It’s hardly news that extremists feed off of one another. ISIS was thrilled by Trump’s victory, knowing that his bigotry will send countless new recruits their way. Alt-rightists, meanwhile, seize on each new act of ISIS-inspired terrorism with something close to glee.
For many of them, the Berlin Christmas market attacks are an early Christmas present, a golden opportunity to win new converts to their foul cause. Alt-right bloggers are churning out post after post on the attacks, many of them unable to resist making Star Wars jokes about the fact that the current suspect comes from the Tunisian town of Tataouine.
Usually, though, alt-rightists are savvy enough to at least pretend to care about the actual victims of these terrorist attacks. But the anonymous alt-rightist behind the Diversity Macht Frei blog isn’t even bothering to pretend, hailing the attack and the chaos it left in its wake as a simply fabulous recruiting tool.
“As far as red-pilling of normies is concerned, the Berlin Christmas market attack is just about as good as it could be,” the blogger happily declares.
In his mind, even the fact that the authorities grabbed the wrong guy is great news.
First, an asylum seeker who came in on the Merkel wave is apprehended as the suspect. Second, it is concluded he is the wrong guy and the real perp is still at large, thus establishing an ongoing fear of further attacks from the same person as well as a sense that the authorities are incompetent and unable to guarantee safety.
As far as he’s concerned, the attacks are a gift that keeps on giving.
Then the next person sought is an “asylum seeker” who has already served 4 years in an Italian prison for burning down a school (!) but was nonetheless admitted to Germany where his asylum application was refused but he was not deported from the country. He was also noted as a potentially dangerous jihadi but the authorities were not able to track him.
Finally, he may not actually be the guilty person. The authorities have intimated that he may have some connection to the attack but is not necessarily the guilty party, thus creating a further impression of uncertainty and generalised fear.
He’s as happy about the terrorist attacks as ISIS itself must be.
An impression of all-encompassing chaos is created. People will conclude that the situation is completely out of control and the German government doesn’t know what it is doing. This entire clusterf*ck presses almost every red-pill button, validating almost every claim European patriots have been making. It really could not have been better from our point of view.
There is literally not a word in his post about those killed and injured in the attack, not even a pro forma expression of condolences for the 12 people brutally slaughtered while they were out Christmas shopping, for the 48 injured in the attacks, many of them seriously.
I suppose it’s a bit naive to expect basic human decency from someone whose very blog title is a Holocaust joke.
@LittleLurker: thank you! I wish everyone in the world would realise that you fight terrorism by not letting yourself be terrorised.
@Victoria: you pretty much put into words how I feel.
@Karalora:
A terrorist cage-match? I could go for that.
On a related note, I read a Portuguese op-ed yesterday asserting that the far-right and the “Islamist” terrorists are actually on the same side, because everything the one does helps the other to recruit new members, and vice versa. I have absolutely no argument against that.
Couldn’t this establish that immigrant phobia is distracting to crime investigations?
Both sides do it — both rejoice upon the bodies of the slain. Both sides predict (accurately!) it will help recruitment when innocents die at the hands of their supposed main opponent. Both sides know their true opponent is tolerance.
Today’s leftists are not one of the sides, neither are today’s tories. The sides are the various religious extremist groups.
@kale,
Here is some information about the suspect’s asylum status, what is known about his alleged criminal past and the German authorities’ monitoring him. The articles are in English.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/a-1126946.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/attack-in-berlin-anis-amri-the-suspected-perpetrator-in-berlin-a-1127085.html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/suspect-in-german-terror-attack-reportedly-offered-to-be-suicide-bomber-a-1127189.html
First, he was not granted asylum. The main reason seems to be that he lied about his country of origin.
There are/were unspecified criminal charges against him in Italy, where he stayed between 2010 and 2015. That one of them was arson seems to be speculation at this point.
What he was granted in Germany was a “Duldung” (literally a “toleration”), meaning his deportation was temporarily delayed. The reason was that he had no papers so he couldn’t be deported. Because no papers and his known lies about his country of origin made it a bit difficult to figure out where to deport him to, obviously. And since the Tunisian government denied until yesterday that the man actually was Tunisian (they seem to have admitted it since and issued the neccesary papers on Wednesday), it would have been a bit difficult to deport him to Tunisia.
Damn fine work lilLurker! thanks!
@LittleLurker – thank you for taking the time to tell us how it’s going. Please be safe and take care of yourself. Know that even though we’re in our own mess over here in the US, there are many of us who do care deeply for our neighbors throughout the world.
@OoglyBoggles – adorable, thank you! I luuuuurve the babushkas. If you don’t mind, a brief personal story:
In the early ’90s I decided I was tired of interacting with my family through the TV, so I sold it. We also had 4 cats. Well, one evening we were a little bored (no TV remember) so my husband, sister, and I used an old pair of shorts to cut up and we sewed BABY BONNETS FOR EACH CAT. Oh the dirty cat looks we got! It was so hilarious, though (way before smart phones/digital cameras, so, no photos 🙁 ).
Your pics reminded me of that.
Thank you for that, LittleLurker.
I just read in a German paper that the Polish truck driver apparently tried to stop the attacker and thereby prevented even more deaths.
Here’s an English article I found about it:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/22/berlin-christmas-market-attack-polish-truck-driver-lukasz-urban-germany-order-merit
We’ll see what the police reports after the forensic examinations are finished, but if this turns out to be genuine, I hope the petition is successful.
from CNN
When asked by his supporters for an explanation, the Dumpster was rumored to have said “You knew I was a snake when you brought me into your home.”
(actually, I added the second part…)
@weird. Let’s not be too sanguine. Our favorite Trumpian spin doctor said that because a ban that openly excluded people based on religion would be flagrantly unconsitutional. On the other hand, regulations that tightly restricted migration from “certain countries” could have virtually the same effect but be much harder to fight in the courts.
This is the way of the ideologue. To the fanatical believer, it doesn’t matter if people are hurt as long as they “win the argument”. Based on that alone it should be obvious that such people, whether on the left or on the right, should not be let anywhere near any position of power over anyone.
A person who crows over loss of life is utterly foul and completely lacking in humanity.
When I first heard about the Berlin attack, my first reaction was “Oh no, now even more Islamophobic sentiment will be stirred up!” Seconding others who’ve said that ISIS and the alt-right are on the same side. I’d never thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense to me.
Also, thanks Little Lurker for your posts; I’m very glad that the German authorities are keeping a cool head about the situation.
I’ve taken to responding to anyone insisting that they can’t possibly be racist/are proclaiming they are definitely not racist/that they can’t understand why ‘the left’ is calling them racist so it must be ‘the left’ that is actually racist…in the following manner:
“The more you protest and rail about not being a racist, the less inclined I am to believing you are indeed not a racist.” or some other similar statement.
It is particularly interesting that in all these recent conversations, until they brought up not being a racist, it wasn’t even part of the discussion at hand. However, problems such as racism and prejudice will never be possible to fix without recognizing and acknowledging where yours exist. And you have to want to fix them – fixing is not “send those other people I don’t like back to whence they came”, nor does it involve taking such horrible glee in an event that costs lives and leaves many more permanently harmed because one imagines it will eventually result in “sending those other people I don’t like back to whence they came” ultimately solving all their life’s problems without ever once realizing that THEY are the cause for their life’s problems, not ‘those scary others’.
Again an alt-rightist refers to the rest of us as “normies.” If they aren’t every bit like a cult, I’ll eat my hat.
@Ghost Robot
Notice how normie is used like infidel? It’s not a coincidence.
Has anyone seen Trump’s Twitter feed since the attack? There is no way his response is going to be good.
@Bina
It’s even simpler than that; they’re on the same side because they want the same things for the same reasons. It’s like the Packers and the Vikings; sure, they’re bitter rivals, but they’re playing the same game.
Jewish Family Flees County After Fox News, Breitbart Falsely Blame It for Cancellation of Christmas Play
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/12/22/jewish_family_flees_county_following_fox_news_breitbart_stories.html
Kellyanne Conway Says She Has More Time to Spend with Her Kids Than Her Male Colleagues Because She Doesn’t Have a Mistress
http://theslot.jezebel.com/kellyanne-conway-says-she-has-more-time-to-spend-with-h-1790407047
Dunno.
She’s lied about everything else. . . .
Well, of course she doesn’t have a mistress— I believe the term they use in cases like her would be “kept boy.”
Australia police: Christmas Day bomb plot foiled, 5 detained
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20161222/0db45949-7a1c-41de-b4c2-193d039ec6a3
Stay safe, Australian Mammotheers!
@Nequam
Ha, ha!
But given that Kellyanne Conway is such a liar, I keep an open mind about everything.
Snurk…I love how Kellyanne Conway thinks Der Drumpf is no longer keeping mistresses. As though that leopard will ever change its spots…
And we all know that he thinks it’s the wife’s job to stay home with the kids. He did it to Ivana, probably Marla as well, and he’s still doing it to Melania. And why is it the wife’s job? So the husband can gallivant around the golf course and
rape any woman he can get his hands onkeep mistresses!“‘The more you protest and rail about not being a racist, the less inclined I am to believing you are indeed not a racist.’ or some other similar statement.”
Shakespeare phrased it nicely in Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_lady_doth_protest_too_much,_methinks