Chickens, roosting
Oct. 22nd, 2014 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbySo there was a shooting in Ottawa today. Ottawa isn't very far from me. I have a lot of friends there; my first instinct was to check Facebook and make sure that everyone I knew was okay. (Seems like.) I think that's a natural urge, to care more about violence that happens in your own backyard—relatively speaking—than on the other side of the world. It's not tribal; friends of mine were on lockdown. It's scarier than distant events happening to strangers.
This follows on the heels of a man mowing down two Canadian soldiers in his car, killing one. I suppose that was the first act of terrorism on Canadian soil resulting in fatalities since the 80s, and this latest killing and shootout the second. You know, if you don't count the murders of sex workers and indigenous women, the routine shootings of people of colour and the mentally ill by police, and the systemic poisoning of native land, etc. There are varying definitions of terrorism, after all. Martin Couture-Rouleau was a white man with a French-Canadian name, so the media is not sure whether to call him a terrorist or not. For now he's simply "radicalized." One of us, led astray by the lure of the internet and the mullahs. Robert Pickton, who murdered at least 26 women that we know of, is never referred to as a terrorist, because systemic racism and misogyny is not political.
Now we are "under attack" by "homegrown terrorists" and "ISIS sleeper cells," so the country must revert to jingoist-mode, or else. No doubt Harper will use this to his advantage, both in promoting his ill-advised kicking of the hornets' nest that is Iraq and Syria (the definition of insanity being repeating the same mistake and expecting different results), in shoring up election support next year, and in churning the swamp of hatred and Islamophobia that spawns the likes of his core of supporters. The war has come home, at last, and our Dear Leaders rub their hands together expectantly. When the drums of war start pounding, the profits are soon to follow.
Let me tell you something about these ISIS sleeper cells. I know a little about them, without ever having met anyone who belonged to one, on account of what I do for a living. I can tell you that they're exactly the kind of people who lurk on Reddit and send rape threats to Anita Sarkeesian. It has nothing to do with politics per se; it has everything to do with frustrated juvenile masculinity. Why do you think so many of them turn out to be white converts to the most radical form of Islam they can find, one which practically doesn't exist as an organized thing? They are the same boys who, in other circumstances, open fire on schools. Girls with those frustrations slit their own wrists; boys take others with them in a hail of gunfire. That's the face of the enemy—not Islam, not the Middle East, but troglodyte junior misogynists searching for meaning. I'd bet you anything when the details of the shooters' lives emerge, somewhere in the story will be an overly entitled cockwomble who couldn't get a date.
And so I am angry, very angry, and scared, but not for the reasons I'm being told to be. It's never going to affect me personally; when they knock down doors, they'll knock on mine pretty late in the game. I'm scared for friends, I'm scared for the broader community, which includes Muslims who'll be targeted for racial profiling for no good reason. I'm angry at Harper for painting bulls-eyes on our cities because he wants to gain points in the election. I'm scared for the path that this violence has blown for crackdowns on our liberty and civil rights. I have no reason to be afraid of a terrorist's bomb, but I have reason to be afraid that one of my kids will get shot down in the street for wearing a hoodie or carrying a cell phone. I'm scared, and furious, that the resources that could make this country worth living in will now be redirected to depriving other people's children of lives and limbs.
There's a war on, but it's a very different one than we're being told about.
ETA: Looks like another white guy who converted to Islam and spent too much time on armchair jihadi sites, colour me surprised.
This follows on the heels of a man mowing down two Canadian soldiers in his car, killing one. I suppose that was the first act of terrorism on Canadian soil resulting in fatalities since the 80s, and this latest killing and shootout the second. You know, if you don't count the murders of sex workers and indigenous women, the routine shootings of people of colour and the mentally ill by police, and the systemic poisoning of native land, etc. There are varying definitions of terrorism, after all. Martin Couture-Rouleau was a white man with a French-Canadian name, so the media is not sure whether to call him a terrorist or not. For now he's simply "radicalized." One of us, led astray by the lure of the internet and the mullahs. Robert Pickton, who murdered at least 26 women that we know of, is never referred to as a terrorist, because systemic racism and misogyny is not political.
