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IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
1. Rebranding Europe’s far right
Europe’s new far right have claimed the progressive causes of the left, writes Sasha Polakow-Suransky, by depicting Muslim immigrants as the primary threat to gay rights, women’s equality and protecting Jews from anti-semitism. It’s part of their rebranding, and it’s very effective.
(The Guardian, approx 38 mins reading time)
These parties have built a coherent ideology and steadily chipped away at the establishment parties’ hold on power by pursuing a new and devastatingly effective electoral strategy. They have made a very public break with the symbols of the old right’s past, distancing themselves from skinheads, neo-Nazis and homophobes. They have also deftly co-opted the causes, policies and rhetoric of their opponents. They have sought to outflank the left when it comes to defending a strong welfare state and protecting social benefits that they claim are threatened by an influx of freeloading migrants.
2. The untold story of the Bastille Day attacker
In July 2016, a horrific attack took place on Bastille Day in Nice. This story tells the strange but true story of the attacker.
(GQ, approx 36 mins reading time)
At 10:32, Lahouaiej Bouhlel pulled onto the Promenade’s wide southern thoroughfare. He rode along with the traffic for 1,000 feet or so until, across from the children’s hospital that would soon receive the crushed and mutilated, he drove up onto the broad sidewalk, filled now with revelers and families. He had extinguished his headlights. Soon came the crack of exploding seaside benches, and the dull thud of bodies spinning off the front edges of the truck. Its driver grinned.
The alt-right has started to create its own media world, one which it says readers can trust. Buzzfeed describes it as the ‘upside down’ like in Stranger Things – a parallel universe with its own ‘alternative facts’.
(Buzzfeed, approx 15 mins reading time)
If you live in the mainstream media world, the New Media Upside Down can be hard to find — the only real crossover between the two worlds is on Twitter, where its leaders lambaste mainstream news reports often with the aim of discrediting them. It’s (reasonably) young and hungry, and has risen with Trump all the way to the White House — where Steve Bannon, who helped construct this upside-down media world while running Breitbart News, now holds sway as senior counselor to the president himself.
There are people who believe disaster is coming to civilisation… and there are the rich who are preparing for that disaster in a very intense way – like Reddit’s CEO, who has had laser eye surgery to improve his odds of surviving the world’s end.
(The New Yorker, approx 43 mins reading time)
Antonio García Martínez, a forty-year-old former Facebook product manager living in San Francisco, bought five wooded acres on an island in the Pacific Northwest and brought in generators, solar panels, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. “When society loses a healthy founding myth, it descends into chaos,” he told me. The author of “Chaos Monkeys,” an acerbic Silicon Valley memoir, García Martínez wanted a refuge that would be far from cities but not entirely isolated. “All these dudes think that one guy alone could somehow withstand the roving mob,” he said. “No, you’re going to need to form a local militia. You just need so many things to actually ride out the apocalypse.”
Rick Perlstein is a lecturer, and last year he asked a student of his why he voted for Trump. His answer is interesting reading.
(Mother Jones, approx 10mins reading time)
But while Peter’s analysis is at odds with much of the data, his overall story does fit a national pattern. Trump voters report experiencing greater-than-average levels of economic anxiety, even though they tend have better-than-average incomes. And they are inclined to blame economic instability on the federal government—even, sometimes, when it flows from private corporations. Peter wrote about the sense of salvation his neighbors felt when a Walmart came to town: “Now there were enough jobs, even part-time jobs…But Walmart constantly got attacked by unions nationally and with federal regulations; someone lost their job, or their job became part-time.”
6. Stalked, then diagnosed with cancer
American sports presenter Erin Andrews was stalked in 2008, a case that was brought to court last year. But what people didn’t realise that was that she was also secretly fighting cervical cancer.
(MMQB, approx 14 mins reading time)
Andrews did not tell colleagues of her diagnosis. She worked that Sunday’s game, then flew home to L.A. She missed the Monday and Tuesday tapings of Dancing with the Stars; ABC said she took time off to support boyfriend (now fiancé) Jarret Stoll and his grieving family. (Stoll’s 17-year-old nephew had been killed in a car accident that weekend.) That, in part, was true. But Andrews was mostly dealing with her diagnosis.
…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…
In 2003, Laura Hillenbrand wrote about her experience of a sudden and strange illness that knocked her sideways.
(The New Yorker, approx mins reading time)
Sometimes I’d look at words or pictures but see only meaningless shapes. I’d stare at clocks and not understand what the positions of the hands meant. Words from different parts of a page appeared to be grouped together in bizarre sentences: “Endangered Condors Charged in Shotgun Killing.” In conversation, I’d think of one word but say something completely unrelated: “hotel” became “plankton”; “cup” came out “elastic.” I couldn’t hang on to a thought long enough to carry it through a sentence. When I tried to cross the street, the motion of the cars became so disorienting that I couldn’t move. I was at a sensory distance from the world, as if I were wrapped in clear plastic.
