersonal relationships outside of the most extreme cases, but the overwhelming majority of how people are socialized (media, school, etc.) does fall under that purview and should be basically solvable, and at that point the racism of past generations won't matter all that much if their sentiments don't have soil that they are able to take root in because people have been overwhelmingly socialized away from it.

                • dmonzel@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  I'm not talking about legislation of anything. I'm not even offering a solution. I am merely saying that it's not just one source for radicalization. You are seriously overthinking and overanalyzing every fucking thing that I've said. Chill out.

                  • GarbageShoot [he/him]
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                    1 year ago

                    Well, when the topic is "We should prevent the media from instigating these things", legislation is the only serious means, since the media companies don't give a shit about our personal disapproval.

                    But mainly, I think being contrarian without offering a solution is essentially a form of defeatism, and if that's all you can offer you'd be better off not saying anything. I don't think that's all you can offer, of course, so I've basically just outlined what the logical implications are for a non-defeatist to make the observation that enculturation isn't just media consumption. I've obviously been talking past you a bit from reply one, but I'm sure you can forgive me for that.