Now we are "under attack" by "homegrown terrorists" and "ISIS sleeper cells," so the country must revert to jingoist-mode, or else. No doubt Harper will use this to his advantage, both in promoting his ill-advised kicking of the hornets' nest that is Iraq and Syria (the definition of insanity being repeating the same mistake and expecting different results), in shoring up election support next year, and in churning the swamp of hatred and Islamophobia that spawns the likes of his core of supporters. The war has come home, at last, and our Dear Leaders rub their hands together expectantly. When the drums of war start pounding, the profits are soon to follow.
Let me tell you something about these ISIS sleeper cells. I know a little about them, without ever having met anyone who belonged to one, on account of what I do for a living. I can tell you that they're exactly the kind of people who lurk on Reddit and send rape threats to Anita Sarkeesian. It has nothing to do with politics per se; it has everything to do with frustrated juvenile masculinity. Why do you think so many of them turn out to be white converts to the most radical form of Islam they can find, one which practically doesn't exist as an organized thing? They are the same boys who, in other circumstances, open fire on schools. Girls with those frustrations slit their own wrists; boys take others with them in a hail of gunfire. That's the face of the enemy—not Islam, not the Middle East, but troglodyte junior misogynists searching for meaning. I'd bet you anything when the details of the shooters' lives emerge, somewhere in the story will be an overly entitled cockwomble who couldn't get a date.
And so I am angry, very angry, and scared, but not for the reasons I'm being told to be. It's never going to affect me personally; when they knock down doors, they'll knock on mine pretty late in the game. I'm scared for friends, I'm scared for the broader community, which includes Muslims who'll be targeted for racial profiling for no good reason. I'm angry at Harper for painting bulls-eyes on our cities because he wants to gain points in the election. I'm scared for the path that this violence has blown for crackdowns on our liberty and civil rights. I have no reason to be afraid of a terrorist's bomb, but I have reason to be afraid that one of my kids will get shot down in the street for wearing a hoodie or carrying a cell phone. I'm scared, and furious, that the resources that could make this country worth living in will now be redirected to depriving other people's children of lives and limbs.
There's a war on, but it's a very different one than we're being told about.
ETA: Looks like another white guy who converted to Islam and spent too much time on armchair jihadi sites, colour me surprised.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 10:16 pm (UTC)Try kim@rabble.ca. And when I say try, that's the current publisher's address, so it's a pretty good bet.
or the form, in a pinch. http://rabble.ca/contact
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Date: 2014-10-22 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 11:21 pm (UTC)I'm blushing!
Date: 2014-10-23 07:45 am (UTC)Re: I'm blushing!
Date: 2014-10-23 11:26 am (UTC)Though naturally, Torontonians are already behaving like idiots.
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Date: 2014-10-23 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 08:55 pm (UTC)(since words like "key" can have multiple meanings, I don't see why this one can't)
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Date: 2014-10-22 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-22 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 12:28 am (UTC)I've been ranting about the horrible process to becoming Jewish, but it definitely winnows out some of the crazies. Not that all of them are gone. Psycho bullshit is pretty universal.
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Date: 2014-10-23 01:02 am (UTC)Gotta wonder about women who join ISIS. Is it kind of like the one black guy in the Republican Party?
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Date: 2014-10-23 04:55 pm (UTC)Based on her case and the guys who have joined, I think that people end up being converted when they're at a low point in their lives because they befriend people who are already into that stuff. In the case of women, I don't think it's so much manpain and a frustrated sense of entitlement, but maybe more personal problems that make them want to feel accepted and valued somewhere. The woman I'm talking about gave a couple of interviews, one to a newspaper from Portugal and another from the Netherlands, and in them she talks about women are "treated like queens" or something. It wouldn't surprise me if part of her reasoning had been based on hearing things like that from others and feeling like she'd be treated better (of course, I disagree with her reasoning).
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Date: 2014-10-23 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-24 01:16 am (UTC)Turning aggression and frustration outward is something that specifically men are socialized to do, but there's nothing to really stop women from doing it either.
I agree but I think that how differently men and women are socialised shows even among people who join those movements. I've rarely heard of women blowing themselves up or shooting others; I've seen a few cases in the news over the years but they've been fewer than the cases of men doing that. On the other hand, most news I've seen about Western women joining them seems to be focused on how they do things like participate in message boards to post propaganda or run away and marry a guy with the same ideology. That's very different from the articles about Western men doing the same thing which are focused on how they pose with guns, threaten others, and boast about killing people.
It reminds me, in a way, of women who join far-right movements. I remember that a few years ago, there were articles making a big deal out of research pointing to a change in the way women in those movements behaved. It was something about how previously, they were relegated to being wives and mothers that their Aryan warriors could go home to or whatever, but how perceptions within those groups are changing, so that they're expected more and more to go out and beat people up like men do. This means that until relatively recently, most women who were into that stuff would have just stayed home while their boyfriends and husbands went out to beat people up or protest.
Of course, embracing an ideology that is harmful is still harmful, but I think it's interesting how even among pretty extreme groups, there's a big tendency for women to get jobs like just spreading the word and supporting men.
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Date: 2014-10-24 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-24 05:15 am (UTC)I'd have mixed feelings if they started wearing boob armour. On one hand, I hate boob armour. On the other hand, boob armour is also dangerous and not at all useful, which means that if there were a war against fascism but involving armour and swords, they'd lose.
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Date: 2014-10-24 11:45 am (UTC)(Unless you count Kathy Ford—whom I have never encountered. She looks like a drug addict, which she is, and most of them are.)
I'm in favour of Nazis wearing boob armour. It will make for a quick fight.
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Date: 2014-10-24 06:59 pm (UTC)I've met another neo-Nazi girl, and for some reason a group of friends/acquaintances I had at the time adopted her, even though it included multiple POC and we were left-wing. That was weird. She didn't have a particularly great taste in fashion, though. There's also this girl I was friends with who knew a suspicious amount about the neo-Nazi scene, but for several reasons I think it was more because of knowing neo-Nazis from the metal scene and not being one (her politics weren't particularly neo-Nazi).
I'm in favour of Nazis wearing boob armour. It will make for a quick fight.
Good point.
I now feel like there should be a story about 20th/21st century political factions going to war with each other, but with armour and swords.
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Date: 2014-10-24 08:47 pm (UTC)That's always bizarre. But I honestly think a lot of the younger ones are confused, attracted to the aesthetic, and haven't thought it out. We used to beat them up anyway when I was younger, just to teach them to not be Nazis, and that usually worked. The one ex-neo-Nazi I know basically had it beaten out of him and then got cool.
I now feel like there should be a story about 20th/21st century political factions going to war with each other, but with armour and swords.
This is kind of a thing I'm plotting out. It's Neoreactionaries vs. a quasi-socialist movement that grows out of Occupy, + magic. No armour and swords, but there are genre-savvy characters who would suggest them.
Oh! And also The Red Star is that for 20th century politics.
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Date: 2014-10-23 07:53 pm (UTC)But I think even more than that, the real difference is in attitude towards conversion. I can easily see an imam looking at one of these white boys and thinking "Well... if he's going to be an asshole, he might as well be a Muslim asshole," since Islam considers being Muslim a necessary part of an acceptable relationship with God/the world. Whereas Judaism would consider the conversion of someone thought to make a "bad Jew" (whatever that means to the community/rabbi) not just not an improvement, but a total disaster.
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Date: 2014-10-23 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 01:54 am (UTC)I wish I could take credit for inventing the word "cockwomble," but no it's totally a real word.
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Date: 2014-10-23 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 07:59 pm (UTC)(thanks for the post, too.)
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Date: 2014-10-23 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-24 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-24 11:37 am (UTC)And was a crack addict who once got himself arrested in the hopes of drying out. This looks like a broken psyche, not a concerted Attack On Our Freedumz.
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Date: 2014-10-23 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 11:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-29 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-29 11:27 am (UTC)I wonder what the economics behind this are. More fights = more hits?
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Date: 2014-10-23 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 11:25 am (UTC)So far our homegrown terrorists appear to be young, male, white, and Quebeçois, with no apparent connection to any actual Muslim community. This said, two since the 70s is not a pattern.
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Date: 2014-10-23 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-10-23 01:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 01:41 pm (UTC)Sucks that you guys have Harper in office right now :(
This just goes along with my theory that so-called IS style "Jihadists" are like at least half western dudes who weren't raised Muslim, but just converted to give an outlet to their alienation and feeling dispossessed. Essentially a gang, but on a global scale, and it lets them play "Drug Lord" in their brutal ways without having to work their way up the chain. Add in the ability to feel justified and "righteous" about it (as opposed to filthy lucre being the sole motive) and you end up with what I assume is a historical tendency for "Crusaders" and other warriors (sometimes that righteousness is plain ol' Patriotism) to go to war.
