Wednesday, December 05, 2007

That Fascist Black Rat

UPDATE: I have been accused of cropping the small image of the black rat out of a larger image. I did nothing of the sort.

Youth ratI obtained this small rat image here at the Vlaamse Jongeren Westland (VJW) website, using the link provided by ProFlandria and the Flemish CVF team. I was totally unaware of the image posted today at Little Green Footballs. All the cropping must have been done by VJW.

Important: VJW has nothing whatsoever to do with Vlaams Belang, and there is an ample public record to support this fact.

I will make this update, along with a demand for a retraction and correction from Charles Johnson, into a separate post.



You don’t want to read this post. No, really: I mean it.

I’m as sick of all this crap as you are. I wish it were over, but we’re not quite done.

You don’t want to read this, and I don’t want to write it.

But I have to anyway. It’s a nasty job, but somebody has to do it. I’m the Boy Scout who drew latrine duty today. Time to roll up my sleeves, hold my nose, grab a mop, and get down to it. We did one potato, two potato, three potato, four, and the potato stopped at me. I’m it.

An unfair and baseless smear job has been mounted against Gates of Vienna, Vlaams Belang, the Center for Vigilant Freedom, and Counterjihad Brussels 2007. The allegations must not be allowed to stand.

As I mentioned previously, when accusations like this are not refuted, the smear itself becomes the public record on the issue.

All of the allegations have to be debunked. Gates of Vienna and CVF have been doing due diligence for the past six weeks, and the debunking is almost done.

But there’s a little bit more left to do.

Rather than this, I suggest reading about something more interesting and important, such as Hillary’s pantsuits or John Edwards’ hair.

You don’t want to read this post, and you’re more than welcome to skip it.

But it has to be here.


The “Flemish White Power Rat” is one of the graphical examples that have been used to smear Vlaams Belang. The argument that the black rat is a white supremacist symbol derives mainly from the Celtic Cross — gasp! that cross again! — found on the armband of the rat in some of the cartoons.

Youth Rat

Identifying the black rat as a Flemish white power symbol relies on the flimsiest of associations. The black rat was created by a Walloon, not a Fleming. The character has been used by a variety of anti-establishment Belgian youth organizations, both Flemish and Wallonian, mainly from the patriotic Right but grading into the anarchists.

Bearing all this in mind, I asked ProFlandria to head a Flemish team and research the White Power Black Rat for Gates of Vienna. Here’s his report:

Having placed the Celtic Cross phenomenon in its proper context with respect to the Flemish movement, the second — and in my opinion, much easier — issue is that of the cartoon rat that is variously shown in Flemish nationalist publications and websites. The rat wears a Celtic Cross/Odin’s Cross, which is probably why it raises so much fear of “neo-Nazis”. If we consider the cross issue as properly adjudicated, the remaining cartoon animal does not appear to be much of an issue. The only remaining factors in play are the rat, and the contents of any material it appears to be associated with.

One of the “offending” organizations that uses the rat/Celtic Cross motif is Westland. Their website helpfully provides an explanation of the symbolic significance of black rat so we don’t have to resort to mind-reading:

Youth RatThe black rat has been used as a symbol of right-wing revolutionary nationalism for the past few decennia. It really symbolizes indifference towards criticism, rules of civility [and conduct],… which are being foisted upon us from the Left and other establishment lackeys. The insult of “black rat” was adopted as a badge of honor and adopted as a political symbol. In Flanders several organizations use(d) the black rat in their symbolism: VMO [Vlaamse Militanten Orde], NSV, NJSV, VJM,… In other countries this symbol has a longer pedigree.

ChlorophylleThe black rat as representative of militant radical nationalism was first used by French students of Groupe Union et Defense (GUD). From there it spread through the Latin world (especially in the Italian MSI and its youth organizations), but also to Flanders, among others. The drawings are based on the comic ‘Chlorophylle contre les rats noirs’ [Chlorophylle against the black rats] which appeared in 1956, courtesy of the Walloon author Macherot. In the story Chlorophylle battles the black rats who are led by their king Anthracite. Although the vegetarian dormouse Chlorophylle represents the “good guys” and champions individualism, Anthracite gradually steals the show and he emerges to be unlike a stereotypical bad guy. While Chlorophylle becomes more and more annoying, the cultivated Anthracite displays ever more human characteristics, combined with jovial cynicism and slyness. As a symbol, the bad black rat with its obstinate [not sure, but close — translator] humor has contributed to an attitude which combines verbal aggression, determination, humorous nostalgia [?], pride, and healthy provocation.
- - - - - - - - -
The original creator of the cartoon rat, Macherot, is “a master in poetic and satirical animal comics, as can be seen in both his ‘Chlorophylle’ and ‘Sibylline’ series. […] Originally, Raymond Macherot focused on a career in journalism and painting, but he soon started illustrating for financial reasons. […] Macherot’s actual comics career started in 1953, when he joined the Tintin magazine and the art studios of Lombard publishers. […] A year later, he created his first and best known animal series, ‘Chlorophylle et Minimum’. Macherot drew the series until 1963, commenting on many social en political issues through the view of the rodents Chlorophylle and Minimum and their continuing problems with vicious gangs of rats and ferrets.”

