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aboriginalnewswire · 6 years

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TheAngryindian

07.06.2001

‘As for a climactic conflict between a once-Christian West and an Islamic world that is growing in numbers and advancing inexorably into Europe for the third time in 14 centuries, on this one, Breivik may be right’.

-Patrick Buchanan

[FOTO: Public memorial one day after the Breivik attacks. Credit: Johannes Grødem]

As sensible people try to find psychic balance after the deplorable attacks in Norway against cultural progressivism in Europe, it has become painfully clear to all that Christian fascism, xenophobia and right-wing violence have again become an undeniable part of everyday life in the west. As much as it hurts, White society must finally accept the fact that what occurred in Norway did not arise out of a vacuum. Only a flat-out bigot would try to deny that right-wing Christian terrorism does not has a long and sordid history of violent opposition to ethnic and religious minorities, left-wing politics and progressive social change. Despite what conservative apologists might say, their religion has not taught them anything about tolerance and peace.

The racist doctrine of White ‘ethnic’ supremacy has been lovingly nurtured in popular culture, spiritually endorsed by Jesus’ theologians and accepted by many within the White and non-White mainstream as an equitable politic in the 21st century. When wealthy Caucasian dandies like fashion designer John Galliano and pop icon to the forlorn, Morrissey, start playing around with far-right racialism, it is painfully obvious that being a dedicated follower of fascism has become more than respectable. It’s back in vogue. We can continue to bury our heads in the sand like the Obama administration and pretend that White racism on a global scale does not exist, or, we can pragmatically move forward by bravely addressing the ugliness that is staring us in the face.

Like it or not, White racist attitudes have been a prominent part of the European social fabric since antiquity. And it is foolhardy to overlook the reality that xenophobia is still used as a political tool by the European and Euro-settler upper-classes. Visible examples of pro-White, anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic sentiment have been simmering in Western Europe ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Inspired by US President Ronald Reagan’s ceremonial state visit to honour the Nazi dead of Bitburg, Germany in 1985, Eastern European fascists simply brought their admiration for Adolf Hitler along with them to the now unified Bundesrepublik Deutschland. And guess what, no one cared.

In the UK, Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher deftly contributed to the rise of the right by making it perfectly understood that she felt White Britons were ‘tired of being swamped by immigrant cultures’ as Brick Lane slowly began to turn sepia. A conscious move on her part to make peripheral use of the National Front and the British Movement which began attacking Asians, Africans and Jews at will. And during that time, they were quietly protected by the veiled racialist sympathies of the British media and local law enforcement.

It sounds like a chapter pulled out of the Mussolini years but it isn’t. It is a matter of the international public record and it is rarely mentioned in connection with the role of fascism in modern Europe. The acceptable line of selective thinking argues ‘that was then and this is now’. Things have changed they tell us. But do not be fooled by what seems like progress. The rank unpleasantness the ‘Great Communicator’ and Baroness Thatcher gave birth to in the 1980’s is still with us. Only the superficial veneer is different. The current US President Barack Obama may be of African descent, but his portfolio as an American politician is no less Europocentric and no less racist than any of his predecessors. By and large, the most powerful Black man in history has done more than any other world leader on record to enforce the machiavellian processes of White Christian supremacy by any means necessary. And no one knows this better than self-aware African and Indigenous peoples.

Conservative White folks and other suckers suffering from acute Europhilia may be able to ignore the realities of this apathetic disdain, but people of colour and the poor are suffering loudly and in plain sight. It does not take more than a glance to see just how little his administration is concerned with how bad African people in America are doing under federal Black leadership. Although he is deep into his first term as Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Obama has yet to address institutional anti-African or anti-Indigenous racial discrimination, the widespread social crisis of racial profiling or the established inhumanity of overtly racist police departments or conservative judicial brutality against the poor. Now that it is achingly clear to the conscious that the incessantly repeated fear of an Obama-led era of Marxist-neo-Nazi-Wahabbist ‘reverse-discrimination’ against White Christian American world is patently ridiculous, what next? Will the racists and politically stupid now cease behaving like the goofy characters in ‘Springtime for Hitler’ or will they persist in their pursuit of a global Whites-only agenda? You know the answer to this question as well as I do.

So for brevity’s sake let us cut to the chase and admit to a few well-known social variables. Even if it happens to embarrass the Europeans who may be reading this commentary. The phenomenon of pro-European racism and exploitation of darker peoples is, and has been, a reality across the world since the classical Roman Empire. We can get into lengthy discussions about how and why later. But let us suffice it for now by saying that what we are dealing with in terms of the ‘new’ Christian fascism is in reality, a White man’s problem. Faulting the people of the Third and Fourth Worlds and social progressives for what has happened in Norway is like blaming Jews for the Odessa pogroms.

And truth be told this is exactly what is being done with the editorial reportage of Breivik’s bloody massacre of the innocent. The victims, mostly young socialist-leaning citizens and residents of Norway, are ultimately being blamed for what happened to them. And US media jester and devout Mormon Glenn Beck did just that when he equated the socialist victims of the Utøya attacks with the Hitler Youth cadres of the German Nazi era. And really, is anyone in the literate world really surprised by this, or the fact that this vicious Mormon bigot still has his job? The sad fact is that Glenn Beck and the other unrepentant Völkisch journalists like him in the US, UK and Israeli news media did exactly what they were expected and paid to do. In a conscious fit of blatant White supremacist damage control they all blamed the attacks on Islamic extremism, even after it became clear that the perpetrator was a Christian zealot hoping to spark an anti-Islamic ‘Holy War’ in the traditional lands of the Master Race and Palestine.

The ‘Truth’ Game

For once it would be refreshing if White society actually took responsibility for its own congenital insanities, but this isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. Expecting the dominating Europocentric racist world order to willingly come to grips with its own xenophobic hubris is foolish. Denial is central to the paradigm and White racism as an ideology has been spinning the same outrageous frequent liar programme across the globe for generations. The reality that people around the world are being starved, maimed and killed in the name of positive White control has always been soft-pecked and dismissed as inconsequential. Although racialist laws are considered morally reprehensible, Apartheid in South Africa was clearly defined as racial separation and it was still supported by all of the major democratic powers.

We can make believe that we are witnessing a sudden sea change in social and political attitudes, but this just isn’t credible. The writing, in large part due to the maddening and sickening violence of Anders Breivik, is on the proverbial wall and it is written in scarlet. You and I both know what is really going down in the world, to whom it is happening to and ultimately, who it is that benefits from the institution and maintenance of human-on-human brutality. And we are all cowards for knowing this and for allowing it to continue in a democracy. And Whites who work overtime to deny what has been going on in their name for centuries are the greatest cowards of all.

At some point one would hope that White people as a demographic would eventually come to their senses and stop playing games with the lives, minds and general welfare of others by facing up to the truth of their own belligerent behaviour. They could actually begin right now by admitting to themselves that the Christian terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik, is one of theirs. This hasn’t happened yet because the conservative lobby is doing everything possible to deny the obvious connections him and the rest of the White ‘race��. Some are even going so far as to deny that Breivik is actually ‘White’ since we now know that Breivik decided to undergo plastic surgery in the United States in order to look, ‘more Aryan’. Twisted identity politics maybe? Perhaps. But no matter how the conservative lobbies in the US, UK and Israeli may try to spin things, Anders Breivik in all his anti-Muslim, bathed in the blood of Jesus glory belongs to them lock, stock and bloody barrel.

Anyone who has watched the rise of the far-right in Europe and North America is not surprised by this omission of kinship. And this writer for one does not accept the juvenile arguments of the White Christian talking heads that are trying to convince us that no one could have seen this coming. You and I both know that this is indeed a lie. And further, we know that such protestations are more than just disingenuous. They are also telling in that any rush to vigorously defend Breivik’s Christian terrorism and racism at this moment only blatantly exposes the establishment’s unmistakable fondness for this sort of Europocentric extremism.

There is no excuse for this. How can there be after the ravages of Mussolini, Hitler and Franco? Pretending that they did not do their very best to burn their way across the subcontinent in pursuit of ‘purity’ is inherently dangerous and stupid, but who really remembers anymore? Who really cares? Not the educated, apathetic Judeo-Christian democratic populations of the exalted west. They have made a conscious choice to dismiss the lessons of any history they regard as a passing joke, including their own.

Considering the hard reality of the mass graves left over from the ethnocidal breakup of Yugoslavia, how can anyone in the progressive world sit quietly while it happens all over again? Remember that Yugoslavia was supposed to be the genocide everyone said was impossible.

