Monday, May 29, 2006

Propaganda?

This strikes me a fear mongering for some reason.

Probably because it is. It echoes cries of looney tunes people like Senator Tancredo - a line that the current CPC party would dearly love us all to believe.

I'm more than a little bit suspicious of these kind of allegations. Along with the circus-arena farce that so-called "security certificates" have become, this smells like just another excuse to abrogate the civil rights of peaceful citizens, and to marginalize populations who are "visible minorities".

He says young Canadians from immigrant backgrounds are becoming radicalized through the internet and are looking for targets at home, not abroad.

"They are virtually indistinguishable from other youth. They blend in very well to our society, they speak our language and they appear to be - to all intents and purposes - well-assimilated," he said.


This seems to me to be mostly conjecture and assumption. Mr. Hooper is insinuating that people are engaged in malfeasance, but cannot substantiate it. Do I need to point out that prior to 9/11, the most significant terrorist act in the United States was the Oklahoma City bombing - the culprits were as "American as could be".

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a solution for Mr. Hooper. Since, it is clear that all crime arises with a culprit who is an immigrant, we should simply rid ourselves of the scourge.

And, just in case they are not all recent immigrants, perhaps we ought to ship out all immigrants who have come to this country, going back as many generations as necessary to get to the root of all evil. This includes all children of immigrants and mixed blood marriages.

Saaaayyyy... Mr. Hooper, I'm guessing that you are not a native indian, so you ought to be on the first ship out.

Will the last person out please turn out the lights?

Lanny said...

Oh gosh... I don't know why I'm opening myself up to this because I just read a few of your blog posts. We definitely have alot of opposite views on life but I do think you need to realize we are not in a little separated fish bowl here in Canada. There is so much I could say but I would warn you to open your eyes a little. Also, I do rage against the idea that specifizing/profiling is the same as generalizing. It is irrational. If you generalize that all immigrants are bad, that is, of course, racist. If you target a microcosm or profile a specific crime, that is not. How many Catholic nuns do you think are terrorists? How many African-Canadian people are members of the KKK? Lets be realistic. I would fight to the death (I hope) against racism however you'd better define it.

Just because segments of immigrants are a threat does not mean that all immigrants are bad. I just don't get your logic. As far as fearmongering, I truly hope that history proves me wrong however open your eyes. Here in Calgary we have terrorist groups being funded by organized crime. See the following URL:

http://www.dustmybroom.com/?p=3719

I'll stay off your blog because our world views differ so greatly that there isn't much point. Just thought I'd inject a little realism here.

MgS said...

Lanny,

I didn't say that we ignore cases where people are engaged in malfeasance. What I call bullshit on is the blind generalizations that Hooper is using - primarily to manufacture fear.

Canada has laws, and we have law enforcement. Let's use the processes that we have rationally and reasonably.

It's not complicated.

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