I was recently in a facebook confrontation with a person, whom I shall call Troll, who took umbrage with an item that my wife shared about Israel. He immediately attacked her for daring to offer any positive comments about Israel, calling her a liar, and so on. Then he posted a rabidly anti-semetic video, along with the accusation that Jews were running secret concentration camps deep in the Israeli desert. The structure of the title was disturbing to me. It was so obviously an attempt to demonise Jews by insinuating some kind of secret torture/slave camp, where humans were being slaughtered, with all the nuances of a Dachau, or Auschwitz. I asked him to validate. He didnt. Instead, he responded with yet another video, and the comment that all Jews are the worst racists in the world. Then he blocked me. I was amazed at how deeply he had internalised this demonization of Israel, and Jews. I traced the source of the items he had posted, and discovered that they emanated from a website run by one David Duke. A quick dig into Mr. Dukes profile, and what do we get? Duke is an ex-governor of the Klu klux klan, an avowed white supremist, who is absolutely rabid about Jews, Moslems, and just about everyone who is not White anglo-saxon. A real mess, really. I came to realise that Troll was a victim of a process that any of us can fall prey to. First we take a moral stand. Then we look for support for that position, and begin to deny anything that doesnt fit that position. Then we begin to sanctify our position, and demonise the position that doesnt fit. At that moment the foundations of our moral stance crumble. We demonise, we lose compassion, we lose our sense of what is fair... and the radical inside us wins. Troll is often called upon to offer his opinion about this and that. Like many of us, he copy pastes ideas and items that, whatever their position, are untrue. And woe betide anyone who asks for validation. Fact based argument is out the door. Radical, denialistic argument sits in the lounge, coffeee mug in hand. Thanks for reading... I guess I can expect a couple of Trolls on this one. Its OK. I know what to say: Prove it, please!
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 06:12:17 +0000
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