Even though Macherot’s rat is undoubtedly the villain of his stories, there is nothing to link the image to “white power” or “nazism”. Several nationalistic youth organizations did adopt the rat motif as “mascot”, but they did so because of other characteristics closely associated with anarchy. That rebellious adolescents, who spent their childhood reading these comics, might pick a counter-hero from these comics as a readily identifiable symbol to represent their “non-conformity” should hardly be surprising.

Another organization which uses the rat (specifically in its magazine) is Vlaams Belang Jongeren. The rat, complete with Celtic Cross armband, heads a column by a comics critic.

In one column (click on the .pdf icon), the critic evaluates the work and background of Dutch comic writer, cartoonist, and novelist Marten Toonder. He spends a good part of the article discussing the artist’s ruse of using two film studios provided by the German occupation regime during World War Two to provide shelter to fugitives, and to provide resistance personnel and illegal publications such as “Parool” and “Vrij Nederland” with counterfeit passports, stamps, signatures, letterhead etc. He had even cajoled the Germans into exempting his “firm” from the usual deportations of skilled workers, and even to allow him to hire blacklisted people because of the highly specialized nature of his work. In the end, neither studio would ever produce any film material whatsoever. The article overall is very positive on Toonder. In taking pains to point out the artist’s activities against the Nazi occupiers, the critic shows his admiration for those characteristics attributed to the “nationalist” Westland rat: subversion, radicalism, and nationalism. The author of the article therefore appears to identify “his” rat’s characteristics with the actions of the subject whose passing he marks “Rebellion” here would be in the praiseworthy sense, as rebellion against totalitarian oppression.

In an older article, the same critic’s rat heads a column on… the Smurfs. The critic spends the entire article explaining the Smurfs and their environment as an allegory on Communism. Some of the analogies require a huge leap of faith to see what the columnist “sees” in specific characters. Elegance aside, however, his portrayal of this fictitious world as a communist parable isn’t written in a way that endears either one. Moreover, the enemy of these unlikeable characters — a good guy — is something of a Jewish caricature, and the columnist alludes to the possible religious aspect of his faithful sidekick. If there is “white power” theory in any of this, it’s too subtle for me to notice.

Youth RatIn conclusion, “white power” and “Nazism” do not appear in association with the cartoon rat. Furthermore, the way the VBJ comics critic used the rat as his “mascot” while eulogizing an artist who worked to resist the real Nazis in one article, and while pillorying Communism in another, makes it clear that rebellion against submissive conformism is his creed.

As you can see, the black rat has been adopted as a generalized symbol of youthful anti-establishment rebellion, used mostly — but not entirely — by patriotic groups, and not as a white supremacist symbol.

In addition, you’ll notice also that the final illustration shown above is used for VJW, the “Youth of West Flanders”, which has been erroneously identified as being a part of Vlaams Belang, which it most assuredly is not.

Thus, the significance of the rat as a supposed “neo-Nazi” symbol depends entirely upon the cross on its armband. The the identification of Celtic Cross with “White Power” has already been debunked.

So the rat has been disposed of, and our debunking of the smears against Vlaams Belang has finally reached its conclusion.

The remaining arguments by VB’s enemies can be summarized as follows:

The Celtic Cross. Also the Cross. And then there’s the Cross, and also Odin’s Cross. And don’t forget the Cross!

Neo-Nazis abound!

This, plus two words spoken by Filip Dewinter in an interview, and his stated preference for his daughter’s choice of a future husband, are all that the attackers have. There isn’t anything else.

You’d have to add two cups of cornstarch to this mixture to raise it to the level of Pretty Thin Gruel.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

This completes our detailed refutation of all the allegations against Sverigedemokraterna and Vlaams Belang used to discredit Counterjihad Brussels 2007.

I’ll be writing a summary post or two to wrap up the whole sordid affair, and then we can finally do something else.

We’re almost ready to Move On.

To coin a phrase.


A special thanks is due to ProFlandria and the Flemish CVF team for their thorough, exhaustive, and professional work in researching the Celtic Cross and the Black Rat. We couldn’t have done it without their help.

50 comments:

John Sobieski said...

Charles has gone loopy, obsessed. His attacks are shallow and obsessive. He reminds me of the left - just as righteous and will never ever admit they made a mistake.

Timbre said...

I hope this mess evaporates quickly. I'm registered at LGF and I read GoV. And I just bought a Holger Danske hooded sweatshirt this past week.

