I’ve seen it all over social media and news sites; the use of a false dilemma argument to promote a variety of agendas all dependent on exploiting incidents like the Cologne. One must either listen and believe, or be assumed to condone the sexual violence alleged to have taken place.
There are several threat narratives involved.
The establishment in the U.S. is using Islamic terrorism as an abstract threat to make giving up civil liberties look like the lesser evil.
The American conservative establishment is using Islamic extremism as an abstract threat to demonize competing with conservative-approved Christianity.
Different groups of feminists are reacting to the rape accusations differently depending on their pet issues. Intersectional feminists can’t get past the cultural tolerance imperative to connect their rape culture threat narrative to this situation, but gender feminists can, and they’re using it in Germany to sell the citizens on the idea of teach men not to rape campaigns.
The American left establishment is sticking with its exploitation of racism as a threat narrative, which parallels that of intersectional feminism, likely because breaking that narrative would undermine the promotion of laws based on it.
And within the manosphere, there are some who have flipped from “innocent until proven guilty” to “listen and believe” so they can shout to the world, “Look! We’re more humanitarian toward women than feminists are!” I never thought I’d live to see that one.
There is also the fact that all of these threat narratives are built around grains of truth.
It’s not wrong to acknowledge, for instance, that the religion is currently being exploited along with a familiar us-vs-them outlook by authoritarian elements within it as a vehicle for influencing many of its practitioners to engage in a war on the rest of the world. It’s not the first set of ideological beliefs to be used that way, and it won’t be the last.
It’s also not wrong to acknowledge that terrorists have used the flow of refugees as a cover to enter countries they wanted to attack. It’s not bigotry to take those facts in to consideration. In fact, it may be vital to do so in the context of this discussion because as long as that’s happening we don’t know that there aren’t elements of ISIS entering European nations with refugee groups, intent on using reprehensible behavior to poison the social environment against the refugees to keep them from having any place to flee from ISIS violence. And it’s not wrong to take into consideration the fact that criminal behavior exists within every population. There is research which shows that sexual violence is more likely to come from individuals who engage in other forms of criminal violence, attributing the behavior to between 4% and 13% of the population. (1) (2)
Islamic extremists are a real threat. Racism really does result in false accusations. Violence, including sexual violence, really are aspects of human behavior. They’re dysfunctional aspects, but it’s undeniable that they occur. Rape really is being used as a weapon of war… and in many of the word’s conflicts. Therefore, it’s easy for anyone to use hasty generalizations and the tendency to fear unknown people to infer that all Islamic practitioners are the same threat that extremists are, that all Muslims believe it’s ok to rape non-Muslim women, or that all people who criticize any behavior exhibited by any Islamic practitioners are racist.
Those and other hasty generalizations are being made. Various media and the grassroots of various movements are presuming all accusations from the Cologne incident proved, and and inferring guilt over the entirety of larger populations. Anyone who remains skeptical pending further evidence is being accused of everything from rape apology to conspiracy theory.
A gynocentric public, to which men are already disposable, is easy to rally against a group of men accused of getting out of line and abusing women. Every group with an agenda this threat narrative fits is going to take measures to exploit it.
At the same time, that doesn’t mean that there are no sex crimes occurring. It means we can’t trust any narrative put forth using accusations of them to promote an agenda, and should examine anything we’re told with an eye toward minimizing human rights violations rather than panic.
The entire situation seems to boil down to simple questions.
Should we just automatically believe all of the accusers?
If so, does that infer characteristics upon practitioners of the religion associated with the accused, and/or on the ethnic group most represented in it?
The first question is the same one that gets applied to accused men, and it’s where MRAs and social justice types usually disagree. We believe in the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and social justice types follow the “listen and believe” mantra.
The second question is dependent on the first, but it’s still an issue. In a society that supposedly values due process and is against racial and religious bigotry, presuming guilt because it’s “them” instead of “us” is hypocritical, and transferring presumed guilt from the accused (or found guilt from the judged) to their whole ethnicity and religion is bigoted.
That said, it’s also bigoted to claim that trust should be afforded for the sake of avoiding being seen as racist or anti-religion. It’s hypocritical of social justice types to abandon their listen and believe mantra for that reason, as well.