Yet, it happened right in front of the United Nations and the world’s news cameras while the European and American far-right laughed at the world community. Why not? They were watching their fascist compatriots from World War Two, the Hrvatski Revolucionarni Pokret (or Ustaše) of Croatia come back to the world stage blessed and endorsed by the world’s superpowers as a legitimate government and military force. They also thought well of the Kosovar Albanian Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or KLA, an extremely violent and xenophobic criminal faction that Yugoslavian government and intelligence authorities officially identified as a terrorist group on line with the Sicilian Mafia. NATO, along with several foreign observers and journalists in the country during the conflict, even went so far as to declare that the KLA were dead-serious about ‘cleaning-out’ Kosovo’s Serb population and expanding their criminal enterprises internationally.

Curiously, no one was interested in this news. And despite their murderous activity, the US state dept. and the other European powers who could have stopped them did not regard the KLA as terrorists while Slobodan Milosevic’s government certainly did. And when the KLA was finally removed from the official terrorism watchlist in 1998 by the US, UK and France, the capitalist powers began building business relationships with the major Kosovar caporegime as if nothing had happened. The victims are not remembered much less regarded any longer and the rest of the story is simply seen as the bygone history of an unpleasant time in the Balkans. Business as they say, is business.

As we can see, if the far-right were really considered a threat by the ruling classes they would have been stopped cold in the 1940’s. Instead, (and with considerable help from Pope Pius the XII and US intelligence) the Nazi’s simply moved to the Americas and continued on with their work. This goes a long way in explaining why even the organised, government sponsored madness that swept Europe under fascism has been largely forgotten aside from its unfortunate misuse as a political tool. We know this because when US Christian-Zionists began defining the European Holocaust as a gift sent to them from the Almighty, virtually no one objected. And as bizarre as this idea sounds, the fact remains that this outlandish belief is shared amongst a great number of ethnic Jews.

The Zionist Organization of America for instance not only defended but actively promoted the US evangelical shaman John Hagee when he began preaching that the genocides of the last century were necessary for Yahweh (יהוה) to bring back the state of Israel. Clearly, the Evangelical Christian desire for Armageddon, the Rapture and a holy ‘race war’ far outweigh any logical of moral considerations for social justice. The victims of White religious and capitalist violence are simply seen as acceptable exodus fodder, nothing more. They are either exploitable pawns or annoying hindrances standing in the way of God’s divine plan. Either way, they must and will be moved into positions of advantage for European uses. This is the vicious cycle Scotsman Adam Smith described with his ‘Vile Maxim of Mankind’, the willingness of the rich to take unfair advantage of the weak while actually believing that such an arrangement is ‘fair’. So much for the wonder that is capitalism.

Social xenophobia is bad enough, but denying that it isn’t a political and economic device when it is clearly evident in thought and deed is vulgar. This is why conservative media attempts to downplay what happened in Oslo and Utøya are patently absurd. They selectively ignore the political role of Judeo-Christian violence, slavery and ethnic repression in Europe and throughout its colonialist holdings during the Catholic-led Crusades immediately after the Reconquista in 1492. It also leaves out the horror-show that developed after those overseas colonies became independent and internally-colonialised the native populations they displaced or enslaved for their own benefit. This includes the direct involvement of German and US private industry, international banking and the Catholic Church who knowingly assisted in carrying out the ‘Final Solution’. Because of this moral negligence, belligerent fascism has returned with a vengeance. And seemingly, no one in authority is willing to stop it.

Especially not the first African leader of the whole free world. Like the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus Augustus or the native collaborators who proudly served with the South African Police during Apartheid, Mr. Obama has shown precious little mercy to other people of colour at home or abroad. Native Americans, Africans across the Diaspora and Spanish-speaking Indigenous immigrants are doing worse now than ever before. While at the same time, White conservatives gripe and grumble about Obama’s supposed war against European American and the White Christian heritage. This is of course absurd on a variety of levels, mostly because Mr. Obama has done more to uphold traditional standards of ‘Whiteness’ in the United States than any one else.

By the same token, the European conservatives that are complaining about him the most do not believe in the system nearly as strongly as he does. The ideal world these idiotic people claim to want is being given to them by the Obama administration on a platter. Arabs and Muslims are being militarily intimidated, Africans and being starved and racially profiled and immigrants, (who aren’t White) are being ejected from the US at record numbers. So what are they complaining about? Thanks to Mr. Obama and his financial backers, it is the people of non-White, non-Christian world that are paying for US capitalism’s rampant and unrestricted greed. Self-evidently, then, it stands to reason that the racist opposition to Barack Obama is just that, an issue of White racism, not of political differences.

The sordid hoaxes circulating about his non-connections to Weather Underground alumni Bill Ayers, the location and conditions surrounding his birth, his genealogy and his religious convictions are all about White fears of a Black and Brown planet. Their racism is so ingrained and so blinding that they cannot see how closely the Obama presidency actually mirrors their twisted vision of White American global supremacy. Politically, militarily and economically, the United States is without a doubt still the biggest bully on the block. This is the reality. And the Obama administration has done absolutely nothing but expand their capabilities while US citizens bear the brunt of the nation’s economic collapse. Without mercy, the Obama administration has pressed on with the so-called ‘War on Terror’ in search of its ‘enemies’, the very people, these ignorant arses say Barack Obama ‘really’ represents.

Their nonsensical theories also painstakingly leave out the fact that the Goldman Sachs Group and other wealthy capitalist contributors to his campaign were clearly making an investment for their own best interests, not for the working classes most of these White supremacist Neanderthals happen to hail from. Their gross ignorance of politics and history, even of their own country, makes it nearly impossible for them to comprehend what is really happening. Their fears that the election of Barack Obama is some sort of depraved Manchurian Candidate socialist coup d’état’ designed by Islamic mullahs to enslave America’s non-White population is based on absolute smoke. Just as is was during the Antebellum Era and Jim Crow, White folks, bigoted or not, live in morbid fear of an angry and massive backlash for all that has and continues to happen under European racialism and exploitation. But it is not the dark masses that encourage this derangement, it is the inner-human, the race-neutral consciousness

And because of this historical paranoia, Europeans have never felt totally secure anywhere, even within their own territorial domains. Anti-miscegenation laws, ‘Separate but Equal’ education restrictions and the application of indiscriminate White terrorist violence are symptoms of this fear. The mark of the racist is the stubborn unwillingness to acknowledge his or her own fears of the ‘Other’.

And if one is to take the late Algerian psychologist Franz Fanon seriously, Whites often react as explosively as they do precisely because they know how they would react if it was they who were faced with the same sort of oppressions non-Europeans are expected to endure quietly. White people for the most part walk the Earth as if they own it most anywhere and in relative safety. Nonetheless, those Whites that cannot or refuse accept even this are, as we have seen in Norway, prepared to go to extraordinary lengths in the name of White racial and cultural ‘security’. From false propaganda about the first African US president to violent acts directed against non-White people and left-wing political activists, White racism as a movement is willing to go that extra mile. It needs to be reckoned with as a danger to the greater society but until the powers that be decide to a ‘War on Racism’, expect the White Power movement to grow even more as the world’s economic health continues to deteriorate.

Xenophobia, Paranoia and Negligence

Almost from the moment Anders Breivik declared himself the hero of White Christian Europe, conservative opinion makers began doing ju-jutsu with the facts behind his ideological ideas and inspirations. Why is the far-right allowed to get away with this? Obviously because someone within the Europocentric power structure wills it and the psychologically downtrodden masses passively allow it to continue. It is clear that the more White control is challenged, the more White society is seen to overreact. This is indisputable. And it also gives us an important clue as to why Anders Breivik is being accorded such undue preferential treatment and extreme tolerance by the White, mainstream press. Very few conservative news agencies refer to him as a terrorist and most far-right media pundits now enthusiastically describe him as insane and ‘deeply disturbed’. We are told by his lawyer and other experts that he is not entirely responsible for his actions. At first this seems almost reasonable until you think for a moment about how Arab, Muslim and left-wing terrorist suspects and acts are handled by the establishment information paradigm as opposed to how White, far-right terrorist activity is dealt with.

Have Jose Padilla or Pfc. Bradley Manning received this sort of consideration or attention from the mainstream media? When was the last time you read a story or report discussing at length the mental stability of a known Muslim terrorist or noticed a veiled tolerance for their extremist religious convictions? And why is this not a legitimate question? Neo-Nazi, White supremacist and anti-immigrant factions operating in Europe, North America and Australia are by their own admission using violence and intimidation to get their politics across through a policy of fear. Yet, democratic governments in the west are only concerned about such groups when their actions cross the line into threatening their own legal authority or political existence.

Given the extensive record of far-right violence in the past as well as the present one would logically expect to find these entities at the very top of the list for anti-social threats, not at the very bottom. But this is the reality of the situation internationally, and American and European governments are entirely at fault for allowing and encouraging the existence of such organisations in the first place. Democratically-elected governments are supposed to defend their societies against threats to the progressive well-being of their constituents. But they cannot do that and covertly align themselves with the very same negative forces that almost destroyed the world at the same time and call themselves moral. We are forgetting what it means to be and how to remain human. And it is unambiguous that no one is a position of authority thinking in terms of raw political and economic power is willing to identify such movements as contrary to the social good.

The extant Europocentric paradigm operates on two distinct principles: first, it makes damn sure that the literate population only understands the world through a rhetorical mythology concerning the ‘Enlightened European’ and two, that the class-separated masses observe a closed-minded and emotional rejection against their own betterment. Under such jaundiced circumstances, White Christian violence and marginalisation against minorities, Muslims, socialists, atheists, homosexuals, anti-war protesters and non-submissive women can almost always be dismissed as justifiable. Particularly if you repeatedly and intentionally mischaracterize these issues as conservatives regularly do via their lapdogs in the mainstream corporate owned media.

Not a day goes by when the spokespersons for the powerful do not make light of the everyday concerns of real people. With the authority granted to them by the political and religious elite, the problems of historical and institutional White racism, Christian hegemony and capitalist domination are articulated as someone else’s problem. In this way the sole responsibility for doing anything about it is placed on the victims, not the perpetrators. The international discourse concerning social injustice is little more than a sad joke. Europeans are held accountable for nothing. And the United States, now led by a son of Africa, will belligerently defend the influence of White racism and politicised Judeophobia so long as it is beneficial to their imperialistic aims.

I don’t say this without credible evidence. When reports began circulating that the USA’s chief media jester Glenn Beck had the unmitigated gall to tell his dim-witted public that the people killed by Anders Breivik were left-wing ‘Hitler Youth’ wannabes, everyone just shrugged. By rights, Beck should have not only have lost his job but should have been swiftly drummed out of the industry for such callous insensitivity. But if you look closely you’ll notice some things you might not wish to see. For one, its hard not to notice that the usual Zionist jackals obsessed with ruining the lives and careers of honest journalists and bloggers have not gone after Glenn Beck. Even after his numerous verbal assaults against the ‘uniqueness’ of the Jewish holocaust under the Nazis, Beck and people like him have yet to be seriously hindered by their hypocritical positions concerning gentile bias towards the world’s Jews.

In fact, it seems as if their radical Jewish support actually increases after such utterances of stupidity. Following his nonsensical remarks about Reformist Judaism being a different kind of ‘radical Islam’, support for Beck among hard-line Zionists in the US and Israel grew substantially. And let’s not forget that the head of the very Zionist Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, actually had the audacity to apologise to Beck after the popular ‘Two Minutes’ Hate’ chap suggested that capitalist George Soros, a Jew, helped ‘send other Jews to the death camps’.

Where is the Zionist lobby when the western world could really use them? As I have said before, Beck’s shameless, pro-gentile Zionism is simply Christian theological chauvinism in drag. It isn’t serious. But now that Beck has yet again crossed the line into territory that has permanently ruined the careers and personal lives of better mortals, where are the usual Zionist loudmouths and why haven’t they called for his symbolic flogging? Where are the ‘responsible’ talking heads of the mainstream media, the American Exceptionalist crowd and the Zionists now that Beck has identified the young victims of a rabidly fascist, anti-Islamic Christian terrorist as a left-wing gaggle of the ‘Hitler Youth’?

In a logical world, Israel’s zealous-minded supporters in the west would have a great deal of explaining to do. But as we have seen in the editorial aftermath of the Norway tragedy, the Zionist lobby not only approved of the Oslo and Utøya attacks but cheered the racism, Islamophobia and the terrorist proudly taking responsibility for the attacks. As writer J.J. Goldberg has accurately noted, radical as well as moderate Jewish conservatives have gratefully given their sympathy and support to Breivik mostly because of what they perceive as his uncompromising stance in support of their claim to Occupied Palestine.

After this, let there no longer be any doubt that international Zionism is perfectly willing to stand by a frenzied, racist Christian terrorist seeking to reestablish the decidedly Judeophobic medieval Order of the Knights Templars:

‘The debate exploded aboveground on Saturday in an opinion essay at Ynet (in Hebrew only) by Ziv Lenchner, a left-leaning Tel Aviv artist and one of Ynet’s large, bipartisan stable of columnists. It’s called “Dancing the Hora on Norwegian Blood.” He argues that the comment sections on news websites are a fair barometer of public sentiment (a questionable premise) and that the overwhelming response is schadenfreude, pleasure at Norway’s pain’.

Historically speaking, the Templars were a professional Catholic military organisation that violently occupied and looted Jerusalem during the Crusades by killing Jews, Muslims and non-European Christians in the name of the Mother Church. Their religious biases against the people who dared crucify ‘The Christ’ at Golgotha is beyond credible refute. But modern Zionists simply gloss over this specific by only recognising the Islamophobic and Europocentric aspects of the story. They do this in favour of the ‘White makes Right’ philosophy, a racialist gospel that assumes for itself a dominating role within any given setting no matter what the circumstances are. Proof of this can easily be found in any popular English of Hebrew-language web portal that is covering Breivik’s gross act. Without a doubt, Israelis and Israel-supporters that have bothered to comment at all on the attacks or the debate surrounding the attacks have clearly focused their attention on whether or not the victims of Oslo and Utøya ‘deserve’ any respect at all.

Don’t believe me, read the disturbing comments left by conservatives on the web for yourself via the anti-Zionist crew over @ Jews Sans Frontiers and a translation provided by one of their compatriots from the original Hebrew by way of Ynet:

1. And in the mosque there won’t be some ceremony?

2. It’s fun and warms the heart to see them crying!!!!

3. Go to hell. Haters of Jews/Israelis, anti-semites busy with the problems of others all day—here you got some too. [signed Zionist]

4. I have no identification with an anti-Semitic country that leads to the hatred of Israel. Not happy, not sorry.

5. All in all, what they asked for is what they got!!!!

6. [in Norwegian.] Serves you right, you Nazis.

7. He is a hero, kill all leftists, expel all Muslims.

8. European efficiency.

9. It’s only a matter of time until an Israeli rightwinger will do something similar.

10. My heart with the families of all the victims. I wish you will never know more sorrow and I wish all the wounded will heal as quickly as possible and will put this tragedy behind them. Condolences and sympathy from Israel. [Norwegian and English]

11. I have hope too… that you have many more days of mourning and tears.

12. Feel a little bit of what we feel here all the time, maybe now you’ll understand what it is, terror.

13. The ugly Israeli continues to talkback. Shame on you, you bunch of people who rejoice in the suffering of others dancing on the blood. It’s a shame that you even hold Israeli IDs.

As you can see, Norway is viewed by Zionist hard-liners as too pro-Palestinian for its own good. Once it became clear via his numerous online screeds that Anders Breivik as anti-Arab spree killer was acting on his anti-Islamic theological and political beliefs to combat Islam in Europe, he immediately gained their loyalty as a fellow fighter engaged in their struggle. Don’t be surprised by this. Especially since the discourse has evolved, if you will, into a Hasbara-driven controversy suggesting that any objective criticism of the pro-Breivik position amongst Zionists and Israel’s goyim supporters is actually veiled anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish prejudice in disguise.

The Dynamics of Denial

‘It is out of the question for the leader of the Western world to lay a wreath in a war cemetery where Nazi storm troopers are buried. … The stated purpose, reconciliation, is being drowned in a rising flood of long-buried passions from the death camp survivors, who feel as betrayed and abandoned as they did 40 years ago.’

– Washington Post, 23 April 1985

If you are confused at this juncture be not afraid, because that is exactly the point of all of this circular semantic diarrhoea. Remember if you will for a moment how all this began. The mainstream media in the west immediately began flooding the international news cycle with false and sensationalist headlines stating as fact that al Qaeda had finally penetrated Europe by attacking two targets in Norway. Although they had absolutely no evidence for this, their contemptible reportage on the story forced the public opinion broadly against Muslims whom they mistakenly held responsible for the double attacks.

The propaganda politruks working within mainstream media did their damndest to create the falsehood that militant Islam was making a serious bid to make itself known in Europe. Even the technical journal Wired published a story that assumed only Muslims could have been behind the attacks showing, rather embarrassingly, that the supposedly ‘liberal’ sectors of US society are not all that tolerant of religious differences. Apparently even ‘geeks’ can share the very same knee-jerk prejudices of the rabidly extreme anti-Muslim far-right.

What about the other overlooked fact that the establishment media’s knee-jerk ‘terrorist’ label was abandoned the split-second Anders Breivik was identified as the culprit? How does his act of religious indiscriminate violence differ qualitatively from other acts of theological xenophobia? Does Breivik’s ideological position in full support of White Power globally exclude him from being considered a terrorist? It is a reasonable question since independent investigators and journalists not swamped by corporate censorship have been finding connections between Breivik and known White supremacist organisations operating in Europe. Including ties to the Christian fundamentalist movement gaining social and political ground in the United States.

This isn’t a big secret. The US based New York Times, to its credit, did admit that Anders Breivik was extremely enthusiastic about the rise of the racist right-wing in the United States. But they noticeably stopped short of holding traditional American fascism responsible for its role for what happened in Oslo and Utøya. Not surprisingly, popular media attention in the US has been critically focused upon the entertainment aspects of this story instead of the serious speculation one would expect considering the importance of the issues at hand.

Earnest, investigative journalism concerning the conspicuous ideological and religious use of US, UK and Israeli cultural Islamophobia and political conservatism is difficult to find in the mainstream. As expected, the Christians have given themselves a pass. The religio-political movement founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, when one really thinks about it, is perhaps ultimately responsible for creating the sort of poisonous social climate that has made unconscionable far-right bastards like Anders Breivik possible. But do not expect to read anything about this is the western press which is still ideologically blaming Muslims in Europe for Breivik’s murderous rampage.

The artful dodging of responsibility for US Euro-settler Christian fascism’s international influence says a great deal about the level of cowardice shown by conservatives and White racists when faced with the morose reality of their twisted and hypocritical rhetoric. The American racists and Islamophobics cited by Anders Breivik in his detailed writings, (still available online for the time being) represent a hodgepodge of right-wing ideologues. But is it clear from reading his work that his main source of inspiration is centrally rooted in the United States and the US-led anti-Palestinian Zionist movement.

His list of popular anti-Muslim media propagandists includes such luminaries as Pamela Geller, (creator of the wildly ridiculous ‘birther’ myth suggesting that Barack Obama is Malcolm X’s illegitimate son) Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer and hard-line Israelis like Avigdor Lieberman and Caroline Glick. Each of these names figure prominently in his writings as definitive reference points for articulating his personal insecurities about non-White inclusiveness in European social life. A concern duly noted by US pundit and legendary pro-Europocentric bigot Pat Buchanan who succinctly put it this way, ‘Breivik may be right’ when he opined that the Norwegian Christian Berserker’s idea of a major military conflict between the Christian European world and Islam may actually be the next logical step forward for White survival.

Scared yet? If not you should be. While the fascist 1930’s are without question furiously nipping at our heels, the bright minds of the political, legal and journalistic establishment say their is nothing for us to worry about. Rest assured they tell us, the culture war against Muslims in Europe and North America is still on the table despite its idiocy. Especially if professional Islamophobic politicians like Irish Republican Army supporter Rep. Peter King and the very Catholic Rudolph Giuliani have anything to say about it. And if you can see past the glaring hypocrisy you’ll notice that their stated political beliefs and religious convictions are as weak as their antiquated, narrow-minded arguments. Please believe, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, democratic, religious or sane about conservative politics in the west.

Still not convinced that there is more to this tragedy than the conservatives are making things out to be? If that is the case, it would do well for the reader to consider the base ideas behind Breivik’s obsession with ‘Whiteness’ and his affection for Christian cultural and racial ‘purity’. Ideas often do have an ideological genealogy and unfortunately, many of the visible road signs along Breivik’s explosive path lead directly to the doorstep of the American and United Kingdom’s organised far-right. Although Breivik’s connections to the Scandinavian branch of the English Defence League and infamous Irish loyalist and Neo-Nazi supporter Jonathan ‘Mad Dog’ Adair (former brigadier of the notorious West Belfast UDA) have been positively confirmed, his emphatic allegiance to America’s brand of White supremacist thinking is being selectively ignored.

The US ideological component is interestingly rarely mentioned in relation to Brevik’s politics and you should be asking yourself why. Very few foreign observers would try to refute that the United States is currently the world leader in popular racism although most mainstream US citizens and residents will vociferously argue the reverse. No matter, American conservatives regularly and treacherously perpetuate the false myth of an organised left-wing/Islamic extremist alliance against the entire White world population all day long. The craziness is now so embedded that socially conservative politicians, pundits, clerics and politicians, both White and non-White, are finding it necessary to ride the wave of populist racism if they intend to stay socially relevant.

Europocentrism Revisited

This is a clear throwback to the melodramatic and quasi-religious whinings of traditional Euro-American White Power terrorist organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the ‘respectable’ Bible-thumping bigots who populate the membership of John Birch Society. And Anders Breivik is known to have travelled, (and sought surgical services) to the United States where he hoped to make personal contact with professional Islamophobes such as the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ maven Pamela Geller, (who is doing everything possible to refute any link between them) American White supremacist Christian militia extremist groups like the Army of God and the belligerent members of the pro-corporatist Tea Party. If you have the stomach and the time for it, try reading some of Breivik’s published Christian Übermensch manifesto, his 1,500-page statement regarding his admiration for the Americans and the conservative Christian movement. In his own words he makes it plain that the US is his main inspiration and that he was certain American fascists would approve of his ideas:

‘A majority of Europeans love the U.S….just like a majority of Europeans support Israel’s fight against Jihad. But considering the fact that 80-90% of the media + politicians ‘officially’ support Cultural Communist views it’s only natural that the coverage is extremely biased’.

Now, where have we heard this line before? Taking his cues from the American fascist nut-cases he likes so much, Breivik parrots the groundless fib that liberal bias in the mainstream media distorts the ‘truth’ of White Christian superiority and the threat of Islamic infiltration. A charge that makes little sense considering that the US media industry is a field hopelessly overloaded with stiff, conservative-minded simpletons who do little but intentionally report misleading and contradictory information to serve the extant corporate interest. This is incontestable. Simply look at the ownership of the major news providers and see for yourself who actually ‘owns’ the media. Under such obviously parochial conditions the concept of ‘truth’, as one UK official candidly put it, ‘can be a dubious proposition’.

How US conservatives can spin the Norway incident into a ‘warning’ about the evils of Islam in the White world only makes sense when you consider the actions of American extremists at home. Anders Breivik may very well have gained some of his inspiration from the rogues gallery of American Christian terrorists that have made the news headlines in recent years:

 Eric Robert Rudolph – The pro-Christian anti-abortion extremist responsible for numerous bomb attacks in the United States between 1996 and 1998 that killed two and injured at least 150 other people. He hoped that attacking the Olympic Centennial Park in Atlanta would lead to the end of the radical Marxist and homosexual ‘agenda’ in the US.

 Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier – Hard-line Christian Identity followers and militia movement members who planned and executed the bomb 1995 attack against the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.

 Byron Williams – Inspired by the conspiracy theories endorsed by right-wing conservatives such as Glenn Beck, this unemployed carpenter donned body protection, loaded his mother’s vehicle with automatic weapons (loaded with armor-piercing rounds) and headed off with the expressed intent of killing of progressives in liberal San Francisco. After he survived an extended fire-fight with the California Highway Patrol who stopped his car for erratic driving, Williams readily admitted that he wanted to start a revolution by ‘Killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU’.

 George Sodini – A devout Christian upset with the Obama election and his belief that: ‘Black dudes have thier choice of best white hoez….’ decided to take three loaded weapons into a Pennsylvania dance class and shoot wildly after he shut off the lights. He killed three women and severely wounded nine other people before killing himself.

 James W. Von Brunn – A lifelong White supremacist and cold-blooded Judeophobe, Von Brunn led a lone armed assault against the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC in 2009 that killed an African-American security guard. Later, when US President Barack Obama spoke of the need to ‘remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms’, he failed to mention that Von Brunn’s racism was not limited to Jews.

This is far from a complete list. I could have added minor White Power superstars like Christian terrorist Scott Roeder who murdered the well-respected Dr. George Tiller while he was in church, or the seditious ‘Hutaree Group’, a ‘Christian Warrior’ militia outfit accused of conspiring to commit acts of violence against their local law enforcement department. And of course there are the ‘patriotic’ anti-immigrant ‘Nativist’ goons of the Minuteman Project, Inc., the self-ordaining racial separatists of the Phineas Priesthood and the Council of Conservative Citizens who would prefer it if the planet was only populated by White Christian heterosexuals and women like Ann Coulter. I also left out the murders of radio chat-show host Alan Berg by the White Power terrorist group, The Order and of African immigrantMulugeta Seraw by neo-Nazi ‘boneheads’ in Portland, Oregon. I even could go further by citing how the Ruby Ridge incident did much to help fertilize the notion that White racists in American deserve sympathy too and other underreported stories detailing the religious far-right’s reach in the United States. but in spite of all this documented violence you will be hard pressed to find major news services, in English, willing to do objective, investigative reporting on these issues.

Earlier this month I presented an editorial entitled, ‘Why the Time to Dismantle Edward Bernay’s Corporatist Propaganda Paradigm is Now… ’ laying forth a reasoned case for why the organised left should get off its befuddled arse and start aggressively challenging the legal and moral credibility of Rupert Murdoch and his fascist-friendly international media empire. Like any other sober political analyst paying attention to the rise of Europocentric paranoia and the gross inequalities of the never ending class-struggle, I fully expected Murdoch’s News Corp and the UK Tories to deny everything and take responsibility for absolutely nothing.

And true to form they did just that and were allowed to feign total ignorance to the inner workings of their own media organisation. Moreover, they provided a functional example for their American executives to follow as they actively downplay the severity of the wiretapping of 911 victim families phone calls in the US with mobile devices provided to them by News Corp employees.

Mainstream politicians, journalists and academics are consciously turning a blind eye to the rise of pro-White supremacist/Christian fascism in their nations while at the very same time they capitalise upon the social bad-jacketing of non-European ethnic and cultural groups. Occasionally this is intelligently discussed in fair terms, but the fact remains that the victims of discrimination in Europe and the Americas are the same ethnic and cultural groups that have been demonised in European and Euro-settler social tradition, religion and law for centuries.

This dynamic however is rarely discussed at length because to do so would be a self-convicting acknowledgement that xenophobia in the White world is an undeniable fact of life. Further, such an admission would empirically unshroud the reality that White racial perspectives and prejudices undoubtedly remain to be the primary reason why the world is in the shape it is.

The popular post-modernist argument that ‘all oppression is the same everywhere and in every circumstance’ is a Europocentric deception. It suggests a sociopolitical, educational and economic equality amongst all people that does not exist. It flatly denies the harsh realities of White Power, its hatreds, its inconsistencies and its long and sordid history of violence against those they declare to be feeble and powerless. It is also a blatant insult to the basic humanity of the victims who have generally been convinced that it is proper and noble to acquiesce quietly to their own disenfranchisement. This of course is not by accident. It is by calculated design. White society is not ignorant of the routine stresses that demoralise the hearts and minds of the non-European world. It simply masquerades institutional marginalisation and exploitation as the normative division between the better and the worse amongst human society.

And the problem is everywhere and anywhere you may care to look. Worldwide, the struggle between human dignity and the stubborn persistence of White racist advocacy, religious violence and economic robbery continues unabated by modern liberalism or common sense. Those of us who realise that our political, social and psychological under-development is the direct result of our struggle against racialism understand that have a great deal to do in terms of standing firm during these difficult times. We are not swayed by the pretty talk of the establishment or Barack Obama’s skin colour.

We live with the gross indignity of White racism and its by-products every day of our lives. What’s worse, every White person in the Americas is fully aware of this reality, but only a precious few are prepared to do more than simply wax philosophical about it.

There is a reason for this and it is important that we understand the issue fully for what it is. Peer pressure is a very powerful thing. And when decent White folks stand up to White racism they often place themselves at considerable social and physical risk. White people who are not shy about their anti-racism can experience rejection, insult and sometimes violent retaliations from family, lifelong friends and other Whites who object to their ‘cultural’ and/or racial dissent. This is sometimes so damaging emotionally that people who do indeed believe ethnic equality may decide to either stay ‘in the closet’ about their feelings or, they may even pretend to ‘go along’ with the traditional attitudes as a means of social survival. Even for ‘good’ White people, the risk of being socially marginalised as a ‘Nigger Lover’ is simply too much to deal with when it is easier to simply acquiesce to the mainstream and agree that White’s have an inherent God-given ‘right to rule’.

And whether White people in the US, UK or Israel want to accept it or not, they are all to an individual actually profiting from non-White social and political disenfranchisement and genocide. Forget about the hypocritical statements made by US Justice Robert Jackson as he sat in judgment of German Nazis while his own country was still eliminating Native Americans to steal their lands and brutalising African people for profit and sport. The fact is, White supremacist attitudes, Europocentric power and unearned White privilege are the end results of racist imposition and belligerence, not the assumed frailties of the chosen victims. White power is a lot like the Christian concept of the Devil in that it claims it does not exist, yet it informs everything that occurs in national, international and inter-cultural relations. And if you dare tell the truth, the way Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva did when he correctly pointed out that the international financial crisis is entirely the fault of the White people who really control what happens in the world, expect to be painted as a reverse-racist who despises ‘civilisation’ itself:

‘This crisis was caused by the irrational behaviour of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing. I do not know any black or indigenous bankers so I can only say [it is wrong] that this part of mankind which is victimized more than any other should pay for the crisis.’

– Lula da Silva

European conservatives took great offense to this but what could they really say? He was spot-on with his analysis and moreover, he was using the apologetics of White supremacy to effectively support his statement. The concept of White racial and cultural superiority isn’t his idea, its the most elemental argument presented by the ever-dominating White male power structure. It is also the primary fundamental hypocrisy of White racist philosophy. If the White man is the only cultural and ‘racial’ entity on Earth that has ever produced anything of consequence, this means that White society must also accept its central role in all that is wrong with the world they assert they alone have created.

Rational Alternatives to Manifest Destiny

The rise of the far-right is not simply a populist response to non-White immigration and modern religious and ethnic tolerance in the west. It is an engineered sociopolitical phenomenon created, financed and directed by the economic and social upper-classes of continental Europe and their corporate Euro-settler offshoots in the Americas and Australasia. And while ‘Old Europe’, (as former US Vice-President Richard Cheney rudely put it) is still a very important player internationally, the real bulk of actionable world power rests squarely within the intellectual domain of the United States which has occupied this exclusive position since the end of World War Two. Think beyond Bretton Woods, which is still important, and ask yourself why the literate world chooses to believe that the US is a bastion of democracy and human rights.

Are the educated around the world not cognizant of what is happening in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan? Of course we are. It is virtually impossible to avoid the ‘designated information’ streamed to the masses about the glorious mission to bring ‘freedom and democracy’ to the Arab world. Are we ignorant of the overt oppression and covert repression of Indigenous peoples, the African population, Spanish-speaking immigrants, political dissenters and religious minorities in the Americas? No, we are not ignorant of these human rights abuses but we are willing to turn a blind eye because the perpetrators are White. As long as the victims are not White Christians or Ashkenazi claimants to the Holy Lands, all forms of injustice to the human dignity of those deemed unworthy of being regarded as ‘legitimate Europeans’ will be justified in deed, faith and the written word as sanctioned by the great Aryan deity of Providence.

This sad state of affairs is of course helpful to Judeo-Christian industrialists and bankers, but it is bad business for those whom they regularly rob, rape and pillage without mercy in the name of profit and Europocentric hegemony. This is why understanding the White nationalist duo-doctrine of American Exceptionalism and Christian fundamentalism is vital if one is to make any sense out of what has happened in Norway. While the United States did not invent White racist religiously-sanctioned philosophy or violence, it certainly has perfected its practise and political apologia like no other society in history. And the United States is unique amongst the Euro-settler nations in that its institutional practise of ethnic hierarchy, marginalisation and racial terrorism are regarded as normal, if not benevolent, for those who are subjected to it.

And understand this too if nothing else, Europe’s irrational intellectual belief in its own supremacy and cultural superlative will serve to be the factors that will bring about its eventual downfall. Like Apartheid is South Africa, White Power simply cannot last. Just do the math. Whether the situation is in Aotearoa (New Zealand) or Occupied Palestine, Europeans are not a racial majority anywhere outside of Europe, (except for maybe Argentina). Ignore the usual multicultural arguments for a moment and just deal with basic numbers. Racism in any form is a foolish and black-hearted practise, but White racism in particular is completely daft and totally unrealistic. If White folks were smart, they would be eagerly finding ways to work along with non-European folks rather than seeking ways to exploit them.

And despite the wacky suspicions of the insecure, people of colour, even after centuries of mistreatment and neglect, still do not hate White people simply because they are ‘White’. We hate the oppression and we hate the arrogance. If this were not the case, non-White feuds against Europeans would be a very regular occurrence all around the world. It simply isn’t happening. Outside of a few very well publicised incidents, non-Whites have been pretty forgiving. And although ‘normal’ people are finding ways to adjust to the new circumstances, the current trend we are witnessing of compulsive White racialism is clearly reactionary. It is a symptom of the White world’s psychological failure to come to grips with a decaying system of monolithic Europocentric authoritarian domination.

Not that the major press agencies, celebrity psychologists or mainstream politicians report on it much, but conservative folks are frankly just a pitiful rabble of sad, insecure little sods afraid of the world their prejudices made out of whole cloth. And on that basis alone they should not be feared. Just like the American, (and now Canadian and Australian) Ku Klux Klan, the violence exhibited by White conservatives only betrays them. It just proves just how afraid they really are of things that logically challenge their closed-minded perspective of the world.

Their childish fear of non-Whites, Catholics, homosexuals, Jews and anyone else who crosses them is unfortunate. Its also a clear and easily readable indicator of just how deep set and how self-immolating such hatred is for those that hold on to such ideas. Bigots of any colour are mentally ill, and Whites who practise race-ism are consciously vile. There is a very big difference between the two, disliking someone because of their ethnicity is bias, having the social power to actualise that bias is something else entirely.

Ignore the conscious liars and the loony songbirds of the conservative and neo-Confederate media lobby, Anders Behring Breivik, the devout Christian fascist terrorist who has openly admitted to planning and executing the recent attacks against organised leftists in Norway is one of theirs. They own this tragedy and we should not allow them any leeway to disassociate their politics or their intentional falsehoods from what has happened. And most importantly, we must not let Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp be exempted from blame for pressing the bigotry button the moment they found out that Oslo was burning in the name of the risen Christ.

Despite the obvious cognitive and social setbacks of racialist thinking, the important business of Europocentric, pro-Christian, ultra-conservative and neo-Confederate propaganda will roll along. Even in the face of extreme hypocrisy, White supremacist attitudes and terrorism can always be assured of a warm and welcoming reception from the people who bring us the news and from those who claim to serve us politically. This is a shame and people of goodwill must do more than just politely ignore such issues.

Racism is everyone’s problem. And the problem of White nationalism and racist violence will not go away unless we all, all of us, work earnesty to expose and ridicule these attitudes and the movements that fuel them. Violence is the refuge of the weak-minded, so let’s educate them, and ourselves, by taking the fight to another level. When we expose the roots of Eurpocentric ethnic bias we do more than just fight racism, we get to the heart of the unfair exploitation that threatens us all. Even the bigots.

After Vlakplaas, I think we all deserve better than this.

– TheAngryindian

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kansascityhappenings · 6 years

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Ghost tours and other lore in the Kansas City area and beyond

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ghosts, ghouls, spooks and more — if you want to find something to make you rethink your surroundings, a ghost tour is only a few steps away.

Kansas City established on June 1, 1850 is full of lore and tales about the paranormal. The city took part in the Civil War on October 23, 1864 in the Battle of Westport, with Union soldiers having victory over the Confederacy. Kansas City has a long history with gangsters, political upheaval, the Victorian era, trains, a strong immigrant base, and a sharp rise in wealth for the Midwest. Not far from here are equally as bizarre of places from the haunted hotels in Eureka Springs, Arkansas; the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph; and legends about the indigenous peoples who lived here before European settlers took over the land.

Whether these tales are just for fun or have some grounding in science or history, people have claimed to see spooks. People have said orphan ghosts wander at Belvoir Winery, that Civil War soldiers loom at historic houses, and other apparitions roam about the Kansas City metro — often repeating their last moments.

History of ghost lore and science’s inquiry

Wikipedia. Engraving of the Hammersmith Ghost in Kirby’s Wonderful and Scientific Museum, a magazine published in 1804

In folklore, a ghost is the spirit or soul of a dead person or animal that appears among the living. The overwhelming consensus in science is that ghosts don’t exist, and the event being witnessed has some real world explanation.

Ghost lore has existed across the globe for millenniums. Scientific explanations for these events have risen over the past couple of centuries with the age of reason and enlightenment.

The physician John Ferriar wrote “An Essay Towards a Theory of Apparitions” in 1813. He found that sightings of ghosts were the result of optical illusions. Later the French physician Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont published “On Hallucinations: Or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism” in 1845. The French physician argued sightings of ghosts were mere hallucinations.

Jumping forward to a more modern age, Benjamin Radford from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author of the 2017 book “Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits” argued that “ghost hunting is the world’s most popular paranormal pursuit” but ghost hunters are far lacking in a clear definition of what is a ghost and proof of its existence. Radford called it “all speculation and guesswork.” He writes that it would be “useful and important to distinguish between types of spirits and apparitions. Until then, it’s merely a parlor game distracting amateur ghost hunters from the task at hand.”

Several academic studies have found that experiences of a haunting are tied to environmental factors, lighting levels, and slight changes in air we might not notice.

There is also the “Stone Tape” theory. It argues if something has enough energy it could end up being recorded into the surroundings, like rock or particularly limestone. This capturing would be similar to how moments are captured in film and then played back.

Popular Kansas City ghosts and sightings

The Belvoir Winery in Liberty was a sweeping lodge in the 1890s. It had several buildings associated with it on a 170-acre plot along Missouri Highway 291.

The Belvoir opened up a nine-room bed and breakfast on the third floor of the main building. Some guests have reported coming across strange unwanted presences and then promptly leaving. If you need a good creepy movie about orphans, check out The Orphanage, a 2007 Spanish film by J.A. Bayona, Guillermo del Toro worked as a producer.

2. Hartman Hardware in Shawnee has also given people goosebumps. The hardware store had a paranormal investigation team come in — one associated with Ghost Stories of Kansas, after the group decided to start a tour of downtown Shawnee. That space was once used as a lodge hall where dances were held.

Aside from Hartman Hardware, within a two-block radius there are stories of a bar lady who likes to cross through the hall of a former salon, a ghost who would mysteriously ring the doorbell of a photo studio, the lingering scent of cigars in a smoke-free business, and sounds of chairs going up and down in the closed old theater.

On another historic note, there are legends about the Quantrill’s Raiders. They’re most well-known for burning Lawrence to the ground during the Bleeding Kansas period leading up to the Civil War; they did a dry run in Old Shawnee.

3. Hanging out at the Muehlbach Hotel is a ghost known as “The Blue Lady.” Described as a blonde in her early 30’s, she wears a 1920s-style blue dress with her hair tucked up into a wide-brimmed hat. Some have speculated that she is the ghost of an actress who once played at the Gayety Theater next door, and she is searching the Muehlebach for a lost lover. Her description sounds an awful lot like Daisy Buchanan from the popular Great Gatsby novel.

4. Longview Farm in Lee’s Summit was built between 1912 and 1914. Loula Long Combs is said to have treated stray dogs with kindness and spent much of her time with her favorite horse, Revelation. Loula died in 1971 at the age of 90. Students at the nearby Longview Community College have reported hearing ghostly hooves on pavement, and catching glimpses of an unknown woman on horseback.

5. Father Henry David Jardine is said to have unfinished business clearing his name. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church is one of the oldest congregations in town — dating back to 1857, before the Civil War. The father helped organize the parish from 1879 to 1886. He also founded two schools and had a hand in the creation of the hospital that would become St. Luke’s. Father Jardine’s death in St. Louis was ruled out as a suicide. He was not buried in a consecrated ground until he was officially exonerated 35 years later. Today eerie noises heard at the church are attributed to Father Jardine, who some say is trying to tell the truth about his death.

6. A Halloween masquerade ball meant to celebrate the night and lavish up with some treats resulted in the horrific deaths of two coal shovelers. It happened in 1910, and according to the legend, a phantom clanking of pipes is heard at The Elms Hotel & Spa around 1:30a.m. — the exact time of the historic blaze.

Frank Nash | FBI Records

7. One of the most horrific moments in Kansas City history has led to a plethora of lore and speculation. The Kansas City Massacre at the Union Station happened on June 17, 1933. The shootout and murder of four law enforcement officers rocked the country. A gang led by Vernon Miller meant to free Frank “Jelly” Nash, but things didn’t go as planned: Nash was killed in the gunfire. Nash had a long history in crime from murders to bank robberies. Some say his body was shattered, but his spirit still roams the station.

85 years into the present, local lore looms about Nash’s ghost. Some say the ghost repeats his last stretch through the station on his way to the lawmen’s car. Some say he is searching for answers as to what went wrong when the gang members went looking for him. People have reported hearing footsteps in the Union Station but not seeing a single person. Maybe the tormented soul still wishes he could be in the bank robbing business.

Charles Arthur Floyd, better known as Pretty Boy Floyd | FBI Records

8. Following the Kansas City Massacre, Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, one of the gang members involved in the botched shootout, returned to the Armor Hills home of his girlfriend, where he planned his escape. He hid there for a short time before hiding in various spots in the U.S. The house at 6612 Edgevale now has a ghostly reputation, with doors that refuse to stay closed, lights that flicker, and things that go bump in the night in both the attic and the basement.

9. A more recent ghost legend, the Kemper Arena is said to be haunted by the late WWE wrestler, Owen Hart. He died there in 1999. He fell from the ceiling while attempting a stunt. His ghost has been reported to be seen wearing a blue blazer, looking down the top of the arena.

Ghost tours

If you’re looking for a nearby ghost tour, here is a list. If ghosts are not really your thing, many of these tours also have historical highlights.

Kansas City Ghost Tours: The ghost tour begins at Fat Matt’s Vortex Bar, located at 411 N. 6th Street on historic Strawberry Hill. Fat Cat is said to be haunted. It used to house a funeral home and the crematorium is still in the basement. You’ll learn about the history of downtown KCK and visit several haunted locations including a cemetery, a high school, an abandoned church, a Memorial Hall, a fire station, and a theater among many other businesses. You’ll get out at two locations, including Kaw Point. People are encouraged to bring cameras.

Haunted Ghost Tours in Independence: Visitors will tour the 1859 Jail and Marshal’s Home to learn about the history of the building and some of the haunts there. Part of the tour is in a covered wagon which takes guests around the Historic Independence Square. Guests will be told several ghost stories at the square. The tour takes approximately two hours. The Haunted Ghost Tours benefit the Jackson County Historical Society.

Wikipedia. Portrait of Mark Twain by Mathew Brady, February 1871

Haunted Hannibal Ghost Tours: Includes a bus tour and cemetery walk for those interested in the ghosts of Hannibal. The city is winery-driven and close to St. Louis. The 90 minute driving tour goes through the historic district. Part of the tour looks at Mark Twain’s childhood and ghost sightings on Main Street. Search the graves of slaves and Civil War soldiers with a paranormal investigation of Old Baptist Cemetery. Tours daily from April through October at 7:00p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the Hannibal History Museum. Kids 10 and under are $7.50 while adults are $15.

Missouri State Penitentiary — Jefferson City: A two hour walking history tour as well as a separate ghost tour at the prison. Guests are encouraged to bring a flashlight and camera. Minimum age of guests is 14. There is also a three hour guided ghost hunt where visitors can engage in a paranormal investigation with detection equipment. The prison was opened in 1836 and held a number of famous prisoners including the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1967, Time Magazine called it the bloodiest 47 acres in America. It was closed in 2004.

Pythian Castle Ghost Tour — Springfield, MO Tour lasts an hour and a half and includes brief history. Photos allowed. $17.04 (includes tax & fee) when purchased online. Tour must have a minimum of 8 to run. The Pythian Home of Missouri, also known as Pythian Castle, was built in 1913 by the Knights of Pythias and later owned by the U.S. Military. It is now privately owned and open to the public by appointment. German and Italian prisoners-of-war were assigned here during World War II for medical treatment and as laborers.

Wikipedia. Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, circa 1886

Cresent Hotel Ghost Tour — Eureka Springs, AR: Rumored to be the most haunted hotel in the United States. The Crescent Hotel & Spa is perched high above the Victorian village of Eureka Springs, which is recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It hosts a regular ghost tour that goes down into the no-longer-in-use morgue. Norman G. Baker used the hotel promoting a cure for cancer in the 1930s. The quack doctor’s methods didn’t work.

Basin Hotel — Eureka Springs, AR: At the hotel, the Basin Park Ghost Tour covers the history of gang activity there and explores how to do a paranormal investigation. The tour gives exclusive access to the rooftop of the hotel and a view of the underground cave where bootleg liquor was stored.

Wikipedia. Image of the Spooklight taken by photographers in the early 1900s.

The Spooklight — Joplin, MO: Also called the Hornet Spooklight, Hollis Light, and Joplin Spook Light. It is a light that appears in a small area known locally as the “Devil’s Promenade” on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma, west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri.

Even though it is named after a small, unincorporated community in Missouri from which it is most commonly reached, the light is usually visible from inside the Oklahoma border looking to the west. The Spooklight is described as a single ball of light or a tight grouping of lights that is said to appear in the area regularly, usually at night. Several legends exist that attempt to describe the origin of the Spooklight. One of the more popular legends involves the ghosts of two young Native American lovers who are searching restlessly for each other.

Ghost Stories at Mid-Continent Public Library branches around the KC metro:

Mon, Oct 15 at 6:30 pm at Riverside Branch Mon, Oct 22 at 6:30 pm at Grandview Branch Mon, Oct 29 at 6:30 pm at Oak Grove Branch Sat, Nov 3 at 11:00 am at Weston Branch

Beginning Paranormal Research for Teens: Register at any Mid-Continent Public Library branch or online.

Ghost Freakers Ball 2018:

October 27 at the Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland in Kansas City, MO.

If you are interested in learning more about the paranormal around Kansas City, check out this website with the Kansas City paranormal investigators.

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2018/10/14/ghost-tours-and-other-lore-in-the-kansas-city-area-and-beyond/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/ghost-tours-and-other-lore-in-the-kansas-city-area-and-beyond/

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whosetribehasspoken · 6 years

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The Problem of Representation in CBS’s Survivor

A fan’s critical thoughts on the show and how it harmfully represents Native peoples.

My parents were never a huge proponent of watching TV, let alone reality TV. My sister and I had limited screen time and our parents mostly stuck to news, documentaries, and old movies—with one huge exception: Survivor. Some of my earliest memories consist of my sister, parents, and grandma and I packed onto our couch, strategizing along with the castaways and rooting for opposing alliances. When my parents came home from our local polling place after voting in the 2004 election, my sister and I eagerly met them at the door, asking, “so, who did you vote off the island?”

For context, let me explain. Survivor is a reality competition series, in which 16 to 18 “castaways” (voluntary participants) are sent to a remote area, usually an island or beach region, to compete. When the castaways arrive, they are divide into tribes, build their own shelters, and scout out alternative food sources in addition to the minimal rice and beans provided. The tribes compete against each other in ‘reward challenges’ for supplies, food, or cool local excursions, and ‘immunity challenges,’ after which the losing tribe must attend Tribal Council. At Tribal Council, the losing tribe must vote off a player. Finally, when only 2 or 3 castaways remain, the ‘jury’—made up of the castaways who have been voted off—vote for who shall win, and earn the title of Sole Survivor.

I continued to watch from Season 2 in my toddler-hood through Season 33 in my first year of college. I began to think of the show’s host, Jeff Probst, as a distant family relative, and the game seemed to evolve nearly as much as I had. However, as I continue to develop my social awareness and define my value systems, I realize Survivor has not kept up, and I see the problems tied inherently into the show’s entire premise and defining aesthetics.

Survivor will always exist in my memory as a reason to look forward to Thursday nights (until they switched to Wednesday nights), but it’s time to confront the problem of representations within the show, and understand the impact they have on viewers. As members of modern society we must start conversations and attempt to unpack the problems that exist within things that we love, and to allow our evolving social consciousness to inform how we consume them. This is my attempt to do so as a loyal but critical viewer of Survivor.

First, let’s talk about the theme song.

Linked below are the opening themes from two different seasons: the first is from Season 3, Survivor Africa—yes, just Africa, no further specification—and the second is from Season 11, Survivor Guatemala. The reason I included both here is to demonstrate the way in which the creators ‘tailor’ the theme song both musically and visually to the location of the game that season.

Survivor Africa:

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Survivor Guatemala:

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The Music

The theme song is familiar each season, arranged slightly to compliment the location of that season. For Survivor Africa, the theme song includes voices reminiscent of African chanting, and includes instrumentation that sounds more recognizably “African” or tribal to the modern Western ear. In contrast, the theme song for Survivor Guatemala is instrumented noticeably with bamboo flutes, a sound heavily associated with indigenous Latin America. Our conditioned Western ears allow the creators to take advantage of these musical devices to orient the viewers to their own perception of the game’s location—whether it’s Guatemala, or all of Africa.

Further than attempting to artificially represent each location musically, the framework and sound of the theme song itself appears intentionally “indigenous-” or “primitive-” sounding. Most viewers—myself included—perceive the vocal part as wordless chanting, seemingly ceremonial or celebratory. As I dug through Survivor fandom sites and other more reliable sources to find the true origin of the music, I was not surprised to learn that it was chosen and continues to be arranged by a white American, Russ Landau. However, I was surprised to find out that his inspiration came from a Russian folk song, which is the basis for the music and lyrics of the theme.

