One of the things that has shocked a lot of people about Anders Behring Breivik is the fact he appeared so normal and how he wasn’t on the authorities radar because he wasn’t part of some neo-nazi or skinhead organisation.
Of course in retrospect they’ve found a lot of stuff on the web pointing to the kind of extreme right-wing politics he had but for some reason that never triggered any warning bells.
What hasn’t been covered is just how widespread Breivik’s brand of extremism is. As Danyl has touched on over at the dim post, there are a large number of people out there on the net who believe, as Brevik does, that there is a huge Marxist/Islamist conspiracy to destroy the white Christian race. In New Zealand they often have ties to the more mainstream political right, a notable example of this is the ex vice-president of the ACT party, Trevor Louden.
Many of these people think nothing of calling for their opponents to be eliminated (as some authors here have discovered) and talk frequently of preparing themselves for race war and of how they hanker after a new crusade. However they also talk disparagingly of the skinheads they share so much of their ideals with – preferring instead to think of themselves as enlightened intellectuals, often with a classical bent (using half-baked classicism and templar myths as justification for their views). I imagine they pass for normal everyday men – for some reason they’re always men – who are probably slightly shy and social inept in person.
Blogs such as Crusader Rabbit or Oswald Bastable show how close to the surface of New Zealand’s discourse this vile philosophy is:
For some years I have been predicting a violent backlash to the cancer of socialist governments throughout Europe. In particular, to the colonization of their countries by Muslims.
This has come to pass and I’m betting there will be more of this. As any attempts to oppose this colonization are shouted down, ignored by the PC media and attacked by ‘hate speech’ laws- it is to be expected that there will be those frustrated by having no voice and that they will take violent action.
As has happened.
In a country very like New Zealand…
However even more mainstream blogs such as nominister engage in these dangerous conspiracy theories and it’s rife in the comments section of national party blogger David Farrar’s blog (commenters who are now claiming it’s the left’s fault for banning guns).
The usual right-wing suspects will claim that I am being blind to left violence, they will claim that the left use equally violent hate-speech in New Zealand’s blogosphere. Frankly I doubt it, however righties who want to make this claim should feel free to paste a link in the comments. But I doubt that anyone will be able to match the chilling vitriol of this rightwinger’s description of Breivik’s victims:
Taxpaying socialist families and socialist youth training camps are not innocent.
Update (IrishBill): “rife in the comments of national party blogger David Farrar” changed to “rife in the comments section of national party blogger David Farrar’s blog”
I certainly didn’t intend to give the impression that DPF is one of these extremists, but to convey the fact that they regularly comment on his blog.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress