There are many things that piss me off. In fact, every day the list gets longer. This should come as no surprise. After all, there’s a lot to get angry about.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Melanie Philips, Council Tax, the smoking ban, teenage thugs, The Be*tles, text ‘language’, 4X4 drivers and idiots that see your pair of aces all-in on 9 2 unsuited but fluke a pair on the flop then hit trips on the river – and so on and so forth, to give just a few examples from my ever expanding list.
At the moment, though, what I’m really having trouble dealing with are the mindless morons responsible for propagating anti-Muslim urban myths. Actually that’s too kind. Malicious lies and ignorant nastiness is much more accurate.
At this point, I should make it clear that I am not pro-Muslim in any way, shape or form. Equally, I’m not pro-Christian, pro-Hindu or pro any organised religion, for that matter. I have not a moment’s time for the irrationality of religion. In fact anyone, buying into any religion, to such an extent that they think the slaughter of innocents will earn them a heavenly ticket to ride, deserves nothing but the deepest contempt, disgust and vilification.
There’s something else at work here, though, and it’s simply the same old racism, bigotry and stupidity, given the semi ‘legitimate’ cloak of ‘respectability’ by ostensibly opposing terrorism and it’s foul, frankly.
Let me give you a few examples. I had an email from someone a while back that purported to tell the true story of an altercation between a Muslim woman and a checkout girl at Woollies.
So the story went, the Muslim girl objected to the shop girl’s Union Jack badge, accused her of racism and murdering her countrymen etc to which our patriotic checkout girl, in a fit of right wing fervour, declared herself proud of ‘Our Boys’ (don’t you just want to puke at that phrase?) who were bravely defending our noble land from murdering gangs of terrorist foreigners. If she didn’t like it then why not piss off back to Iraq?
We recipients were then urged to forward the email to as many people as possible, to show ‘Our Boys’ how much we supported them and to send a message to murdering Muslims that it’s our country and if ‘they’ don’t like it then ‘they’ can piss off back home.
Normally I growl and delete this trash but on this occasion I thought, “Bollocks, right back at you!” So I replied to everyone on the email and starkly declared it to be a pack of lies, promising anyone with concrete, documentary proof of this incident taking place anywhere in the UK, not just Woollies, that I would divvy up a ton.
Surprise, surprise, no takers. Not even one, pathetic, half-baked attempt to make an easy £100. Because it was a fabrication from start to finish, of course. What was disturbing, though, was that it didn’t matter. Too many people are all too ready to believe this sort of poisonous propaganda without giving its accuracy a second thought. Because they want to believe it. It taps into the ignorance and prejudices these mental defectives already hold dear and, given the volatile climate that currently exists between the Muslim world and the West, it is a disgrace.
Another one doing the rounds at Christmas was the post-911 equivalent of Bah Bah Whitesheep. Shockingly, we learned employees around the country were banned from putting up Christmas trees in offices and workplaces as this celebration of debauched Christian excess would offend our Muslim brothers and sisters and, therefore, constitute a racist act.
The moment I heard that one I groaned. The predictability of it was just mind numbing. Sure enough, numerous people I encountered over the following few days, puffed up their English chests, whipped themselves into a frenzy of nationalistic self-righteousness and declared, again so predictably, that things had gone too far and that this was yet a further example of, wait for it….POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD!
Of course, it never happened. Anywhere. Despite extensive trawling of the internet and in-depth enquires of a variety of reputable sources I could not find any supporting evidence at all of any employer, anywhere issuing such a ban for any reason even close to the one outlined above.
Dpressingly, this phenomenon is not new and not even exclusive to Muslims, far from it in fact. Older readers will recall similar dirty, smears doing the rounds in the 80’s, usually peddled by tacky, toilet paper tabloids like The Sun, The Daily Mail et al.
Back then it was fashionable to bash so called ‘Loony Left’ councils and if it meant black people had more grief to deal with as a result then that was just tickety boo; two for the price of one. Typically, a North London Borough would be the hated institution. Places like Islington, Hackney and so on, we were informed, variously banned black bin bags because they were deemed ‘racist’ and a generation of pure-white, pre-school, Anglo-Saxon angels were forever traumatised and morally ruined because they were forced to sing ‘Bah Bah Whitesheep’.
First into the gutter was The Daily Star in 1986 who attributed the Bah Bah Whitesheep lie to Hackney Playgroups followed by the Daily Mail in 1987 who fancied giving Islington the blame.
To give the paper credit, though, it really knows its readers because it repeated the lie in 2000, this time heaping the opprobrium onto local government in Birmingham, secure in the knowledge that the brain dead racists and Colonel Blimps that constituted the paper’s core audience would be too dense to notice the difference. Incredibly, its sister rag, The Mail on Sunday, took it out for another spin in 2005, this time changing the location to Aberdeen. And still people fell for it.
Anyone remember the last World Cup? You may, then, recall the ludicrous England shirt ban. Yes indeed, pub landlords the length and breadth of the land were banned by the police from allowing anyone into their hostelries while wearing an England football shirt. Because, yawn, it would offend Muslims. Again, total and utter bollocks that never happened. At all. Ever. Anywhere. Even once.
But hang on a sec, H; what about the toddler booted from the bus for wearing an England shirt? Ah, that would be this gem from The Daily Mail, right?
ANGRY mum Sam Fardon says her toddler son was ordered off a bus – because the driver found his England shirt “offensive”!
Two-year-old Dylan Hall was with his mum and baby brother Adam, aged 10 weeks, when they were told to leave the 34A service from Newcastle Bus Station.
Miss Fardon says it was only after other passengers intervened that they were allowed on to the bus. The 27-year-old, from Trent Vale, left with Dylan, said: “As we got on the bus, my two-year-old son had an England shirt on and the bus driver, who had an Eastern European accent, said he found it offensive. He said, ‘he won’t be wearing that during the World Cup, will he’? I said Dylan would and the bus driver said: ‘I find that really offensive’. I couldn’t believe it.
He said we’d have to get off the bus but I argued with him and other passengers backed me up, so he let us on. I think it’s disgraceful. I had baby Adam with me as well, luckily he wasn’t wearing his England baby-grow.”
Miss Fardon says she caught the bus at 9am on Thursday, to take Dylan to a toddler group in Chesterton. She says she sent an email of complaint to First Bus from her phone immediately, then called into Newcastle Bus Station at around 3pm to complain in person.
Miss Fardon’s partner Chris Hall, aged 55, a taxi driver, said: “I’m not very happy about it. It’s just showing support for your country during a World Cup, there’s nothing offensive about it. During the World Cup I will have England flags on my taxi.”
Selwyn Brown, chairman of North Staffordshire bus users group Aces, said: “It’s unbelievable. Assuming it’s true, the bus driver is to be condemned. Not just because there’s nothing wrong with wearing an England shirt, but that it was a little child. It’s totally ludicrous.”
Paul De Santis, commercial director of First Bus, confirmed the firm was following up the complaint.
He said: “We are investigating. We will be following it up with the customer to get a bit more detail. We are fully supporting England’s World Cup campaign and will be putting supporting material in all our buses. No-one should have to accept those sort of comments, certainly none of our customers.”
Out of order, right? And, predictably, the loathesome National Front were over the moon and reprinted it on their website http://www.national-front.org.uk/toddler.htm finishing with demands for the driver to be deported.
Pity they didn’t have the decency and integrity to also reprint the reply from the bus company (emphasis mine), which read…
Following an alleged incident involving our service and the refusal of a young passenger wearing an England shirt, the following statement has been issued to the media. Paul De Santis, Commercial Director for First said: “The claim made about one of our drivers’ behaviour is a very serious one and we have been in touch with this woman several times to try to establish what actually happened.
