Monday, December 4, 2017
Tomasz Wroblewski: "Poland: Patriotic, not authoritarian There are legitimate reasons to criticize the Polish government. But accusations of fascism are absurd."
In Politico, Tomasz Wroblewski argues that Poland's Independence Day March was not the horror show many in the Western mainstream press have accused it of being. He says that a small minority participated in extremist behavior and those extremists were not representational of the larger march, which mostly consisted of average citizens who just happen to love their country. He suggests that a double standard is at work, and other countries like France -- whose Jews are fleeing for their lives -- are not judged and condemned as Poland is. You can read Tomasz Wroblewski's article, "Poland: patriotic,
not authoritarian. There are legitimate reasons to criticize the polish
government. But accusations of fascism are absurd" here.
22 comments:
Bieganski the Blog exists to further explore the themes of the book Bieganski the Brute Polak Stereotype, Its Role in Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture.
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"But accusations of fascism are absurd."
ReplyDeleteOf course. Just as the earth is round and the sky is blue.
But since when has the leftmedia cared about the truth?
Readers of this blog may be interested in learning that Youtube is engaging in censorship of the Polish government's rebuttal of the leftmedia's falsehoods about Poland's self-defense policies on forced immigration. As always, the censorship is justified in terms of "resisting hatred":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/12/06/poland-government-migrant-youtube-jail/
Hello,
ReplyDeletePoland has a new Prime Minister. Who happens to have Jewish roots. I didn't know it. Now I know, and yet I don't care.
It looks like I'm a lousy antisemite.
https://www.jta.org/2017/12/08/news-opinion/world/poland-appoints-ex-banker-with-jewish-roots-as-prime-minister
https://www.timesofisrael.com/poland-swears-in-new-prime-minister-with-jewish-roots/
http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/In-first-speech-to-parliament-Polish-PM-speaks-of-unity-with-Jews-517847
As far as I know Morawiecki has Jewish family, but not roots.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the Jewish "aunts" are close friends of his mother.
ReplyDeleteA term "blood relation" was used by PM Morawiecki. He also said "members of my family".
DeleteI do not understand all the stir regarding Morawiecki having a Jewish background of whatever sort.
ReplyDeleteWojciech Wasiutynski, a leading Endek thinker, and ardent Polish patriot, was of Jewish background. Roman Dmowski was of Tatar descent. For details, please click on my name in this specific posting.
Haaretz has published an article
Deletehttps://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/1.827926
but doesn't publish critical comments.
Thanks, Jerzy7. Here is an excerpt from the HAARETZ article:
Delete"The Law and Justice party, on whose behalf Morawiecki will serve, has adopted conservative, nationalist policies on many issues, including that of the country’s historical memory. It has sought to replace the narrative that many Poles were anti-Semites who collaborated in some fashion with the Nazis with the narrative that the Poles were victims of the Nazis who helped the Jews en masse."
Notice the subtle innuendo: 1) Disagreement with the Jewish viewpoint is editorialized as "nationalism" [a naughty word in the mind of the reader]; 2). That Poles were victims of the Nazis is a narrative [an opinion that may not be true] ; 3) That "many" Poles collaborated with the Nazis [presumably a legitimate, factual opinion]; and especially 4) Poles helped Jews en masse [a ridiculous caricature of the Polish position. No influential Pole ever made such a claim.]
There is no stir in Polish press. It's the Israeli newspapers that got excited about this.
DeleteMaybe we aren't so antisemitic as they say.
https://polska.pl/politics/foreign-affairs/jonny-daniels-poland-safest-country-europe-jews/
As for Endeks, they were were neither rasist nor racially pure. For them Polishness was a matter of heart and mind, not blood and ancestry.
Westerners make a mistake when they compare Endeks to rasist groups that exist or existed in the West.
The HAARETZ invites to send comments and I believe a number of POles have commented the article, but no comment is visible.
DeleteSo now Breitbart News is presented as a trustworthy source? Fabulous.
ReplyDeleteWhy engage in poisoning-the-well tactics?
DeleteThe Breitbart facts are easily verified by visiting the indicated youtube video at the time (as I did before posting my message).