Reliapundit said...

well done.

btw: someone ought to do a parody of charles's attacks as if they were against the dems for their party's stand in the us civil war (as has been mentioned).

Anonymous said...

Great post. Even though I chose sides a long time ago, I have a sense of closure, on learning the cultural context of this otherwise disturbing symbol. And reading it jogged my memory about something similar. Years ago, a political cartoon in the style of Mad Magazine's Spy vs. Spy, offended the Israeli government, who thought portraying Jews as ratlike spies was antisemitic. Americans who were familiar with the original cartoon explained to the Israelis that it wasn't antisemitic at all, it was just a clever way to draw spies, that all Americans would understand and find amusing. Sorry I don't remember the content of the cartoon. It happened so long ago, this is all I remember.

Profitsbeard said...

MAUS.

(I explained the meaning of the "VB Rat" on LGF, as soon as the topic came up, weeks ago, as something irreverently similar to American cartoonist Herriman's "Ignatz" the brick-slinging satirical rodent -from the classic "Krazy Kat" comic strip- or the poem-writing cockroach "Archy" from "Archy and Mehitabel" by Don Marquis, having looked at the original PDF pages and translated the "Strip Rubriek" article about Martin "Tom Poes" Toonder's wartime art and his daring Resistance work, which clearly made any 'neo-Nazi' association silly, since the artist being eulogized was anti-Nazi.)

Alexis said...

reliapundit:

It's difficult to parody Charles.

It's also difficult to parody the accusation of "Fascism" by Republican Spain's Stalinist government against P.O.U.M. The "Trotsky Fascist" calumny is amply documented by George Orwell. In the middle of a civil war, apparatchik Communists were happy to accuse the grassroots Communists of treason and alliance with Fascists.

Although I suspect the folks here would loathe being compared to Spanish Republicans, the Communist calumny against P.O.U.M. is probably the best historical analogy to Charles Johnson's attacks against Vlaams Belang and Filip Dewinter.

Perhaps one of these days, some aspiring writer will pen Lizard Farm...

Conservative Swede said...

Or 1984. Which will be the remaining number of lizards once Charles has completed his expulsions.

turn said...

Baron-

This--ahem--unfortunate obsession with racism and antisemitism has shown to be a distraction in the real struggle that is ongoing.

My post from earlier this week, Mohammed and Marx attempts to focus on the real vs the perceived.

Yeah, I'm sorry you had to write this; to spend valuable time and cyber-ink on what any adherent to common sense would describe as a flawed non-issue.

When the day comes--and it will--when things get busy I'm not going to care much that the Yorkshire man doesn't particularly like the Cornish man or the German doesn't care for the Nederlander as long as their particular prejudices don't lead to infighting.

We hang together or...well, you know.

Ed Mahmoud said...

I'm not 100% convinced of the innocence of the rat. And it comes down to the Celtic or Odin's cross armband. While a previous GoV thread proved that the symbol as a sign of Flemish nationalism predates the White Power use of the symbol, and thus an Odin's Cross is not automatically a symbol of White Power, its placement on an armband is a touch disturbing to me.


Is the black rat in an armband guilty beyong a reasonable doubt? Certainly not. But I'm not 100% convinced it isn't.


At any rate, if Nazis are as Nazis do, a political party that supports Israel and the Jewish people certainly doesn't act like a neo-Nazi party.

X said...

Ed, an armband in itself is innocuous. I still see people wearing arm-bands to denote a common allegiance. Ushers at big weddings, for example. :)

There's further grist to this particular mill; neo-nazi parties in most of Europe side with the palestinians against Israel. They don't support the presence of Israel even in that "it's got them all in one place" sort of way that I saw several LGF commenters ascribing to VB, SD and the like, they support the palestinian "struggle" against the jews.

They're sided with the antfa in that regard. Both groups support the palestinians... the real fascists are not the "far right" but the militant left.

no2liberals said...

"....the real fascists are not the "far right" but the militant left."
BINGO!
Symbols are misleading, and often are intended to be. For example, in the post WWII America, a group of motorcyclists formed into a gang. Many of these men fought against Nazis, yet, they wore Iron Crosses and German Army helmets. Why? Mostly, to express their anti-social behavior, not to express their love of Nazis, they wanted to be feared and reviled. They were about as non-political as one can be.
Personally, I'm glad to see this brouhaha winding down. As a disaffected former lgf commenter, the lgf blog owner's behavior has been evident to some, for quite a while. Were he to focus on what he did do well, he wouldn't have painted himself into a corner. Debunking him is made necessary, only because of his intransigence, and inability to consider any other explanations. He will never admit a mistake or misunderstanding.
no2liberals

turn said...

This is from the post that I linked to earlier on this thread:

"Somehow in the last five decades, by accident or intent, Nazism has been commingled with the 'Far Right' in the political spectrum. As if Nazi was to the right of Christian Conservatives and staunch Republicans. Such thinking is polluted from years of propaganda. Propaganda from where?

Nazi is short for National Socialism and it differs from the Soviet style in its 'national' rather than 'international' designation. (The Soviet national anthem was The International.) This places Nazis correctly on the left. Brutal centralized government, lockstep adherence to ideology and leaders that stay in power for life are the hallmarks of the 'left' as in Cuba, N. Korea, maybe Venezuela after this weekend's elections there and...Nazi Germany."

(Well, we had some good news Monday about the VZ elections.)

This had best be resolved shortly, my friends.

Friends we pick.

Squadmembers are picked for us.

I think we'd all be well served to look at the model of the US in WWII. Squadmembers may include Georgia Crackers, Boston Irish Catholics and Brooklyn Jews--people that would not normally associate--but they knew who the enemy was and found common cause.

Are we now so high and mighty that we will choose to not fight alongside someone with which we have ideological differences?

Think clearly and keep the focus on the Axis of Islam and socialism.

People don't need to sort out all of their prejudices and biases (they never will) to find common cause in an existential struggle.

no2liberals said...

"It is as much the responsibility of the Democratic Party to separate themselves from radical leftists as it is for moderate Muslims to separate themselves from radical Islamists.
The convergence of the radical left and radical islamists is the mortal enemy of Western democracy."
Nuke Gingrich, September 15, 2007

Newt has a way of cutting through the fog.

no2liberals said...

For an excellent speech Newt gave on terrorism a few months ago, go to youtube, and in the search box, type in Newt Gingrich On Terrorism.
He is deeply worried.

X said...

Are we now so high and mighty that we will choose to not fight alongside someone with which we have ideological differences?

It isn't us that need to hear this. This side of the debate isn't trying to divorce anyone from the counter-jihad, and I'm sure that the Baron and Dymphna would agree with me on this. GoV is part of a broad coalition and - despite things I've said in the past about leftism and left-wingers - I would gladly work with anyone from the left who sees the threat Islam poses as long as they were willing to work within the bounds the movement has created. We can argue about politics afterwards. Indeed, that's what would have happened had it not been for someone's obsession with trying to keep the whole counter-jihad pure - and on his terms and his definition of pure at that.

AngleofRepose said...

My 2 cents, FWIW..

It really symbolizes indifference towards criticism, rules of civility [and conduct],… which are being foisted upon us from the Left and other establishment lackeys.

IMHO, this is the key to this whole issue right there. I would submit that the addition of the armband is yet another provocation to those Leftist lackeys who smear them as white supremacists. It shows the VBJ as indifferent to the label. It might then explain why the video camera not only panned over to Dewinter's cross, but hovered there for full effect.

In other words, a provocative one finger salute to people like Chuck-E-cheese and his merry band of chipmonks.

It's simple: a politician wouldn't prominently display that symbol on his bookshelf, let alone allow footage of it if he was trying to avoid the label. So why have/do it?

Provocation and indifference is my guess.

turn said...

John-

You are right, of course. This is not the correct forum. But I've never had the time or deep inclination to register at LGF. Just hoping that a lurker might pick up on this and get it where it needs to go.

My comment was more to Ed and would have been more succinctly put as a question:

"Ed, do you need to be 100% convinced about an armband to decide if you'll fight by their side?"

Archonix-

Agreed. I will fight with a leftist by my side if and when he or she shows up for a fight lol.

More rational thought can be read at Diversidarity

(I love wordsmithing.)

Kiddo said...

Darn, my comment didn't post again. Blogger thing, thought that had been resolved.

Anyway, I had left a comment to the effect of
1.) Who says there can't be parody? Go elf yourselves! Heeheehee!

2.) Though I hate to bolster either side in this tempest in a teapot attempt to destroy the "counter-jihadi-spere", I cannot help but notice that the cross in question is also the logo of my very own Catholic Church, and that we are certainly not tied to any political groups in Europe, aside from the one really big one in Rome. The cross used as our logo is more of a truncated Celtic Cross rather than the straight out Odin's/Sun Cross, but quite obviously the same one.

The logo also appears twice on our church directory cover, in the title and in a photo of Mass, where it is on a banner.

Who knew?

I also left a comment to Dymphna saying that I had noted her comment elsewhere about grieving for her daughter and that I would leave her to her grief. I cannot truly understand, as no one can, the grief of another, but I understand grief and I'll leave you alone, aside from the "elfing", which is just silly to begin with. I wouldn't wish Christmas time grief like that on people no matter how I get along with them (or don't). My sincere condolences, again, Dymphna, about your daughter.

Papa Whiskey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Papa Whiskey said...

