Ethno-Nationalism, or Racism, or Whatever??? ( was Re: a discussion

From: tgpedersen
Message: 58782
Date: 2008-05-23

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "david_russell_watson" <liberty@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "david_russell_watson" <liberty@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > You were responding to my comments about a madman, in which
> > > I was referring to cybalist. I'm clarifying the context in
> > > which I was writing myself, not scolding you for anything.
> >
> > You made a statement which was factually wrong. I corrected it.
>
> Well I don't know what you're talking about then. To what
> statement of mine do you refer? Please cut and paste it
> so that we can be sure it was my actual words and not your
> own misunderstanding of some.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/58759
'
> > > > Use that Argument in place to qualify an ideology as BAD, and
> > > > based on this to qualify the related people as being BAD.
> > >
> > > I think it's usually adequate to qualify the ideology as
> > > simply stupid,
> >
> > How do you do that without a common frame of reference?
>
> If you're asking how that is to be done in the great big world,
> then that's a difficult question, and one off topic, but we're
> talking only of cybalist,

I think I know what I was talking about.
'
Obviously we are discussing the general case in the above quote.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/58775
'
> > > You were responding to my comments about a madman, in which
> > > I was referring to cybalist. I'm clarifying the context in
> > > which I was writing myself, not scolding you for anything.
> >
> > You made a statement which was factually wrong. I corrected it.
'
And therefore the last statement in the quote above here is correct.

...


> > > I think I've kept up with the context at each point in our
> > > discussion, and responded accordingly each time.
> >
> > Irrelevant, and you know it.

> You are not to use "and you know it" in this manner with me.

If you have a problem with how I address you, address the moderator
about it.

> It implies that I know one thing to be true but say another,
> which is lying, and I do not lie and will not tolerate being
> called a liar.

You have a theological problem here. You respect no authorities to
tell anybody what to do, so you can't tell the moderator to stop me
without violating your own creed.
And of course, if I catch you lying again, I will say so.


> > I've had the misfortune of being involved in a car accident there
> > when it was still Yugoslavia.
>
> I take it there was a head injury of some sort involved? Can
> you remember or not if that was the same day your fascination
> with shaved beavers first began?

My interest in mercury poisoning started when I found out that most of
the symptoms at the time: extreme fatigue, panic attacks, metallic
taste in my mouth corresponded to the symptoms of chronic mercury
poisoning. I had my mercury amalgam based fillings replaced with
plastic, also the gold bridgework some dentist jerk had installed
crooked on top of some old amalgam fillings, and since then most of my
symptoms have receded.

> > The mentality of the officials in those public institutions I got
> > in contact with pursuant to that was such that I would distrust
> > any type of state those people would make based on whichever
> > ideology.
>
> Ah, so the bureaucrats encountered in any given country are a
> fair indication of the worth of the entire culture, eh? I'm
> afraid you'll never find a single culture of any worth if you
> insist on that as your test.

The bureaucrats of any given given state are recruited from the
people(s) of that state, and reflect the attitudes towards the general
public of those people(s). Actually they matched yours perfectly. Also
remember that in those days everyone was a state employee. The people
I'm talking about include garage owners, official of the motorists'
union etc.

> - edit -
>
> > > So all you've done is to cite a perfect example of the evils of
> > > ethno-nationalism.
> >
> > People are not right in the head in that end of the world is all
> > I can say,
>
> But I wish you could say more. I mean, by virtue of knowing
> something more.

That's all I know. People who commit atrocities as those in Srebrenica
(and it happened from all sides) are not right in the head.

> > which of course I'm not allowed to.
>
> In what way are you not so allowed?

I have formerly been sanctioned for a flippant remark about Odin being
Tyson-like because of his alleged black ancestry. The remark I made
about Yugoslavs could have been interpreted by moderators to be
deserving of similar sanctions. George, for one, found it inappropriate.

> You did say it, yet none has come to haul you away, has he?

You stated that that the owner of the the group had a right to haul
people away. I didn't.

> You haven't even as much as been banned from cybalist.

Not this time.

> You're not one of those people erroneously believing another's
> right to criticize your speech itself somehow an obstruction
> to your own freedom speech, are you?

We were not talking about my beliefs in other people's right to
criticize what I say, but of my risks of being sanctioned if I vented
some of my opinions. You are again misrepresenting the subject.


> If you're free to say that Yugoslavs aren't right in the head,
> then why should I be any less free to say you're not right in
> the head yourself for believing so?

No, why indeed? And?

> The two rights go hand in hand, though I wonder if yours isn't
> merely a case of one calling "foul"

I was not crying 'foul'.

> when he is losing.

> (I don't mean losing this particular argument here on cybalist,

No, that would not make much sense.

> but rather as a hold-out racist in a larger world becoming daily
> more enlightened.)