This is where the false dilemma comes in, creating a third, more important question. Is this really an either/or situation?
Presumed innocent and presumed harmless are not the same thing. We should not treat all refugees or all Muslims as violent, rapacious thugs just because there have been accusations, even if some accusations are proved. Evaluation of an accusation should not change based on personal prejudices. Evidence should be the determining factor in its assessment. We should not, however, treat these groups any differently than any other group of strangers, male or female, and presume the entire society devoid of criminal elements. While it’s unreasonable to paint an entire population with one brush, arguments in favor of precautions like refugee and immigrant screening based on known risks are not out of line. Citizens of any nation also have every right to want deportation of those convicted of crimes after immigrating, with or without refugees, expedited. It’s not necessary to demonize a population to justify that, nor is it necessary to pedistalize them to justify refraining from hosting those who really are fleeing from violence. Like every other person in the world, they’re an unknown group of individuals who deserve the courtesy of at least being treated as such.
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As a muslim, I thank you. I like those who don’t go into two different extremes.
Thousands of african/middle-easterners provably organized mobs to rob and rape throughout Europe
“OMG NOT ALL MUSLIMS!”
Provably organized? Let’s see the proof.
I don’t generally buy into conspiracy theories about members of group X conspiring to “keep all women, I mean christians, I mean muslims, I mean down.” But if you can prove there is an organized attempt to rob and rape throughout Europe and rather the individual actions of individual criminals, then I’ll be the first to say those people involved in the organization of this activity should be charged and deported alongside the criminals engaging in it.
Incidentally I truly am an Islamophobe. Of all the religions and cultures I hate islamic culture most. Emotionally I think the best option is to deport every fucking mud rat out of Europe and wherever else they’ve invested and then nuke the fuck out of every country in the middle east and repopulate them with Jews and Philippinos. But when I have blind vicious hatred is exactly when I need my cool reason most.
https://www.poliisi.fi/prime106/prime101en/prime101_en.aspx/1/0/the_police_prepared_effectively_for_attacks_on_new_year_s_eve_-_all_cases_of_attempted_assault_should_be_reported_43247
It was organized.
I think your problem here is that you’re convinced that everyone means somekind of hollow earth, lizardmen ruling the world-tier conspiracy.
YOUR problem, on the other hand, is that of scale.
With about less than one hundred incidents in any western country, then there being “provably” less than two dozen “organizers”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/09/world/europe/cologne-new-years-eve-attacks.html?_r=0
Somehow this, in your head, translates to “Thousands of african/middle-easterners proven to be organizing a rape culture”.
Hysteria at its finest, folks.
Helsinki police said thousand of them formed a mob to do what happened in Köln. Are you saying they lie?
I’m saying you lack reading comprehension (At the very best), because I just pointed you to a story that said otherwise, here’s another story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/12088332/Unprecedented-sex-harassment-in-Helsinki-at-New-Year-Finnish-police-report.html
Note this paragraph:
“Our information from these reception centres were that disturbances or other crimes would happen in the city centre. We were prepared for fights and sexual harrassment and thefts.”
there were tipoffs that “incidents would occur”, certainly not organizations.
Also, note that the resulting incidents were a record breaking 14.
I suggest you go back to grade school and learn how to read and do math before you go around swinging your ramshackle pitchfork, the guilt of an unjust lynching is quite devastating, I hear.
You post your stories, I trust the police when they say the mob was planned.
14 cases too many. Thanks to police actions it didn’t get out of hand.
World class arguments insulting me.
Did you even read the stories? The police DIDN’T say they were planned, they just received tips of possible crimes.
Nobody is saying that 14 cases is fine, but it’s definitely, NOT “Thousands of african/middle-easterners provably organized mobs” as you said, not even close.
Again.
Learn. To fucking. Read.
I read the police report.
Well, I guess it’s good you acknowledged your viscous hatred. I live and grew up in a diverse community, so I’ve never really went into all of the hate and fear. I mean I guess I get where it comes from, but I’ve known them as people first, culture second.
