In the midst of a rambling blog post arguing that a large terrorist attack on American soil before November “puts Trump in the White House for certain,” former Twitter activist Andrea Hardie makes a rather startling pronouncement: She would support nuking Mecca if she thought it would be an “effective” way to strike a blow against Islam.
No, really:
I don’t think Trump will nuke Mecca or anywhere else, for the simple reason that it won’t be effective. Nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved millions of lives and ended the war decisively, because it brought Japan to its knees. Nuking Mecca won’t bring the Islamic world to its knees – quite the opposite. Trump isn’t going to do it for that reason. If nuking Mecca stood a chance of being effective, I’d be fully in support of the measure.
Emphasis mine.
In addition to being the birthplace of Muhammad and the most sacred city for the world’s 1.57 billion Muslims, Mecca is home to roughly two million residents, and the number of people in the city “more than triple[s] every year during the hajj (“pilgrimage”) period,” as Wikipedia notes.
In other words, Ms. Hardie, better known on the Internet under her pseudonyms Janet Bloomfield and JudgyBitch, would support the murder of as many as six million people of a particular religious persuasion if she thought it would be an effective way to rid the world of that religion.
Six million, where have I heard that number before?
Despite being permabanned from Twitter, Hardie is still listed on A Voice for Men as the site’s “Director [of] Social Media,” and she was one of the speakers at last month’s International Conference on Men’s Issues in London, organized by AVFM and Mike Buchanan of the UK’s spectacularly unsuccessful Justice for Men and Boys party.
I’m not quite sure how murdering three million Muslim men and boys — in addition to another three million women and girls — would enhance the rights of men, or boys, or anyone.
Ah yes, once again Hardie is trying to garner attention the only way she knows how, by talking utter rubbish and trying to offend as many people as possible.
David, is your reference to having heard of the figure of six million before an allusion to the commonly-estimated number of Jewish victims of the Holocaust? While we at Pavlov’s House certainly applaud the anti-fascist sentiments strongly implicit in such an allusion, it’s often good to remember that Fascists killed another several million non-Jewish civilians of Slavic origin….I’m sure you didn’t intend anything bad but the reference to the number six million as a rhetorical shorthand for the Holocaust can sometimes encourage unfortunate assumptions. Let’s never allow even implicit hints of minimizing Nazi perfidy. I know you’re a legit anti-fascist and I appreciate your blog….just sayin’….
@ EJ
Those peace overtures though were effectively calls for a possible armistice, with Japan keeping onto territories occupied during the war.
As late as August 8 the war cabinet was split 3-3 on whether to continue the war. A last ditch offer to Russia to split territories in China in exchange for support was made and it wasn’t until that was rejected by Stalin that the emperor agreed to unconditional surrender.
As you say, the army were not happy about that and it seems only their reverence for the emperor’s divine status stopped a coup. Obviously counter factuals can only be approximate but most historians agree that had Operation Downfall been necessary that would have cost hundreds of thousands of allied lives and perhaps millions of Japanese lives had the fighting followed the pattern to date.
Of course that doesn’t justify the comments about Mecca.
More ammunition for the Christian fundies who want the Apocalypse as they think it will herald Christ’s return.
She does realize that Saudi Arabia is a major ally of the US and that her home country has no nuclear weapons? Who’s nuclear weapons would Andrea Hardy borrow in order to carry out this bombing? How exactly would this go over with the rest of the world? Taking out Mecca would not destroy Islam and as a result eradicate Islamic extremism, this silly woman would create even more “terrorists” even though she would be the biggest terrorist of them all.
Don’t think for a second that Arabs are equal to the Japanese. With all the bombing the West has done to Arab countries, does anyone really think the Arabs (not counting the dictators on American payroll) will simply bow their knees and become subservient to the US or Canada.
Hell no, with the destruction of their most important city, I would be led to believe the extremist Muslims would feel even more justified in carrying out “terrorist” attacks in Western lands.
But you know what? People get payed little to think. Folks get payed to be reactionary bigots.
@EJ (The Other One)
It’s more of a checkmate argument for “Jews are eviiiil”. Because… colonization. Which is totally benevolent when it’s a white european thing though.
Logicks, ya know.
@Axe
I differentiate them by how entertaining they are to watch as they make asses of themselves. It’s kinda like watching a baby falling over, but less cruel.
Off-topic, it seems that I just turned 24. I may light a candle and blow it out, if I only can find it among this mess.
Stuff like this makes my head hurt. Locally, I’ve seen a lot of good work being done by an interfaith alliance of Muslims, Christians, and Jews – and they’re happy to recognise Indigenous land as well. They support lay and secular activities. It ain’t actually that hard to get on, people!