Enlighten yourself here. Note the table:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations


> > The basic principle of linguistically based ethno-states is that
> > it is nice when everybody in a state speaks the same language,
> > since then there exists (if you don't actively suppress it) a
> > public space in which the business of the state can be discussed
> > by the whole people.
>
> Yes. I understand that to be one of the arguments for a mono-
> lingual state. It even makes a little sense, however, as far
> as I am concerned, the freedom of the individual is the most
> important consideration, about which read on below.
>
> > In a country with several linguistic groups with equal rights,
> > you get several public spaces with limited communication between
> > them, depending on the number of bi-, tri- or more -linguals
> > participating in politics which will always be small compared to
> > ther number of monolinguals. You then get a Millet state on the
> > Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian model,
>
> Didn't the fact that the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires
> weren't constitutional democracies have something to do with
> their problems?

Neither did Germany at the time, but the German state was
overperforming, if anything, in providing material progress to its
citizens, whatever one may think of its constitution, so, no, not
much, I'm afraid.


> I don't think comparing a multi-ethnic multi-lingual U.S., for
> example, and the Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian empire is ever
> going to be very convincing.

For every passing year that comparison will convince more people,
eventually you will also discover that your country is becoming the
sick man of the Americas.

> > which will always underperform relative to monolingual states,
> > because of problems in communication caused by translation, or
> > the lack thereof.
>
> What is meant by the "underperformance" of a state, though?

That's a relative term, of course. Seen relative to the sinking
average intelligence of your country, its performance will probably
fall within the expected range.


> I'm an individual, not a state,

I don't think I claimed you were a state.

> and potentially capable of performing quite well in the context of
> the larger world and its economy regardless of how the majority of
> my co-nationals are performing.

If you are thinking of emigrating to China or some other successful
nation, forget it. They are not so stupid as to permit unlimited
immigration on the basis of some suicidal ideology.

> That is assuming that the local protection racket... err... I mean
> "government" leaves me alone to do so.

Tony Soprano couldn't have put it better.

> So why should I care how my country, judged as a collective,
> is ranked in some list of countries and their success?

Because, whether you want it or not, your wealth is dependent on
theirs. Ultimately, all wealth in your country depends on your
collective manufacturing capability. Once that's gone, all derivative
wealth disappears too.

> My only criteria for the performance of a state is that its
> citizens be as free as possible, with the machinery of state
> itself absolutely blind to factors such as the race, religion,
> ethnicity, language, etc. of its citizens.

Of course. Unfortunately, in an ethnically badly mixed state, citizens
are not blind to those factors, which leads to everyone disowning the
state, like people did in Yugoslavia long before the breakup, which
means whatever attitude the state has doesn't matter much.

> > > > > And the whole would probably be better off as one big
> > > > > nation, with such things as language, culture, and religion
> > > > > a purely private matter, as is proper for all states.

Det kan du da ha ret i. Grunden til jeg bruger engelsk her er for at
bl.a du skal kunne forstå det, men jeg kan da også skrive på dansk,
hvis det skulle falde mig ind.


> > Inasmuch as neither forms an organization with the purpose of
> > violently overthrowing the state, ie. that they are all in a
> > weakened, harmless form.
>
> What are we talking about now; is it not your Islamophobia?
>
> I've never said people need allow one of its religious groups
> take over the country, have I?

Are you imagining that Islamists would ask your permission to take
over your country?

> Does it make any sense that a person, like myself, who places
> individual freedom above all else, would want to see the imposition
> of Shari'ah?

What makes you think your opinion matters in a country where you are a
member of a minority ethnic and religious group?

> > > > > Ethnic groups don't have the inherent right to monopolize
> > > > > regions, I don't believe.
> >
> > Without a state with a monopoly on the use of force, a region
> > descends into chaos.
>
> And a state which infringes upon the freedoms of its citizens,
> such as their individual choice of ethnicity or language, is
> better off going up in a blaze of fire, I say, that it clear
> the way for something better.

And that better thing would be?

> > A state must be governed by one of the known methods of which
> > democracy is preferable. A democracy is based on the rule by the
> > people. A people, namely the group, for which it is its nation.
>
> No, the part about the "group which is its nation", 'nation'
> here being used by you in the sense of 'ethnos', isn't part
> of the any definition of democracy of which I am familiar.

I think it should be. The problem is that most debates on the nature
of democracy etc have taken place in monoglot states (obviously), so
that question was never considered.

> If a state doesn't serve all of its citizens, indifferent to
> the ethnicity of each, then it has to go.

OK.

> > That group, in order to implement democracy, should speak the
> > same language.
>
> Hardly. I often watch the Spanish television channels, and
> the Spanish news covers all the same political stories seen
> on the English news.

One day those guys are going to do a reverse Sam Houston on you.