We are indeed in ProFlandria’s debt for his translations and research here. Some time ago Baron B. conveyed a request to him from me for translations of a couple of items from the Web site and blog of the VJW (“Youth of West Flanders”): the first being a Sept. 2 post lumping Filip Dewinter with George Bush and Geert Wilders as “very pro-Jewish goyim” who are “Islamophobes,” while declaring that “anti-Islamism is a trap set by the neoconservative right-wing”that “leads only to fatal consequences for Europe” and is “intended to keep Europe small and divided,” and the second an essay propounding the novel theory that the Danish cartoons published in Jyllands-Posten in Sept. 2005 were a “neoconservative provocation” cooked up at a May 2005 confab of the Bilderberg Group in Bavaria attended by the “Atlanticist oligarchy and the political elite of the Atlantic-capitalist world” in order to “mobiliz[e] the armies, bases and treasuries of Europe to the benefit of the neocon-hatched imperialist policies of the White House – including an aggressive policy towards Iran.” The writer based this crackbrained concept on the presence at the Bilderberg meeting of the head of the firm Danish Oil and Natural Gas, who is (aha!!) the husband of the director/manager of the corporation that publishes Jyllands-Posten. To anyone who has ever worked in the newspaper biz (as did this correspondent for 15 years), the idea that articles get cooked up at this level is laughable – as is the notion that a bunch of corporate bigwigs could foresee the uproar the Motoons would prompt in the Muslim world. (Note: this essay may be accessed here, but one must click first on “Vormingsteksten” and then on “De Mohamed Cartoons – Neocons recruteren Europa voor Amerikaanse geopolitiek.”)

Perusing the VJW sites, two things become evident. One is that this outfit’s attitude is quite different than that of Vlaams Belang: they want no truck with Jews, “neocons” or capitalism and are suspicious of “anti-Islamism.” The other is that their pitch to disaffected Flemish youth is strongly reminiscent of Hitler’s line in the early 1920s: the NSDAP styled itself a “Socialist Workers Party” to attract the many Germans who in the privation following World War I had Communist leanings, but also stressed its “National and “German” (and anti-Semitic) aspects to tap into German embitterment in the wake of Germany’s defeat. Just as the Nazis did, the VJW takes a leftist tack with its opposition to capitalism, globalization and “Amerkaans Imperialisme” (one VJW graphic shows a helmeted young demonstrator burning the stars and stripes), while tapping into Flemish nationalist sentiment with slogans such as “Eigen Volk Eerst (Our People First)” and “Vlaamse Sociale Republiek, Ja! Kapitalistich Immigratieland, No! (Flemish Social Republic, Yes! Capitalist Immigrationland, No!).” In this sense, the VJW and its “Nieuw Solidaristisch Alternatief (New Solidarity Alternative)” affiliate can justly be regarded as truly “neo-Nazi.”

Alexis said...

Lex:

If you want cartoons lampooning Charles Johnson (or Baal Hardonim, as I like to call him), I can do that rather easily. Too easily.

It is difficult to truly satirize something that satirizes itself. It's hard to satirize the pride people take in calling themselves lizards. Saturday Night Live could simply describe what goes on at Little Green Footballs and it would come across as a satire when it is really a straight description.

Tom Lehrer once said that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize." If some fiction writer dreamed up a story about a website called Little Green Footballs with a jazz guitar player who becomes a megalomaniac webmaster, followers who call themselves lizards, and political pretensions to opposing jihadists while becoming a straw man for worldwide jihad, it would be perceived to be a wicked political satire about how a political movement can be hijacked. Yet, any such "satire" would be art imitating life, straight journalism masquerading as comedy.

If one actually describes the world of Little Green Footballs to an ordinary person, it would be difficult for a man on the street to believe that such a blog could be taken seriously in political circles and endorsed by the Republican National Committee. Little Green Footballs is to political blogs what Spinal Tap is to rock bands.

Conservative Swede said...

Hnery Kissinger is one of the most decent people who's been awarded the Nobel Peace Price.

Conservative Swede said...

it would be perceived to be a wicked political satire about how a political movement can be hijacked

What was the expression again... hitching a ride for less than honourable reasons...

And Spinal Tap is great, btw. I have "Smell the glove" in my record collection.

Ernest said...

I am beginning to believe that most people have lost all common sense.


Where is James Cagney when you need him?

Ohhhhh you dirty rat!

Conservative Swede said...

Actually, every time I see this thread I misread it as The Fat Black Rat.

And now its a dirty far black rat?

Conservative Swede said...

fat black is should say...

far-black was an interesting concept though... why has that never been used?

Btw, read that again. There's an interesting case of self-reference here. The text describes itself: fat black

(or does that work only according to Swedish universals?)

OK, I'm idling now...

Alexis said...

I think any political movement should take the buzzword bingo test. When the rhetoric is stale, there is a problem. It would be easy to play buzzword bingo on al-Qaeda videos. Likewise, it would be easy to play buzzword bingo on Markos Moulitsas-Zuniga, Charles Johnson, and a few other political activists.

