Schrebergartenanalysten - Seelig sind die geistig armen

Submitted by Michel C. Zala (Switzerland), Dec 14, 2010 at 12:15

When I read the neue Zuercher Zeitung,Le Monde, the Corriere or Der Spiegel, all print media out of Europe, I oftentimes find myself frustrated by the depictions of mainstream America and my party, The American Republicans and particularily the Tea Party itself. It seems those correspondents and reporters either have no clue, what real life in America looks like or pursue some liberal agenda. To my opinion it breaches the borderline of outright lying. Either they don't "get" us, or they do not want to "get " us, as we do not correspond to their own views.

A few months back, Obama held a press conference in the context of the relations with China. As I have a subscription for an internet TV with Fox News, being at present in Europe, I was able to see the speech he gave in full and monitored it word for word. English is a simple language, due to a comparably small amount of words needed to make conversation, however, this "simplicity" also makes it a bit tricky, as depending on body language, tone, grammar one has to oftentimes read between the lines, and the same word can have various meanings.It does take a while, until one is able to particularily get the language spoken in a diplomatic context and Mr. Obama, an attorney after all, using a lot of disclaimers and qualifiers, as lawyers do, certanly does not make it easier. Nevertheless, not once, in no way shape or manner did Obama ever mention or touch upon any human rights issues, let alone Tibet. The whole speech was a love fest at best.
The very next day I read in the Tages Anzeiger (renowned News paper in Switzerland) the bold headline:
"Obama admonishes the Chinese with regard to human rigthts"

Example 2: After the midterm elections a few weeks back, during which the Obama Admin and the Democrats were handed a historical defeat and lost their majority in Congress in a landslide to the Republicans, carried and inspired heavily by my Tea Party, he held yet another PC the very next morning, which again I followed closely. Not once did he congratulate the Republicans, showed any kind of humility in defeat, or admitted to have been on the wrong track. Nope, he actually said nothing to the fact, but only after being pushed repeatedly by a journalist, who asked, if perhaps his course, agenda of priorities, direction or ideology of big gov, big spending was rejected by the people, gave himself in response to the question a backhanded compliment, while snubbing the People yet again: " We accomplished everything we set out to do, we did not make mistakes in that, but solely did not explain our efforts and goals sufficiently". Loosely transcribed: The People were too stupid to understand, how good we are. The very next day, again in the newspapers in Europe: "Obama admits mistakes, Obama shows humility".

Only 2 small examples to demonstrate how the actual truth can and will be distorted by a media, which is biased and actively pursues its own ideology. Subsequently a vast amount of readers will of course consume such slanted information, then, step by step, will eventually buy into such an ideology.
It is this kind of reporting, which led for instance to the growing anti-American sentiments in Europe or an utterly skewed perception of Bush.

The thus already flawed information is then gobbled up avidly by fanatic deskjockeys one finds on the fringe of any topic, further spun (out of control) and then regurgitated in usually already poisoned climates of internet forums up to and not limited to Daniel Pipes.org.

Here's the punchline: If a paranoid loner sits in isolation and the safety of some shed (Schrebergarten) in his backyard, every single day consuming books and browsing the internet to his specific topic of interest (such as Islam), one should be immensly careful, when dishing out critique or even attacking people, as one in addition to being a deskjockey, regurgitating oftentimes flawed secondhand knowledge, should have lived in Europe, been in Turkey, know the people on the mainstreets, before qualifying a European's view on Turks in Europe, before having the arrogance to belittle someone else's perspective, let alone someone who actually has had some firsthand experiences.

Okay, I will spell it out in order to leave absolutely no room for misinterpretation:

Dhimmi, you are a bonehead in the tradition of eastern American rednecks or hillbillies. Speaking Arabic you evidently know everything there is to know about Islam. You own the ultimate truth. No room for distinction or differentiation, no greyzones. You also know Europe better than any European. Heck, you know the Turks better than they know themselves. You know history better than any historian. You just know better than anyone. You know everything about anyone anywhere and anytime. Bravo.

As far, as I am concerned, I was blessed to have a job with Boeing, allowing me to do (repeat) business in every corner of the world, including most muslim countries. I am a European, who lived in the USA for the last 20 years and speak several languages myself - but, and here is the difference - while I gained some first plus second hand knowledge during my life, it has led me to question my beliefs and second guess my instincts, rather than argue with absolute statements. The more I learned, the more questions arose.

I envy you for your certainty to have all the answers, as it makes life easy, does it not? Unfortuntately it is because of people like you that we stumble from conflict to conflict. Ironically, your mental state and fanaticism is perfectly reflected by foaming fanatics of the Taliban for instance. Eventhough you guys pursue a diammetrally opposed agenda and ideology, on a psychological dimension you guys belong in the same institution. If you had the guts to pick up a sword yourself (something I highly doubt, as hiding behind the internet, while spewing out hatred under a pseudonym is the manner of a coward), you'd been the perfect crusader.

You are a sad example and role model for western culture and achievements, and I find myself ashamed for belonging to the same environment. Your rabies hurts the actual cause. Your rants and temper tantrums hinder any effort to get any healthy discussion going and have quite actually diminished the quality of the debate. While the mob applauds you, less and less intelligent contributions and comments appear and pretty much the last muslim who was willing to engage in a considerate manner, has left the building. What remains to a high extent at least, is collective masturbation to the same porn video with fewer and fewer comments actually worth reading.

So much for Freedom of Speech.

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