> I don't know how it is in your country, but if the immigrant
> Muslims are having trouble participating in your democracy
> due to not being able to speak Danish, I'd think that would
> only be to your greater delight, Torsten.

Muslims, who make up 30-35% of the population in the age group 15-20
in central Copenhagen, in general have shown a disappointing lack of
interest in the democratic process. We do have one member of
parliament who became the darling of the media for being moderate, for
which reason he and his family is now under police protection 24/7.

> > There's your ethnic group. You seem to forget that in your
> > eagerness to obliterate ethnic groups you just create new ones.
>
> I don't want to obliterate ethnic groups.

You want to disown them of collective rights.

> That's the wont, rather, of proponents of ethno-nationalism, whose
> very goal requires them to either pressure the minorities among
> them, which inevitably always appear,

Muslims disappear? Where and when did that happen?

> to assimilate to the majority culture and language, or else leave.

True.

> > > Certainly not. You, just as the vast majority of people I come
> > > across, make the enormous error of equating a state with a human
> > > individual. Is it really necessary to explain that a "region"
> > > and a human being are two very different things?
> >
> > And now you are again misrepresenting me, this time by ascribing
> > to me a categorial mistake. I am equating a group with a human
> > being, obviously not a region with a human being.
>
> Yes, and obviously there's no significant difference in regard
> to what I'm saying, since a group of human beings isn't a human
> individual either.

One statement is true, so is the other, in that they are similar, and
therefore they are equivalent? You're misrepresenting again.


> Did I not mention, more than once, in the
> rest of my post the libertarian concept that groups may not have
> rights but only human individuals.

Yes, I think you did.

> Group rights is a fiction
> and a smokescreen to cover the violation of individual rights.

Why would you fight a fiction? And on top of that it's a smokescreen?


> The rights and freedom of the individual are the beginning, end,
> and entire fabric of libertarian philosophy. The group must
> never be allowed to infringe upon the rights of the individual,
> even in pursuit of what is supposed to be its collective good,
> not even to assure its collective survival, if it comes to that.
> Better a state die, as I've said, than be allowed to oppress its
> members.

You sound more and more like a 5 year old threatening to move away
from home.

> > > Of course I do, because my house and my computer belong to me,
> > > and borders put up by me around person and my property are
> > > perfectly proper.
> >
> > Presumably backed up by police, ie those invested with the state
> > monopoly of power.
>
> The police don't do much good around here.

They usually don't in ethnically mixed countries, in which the cops
tend to belong to one group, ie. the victims, and the robbers to another.


> I'd be better off getting back the money I paid in taxes, supposedly
> to pay for such services, and hire private security.

Good for you you can afford it. And the rest can go to hell?

> I also make sure to be armed myself, a government's knowledge that
> its citizens are armed being a check on how bold it dare get
> infringing on their freedoms. One of the main founding principles
> of the U.S. is that ones own government, not foreign invaders, is
> the first and foremost threat to his freedom.

The fact that you don't have to prioritize the threat of foreign
invaders over that of your own government is a gift from geography,
which will disappear if you invite a potential enemy to live on the
same continent.

> Of course most of you Europeans have dutifully handed over all
> of your sharp and pointy objects to your nannies, for your own
> safety of course.

The attitude in USA towards personally owned firearms was similar to
the present one in Europe before the Civil War. Since the emancipation
of the slaves white Americans have armed themselves as if they feared
a slave rebellion, allegedly against nondescript 'criminals'. But
every time I went to those neighborhoods people had told me not to go
I found that people there had a different color. Pure coincidence
people told me, and were very upset. Of course being armed doesn't
help when you're outnumbered. It didn't help the white farmers in
Zimbabwe, it doesn't help white farmers in South Africa, and it won't
help you.

> It's no wonder you're shaking in your beds thinking about the
> Islamic fundamentalists.

OK, so if we Europeans are concerned about Muslim immigration and
fertility, we're Islamophobe, and if we're not, we're pussies.
What exactly do you expect us to do?

> > > However borders put up between you and me by a third party
> > > when neither of us want them, and maintained by violence and
> > > threat of violence, are certainly not.
> >
> > But I want them.
>
> Then put them around your _own_ house.

That's not where I want them.

> > Otherwise the place I live would soon be swarming with Kishore's
> > and Arnaud's telling me something is wrong with the ethnic group
> > I belong to,
>
> Isn't it possible that there _is_ something wrong with your
> ethnic group, which you'd be better off knowing than ignoring?

The internet is a wonderful thing. From that I can learn what Kishore
and members of his group think of my ethnic group. Then I can consider
whether he should be allowed into my country. At the moment, he and
his designs on the ethnic group we presumably both belong to, are
physically closer to you than me. Let it stay that way.


> We've determined, have we not, that there's something wrong
> with the Yugoslavs, so then why, in principle, couldn't there
> possibly be something wrong with the Danes as well?

Oh yes, of course.


> Part of what has driven forward the progressive enlightenment
> of the world is just such mingling of various cultures and
> religions, forcing us all to reanalyze ourselves and what our
> cultures have traditionally believed.

The present migration waves are larger than anything since the
Germanic migrations 1600 years ago, which did cause a good deal of
reevalution etc of cultures.

> > and, next thing you know they'll be telling me I owe them
> > stuff based on that.
>
> People are likely to do this anyway. Destitute white Danes may
> come to your house and claim you that owe food or shelter to a
> fellow Dane in trouble. The solution is simple: say "No".

But I do. Destitute non-white non-Danes come to my country and claim
that I owe food or shelter to a fellow Human Being in trouble. I say
"No". And that applies in particular to you, who has revoked all
claims to group solidarity, in case you were in doubt.

> If your answer is that your government imposes taxes on you for
> the welfare of Arnauds and Kishores, then what do you imagine
> my next response shall be?

I don't have the foggiest.

> > So you want the state to protect you and to forbid the state from
> > protecting itself?
>
> Yes, of course. I'm real, the state is only an abstract, a tool
> serving me. I do not serve it.

The I suggest, since you don't serve the state, that it should not
serve you in return, and the day you lie in the gutter with a cracked
skull, the state should not investigate nor prosecute, since that
might infringe upon the rights of individuals to crack your skull and
get away with it.

> > The problem with that argument is that this employment entails
> > the physical presence of the employee in or near the area of
> > employment, and that the employer bears none of the concomitant
> > possible negative consequences in the form of crime
>
> Well you seem to be under the delusion that only foreigners
> commit crimes.

It is difficult to get at correct numbers since they are deliberately
obscured so that people won't get get wrong ideas, but in a list of
people brought before a judge in the city of Copenhagen a few years
back approx 80% of them were non-Danish. Another study reached the
conclusion (I'm quoting from memory) that even when corrected for
social status (they tend to end up in the lower categories) immigrant
were 50% miore likely than Danes to commit violent crimes.

> > and general non-transparency of the resultant society.
>
> I don't understand what the "general non-transparency of the
> resultant society" means.

At 9/11, the CIA out of thousand and thousand employed 8 people who
knew Arabic. And of course, because of the suspiciousness in the USA
towards people who speak more than one language (they are generally
called 'linguists', which is probably why anti-linguists consistently
call linguists 'philologists'), they had been sidelined in their
workplaces. Further, the bombings in London could have been averted,
since British intelligence had the conspirators on tape discussing the
plot, but since they spoke Berber, and no translator from Berber was
available, the information wasn't acted on. That's the type of
security problem you have in a multi-lingual society.

> Are white Danes truly so pale that they're transparent?

Do you have problem with our color like Arnaud?


> But seriously, please explain what this means. I truly don't
> understand.

See above.

> > That tab is picked up by the community of the group that used to
> > enjoy safety, and the state, ie. that group again. You employ
> > Hispanics in your economy, you get a economy in the style of a
> > Hispanic country, constantly underperforming. It is that simple.
>
> I don't think you really know what goes on here, even with all
> your talk about the one-way window. More and more native-born
> white Americans every day will simply go on welfare before they
> will ever consider doing for minimum wage the jobs that illegal
> Mexican aliens typically do.

The will to underpay labor is poison to the manufacturing process. You
pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Imagine this:
You just bought a new Mercedes. You open the hood. Inside you see a
plaque: "Proudly assembled by Jamaicans". What do you think in that
moment? Now be honest!


> So again, the government and its imposed minimum wage and its
> welfare system are the at the root of the problem, not the
> bugaboo of non-anglophone aliens creeping among us.

I can't stop you from believing that.

> > And when sufficiently interfered with they broke loose and formed
> > a state based on their own group, as I'm sure you well know.
>
> I'm not interested in going someplace else, and my personal
> interests aren't represented by any particular linguistic
> or ethnic group. (My god, Torsten, are your merely one head
> on an enormous million-headed organism that is your ethnos?!)

Well, I'm Danish. I can't really do anything about that.


> I would rather remove the government we have now and replace
> it with a libertarian one. After that we'll see what we can
> do about Denmark. I have no moral qualms about "imposing"
> freedom on others. :^)

Who is this 'we' you're suddenly part of?
I would advise against it. Your country is on the verge of bankruptcy
and can't afford another war.

...

> > If the moderators decide this is OT, then that's that. Personally
> > I think the subject of the interplay of language and group
> > identity is interesting.
>
> Well yes, "The Interplay of Language and Group Identity" does
> sound a lot better than "An Apology for Racism in Terms of
> Ethno-Nationalism".

Define 'racism'.


Torsten