Although it is easy to get into a rhetorical rut, one should make the effort to ensure freshness within one's expression. And by "freshness", I mean an occasional shift in the variety of words one uses, not the euphemism for heavy odor used by American television advertisements for stinky perfume.

Kiddo said...

Alexis--no, I'm good thanks. As they say, sometimes comedy just writes itself. I'm just sitting back here with my popcorn. This was irresistible, but otherwise, the comments are generally enough for me.

I just never thought my Church would figure into the whole blog war madness, but there it was.

no2liberals said...

"Little Green Footballs is to political blogs what Spinal Tap is to rock bands."
ROFLMAO!
Is there an inflatable stage lizard involved?

Conservative Swede said...

Alexis & John,

Yeah, LGF is definitely one louder :-)

And what about all those drummers exploding or disappearing mysteriously from the stage? Could that be the band leader zapping them?

no2liberals said...

conservative swede
The lgf blog owner is still having difficulty finding the stage, methinks.

Conservative Swede said...

LGF is the jazz version of Spinal Tap. Just as silly, but in an entirely pretentious way, lacking any sense of humour.

Jazz musicians are mentally soloists. You ask a question like "Didn't you play with the Ramblers in Chicago?". He will typically answer "No, I never jumped on that band-wagon!"

1389 said...

FYI, here's my latest takedown of the minions from Leftist Green Footballs:

Attacking genuine evil in the blogosphere

Mr. Smarterthanyou said...

Wow, apparently some french group who attacked "anti-fascists" used the rat.

I wonder if "anti-Fascist" is some kind of PC-speak for card-carrying Marxist.

Epaminondas said...

It doesn't matter when I check in to read CONTENT, this will never die.

It is, as I read it, TRANSPARENTLY personal, and it a solipsoid extravaganza.

This is not going be a record some future Will and Ariel Durant are going to look to.

No one's mind is going to change at this point.

Allow reality to exert itself.

UGH!

Trotsky vs Stalin bolsheviks in some street cafe annoying each other in a bad scene from a movie about between wars existentialists comes to mind.

No doubt some fool will post a snide rejoinder to this coment and go 'HAH, I got him'

Just end it.

All this energy would be better directed to research on why the NIE is BUNK.

And now I'm stopping before the chest pains begin again

Alexis said...

Just end it.

Tell that to Charles.

Alexis said...

Somehow, I think a "white power" rat would be a more convincing symbol of "white power" if it were white.

Brian said...

Alexis wrote about Charles that he has "political pretensions to opposing jihadists while becoming a straw man for worldwide jihad".

Alexis, you have either never read LGF or you are daft. His opposition to Jihad is immediately evident to any sentient being.

Alexis said...

Charles Johnson does not define the counterjihad movement.

Sincere or not, Charles Johnson's blog is a parody of real opposition against Jihad. He seeks to sabotage the efforts of other people who also oppose the Islamists. He was informed beforehand about the invitation list to Counterjihad Brussels 2007 and had every opportunity to insist that Vlaams Belang not be invited to Counterjihad Brussels 2007. He only brought up the subject once the conference was over, when good news about the conference could be spread around.

I don't take back my words. Charles Johnson does have political pretensions to opposing jihad. I'm sure he even believes those pretensions. But Charles Johnson's pretensions to opposing jihad must not be confused with effective action against the Islamists. Much of what he does is counterproductive.

I have been well aware of Little Green Footballs for many, many years. Yet, the focus of that blog is not about defeating the Islamists, but upon building Charles Johnson's own little power base, even at the expense of smearing other people who oppose the Islamists. I call Charles Johnson "lord of lizards" or Baal Hardonim because he calls himself a herder of his "lizard army". It is hardly daft to notice that taking pride in being part of an army of lizards (with some members even donning neo-Nazi insignia) would come across as the depths of insanity if lucidly described to an ordinary person.

RISE_UP said...

Let's be elementary.Pure hypocrisy and nothing more.A person who does not believe they will ever have to make the choice of whose hand they might accept if they are drowning can easily spout the idiotic chants of: " NO NAZI IN MY FOXHOLE! THEY'LL BE IN MY CROSSHAIRS! " Anyone whose arse is on fire, or their families arses are on fire would eagerly grab the hand of even a BIG BLACK FAT RAT!!If you deny this, you are also a liar. And you would probadly also kiss their fat black rat arse for saving you. so stop with the stupid hypocrisy lgf (safe and sound behind your computers and will never be any more than that.)The beat goes on in the real world of Europe. They will decide who the rat is....

AngleofRepose said...

Damn. Just damn. Thick. As. Pigsh*t.