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So if you’re a patriot and want to save your country’s identity and values, you’re far right?
The people are waking up to the PC Globalist smear merchants.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-18519395
@Eamon Mac Gowan: I just want someone to explain what far right means, I want proper border controls. Am I far right?????
@Eamon Mac Gowan: Agreed on that and thumbs up given. Based on the current media slant, all the Irish who joined the LDF, the LSF, An Tacha Siochana and the Irish Army during the 2nd world war were far right, racists and xenophobes. When I joined the FCA (reserve army) at a young man I was a racist and far right. Anyone who stands in the way of the global elite new world order is similarly branded.
The fact is that the media has joined the war on our liberties through a coalition of celebrities, week politicians, corrupt politicians and the George Soros of this world. In doing so they had a chance of succeeding to shoe horning us into the world of their dreams. With Brixet and Trump their world has fallen apart and they struggle to cement the cracks. It will fall the the public to decide to engage with a media where all the topic and comment comes from the top down or turn away to a new medium which allows engagement in both directions. You predict which will happen. I wish I could bet on the outcome. Last week Cavan Fianna Fail TD Brendan Smith called for filtering of social media, it looks like the establishment is worried.
We already have border controls, it’s what your not mentioning which people to let in that makes you far right
@Red Marauder: Europe has tight border controls? We are ferrying illegal immigrants 20km off the Libyan coast and bringing them 400km to Europe. Millions of unvetted migrants from the Middle East and Africa have entered Europe illegally over the past few years. If that’s “tight border controls”, I’d hate to see open borders!
“In all of 2015, there were 1.83 million illegal border crossings detected at EU’s external borders compared to the previous year’s record of 283 500.”
Ireland’s values and identity , such as they are, are certainly not under threat from immigration. The threat to Ireland is from rapacious vulture funds and their political allies in Ireland. The threat to Ireland is from desperate bankers, greedy property speculators, political malgovernance and vested interests.
Of alll the problems in Ireland, immigration which is well controlled, is not the problem. Immigrantatiin just a distraction which is being used and cynically exploited by the far right in order to leverage popularity and power.
@Tony Daly: Immigration into Ireland is not well controlled. The events during the week made that painfully obvious. From bogus language schools, to economic migrants using the asylum route, to sham marriages to illegal immigration; Ireland doesn’t take border controls seriously and it will come back to bite us on the arse.
Immigration is the most pressing issue in Europe. It might not be an issue to you, but that’s not to start it isn’t for everyone else.
“Asking citizens about their main concerns, immigration remains at the top of the most frequently cited issues facing the EU (48%, -10). Terrorism (39%, +14) remains the second most frequently cited item after a sharp increase since the previous survey in autumn 2015. It is well ahead of the economic situation (19%, -2), the state of Member States public finances (16%, -1) and unemployment (15%, -2). Immigration is number one concern for the EU in 20 Member States and among the top two concerns in all countries, except Portugal. Terrorism is number one concern in eight Member States and among the top two concerns in all countries, except Greece.”
“They have sought to outflank the left when it comes to defending a strong welfare state and protecting social benefits that they claim are threatened by an influx of freeloading migrants.”
Again, is there not an element of truth in this? Non European immigrants are vastly over represented in the unemployment stats.
For example, take Africans in Ireland. Only 38% are employed.
http://emn.ie/index.jsp?p=100&n=105&a=269
“Non-EU citizens aged 20-64 were in 2013 twice as likely (21.3%) to be unemployed in one of the EU’s 28 member states compared to “nationals” (10.0%), new data from the EU’s statistics office Eurostat shows.
The data also revealed that the employment rate was 56.1% for non-EU citizens, compared with 68.9% for citizens of the reporting country.
But large differences can be found within member states.
In Sweden, which has the biggest gap, the employment rate for non-EU citizens was 50.2% compared with 81.3% for nationals (-31.1 percentage points), followed by Belgium (-28.8), the Netherlands (-26.8), France (-22.0), Finland (-20.5) and Germany (-20.2).”
@Sean O’Connor: yes, it is important to facilitate the employment of non nationals who are resident in Ireland and not create sinks and ghettos of unemployment. Likwise for nationals as well. Austerity turned out to be a failed policy but employment rates are incrsssing.
Of course many resident migrants are in direct provisions and are not in receipt of social protection payments.
It is important to interpret the statistics sensibly and not to scapegoat minorities.
@Tony Daly: Around 2.5k adults are in Direct Provision and that’s largely because their asylum claims have been rejected and they appeal each refusal.