I'm still waking up so sorry if that didn't make sense. Fuckin' 'ell I hope Canada doesn't try to out-PATRIOT the US.
It's two fucking shootings. But if it were just plain ol' "Christian" white-folk doing the shooting it wouldn't be terrorism...
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Date: 2014-10-23 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 09:01 pm (UTC)Harper is the main beneficiary of this, even though I think Mulcair and May, much as I don't like them, deserve some props for very measured and compassionate responses. But whenever people here get scared they swing right.
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Date: 2014-10-23 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-23 05:28 pm (UTC)Saw some irresponsible crazy-crazy about "false flags" and "PMO/RCMP knew but let it happen anyway" but that's wrong; however, I feel a whole field of Con political hay is going to be made over this in the coming weeks anyway. Why waste such a golden (but concidental) opportunity, when two deaths can be exploited for the same or greater effect as 24 (# Canadians killed at WTC on 9/11)?
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Date: 2014-10-23 09:06 pm (UTC)The weird thing is, I think yesterday illustrates just how effective security measures are. Yes, there was one innocent victim, and that sucks, but if you look at mass shootings in the States, you see just how well everything worked. The shooter—and only the shooter—was killed pretty quickly afterwards. The city was under lockdown until it was safe, but there were no egregious violations of anyone's civil rights. The media, for the most part, kept a cool head. Sometimes frustrated young men go off and start shooting people, and short of preventative measures, everyone actually did a pretty good job in mitigating the potential damage.
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Date: 2014-10-23 10:14 pm (UTC)As for the swift and decisive response, the Seargeant-at-Arms was a 29 year veteran of the RCMP and had had many years' experience of bodyguard and security details. He was the best man you could have wanted to have there, yet the only time people ever see him is the ceremony when Parliament opens and he marches in carrying the mace. This was probably the first time a lot of Canadians noticed there was such an officer.
And he made far more difference than the hundreds of policemen and soldiers patrolling downtown Ottawa with assault rifles for hours afterwards.
I recall when I worked on and around Parliament Hill, in the late 80s in a military capacity, a constant figure of fun were the Special Constables. These were people who couldn't get into the regular RCMP but were instead recruited to provide security at airports, official residences and Parliament, places like that because they didn't have enough regular Constables to meet the demand. At first they were armed with short-barreled MP-5 submachine guns, but after more than a few had shot themselves through the foot or leg with them, they took them away....
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Date: 2014-10-23 10:26 pm (UTC)At first they were armed with short-barreled MP-5 submachine guns, but after more than a few had shot themselves through the foot or leg with them, they took them away....
Oh God, haha.
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Date: 2014-10-27 02:46 am (UTC)Of course, the poor guy at the cenotaph was another story, but it's an open area and the gunman snuck up behind him so there's only so much you can do about that.
The guy calling in also pointed out the security guard at the door also deserved recognition (but had been overshadowed by the Master-at-Arms, who is a boss): when the gunman showed up, he tacked the guy (while unarmed, getting shot in the foot for his trouble), while sounding the alarm (by yelling, "Gun! Gun!"), which bought the Master-at-Arms time to grab his weapon; I don't believe he's usually armed. That may change.
So one armed guy shows up at the door, is immediately tackled, and shortly thereafter is shot dead, with no innocent bystanders hurt (at Parliament, I mean; there's no security in place for the guards at the cenotaph; they are the security and I doubt anyone ever expected them to have to defend it or themselves against anything worse than drunk tourists), and, all in all, only a relatively minor wound to the one guard.
I'd say the system works pretty well as it is. I expect they will make some changes after this (they usually do, for political if not practical reasons) but I hope not too much; and I don't think too much is needed, really.
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Date: 2014-10-27 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-24 01:34 am (UTC)Girls with those frustrations slit their own wrists; boys take others with them in a hail of gunfire.
I don't think I have much else to say. The more I think about this, the angrier (and more hopeless about this world) I feel. Ugh, overly entitled cockwombles.
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Date: 2014-10-24 01:48 am (UTC)Still. Anger means you're still alive.
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Date: 2014-10-27 02:54 am (UTC)Blowjobs and anal know no gender. Get busy, man! Your country needs you!
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Date: 2014-10-27 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-10-27 05:58 pm (UTC)