(In Alcoholics Anonymous, you get contact with a “sponsor”, a sober addict him-/herself, who provides support in the process. Of course, Willie knows a lot about these things, since she has probably been trying to get her dad to quit drinking for many years.)
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So, apparently the “Nazidarwinists” from Eva’s solo comics really exist?
It’s very disturbing how the knee-jerk reaction of not just the media and all too many “terror experts”, but also most people in general, was to assume at first that the bombings in Oslo were the work of Islamist militants. I actually didn’t assume that, because I was thinking of how Norway withdrew its troops from Iraq in 2006, and how the Norwegian ISAF forces are kind of limited and low-profile. So I was actually leaning towards a right-wing nationalist ideology behind the bombings, but maybe that’s just my own knee-jerk reaction … Which turned out to be correct in this case. But the “Muslim terrorism” knee-jerk reaction is a symptom for how commonly accepted anti-Muslim sentiments have become these days.
Here is a good article about the ideological background of Anders Behring Breivik and his likes (google translate to English here). In the last few years, we have seen neofascism rise in Western Europe, and this act of terrorism is the direct result of that. It is acutely necessary to fight fascism now, in order to save human lives.
… Yes, I’m still very upset about this. I don’t want to be one of those “oooh, I was right!!!” leftist bloggers. But in this case, it’s very scary that my leftist knee-jerk reaction was right.
An AA sponsor… or maybe he’s just cracked and is talking to himself. I sure hope not. Anyway, Willie, going home *was* a good idea, even if just for a little while.
. . .
Regarding the Norwegian atrocity… Yeah, I had pretty much the same instincts as you. Funny how this got every govetrnment in europe again swearing to combat terrorism – before they found out that he was a NeoCon. I’m also very angry at some people, not A.B.B. himself (I can write his actions off as ‘wrong’ and leave it at that), but all the people who are somehow pushing blame back on ‘the left’ – saying that supposedly ‘left wing’ European politics caused an ‘upright citizen’ like A.B.B. to go crazy.
He’s not crazy. He’s just commited to a fascist ideology and ruthless in his pursuit of it.
I thought about the Stockholm suicide bomber at first. I had no clue about the Norwegian situation, so it seemed as likely as anything else (the Swedish bomber was a kind of Islamist ‘lone madman’, if I remember correctly – did they ever find out anything conclusive about his affiliations?). When the full scale of the events unfolded, I was just dumbstruck. A period of intense obsession followed – gotta find out WHO, HOW, WHY… It’s really terrible but also somehow cathartic. I hope the debate will change, become more focused on actual solutions than spewing ideology on immigration issues… But many reactions from the right scare me immensely…