How do we interpret this? To summarize the facts—there is music meant to reflect a local and/or indigenous culture. A white man in the American music and television industry wrote this music. We perceive this music as aurally representative of this local/indigenous culture. Therefore, the white man controls the representation of local and indigenous cultures to an American audience, and Native people have no control or actual connection to this representation.

The Imagery

The imagery displayed during the theme song also contributes greatly to the problem of Native representations. In the Survivor Guatemala clip, the theme opens with images of seemingly Mayan figurines, and dramatic angles of Mayan ruins. After the stage is set with these images, the castaways are introduced and appear to kayak into this exotic, ancient world where they must somehow survive. Interspersed throughout the theme are images of dangerous animals—snakes, alligators, lizards—to establish the bravery it must take for these contestants to participate, while also including grittiest footage of each castaway from that season. The motif of dramatic angle shots of nonspecific ruins reappears throughout the theme, as well.

In the theme for Survivor Africa, the imagery focuses more heavily on the local people themselves. The clip opens with the face of who appears to be an indigenous woman dressed in traditional regalia, dancing with other indigenous women. The theme of nature and exotic animals continues in this season’s theme, and images of local women, figurines, and jewelry persist throughout. It’s almost laughable how the castaways are then brought onscreen, as if they are adventurers so bold to enter these wild, uncharted territories in their camouflaged hats and rugged clothes.

Inherent in this unintentional comedic effect is the juxtaposition between the indigenous women shown and the demographic of the game’s participants: majority white. Of course, there are a few token POC castaways to check the diversity box, but overall, the cast presents as very light-skinned. The contrast between the demographic makeup of the cast and the Native women represented in the theme creates the unspoken sensation of the ‘other,’ and contributes to a strange sense of boldness in the castaways for daring to associate with the primitive ‘other’. There are similar negative representations in the opening for Survivor Guatemala, except in this theme, actual Native peoples themselves are not included. Instead, the local Native culture is represented exclusively through archaic figurines and literal ruins. This form of representation through artifacts contributes to stereotypes American viewers already hold so deeply: Native peoples are peoples of the past. So, through its representation of indigenous Guatemalan culture as dead and antiquated, Survivor contributes to Thomas King’s concept of the Dead Indian. In short, King’s use of the term “Dead Indian” refers to the modern perception of Native people as one dimensional, of-the-past, and anachronistic to modern society. By playing into this mode of representing Natives, Survivor inhibits the mainstream American viewer from perceiving Native people as living members of the present.

While it is also easy to comment on the use of exotic, dangerous, or unusual animals to represent the locality as primitive, I also think it’s fair to include such imagery when establishing the game’s location for that season. As an animal lover myself, I understand the use of animals to root the viewer in the kind of terrain the game will be played in, and after all—this is a show set in the outdoors. However, the way that local histories and even peoples are represented is troubling to me. Again, I understand the inclusion of cultural images to establish the season’s location, but the implications for indigenous representations extends far past these visual devices used for television. The game of Survivor is based in grit, ruthlessness, and fearlessness—clearly bordering on themes of savagery. Participants are ‘cast away’ from mainstream modern society and forced to regress to primitiveness, and win and ‘survive’ by whatever means necessary.

Herein lies the problem.

By including dramatic, archaic-feeling images of indigenous culture in the context of a brutal (I know this is a stretch but Survivor is a serious game and I feel comfortable describing it as brutal, thank you) game of ‘survival,’ the creators of the show stereotype Native people as savage and hyper-masculine—stereotypes that already exist deeply in American culture. Arguably worse than actively contributing to these stereotypes is the fact that the show’s creators are simultaneously stripping Native people of what M.H. Rajeha calls visual sovereignty. Rajeha defines visual sovereignty as “self-representation...that engage[s] the powerful ideologies of mass media” without conforming to Western standards or expectations, suggesting that the key to positive representation in media is, believe it or not, being able to represent oneself. That is not the case in Survivor, and therefore has damaging, minimizing implications for Natives on top of the stereotypes already presented.

Tribal Council

The most characteristic part of every Survivor episode is Tribal Council. As mentioned earlier, Tribal Council is where a losing tribe must go to vote one of their own off the island. To give you an idea of what Tribal Council is actually like, here a video of the first Tribal Council of Season 22: Survivor Redemption Island. After a nice intro of dramatic music and fire-y images, Jeff explains to the castaways how it works, and jumps right in.

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This next video is a behind-the-scenes tour of the set for Tribal Council during Survivor Tocantins. Jeff and the camera crew give a brief overview of the structure where the voting takes place, and of the décor chosen for the set. (Apologies for grainy quality.)

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First, let’s unpack the tour of the set for Survivor Tocantins. Jeff starts by talking about the local art included in the design, and this makes me happy! Supporting local artists is rare among large television corporations, and I hope (and am fairly confident) this is what he means by ‘all locally made.’ However, that’s about all he says. He takes about one second to reference the ‘beautiful feathered headdress’ that is strangely just hanging on the wall somewhere in the building. On top of this, in reference to the pots and vases laid out on a wall, half of which are shattered or broken or toppled over, “this is all, believe it or not, designed down to the detail. The art department wants it to feel like you’re stepping into something that’s been here for a long time.” He then points out a lot of intentionally distressed paint on ceramics and wood.

Look, I get the aesthetic. I know it’s a thing to buy jeans made with holes in them or sneakers that already look worn in—but in this case, what does it mean for the representations of local and Native people? Even if these are small Native artists that the show is supporting and providing a platform for, what kind of platform is it really? Particularly with the headdress on the wall, it doesn’t feel quite as respectful and supportive as I’d hoped. Instead, Survivor’s art department assembles random local art that creates a space the audience can accessibly perceive as rustic and archaic. In other words, feigning indigeneity to appeal to the show’s tones of primitiveness.

From an avid fan’s perspective, Tribal Council is the time and place where the real drama happens. Jeff asks probing questions, the contestants lash out at each other, secrets are revealed, and, ultimately, someone gets sent home. But from a critical and socially informed perspective, Tribal Council is blatant mockery of Native governance for entertainment value. If the goal was to make the process of voting a participant out accessible to viewing audiences, the creators of Survivor could have just as easily called it “the vote,” “the court,” or “the democratic ousting.” But, no. The title of Tribal Council is important because it emphasizes the ‘other-ness’ of the process—it spices things up for mainstream American viewers, if you will.

Again, this serves as another example of White American men controlling the representation and public perception of Native peoples. Yet as I read, watch, and reflect more on the many issues Survivor presents, I grow angriest at the use of Tribal Council. White American viewers consume Survivor with dedication and outrageous enthusiasm, anticipating blindside votes and eating up the drama Jeff instigates. But how often do these viewers hear about actual Native issues, in the United States or elsewhere? How deeply does the mainstream think about Native politics, Native legislation, Native representation?

They don’t.

Instead, their concept of Tribal Council is rooted in the drama on their DVR’s. So when the public hears of issues arising or legislative changes made by real Tribal Councils, their minds are not on Native politics or progress but on Jeff Probst and torches being snuffed. This hurts the seriousness with which mainstream white America views Native issues, and throws around terms like ‘tribe’ and ‘Tribal Council.’ Again Native people are stripped of their agency in representing their own institutions, but it is particularly harmful in this political realm—in case you need reminding, the history of the United States itself is rooted in the dismissal, displacement, and genocide of Native American peoples. And to minimize Native governing bodies to the last 5 minutes of reality entertainment is to minimize Native political issues completely.

But Whose Tribe Has Really Spoken?

The tribe has spoken. This is Jeff’s most signature line in the game of Survivor—a fan’s most anticipated words at the end of every episode. After the votes are read at each Tribal Council, Jeff looks the ousted player in the eye and informs them that their tribe has spoken before pointedly snuffing the fire from their torch. Below is a compilation of Jeff saying these lines, and yes, it is appropriately dramatic.

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If only this were true. The reality is that white American television writers have spoken on behalf of Native people and taken it upon themselves to appropriate various elements of Native culture for the sake of entertainment. Survivor contributes to existing negative stereotypes of Natives surrounding savagery, primitiveness, and archaism through both visual and auditory devices. The show utilizes the average American viewer’s conditioned perception of Native aesthetics as ‘other’ to add entertainment value and afford street credit to those bold enough to enter this savage other-ness. Viewers are implicitly encouraged to minimize Tribal issues, given that their only exposure to “Tribal Council” involves the snuffing of torches and dramatic theme music.

I don’t know if I will watch the next season of Survivor, or if I will mourn when it inevitably goes off the air. But I do know this: the show is inherently damaging to the representation of Native peoples. It will be difficult to reconcile the weight of these negative representations with my own personal nostalgia, and it seems unpromising for the show to re-evaluate these values and uproot its defining aesthetics. But a girl can hope, right?

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