I grew up in a diverse community. It was a Saudi Caste system with Pakistanis and Indians on the bottom. Likely if they had imported Africans for labor, they would have been on the bottom instead. You feel free to defend the most racist, homophobic, intolerant ideology on the planet.
What I will say is that I learned that Saudi Wahabism is likely separate from other forms of Islam from the Honey Badger Radio show.
Ick. That is pretty terrible
What I will say is that I don’t defend the ideology, I defend the people. The people of Muslim faith I’ve met were perfectly reasonable people so I’m careful not to lump it all together.
Islam has a lot of issues, but I think the bulk of your woes derive from Saudi Arabia being a fucking shithole. Wahhabism is a cancer.
Tell the bernie rabble rousers your need for proof or organization.
Even if it organized, it’s like saying jamaicans are to blame for good sprinting because of usain bolt!
That’s not how it works.
All I think is, what ever was organized, either the false reporting or the attack (which ever is true) whoever did it, we can clearly see who gains from it.
This is similar to the “black block” here on brazil. The people in the “black block” might not know they are organized, being rallied, and to what end, but this doesn’t exclude the existence of people that understand the crow and can push the cattle in a desired direction.
So yeah, not all muslims.
I didn’t mean all muslims. What I meant was that the piece turned into not all muslims.
It is Islam vs. The West
Not muslim vs the white pigs
Was that “PC” enough for you?
Just a short article suggesting that too much Tar is being applied with a too generalised brush in the Anti-Immigrant Agenda.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/cologne-attacks-american-woman-tells-how-syrian-refugees-rescued-her-from-new-years-eve-sexual-a6816221.html
Well, gee, i guess that just makes it all so much better. Maybe there’s no problem after all mr e.e. love song jones. Those “nice” syrians must have been pretty how now peaceful or maybe they thought she was another muslim by her looks. Isolated instances notwithstanding, however, the larger issue “not going gently into the night” is you might have not had such a “nice” time yourself at that new year’s eve “ho” down in cologne if you resembled a women – birth to death – in any form whatsoever unless you could have found a little quiet on the western front with some nice “pig” perfume.
Think about it, Sir. Feminists want men sentenced without need of evidence or trial. Such an attitude makes MRAs a trifle upset.
Here you are – Being sarcastic about the fact that someone objects to fairy stories and lack of evidence being used to convict Muslims.
Seems that you and the feminists are peas from the same pod.
I shall not sink to your level of puerile vocabulary.
You obviously are missing in action about the evidence racked up by the many sources of media of the islamist mob crimes committed throughout the west. Really, all one has to do to be hit in the face with the pie is go to you tube or the daily news. Throwing in half-truths about the virginia woolfs attacking poor victimized men as some sort of queer justification for your apologetic tone for the sand’fugees is really stretching as a stand up comedy or sorts. You are like some misguided zen poet working with an attached neck and notion that islamists will respect sense of fair play born in the west. They have no time for your feminism logic diversions or western editorializing to way in with conviction – their lawyers are well versed in sharia and jihad. Feminism, by the way, is like homosexuality – it makes fine use of any boat that floats and right now they’re on the leftist ship of fools – – the one you seem to be on – pinocchio.
Evidence by Media? Trial by Media?
sand’fugees? … Islam… ISTS?
Not even clever … Simply fascist… a tedious free association with your own desire for an education.
You’re beyond help to discuss anything on a rational level – go read some pacifying liberal dogma so you can feel pretty how town michelangelo.
I remember Brussels. It seems they were known to the Security Services all along. They did not need much of an investigation to find the culprits.
I also remember the Bologna Train Station Bombing, and the Belgian Supermarket Shootings. They were part of Operation Gladio – a Nazi stay behind operation – all financed by the CIA.
There is never any excuse for a suspension of due process, and never any excuse for accepting, without question, something that suits your prejudice.
Yes, no excuse for something that dresses up your delusions.
If there was a hypothetical room and there were two other hypothetical people in the room with you hypothetically – one muslim and one christian – and you were given the hypothetical choice that in order to leave that room and have your freedom and peace, you had to hypothetically shoot one of the two other people – killing that person hypothetically- knowing what you know about the state of affairs throughout the world today, who would you shoot-hypothetically?