@Pavlov’s House:
Porajmos? Or, horribly: Kali Traš (“Black Fear”).
(Amongst many other groups).
@John
Ayyy!
http://pa1.narvii.com/5868/8feab8dc4f35b67aed36cd756594a55f7cb72270_hq.gif
Braids and pink t-shirts are not a good look for her. The inner ugliness still “shines” through.
That is so much more awesome than my yet-to-be-found candle. The guy with the bandana, his face is kinda mesmerizing. I think I’m gonna stare at this gif(t) for some 30 minutes or so.
Happy Birthday!!!’
nah. we need to sell off the Vatican and all its hoarded treasures and use the money to begin reparations to everyone damaged by the CC.
Happy birthday John!
@Sinkable John
Twenty-four!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday, John!
@Bina
I’m enchanted by the fact that her T-shirt is the same hot pink as the color chosen by Code Pink, that terrific group of (mostly) women who oppose war and militarization. Code Pink, it seems to me, chose the color as a way to disarm (so to speak) warmongers and the public:
http://www.codepink.org/splash?splash=1
Hardie’s hot pink is a poisonous counterfeit.
Happy 24th John.
Thanks, everyone 🙂
@Kat
The irony is so thick we could probably use it as armor against Hardie’s crossbow bolts.
@ Sinkable John – I shall sing happy birthday to you (luckily I’m far away so it won’t be audible). Or perhaps you’d prefer the Sugarcubes?
@ Steampunked – exactly! But then, sadly, you get things like the recent “protest” at the Gosford Anglican Church. How dare they be all inter-faith and welcoming and everything???
(I believe you’re in Aust., too, which is why I mentioned it – apologies if I got that wrong)
Happy 24th, John!
@Pavlov’s House, the six million was indeed a reference to another group targeted because of their religion/perceived race, ie the Jews murdered by Hitler.
I do know that Hitler targeted other groups as well, among them Slavs, Romanis, gays, disabled people, and others and I don’t mean to diminish them.
I referred to the 6 million Jews because the parallel with Hardie’s remarks was so uncannily close.
@HSL, thanks, I’ll update the post to reflect that.
I find it funny that she’s tweeting her thoughts on the comments here.
No, Andrea, no one’s saying that you’re “not pretty enough” – the bullshit you’re peddling is what’s ugly. And no one’s saying that your shirt is “too pink” – it just happens to be the same kind of pink used by a group that advocates exactly the opposite of said ugly bullshit.
(totally not trying to bait anyone into accusing me of mansplaining – that wouldn’t be the mature thing to do)
@EJ (The Other One) and AlanRobertshaw
As I am certain you both know, the historiography on the surrender of Japan issue is very complicated. I tend more towards the points that Alan has made; Japanese overtures in 1944 and 1945 were for terms the Allies weren’t going to grant anyway (and, in my opinion, shouldn’t have).
I think Stalin’s rebuff of Japanese peace overtures “with an eye towards surrendering” in April-May 1945 suggests less a Japanese willingness to give in and more Stalin’s willingness actually to live up to his commitment to his Allies. He promised Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta the USSR would enter the war against Japan within three months of the end of the war in Europe. Look, I’m under no illusions that Stalin was a good guy (though I make no apologies nor attempt to hide my Russophilia and my admiration for the courage of the men and women of the Red Army). So I know that Stalin had ulterior motives for entering the war against Japan. But by rebuffing any Japanese overtures he was sticking to the commitments of the Grand Alliance and that ought to mean something.
Moreover, there’s strong evidence to believe that it was not just the two nuclear attacks on the 6th and the 8th that finally made the Japanese give in (and defeat the final coup plotters who wanted to go on after that). Western historians tend to talk about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a sequential one-two punch. But one needs to consider whether there was really a one-two-three punch….THREE events in rapid succession that all put together were enough to topple the Japanese government over the edge: the atomic attack on Hiroshima (the 6th), ***the massive and ultimately overwhelmingly successful Soviet invasion of Manchuria (started night of the 8th-9th)*** and the atomic attack on Nagasaki (the 9th).
The men and women of the RKKA (the Red Army) deserve credit also for the events that at last brought about the end of the war.
Lastly…if I may….much of the debate about the use of atomic weapons in summer 1945 ends up with people citing the devastating and unprecedented long-term effects of the use of atomic weapons. If that is to what one gravitates, then one must simply recognize that all war is bad and that none of WWII should have happened. The civilian victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn’t deserve what happened to them. But neither did all the other civilian victims of World War II who also suffered **long-term lasting and multi-generational effects** of violence.
Whatever you think about all this, I’m sure we all agree that this Janet Bloomfield personality is still rather foolish.