We have carried out a full investigation and can’t find any evidence to substantiate this claim. No driver fitting the description given was working on any routes in this area at that time. Our buses were busy around the time yet no one else has been in touch with us about this alleged incident.
We expect the highest level of professionalism from our drivers and such an act would not be tolerated. However, in this instance it now appears that no such incident took place.
Far from banning England shirts on our buses, First is fully supportive of England’s World Cup campaign and we are, in fact, currently fitting good luck banners featuring England flags on all our buses in England.”
Mark Twain once perceptively observed that “A lie is halfway around the world before the truth has put its boots on” a phenomenon for which unscrupulous editors must surely be deeply thankful, but what’s your excuse?
So here’s a radical suggestion; next time some knee-jerk, single-digit IQ troglodyte regurgitates any of the above lies, why not politely ask them to provide some proof? You could then suggest that independent thought is good for the mind and that ignorance, stupidity, hatred and prejudice are not really effective substitutes for truth, accuracy and humanity. Just a thought…
Great read as always, Harry. Thanks for posting.
As always a good read Harry, unfortunately most people jump on the bandwagon, ive even been guilty myself in the past and as you say the majority don’t check further and believe what they have read instead of saying hang on a minute, when in reality its somebody preying on peoples insecurities & idiocy for there own end be it the Newspapers or even bigger idiots than the National Front.
I agree, I spend the majority of my life at a computer of some sort. However when I see stories like this it does deem for some investigation. Like yourself, I haven’t found any for a single story I’ve read.
Social network fuelled propaganda, that’s all it is.
Ho-hum. Another article stating the obvious. Many fair points are present in here but only the people who already don’t believe in this kind of thing will take note.
Those who believe the false stories printed in these newspapers and sent around in E-Mails will simply continue to do so and even if they read this article, would simply state that you were the one lying and bullshitting because you are a “lefty.”
On a side note, I would have had a higher opinion of this article had you not put the line “I have not a moment’s time for the irrationality of religion” in there. Ouch. A bit hypocritical for someone tirading against “ignorance” no?
Maybe should have left the unnecessary personal swinging of the Atheism bat out of there, lest those who believe in something outside of human knowledge argue you into a stale-mate with both sides saying “Prove it” as many pointless arguments on the subject go, never actually achieving anything.
Well, it might be obvious to you but it’s clearly not obvious to the millions of idiots who unthinkingly accept this nonsense. As for “another article”, well, I’m not aware of a proliferation of like-penned polemics. In fact, almost by definition, I’m clearly very much in the minority espousing such views, aren’t I? Not a very consistent argument from you then, I’m afraid.
And, contrary to your assertion, I’ve actually been heartened by the responses of some of those so inclined, to accept they’ve unquestioningly believed utter nonsense and thanking me for an article they’ve felt was informative, educational and a welcome antidote to some of the more nasty-minded propaganda doing the rounds.
Regarding your second paragraph, well, anyone accusing me of lefty-inspired “lying and bullshitting” is going to look pretty stupid considering I provide documented, checkable facts to back my contentions
Again, not a particularly impressive piece of logical refutation from you.
As for “…swinging the atheism [sic] bat”, well, some remarkable hypocrisy from you,, ironically, given you’re clearly of the, ah, religious persuasion. and, therefore, have your very own agenda to push. Ahem…
Perhaps acquainting yourself with Mathew 7:5 might be useful
However, I do accept that the clear link I draw between religious belief and its more extreme manifestations, i.e. bombing, maiming and killing might have been a little too subtle for you to grasp so allow me to clarify: I believe a belief in an entirely unproven phenomenon, that is so strong it motivates one to kill, is as fair and accurate a definition of “irrational” as one could reasonably expect. I would hope even those of a religious persuasion would find that an entirely uncontroversial statement.
Thank you, though, for your comments and taking the time to read the article.