Sunday, December 17, 2017

Jack Black's Polish Accent in The Polka King

The AV Club features an article about Netflix's "The Polka King." In the comments section, readers discuss whether Jack Black's Polish accent is offensive. 

The film is about a Polish immigrant who becomes a Polka king and starts a Ponzi scheme, defrauding his fans and ending in jail. He wears outlandish costumes. 

You can read "Jack Black’s Polish accent stars in the trailer for Netflix’s The Polka King" by Matt Gerardi here.

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

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Maciej Kisilowski: PiS Is about Power, not Patriotism

Maciej Kisilowski, an associate professor of law and public management at Central European University in Budapest, argues "Poland: authoritarian, not patriotic: Jarosław Kaczyński is building a state apparatus that will do whatever it takes to protect the regime," that PiS is about consolidating and maintaining power, not about patriotism. 

Kisilowski points to PiS and the media, PiS and the judiciary, and PiS and public projects. PiS, he says, is currently aided by economically comfortable times, but when times get lean, PiS will tighten its grip to maintain power. Kisilowski points to fascist elements in the Independence Day March and asks why these elements were not prevented from participating, while, he says, peaceful anti-fascist marchers were arrested. 

In the comments section under the article, readers curse in Polish at Kisilowski, wish him dead, and accuse him of being secretly Jewish. 

One comment reads, "What an eye opener, one does not need need to live in Poland to experience fascism, even just looking at the comments of some of the fascist minded commentators here can immagine what really is going on in that country. The xenophobia, swearing at people, labeling anyone with a different vew a traidor, the hate aimed towards anyone who questions them. it is obvious that the PiS has found very fertile ground to sow its seeds of hatred"

Another comment reads, "the march itself was sponsored, among others, by the far-right ONR, something that the PiS authorities must surely have been aware of."
 

You can read the article here.

Lifesite News: Western, Mainstream Press Misrepresents Poland's Independence Day March

Lifesite news ran an article arguing that Western, mainstream press misrepresented Poland's Independence Day March. I can't recommend the article. I don't think it brings much new to the table. 

In the comments section, a couple of posters said, paraphrase, If, as you say, the fascists, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists were such a small percentage of the marchers, why didn't the majority of marchers demand that the objectionable element not participate? That's a valid question. 

One comment argued that the fascists were paid agents of George Soros. A pretty far-fetched conspiracy theory. Another comment argued that homosexuals and abortionists are out to destroy Poland. Not a helpful point of view. 

You can read the article, "Here’s What The Mainstream Media Isn’t Telling You About The Poland Independence Day March," by Dorothy Cummings Mclean here.

Friday, December 1, 2017

Trump Tweets "anti-Muslim" Videos from "Extremist, Right-Wing, Hate Group" and Bieganski


On Wednesday, November 29, US President Donald Trump re-tweeted three videos from Jayda Fransen of Britain First. The first video depicts a Muslim teen beating up on a non-Muslim Dutch teen using crutches. The second depicts a Muslim cleric destroying an image of Mary. The third depicts violence culminating in murder. As far as anyone knows, these videos are authentic, and not staged.

Trump's tweeting this material caused intense backlash. The world press condemned him in the harshest terms ever used against him. The New York Times and other publications rushed to condemn the videos and their sender, Jayda Fransen. Some alleged, without any evidence, that the videos were staged or inauthentic.

The New York Times devoted many articles to this topic. On the very day of the tweets, the Times rushed to print an article, "The Stories Behind Three Anti-Muslim Videos Shared by Trump," that struggled to defuse the videos, and make them out to be innocuous. It was as if the Muslim world were on trial, and the New York Times were the Muslim world's defense attorney.

A few observations.

First, the President of the United States should not use twitter. Twitter use demeans the office and endangers the US.

Second, I searched for over an hour to find any publication that supplied any facts to support the characterization of Britain First as an "extremist, right-wing hate group."

I read articles about Britain First, visited their Facebook page, watched their videos, and saw no extremism and no hate. They appear to be a small group of older British people who walk around carrying crosses and Union Jacks and distributing pamphlets encouraging patriotism. People spit at them and throw projectiles at them, and they do not retaliate.

If anyone has any information to support their status as an "extremist, right-wing hate group" please feel free to supply that information in the comments section.

Third. The videos in question are not fake, and are not anti-Muslim. They do show Muslims behaving badly, but there are an infinite number of videos that show non-Muslims behaving badly; those videos arouse no outrage.

Fourth, the gigantic furor aroused is very telling.

In the mainstream press, academia, and popular culture, Poles are Bieganski. That is, Poles are brutal haters who deserve every criticism. In recent days, world press has condemned Poland for its recent Independence Day March. No one pulled any punches in this criticism. In fact, mainstream news organs fabricated especially inflammatory slogans and claimed that they appeared on signage – there were no signs at the march that featured the inflammatory slogan.

No one rushed forward to say that Poles cannot be criticized in this manner.

This is what we call a double standard.

Poles need to unite and resist Bieganski. For more on that, see here.