Let’s have a look-see at CJ’s latest –

Amid a lot of diversionary, off topic chatter about one of the columns for which the rat character was used as an illustration, Baron Bodissey posts this image of the rat:

“Diversionary, off topic chatter”? Um, Charles? That’s kind of an important aspect to ProFlandria’s report. After all, one of the VB authors was eulogizing an anti-Nazi artist. Quite telling that you not only left that part out, but described it as “diversionary”. Some lazy LGF reader who didn’t bother reading Baron’s post might have thought otherwise. Lie of ommission.

Let’s continue:

This image is symbolic of the entire argument of the pro-Vlaams Belang side in this controversy—because it’s incomplete and deceptive.

How so? ProFlandria provided the link to the VJWestland website he got that image from. It’s exactly as it is on their front page, sans the smashed capitalist images.

The image you posted came from an entirely different website that has nothing to do with the VJWestland. So where’s the deception? You then go on to say:

What Gates of Vienna didn’t show you: the part of the image that was cropped out, which includes ... again ... the white supremacist symbol known as the Odin’s Cross:

!!!!

Um, hey genius? Maybe that’s because GoV didn’t put up a link to that website in the first place. How can they show something not even being discussed… an obvious leftist and anti-capitalist rat. Who’s deceiving who here, Charles??

And what’s with this additional image Charles? The image used by the socialist VJWestland wasn’t enough to back up your “white power” “argument”? Ohhh!! That additional one is used by virulent Jew-haters!

You’re not arguing in good faith here and I believe more than enough people can see through your dishonest smear campaign. It’s more than obvious why “What Gates of Vienna didn’t show” us. Your readers are all the more dumb for it, too.

Let’s take a look at this gem (Peter's and EE's remarks in quotes):

354 Peter Verkooijen 12/07/07 1:24:29 pm 4

Notice how the fascist rat is smashing symbols of the “Enemies of Europe”. As a Carl Barks-fan, I am particularily amazed to see Uncle Scrooge’s head lying there.

“Also in the picture are the Statue of Liberty and McDonald's arches. This illustrates again that the European fascists or "extreme right" are primarily anti-American and anti-capitalist. Don't ever mistake them for slightly misguided conservatives!”



Um, excuse me Peter!! Moby much? A supposed conservative describing an anti-capitalists as “extreme right”?? And that stupid remark got 4 +’s. It get’s even better with this reply:

376 EE 12/07/07 1:45:05 pm 3

re: #354 Peter Verkooijen
Notice how the fascist rat is smashing symbols of the “Enemies of Europe”. As a Carl Barks-fan, I am particularily amazed to see Uncle Scrooge’s head lying there.
Also in the picture are the Statue of Liberty and McDonald's arches. This illustrates again that the European fascists or "extreme right" are primarily anti-American and anti-capitalist. Don't ever mistake them for slightly misguided conservatives!

“Thank you for pointing that out. The items being smashed are the Stature of Liberty, MacDonald's, and a Disney character with a top hat.
What the Euro-fascists most object to are American values (symbolized by the Statue of Liberty), American influence (symbolized by MacDonald's), and the free-enterprise capitalist system (symbolized by the Disney character in the top hat).
The racist Euro-fascists are not friends of America; they are enemies of America.”


3 +'s for EE! *groan*

Well, no sh*t sherlock, but ya missed the part where this particular “Euro-fascist” is on the extreme left, Einstein. You ain’t describing the VB here, you’re talking about GUD.

These two are just a couple of examples of teh dumb you can find in the comments. They’re too stupid to figure out which groups they’re discussing much less that it isn’t the VB rat that’s anti-capitalist. But to these two, a rat’s a rat!

Charles concludes with a description of the odious, Jew-hating, anti-capitalist GUD – helpfully closing out his “argument” that… what? Because the GUD and the VB use the same rat, the VB MUST be anti-capitalist, Jew-haters too? Well done, cuz that’s what Peter and EE brought away from it! (the anti-capitalist part anyways).

Fine job, Charles. You’ve managed to pull the wool yet even further past the eyes of those merry chipmonks of yours. All hail King Charles! The Master at Lies by Ommission.

X said...

angelofrepose, this is pretty much the argument I made on That Fascist Solar Cross, about context of the symbols involved. Shorn of cotext a sybmol can be made to mean whatever you want, because a symbol's meaning is largely drawn from the context it sits in. It's near the bottom.

I gave up arguing with David because he's apparently denser than uranium.

AngleofRepose said...

I saw that, archonix. And you're absolutey right.. context is everything, and Charles is basing his whole "case" w/out it.

He's continually argued his side in bad faith. Lies by ommission and by painting a picture for his flock w/out context. He's mislead them in such a way that to them, the VB are goose-steppin, Jew-hatin, anti-capitalist white supremacists. First rate hack.

1389 said...

Wow! Soon after I posted this takedown on the LGF commenters, my blog stats told me that this particular blog post was getting traffic referred from Another Vlaams Belang Whitewash. So I went over to look at that thread.