Moreover, the Breitbart article is an understatement. For example:
Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgian, and leader of the European Parliament, had leveled the vile, insulting falsehood that Polish Independence Day marchers are Nazis.
A rebuttal video by the Polish government, titled "Mr. Verhofstadt, Poles are no Nazis", has been censored on Youtube with the "Inappropriate" label. [I have a screenshot, if it could be uploaded here].
The fact that you go there at all and wish to be taken seriously is pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteEven if the Independence Day march wans't a nazi event (which it wasn't), there were plenty of far right (ONR), fascist and worse there and in prominent positions. After this years' event, if the ordinary marchers don't find it a problem to associate with such groups, they will be tainted. And so they should.
Hello again,
ReplyDeleteAccording to the report of European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights from November 2017 there were 167 antisemitic incidents in Poland in 2015. In 2016 there were 101 antisemitic incidents.
Antisemitism is on the rise somewhere else.
Lukasz I don't generally post messages that consist merely of links. Can you repost that message with your words saying why you are posting the links and what they say?
DeleteOf course.
DeleteMy point is that while the West likes to brand my country as "antisemitic" it is the same West that can't or won't protect their Jews from danger.
Danger that comes in the form of antisemitic neo-Nazis, anti-zionist leftists and anti-jewish muslims.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hanukkah-candles-lit-in-polish-parliament/
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/security-threat-to-chanukah-menorah-lighting-event-means-it-will-be-held-in-private-1.450434
And for all Jews reading this post: Happy Hanukkah!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m8x8fDL01o
Let us not confuse the issue, which is this:
ReplyDeleteYoutube is demonstrably censoring the Polish government, and high-level Eurocrat politician Guy Verhofstadt has demonstrably made the stinking lie that the Independence Day March consists of Nazis.
A few "far-right" individuals [Oh, Dear!] do not make the Polish Independence Day March a Nazi one.
If the Belgian Guy Verhofstadt is so morally excited about Nazis, he need look no further than his own: Degrelle and the Belgian Waffen SS. Verhofstadt should also beat his breasts over the Belgian genocide of African natives in Belgian Congo.
Besides all this, we need to avoid falling into the old traps set by leftists. Thus:
1. No one tells us Poles which sites we need to avoid in order to "wish to be taken seriously"[Leftspeak].
2. No one tells us Poles who we can and cannot associate with, or who "taints" us [again, Leftspeak].
So:
Youtube--stop censoring Poles that refute the left-wing spin.
Guy Verhofstadt--retract and apologize your bald-face lie about the Polish Independence Day March.
As a personal present to Guy Verhofstadt, I have just reviewed a book that discusses the Belgian genocide of Congolese natives (click on my name in this specific posting).
DeleteGuy Verhofstadt needs to publicly face the fact that the history of his Belgium is stained with the crime of genocide--while the history of Poland is not--instead of mouthing-off vile calumnies about Polish Independence Day marchers being Nazis.
Guy Verhofstadt also needs to realize that it was not Poland, but Belgium, that had organized collaboration with the Nazis.
DeleteI have just reviewed a book [click on my name to see it] about Leon Degrelle and the Belgian Waffen SS (STURMBRIGADE WALLONIEN). In addition, the Rexists were not the only Belgian Nazi collaborators--far from it.
Guy Verhofstadt needs to face up to the sordid aspects of Belgian history before he goes around hurling his vile accusations against Poland.
Lukasz wrote:
ReplyDelete"As for Endeks, they were were neither rasist nor racially pure. For them Polishness was a matter of heart and mind, not blood and ancestry."
Absolutely!
Lukasz added,
"Westerners make a mistake when they compare Endeks to racist groups that exist or existed in the West."
No mistake. The conflating of patriots with racists and Nazis, as noted in a previous blogspot, is an age-old left-wing tactic. Remember the 1960s? The traditional, patriotic middle USA was Amerika (sic).
Lukasz sagely noted that:
ReplyDelete"My point is that while the West likes to brand my country as 'antisemitic' it is the same West that can't or won't protect their Jews from danger."
Of course. Of course. That is how it always has been: Phony indignation over anti-Semitism in Poland. Same old, same old anti-Polish propaganda.
I don't even bother refuting such accusations any more: I just throw them right back in the faces of the holier-than-thou accusers.