Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

The hatred of otherness

The murder of Sophie Lancaster, beaten to death because she was a goth, was a crime that should disgust everyone. It was a hate crime. Like homophobic queer-bashing and racist violence, it stemmed from one thing and one thing alone: hatred of otherness. Not 'evil'. Unchecked hatred and prejudice.

If someone looks different, if they listen to different music, if they want to have a different appearance from me, then I feel entitled to attack and destroy them: that's the attitude of those who would pick on others. Sometimes it's white kids picking on Asian kids; sometimes it's the other way around.

Where do children get the messages about otherness? What would they find if they looked in a national newspaper, for example? What kind of messages are there about what to think about people who look different?

In the Daily Mail today:

Disorganised Amy Winehouse failed to turn up on time to see her beloved husband Blake during visiting hours at the north London prison he has been remanded to.

The singer's chaotic lifestyle has taken a toll on her timekeeping, as well as her terribly scabby skin, which looked worse than ever when she stepped out today in the hope of seeing her incarcerated husband.

Ugh! Scabby! Different! A different lifestyle! Let's slag her off!

By showing what other celebrities would look like if they had scabby skin and missing teeth, with a piece of Photoshop that a five-year-old would be embarrassed to call their own work.

What do readers of the Daily Express, the self-appointed 'world's greatest newspaper', think about people with different cultures, when asked by their newspaper (for the billionth week in a row) whether they think 'mass immigration' is a good thing or A BAD THING?

These people are clearly being sent her for the sole purpose of destroying our Christian country.

if any Irish (as I suspect they are) or West Indians or Indians or other immigrants feel exploited here, they are perfectly free to go back to their own coutries

Last nights programme highlighted a big muslim problem in Yorkshire and the Midlands. Seems like the muslim men are pimping white school girls and forcing them into gang rapes by other muslim men. Also seems like there is a big muslim problem with drug dealers carrying guns.

Hang on didnt Nick Griffin succesfully defend a prosecution by the CPS for revealing this very same problem a couple of years ago?
Surely the police and the Government havnt been turning a blind eye to the problem for so long in case they upset the muslim community? No they wouldnt do that !
I think the police, BBC and the CPS should first make an apology to Nick Griffin and the BNP and thank them for highlighting the problem.

the picture [The Express's stock picture of Muslims, two women in full veils with one giving a two-fingered (rather British I feel) salute] does say it all.
Mass immigration has destroyed our country.
So many people escped to the west and thought that they would be safe but "ISLAM" was allowed to follow.

What is so disturbing that many today scorn our values and worst of all lack the very tolerance that has for so long been our hallmark.

Tolerance? Are you sure? Reading the Express comments, you'd be forgiven for thinking that British people are a nation of racist cunts who hate Muslims.

What do BBC Have Your (Reactionary) Say readers say when a report states that the asylum situation in the UK is shameful and appalling? Are they concerned about the treatment of people who could face death and torture back in their homeland? Do they concern themselves with trying to make us a more civilised country to people who are vulnerable and at their lowest ebb? Do they fuck.

I'm sorry but it's time "We" the British people started saying enough is enough and start taking care of our own.

Most people in Britain think that asylum seekers are treated too well, not too badly.

We are an island. Who let's them in? How come they skip all the countries in between? Try being an asylum seeker in their country and see how they treat you. Who authorised this enquiry? Enough of this liberal rubbish.

Here we go, another HYS where racists who hate white British people cane blame them for all the world's ill.

Those are the 'most recommended' comments. The breathtaking assumption in the last one is that these discussions are a place for people who hate white people to talk about things. Has this commenter never seen a BBC HYS discussion on race or immigration before? It's the exact opposite. Surely even the BNP fucktards who patrol these messageboards in the hope of poisoning the discussion to suit their own agenda can't actually believe that. Can they?

The point I'm trying to make is about messages. Where do we get messages about otherness. People try to claim Britain is a 'tolerant' nation. It's not a word I like because it seems to me to imply that there's something unpleasant that Brits should put up with; but still, I don't think it's really meant that way, it's meant in the same way that Australians once upon a time prided themselves as a nation on giving strangers a 'fair go'. It's meant to imply that people in Britain are supposedly fair, kind and compassionate.

But where do I see messages saying that? Where do I see compassion for Amy Winehouse, a hugely talented woman with addiction problems? Nowhere. I see aggression and hatred. People snipe and say she's brought it all on herself. That's the message. If you're on drugs, you did it to yourself, therefore, bye-bye, cut the cord, let you suffer and die.