Anyway, why allow in non EU nationals if they don’t have employment lined up? What are they doing here if they’re not working? Surely they need a work visa to live in Ireland? 62% of Africans adults in Ireland don’t work. Something seriously amiss there.
@Sean O’Connor: it is about refuge and sanctuary to people fleeing conflict. It is about meeting our international and humanitarian obligations. It is about the brotherhood of man. It is about helping others in dire circumstances. It is about not hating others , but embracing them, and living in harmony, not in fear and hate.
The problems which we have in Ireland, many problems, are not the fault of immigrants or those who have lived here a short time. They are problems of our own making. Scapegoating immigrants is missing the target of responsibility.
@Tony Daly: I never said that they were. I was responding to a piece in the article. Non Europeans are vastly over represented in the unemployment stats throughout Europe. This is a fact.
The majority of those arriving in Europe aren’t genuine asylum seekers but economic migrants. Each of the 28 EU member state has a visa process for such people. If they don’t meet the criteria, that is their problem. Not ours. It doesn’t give them the right to illegally enter Europe and languish on welfare at the natives expense.
“More than half of those fleeing to Europe from the Middle East and Africa are economic migrants and not asylum seekers fleeing the horrors of war in Iraq or Syria, according to first vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans.”
@Sean O’Connor: there will always be delays in absorbing g immigrants into the workforce and into full employment. Of course, those immigrants who are in employment are often highly educated and valuable contributors. Just one example is the heakthnservuce in Ireland and in the U.K.
It is understandable that we want to identify a scapegoat for the many problems in Ireland and in the west of Europe. Immigrants are not the cause.
@Tony Daly: You’re just regurgitating the same old spiel. There would be no ghettos or an unemployment problem with immigrants if we ensured that those that arrive here are skilled, have employment lined up in a field our labour market lacks, have means to support themselves and are vetted before entry.
@Sean O’Connor:
And you are just recycling the same old scaremongering tactics devoid of balance. Having effective sociocultural policy would avoid most of the pitfalls of immigration from the countries you are not a fan of. Vetting is a given, just opening the gates is not having a robust policy. There needs to be some middle ground, not ‘Open Borders to the Islamic world’ within Europe is fine if economic concerns are met. Currently we see two camps, a bipartisan approach, and that is not the way forward.
@Pádraig Ó Raghaill: I am not scaremongering. I backed up all my claims with sources. The other lad just rehashed and regurgitated the same old pro immigration rhetoric.
It’s getting old and is one of the reason as to why why the right is gaining in popularity. Their arguments makes sense.
@Sean O’Connor:
They only make sense due to not being exposed to better ideas. You backed up your point with lay people’s thinking. Unfortunately, it requires professionals to create better socioeconomic policy not the thoughts of the public that do not know any better.
“Europe’s new far right have claimed the progressive causes of the left, writes Sasha Polakow-Suransky, by depicting Muslim immigrants as the primary threat to gay rights, women’s equality and protecting Jews from anti-semitism.”
Are they not a threat to the aforementioned?
Muslims – 1.6 billion.
Muslims who believe wife should obey husband – 1.39 billion.
Muslims who believe Sharia should rule – 1.1 billion.
Muslims who believe in death for adultery – 748 million.
Muslims who believe in death for leaving Islam – 584 million.
Source: Pew Research Centre. The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society.
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/
Pew research is highly controversial as a source, it main funds come from fundamentalist Evangelical Protestant John Templeton Foundation
@Sean O’Connor: that’s just scaremongering and attempted demonising of Muslims.
@Red Marauder: It’s absolutely not a controversial source. They’re bipartisan and leaders in their field.
Good try though. Just because you don’t like the results of a particular study, doesn’t mean that the study is biased or untrue.
@Tony Daly: The study was conducted over two ears by Pew Research Centre who are bipartisan and leaders in their field.
How are they “demonising Muslims?” There are 49 predominantly Muslim countries in the world. Name one that isn’t a dump and has a good record with women’s equality, gay rights, and is tolerant towards non Muslims? There isn’t one.
This is reflected in the study as it is what Muslims believe.
@Sean O’Connor: you are engaging is distracting techniques. There is no problem at all from Muslims in Ireland who are preaceful and contributing.
Jihadist terrorism is a serious problem in parts of Europe but it has been largely controlled and intelligence techniques have improved.
The only politician assassinated in Europe in the last 6 years is the late Jo Cox MP, cold bloodily assassinated by a far right political activist, named Thomas Mair.
The resurgence of the far right, a nascent and emerging threat, is more insidious and dangerous to our values than Jihadist threats.
@Tony Daly: Ireland’s Muslim population is still relatively small. There was no problem with initial Muslim immigration into Europe in the 1960s. It’s when their numbers started to grow that the fun and games began.