I never imagined how STOOOOOPID the few remaining active commenters at LGF actually are. The lack of reading comprehension and recall over there is astonishing. They made some truly brainless accusations, so I ended up posting this article about it at GCP Forums.

The change in the intellectual and moral level of discourse over at LGF reminded me of the final scenes of that horrible movie, Charly, and of the dismantling of HAL 9000. It's that bad.

Baron Bodissey said...

1389 --

"Charles... Charles... My mind is going, Charles. I can feel it going... Charles.

"Daisy, Daisy, give me yourrr aanswerrr doooo...."

Conservative Swede said...

Brian,

Alexis, you have either never read LGF or you are daft. His opposition to Jihad is immediately evident to any sentient being.

As immediately evident as the ones of Bush and Blair?

Anonymous said...

Conservative Swede said...
Brian,

Alexis, you have either never read LGF or you are daft. His opposition to Jihad is immediately evident to any sentient being.

As immediately evident as the ones of Bush and Blair?

Way to change the subject, CS.

You know, I once had great respect for your words... are you even capable of answering the question, or are you simply having too much fun bashing Charles, with Alexis and your mob of like-minded friends?

Go ahead... all of you. Support the character assassination of a decent, honorable man. If this is what you are all about, then why hide it?

Every single person on this thread is WELL aware of what CJ has done for the anti-jihad movement, and you know how dedicated he is to this cause. You may not agree with him, but you cannot deny his commitment nor his dedication.

You slander him here, on threads like this one, so that you can garner kudos from the other pathetic people who enjoy posting degrading comments about other people for fun.

Its' called "mobbing".

Those of you who have been banned from LGF must be very happy that you've now found a supportive place where you can spew your angry, slanderous vile about Charles and LGF. Kudos to Baron, the great enabler! Three cheers!

Charles Johnson is an intelligent, quiet man of deep principal who is speaking from his conscience. Intelligent people (like you folks claim to be) should honor that, and treat the man with respect... even if you don't agree with him.

He has done great service to the anti-jihad movement, for many years now, and he does not deserve the ugly treatment that he is receiving from the blog owner and participants here at GoV.

CS, I don't see how people like you, Baron, and the other slanderous fools here can look at yourselves in the mirror.

How sad that you folks refuse to see what you have become.

I'm sure you think yourselves to be cute, intellectual, and witty... but its' painfully obvious to the many silent people out here who are following this debate, that Baron has sold the integrity of this site down the river because his pride has been wounded. But if this is the image that you prefer to project and promote, folks, then so be it and carry on.

As I know that you'll all jump on the bandwagon and attack me for defending CJ's reputation now, I invite you to give it your best shot. Say what you like. Slander me, stalk me, belittle me, insult me. Tell me what a stupid, clueless, ignorant American I am.

I won't be surprised, I assure you... I'm never surprised when people who lack character, don't show any.

Baron, I respected you once and very much so. But you are, quite frankly, a fool. Your pride has gotten the best of you, and you ought to be ashamed of what you have allowed this place to become... a blog that was once one of the finest anti-jihad blogs on the net.

Your message here has been poisoned by the arrogant, elitist bile of your participants and the LGF outcasts that you invited in to prop up your pride... probably beyond repair.

I've said my piece, and it's time to go. So slander away, folks. Attack your fellow European because I was born - and choose to live on - American soil. Be as mean, ugly, and vile as you like.

This is the internet... you don't have to display character, decency and intgrity here, like you are expected to do out in the real world.

Know this: I want Europe to survive, just as much as you do. But you MUST face facts - Europeans cannot do this alone. Your "highly evolved, superior European intellect" will not save you... it's simply a matter of numbers.

If you insist on maintaining your undeniable ties to those who promote white nationalism/racial supremacism, folks, you will be alone in your fight... guaranteed. Americans will NOT support you in this effort. Not now, and not ever.

You ignore these words, at your own peril.

Farewell, friends.

Pixel Bunneh said...

Irish Rose seems to have some reading comprehension problems, but that's what we've come to expect of LGF.

Way to go, totally ignore the slander perpetrated by that "intelligent, quiet man of deep principal who is speaking from his conscience", Irish Rose.

Americans will NOT support you in this effort. Not now, and not ever.

Speak for yourself. Some of us have the intelligence and ability to look for ourselves rather than buy into every lie (yes, you read that right) that Charles states as fact Irish Rose.

RISE_UP said...

Interesting how Irish Rose appears to be speaking for all of america.Truth is..america will be there for Europe just as america will be there for Israel. Lgf? insignificant.

Kiddo said...

Aww Irish, you'd get just as good a laugh as the people here bashing LGF if you could read that Arabic back there. Oddly, I know what that says but not the meaning behind "Little Green Footballs". Anyone here know?