Foreign Dispatches

No, Elliot Rodger Wasn't Jewish

I've been trying to follow the online reaction to the Elliot Rodger shooting, and one thing that struck me was the haste with which so many despicable websites (all of which I refuse to link to) have rushed to claim that Elliot Rodger was of at least partly Jewish descent, when nothing in his background would suggest such a thing.

The Madness of Elliot Rodger

Sometimes, when I'm feeling bored and not in the mood to engage in any intellectual heavy-lifting, I like to make my way to an online forum called the misc; I have never participated in the forum, and don't even have an account, but I do check it out every few days, as the misc has a certain amusing sensibility which I suppose appeals to my inner "bro" (yes, I do lift bro - and I don't skip left day either!)

Right Wing Hypocrisy in Action

Right on the heels of whining about how Brendan Eich's resignation represents the triumph of "bullying" over free speech - as if those who disagreed with him had no right to voice their own disapproval of his actions - comes news that the very same propagators of the "Brendan Eich is the real victim" nonsense are now pushing to boycott Firefox! So boycotting is bad and anti free-speech when it's directed against bigots, but good when carried out in defense of the prejudiced?

The utter lack of even the slightest pretence at consistency is simply astonishing, and I am now more convinced than ever that the real motivation behind all the nonsensical "Brendan Eich was bullied" rhetoric is raw homophobia, or in the case of people like Andrew Sullivan, cheap contrarianism aimed at eliciting attention and page views. In any case, principle has nothing to do with it.

As an addendum, let me add here that the argument that Brendan Eich's political activities didn't matter as long as he was able to do his job effectively is simply stupid. How could he have possibly been able to do his job effectively when knowledge of his bigotry would have alienated not only users of Mozilla software, but also many of the very people the CEO was supposed to be leading? How many people would argue with a straight face that an active Klansman or Holocaust denier should be allowed to lead a major corporation unchallenged? The only real difference in Eich's case is that, again, those defending him don't really believe in the rights of gays to begin with, which is why they can't see any serious harm in Eich's activities.

Freedom of Speech is not Freedom from Consequences

Nor is it freedom from criticism, as Mark Joseph Stern so eloquently elucidates in this Slate article. It is disheartening to see so many supposedly intelligent people failing to appreciate that it is the very same freedoms which allow Brendan Eich to donate the likes of Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul and the Proposition 8 movement which allows others to express their disgust at his actions.

The idea seems to be that one ought to be free to express whatever prejudices one may harbour without having to worry about any negative feedback whatsoever - an absurdity if ever there was one. Either all of these supposedly reasonable supporters of free speech are more stupid than they appear (which, admittedly, cannot be ruled out), or, more likely, they simply don't believe that Brendan Eich's views are at all abhorrent, as they don't think gays really have any rights worth protecting anyway.

Why Not Pardon Alan Turing?

It is now 60 years since Alan Turing - war hero and intellectual father of the theory of computing - was convicted on the charge of "gross indecency", which in 1950s terms simply meant that his sexual orientation was other than what was thought permissible by society at large at the time. As 2012 also marks the centenary of Alan Turing's birth, it seemed a particularly apposite time to make a request for his posthumous pardon, a request the Conservative justice minister has now rejected.

A Homage to the Weeaboo

It's not exactly surprising to hear me say that I am a great admirer of Japanese culture, especially the artistic and historic aspects, and have spent a great deal of time and effort mastering the Japanese language in order to deepen my understanding. I think that anyone with a sufficiently fine aesthetic sense cannot but fail to be captivated by reading tanka poems, learning about the tea ceremony, contemplating a rock garden or looking at ukiyo-e prints. What is more, as one learns more about Japan, one comes to realize that the aesthetic sensibilities underpinning all of these traditional aspects of the nation's culture survive into the present, and that they permeate life in modern Japan in a great many ways, from the way presents are wrapped in gift shops to the design of electronic goods made for export. Gaining a deeper understanding of Japan's history, language and culture can be a highly rewarding experience.

Unfortunately, as I've discovered, not everyone who claims to be an admirer of Japanese culture turns out to be interested in any but the most childish and facile aspects of said culture: on the contrary, what I've found is that the great majority of western "Japanophiles" happen to be immature idiots obsessed with anime and J-Pop in their least ambitious forms: Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Morning Musume, AKB48, etc., and it is precisely these sorts of people - aka "weeaboos" - who constitute the targets of the video below.

Lady Gaga is Boring and Derivative

Commenting at length about the ephemera of popular culture isn't really what I have in mind to write about on here, but on this occasion I must make an exception, as Nathan Heller does such a superb job of explaining what it is I can't stand about Stefani Germanotta's "Lady Gaga" persona. Some choice excerpts:

Nonsense in the Netherlands

No one who has read this blog over the years can accuse me of having closed my eyes to the problems which have accompanied large-scale Muslim immigration to Europe, but there's a clear divide between taking sensible measures to contain a problem before it gets out of hand and pandering to the rawest prejudice - a line which Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party have marched right past.

Under current law the third generation children of immigrants in Holland are classified as Dutch, in terms of government statistics and entitlements, as long as both their parents were born there.

But the anti-Muslim Freedom Party is concerned that by treating the grandchildren of immigrants as Dutch, 80 per cent of whom are under 10 years old, it will stop being possible to measure their integration.

Shocker: Hugo Chavez is a Crook!

Who would ever have believed that our sainted Leader of the Bolivarian revolution(©) was just another thief bent on maximizing state power to his own ends? And yet here is the Guardian (of all papers) indicating as much.

[Wilmer] Azuaje has blown the whistle on what he claims is a kleptocratic dynasty in Barinas where farms, businesses, banks and government contracts have been pocketed by the president's parents and five brothers.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun is Run by Idiots

It's one thing to put up pay walls for your news offerings, as Rupert Murdoch is foolishly intent on doing with his British properties, but it's another level of stupidity altogether to also seek to ban linking to your articles, as the Nikkei Shimbun is apparently trying to do.