And we’ve seen nothing yet. Islamic terror attacks are the new normal throughout this continent and it shall get worse and worse a millions enter Europe completely unvetted each year. A wholly imported problem.
Mass immigration from the developing world hasn’t worked out well for our “European partners.” We would do well not to follow them down this particular rabbit hole. Insanity, repeating the same thing and expecting different results.
Why don’t you research Rebecca Rimel, the Head of Pew Foundation, she is on the list of the 500 most powerful people in the world, higher then Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts and Carlisle Group CEO David Rubenstein, forget Wikipedia there is only a couple lines of text about her, for such an open unbiased fact think tank their CEO is very secretive, of a few stories that have come out she runs the place like an cartel with an omerta rule on anyone who talks, researchers have to do exactly what their told or loose their funding, there is no independent work culture everything is micromanaged, one person who participated in a poll explained the way the questions were formed already had the opinion fixed, the poll questions just pulled you in that direction
Sean, if the comment is true about the main funder then there is clearly an issue of bias in the interpretation of the findings. Also, I wonder how many non Muslim men think, or behave, as though women should just obey men? If you are a Muslim you can find justification for it in the Koran, if you are a fundamentalist Christian you can find a verse or more to justify it also, and so can a Jew. People claim belief in the tenets of their religion but they do not always act on them, thankfully. A Muslim is hardly going to reject Sharia any more than a Christian will reject the New Testament or a Jew the old. The question could be put to a Christian for example “Do you think homosexuality is wrong?” And if they were fundamentalist they would have to say yes, but they may not demand the laws of the country reflect their beliefs. It was recently reported that Morocco has imposed a burka ban, I have seen TV from Pakistan where women are hosting shows with and without the veil, and didn’t they have a Muslim president at one stage?
@sean O’Connor. Just read the study. It seems to be robust and to have been carried out in a very comprehensive manner. They had face to face interviews with 38000 people in 39 countries spanning 5 geographical regions. However, nowhere in the study do they present the figures you talk about. The study clearly refers to , for example, 79% of people interviewed in a particular country believe X. The results are far from homogeneous and highlight the huge differences in what Muslims believe for example only 12% of Muslims in central Asia support sharia law as opposed the 84% in south Asia. So while you seem to be correct in asserting that the study is unbiased, your interpretation of the findinds is considerably at odds with what has been presented.
May Nationalists rise all across Europe. Get the mentally unstable leftists out of control of our nation’s. We have had forty years of their lunacy and they have learned nothing from their mistakes.
@archer 12: most of the Governments in Europe in the last 10 years have been dominated centre right and right wing, not by the left.
The left has been increasingly politically irrelevant in terms of participation in gibpvernment and left wing policies have not been implemented for the last 20 years or so.
The rise fascism is not in reality a reaction against the left. It is a reaction against neoliberal right wing policies of austerity inflicted after a severe and protracted economic recession.
It is part of the dogmatic mantra of the extreme right to attempt to scapegoat the irrelevant left.
Buzzfeed Aoife? Seriously?
All this is down to how the whole system has gone to far to the left, like the Emperors new clothes… We as people are suppose to embrace the far left because everyone else is doing it and it is the PC thing to do.
An example is Germany taking in 1 million migrants and that is migrants and not refugees, that is suppose to be the thing to do but it is just a culture shock, the criminality from it was so bad that Merkel hushed up the incidents as best she could.
There is no harm in being charitable or having refugees as there is good and bad in everything but when you have a culture of rape from people who are not validated, so in fact many from Isis did get in. What attracts these migrants is escaping their past and what motivates many of them is the social welfare and that was illustrated by RT News asking one of the migrants traveling to Germany why was he doing it and he said for the social welfare…
Mass exoduses / migrations of people upset the norm for many and the stories of their criminality just makes people scared of them.
The fact that WESTERNERS act so PC and welcoming is a joke for the countries that these migrants come from but we can’t see that as it is under the cover of being human and the right thing to do.
There is good and bad in everything and what gets the most attenion in the media is the negative and this reinforces peoples judgements and fear but the fact is society is like a pendulum, push it too far one way and it will swing too far in the opposite direction. This is what is happening now because people are scared for themselves and for the idea of loosing what it is to be who they are.
And why was Merkel so welcoming to migrants, because Goldman Sachs loves migrants and also it forces wages down and provides cheap labour and increases the market for banks???
No one has really put any thinking into the outcome of mass migration or its side effects?
https://www.rt.com/news/362322-france-no-go-zones-police/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4163742/Almost-half-refugees-think-religious-law-important.html
Thank you for these.
Do you not think your report on the right was a just a little bias, try to be objective.
have your say