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Topic: France: anti-semitic train attack was a lie
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DrConway
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 490
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posted 14 July 2004 12:05 PM
Precisely what Mr. Magoo said. The good that a consciousness-raising event is necessarily somewhat dissipated if it is found that someone was lying.It may come as a surprise to you, BLAKE 3:16, but people don't like being motivated by lies, regardless of what the end result is. I know if someone lied to me to get me to do something I'd be a little hacked off, and I trust my reaction would be fairly routine and not out of place. Look at how pissed a lot of Americans are about Bush's wild claims of extensive amounts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Yes, the US dumped off a dictator, but in the process has done a lot of irreparable damage to its domestic and international relations. As to the article itself: I'm shocked that a person lied about something that gets really strong reactions from people; it's not like lying about being mugged, or even falsifying an insurance claim. We can understand the motives for those even if we don't like what the person(s) did in those cases - either the person wanted sympathy, or got greedy and wanted money. But to lie about having swastikas painted on you and being attacked with no one else rushing to your aid? I am especially displeased about this, because it taps into racist attitudes against people of color: quote: The woman initially described the men as being of North African appearance, and said they tipped her 13-month-old baby from her pram.
As well, it taps, unintentionally, into the "new anti-semitism" that's being pushed by certain commentators who are trying to shoehorn a complex issue into a familiar paradigm and in the process opening up a Pandora's Box of misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the attitudes of people of color vis-a-vis Israel. The damage done here is incalculable. Now, maybe the next person to report such an incident truthfully may not be believed. Maybe now right-wing idiots in France will feel emboldened and will really commit new attacks, feeling that some of the sympathy attaching to the victims might not be present. *gives head a shake*
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001
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