Where have I seen compassion for Fiona McKeown and Karen Matthews? Nowhere. People are happy to slag off their lifestyles in the face of personal tragedies and unspeakable horrors, because they're not quite the supposed middle-market 'norm' of 2.4 kids living in a suburban semi. And therefore they must suffer.

Where is the compassion for immigrants and asylum seekers? There is none in the mid-market media. Immigrants are evil scum coming over here to take our jobs. They have different cultures, they won't be exactly like 'us', and Islam is a religion of terrorism. That's the message you see time and time and time again.

Where is the compassion for people on benefits? They're labelled as 'spongers' without any thought as to how they got to where they are. Any psychological or behavioural problems should be immediately disregarded as being totally irrelevant; they should be left to suffer and cut off from the state. They're bleeding tax payers dry. That's the message, time after time.

So why should it come as a surprise - and it does - to Mail and Express readers, for example, when a goth girl gets beaten to death because she's a goth girl? Why are they amazed that someone has been attacked for being different? Why are they stunned to find out that this kind of hate crime happens? Why, when they're constantly spraying around hatred and anger towards anyone who lives a slightly different lifestyle, are they taken aback by children taking it one step further and beating someone who looks different to death? Is it such a great leap? Is it such a huge difference?

So whom do they blame?

Mailites:

Mind you, they'd probably laugh at that as well such is the utter contempt for law and order.
Blair's legacy.

Welcome to Gordon Browns Britain, the rotten politicians and all their ilk could have done so much to prevent these happenings yet another person has to die because of their lack of intelligence and capability.

Unfortunately these days there don't seem to be many lads their age that aren't on something...and drink.
My area is now almost awash with kids' 'deals' going on. The Police know. I've lost count of the 'weed' factories the local Police have broken into.
Responsibility, respect for others, no... this is street cred gone mad. I don't see an end to it. Let's just hope we aren't in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The youth in your country are animals! You better do something or they will be running that country!

While I feel it inappropriate to dwell on politics after veiwing such sad pictures, we are surely reaping the outcome of years of psychobabble clap trap from the albeit well intentioned do gooders.

There you are. The killers were 'animals' who did it because of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, and because of liberal do-gooders.

The Expressites:

but you will find that the vast majority of these types of young criminals have come to the notice of the CJ sytem dozens, often hundreds of times and occasions (as did their parents) - how have they been dealt with punished - they havent - they will all have been time and time and time again been monitored by p.c "oddities".

Responsability for this horrific murder must lie in part to all the soft, liberal do-gooders over the the last 20yrs or so who have preached that children should be treated as young adults, given rights and not be accountable due to age for their actions.This includes the "left wing" teaching unions and others who demanded that corporal punishment in schools should be abolished- and look at the result.

JAIL UNTIL 18 THEN EXECUTE BY LETHAL INJECTION

That's what we'd like to see!! What we will see is psychological repots, how he hsd hid teddy taken away when he was a child, what a deprived upbringing he had followed by a couple of years in jail.

Life at the taxpayers expense is too good for this sub-human excrement. Execute ASAP and let's rid ourselves of the scumbag before he kills again.

Why should i have to work 80 hours a week just to kep my head above water, and my hard earned taxes be used to fill he pockets of scum like this with dole money,and then keep them in luxury in prison?????.....hang the F****** B*******.

When are the idiots running this counrty (into the ground) going to build more prisons,have longer sentences served in ull,and bring back the rope???.

You get the general idea. Expressites are similar to Mailites; they blame the PC brigade and do-gooders. They see the answer to violence to be to be violent towards children, and then that will stop them. And if people transgress boundaries they should be killed, especially if they're on the dole.

Neither set of readers has any inkling that a hatred for others might be in any sense whatsoever responsible for this crime - so much easier and more comfortable to blame the non-existent PC Brigade and liberal hand-wringers for a shocking and violent crime of hatred. Except one voice, which I'll leave you with. Posting on the Express messageboard - very bravely - comes this:

I wonder what subjects young people have in schools to learn about other people, other countries, cultures, religions, and eg people's appearance what is almost always connected with it. I don't think so that parents are able to explain it all to their children. And lack of knowledge creates aggression. Of course, it's more complicated matter. Mostly parents are responsible for values, if not knowledge then any decent values could defend young people. But they are brought up by primitive signs from films like eg 'This is England' because only those few primitive they are able to understand, rest is not accessible without knowledge. 37 years ago Lennon mentioned about world about countries, it's almost reality, but we are not prepared yet, we can't imagine yet that world and humankind is what we should defend, not any local slogans.

Maybe there is a shred of compassion in all this hatred. I do hope so.

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