Diversity Macht Frei

November 11, 2016

Looking ahead to the French elections, Daniela Schwarzer, director of research at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), said that European leaders like Ms Le Pen might start to take a leaf out of Mr Trump’s no-shame rhetorical playbook. “The broken taboos, the extent of political conflict, the aggression that we’ve seen from Trump, this can widen the scope of what becomes thinkable in our own political culture,” Ms Schwarzer said.

Source

It is not an accusation, merely a statement of fact, to describe Donald Trump as a racist, misogynist bully. That such a man can be elected as President of the United States is deeply chilling. For Jews, there is one specific aspect of his ascendency that is so worrying. His campaign was self-consciously antisemitic. One of his main themes was that a global elite was conspiring against ordinary Americans. This is not only a classic antisemitic meme; the examples cited by Mr Trump were all – every one of them – Jewish, such as George Soros and the President of the Federal Reserve. Anyone who denies this element to Mr Trump’s campaign is living in a self-deluded fantasy. Fantasy may be an apposite word. Perhaps the past few decades, when the US preserved a global order that destroyed prejudice rather than cementing it, was merely a short-lived fantasy.

The Jewish Chronicle Editorial

The triumph of the unspeakable makes acceptable what before was publicly unsayable: on race, on women, on the poor. Roll back the cultural progress in all our race relations and anti-discrimination acts, and if we’re not careful it will be not only permissible but politically necessary to acknowledge the lowest of visceral racist, sexist and nationalist instincts as valid. They are not. The dark side of human nature always lurks in politics, the mean, hating, isolationist, me-and-mine-first selfishness. Watch out for Brexiteers’ my-country-against-the-world rhetoric, echoing Neville Chamberlain’s disdain in 1938 for faraway people “of whom we know nothing”. In the end, Chamberlain had to fight, as he wrote in a letter in 1939 about Germany: “No doubt the Jews aren’t a lovable people; I don’t care about them myself; but that is not sufficient to explain the pogrom.” Turn just a slightly forgiving eye to racism and it can always spill out. …Both the Brexit and the Trump vote showed it was not just a bellow of pain from the poor and the uneducated, but shockingly high numbers of the comfortable and the educated too who joined the whitelash. Why the surge of anti-establishment discontent? The great 1980s explosion of inequality, never since repaired, has blown apart communality. Why it throws up a billionaire freak or a privileged Farage is just a feature of the unpredictability of demagoguery. But once dark hatreds of “the other” are stirred, voters on the right can be pushed towards this extremism. Polly Toynbee, The Guardian Trump’s victory is one of the biggest calamities to befall the west and the effect is that every racist, woman-hater, homophobe and rightwing authoritarian feels vindicated. This rightwing populism can no longer be dismissed as a blip. Indeed, without an urgent change in strategy, the left – perhaps all progressive opinion – will be marginalised to the point of irrelevance. Our crisis is existential. Multiple factors explain this calamity. First: racism. The legacy of slavery means racism is written into the DNA of US society. The determined efforts by African Americans to claim their civil rights has been met with a vicious backlash. The exit polls suggest that Trump won a landslide among both male and female white non-graduates: only white women with degrees produced a majority for Hillary Clinton.

Owen Jones, The Guardian

Germany’s finance minister on Thursday warned the U.S. election result could be a warning sign of a potential populist uprising in Germany’s parliamentary elections next year. “Populism is not only a problem happening in the U.S.,” Wolfgang Schäuble wrote in Germany’s Bild newspaper, warning of a local “Trump-effect.” He lamented that facts were seemingly irrelevant on the Internet. “It doesn’t seem to matter whether claims are true, the main thing is that the indignation is [there],” he said.

Source

Now that Mr. Trump has emerged victorious, Latino, black and Muslim voters, each with their own issues and agendas, are bracing for a long four years. Some Latinos already felt threatened on Wednesday and feared that Mr. Trump would pursue his mass deportation pledge, tearing apart their families and communities. Black voters anticipated an era under Mr. Trump in which intolerance would become acceptable. And Muslims worried that they would be branded as terrorists because of their beliefs.

“I don’t fear Trump as much as I fear the monster he’s awakened,” said Aysha Choudhary, a Muslim American who works with the aid group Doctors Without Borders in New York City. “It feels like he’s normalized discrimination, and I’m afraid it’s open season.”

…In New York, Cesar Vargas, an immigrant rights leader, said he had received “a torrent” of death threats on Twitter and Facebook on Tuesday and Wednesday. “We are going to come and find you,” one message said. In Washington, several dozen young immigrants gathered in front of the White House early Wednesday for a comforting vigil, where, they said, they were accosted by several men who had come to celebrate Mr. Trump’s victory. “Trump will build the wall!” the men shouted.

In Phoenix, Alejandra Gomez, a Latino activist, saw in her father’s eyes a terror she had not seen for years, since he had become a legal resident and was no longer at risk of deportation.

…“What upsets me is how in this whole election he has brought so many of these racists out,” said Maria Flores, a Cuban-American in Miami, who had once been a Republican but supported Mrs. Clinton this year. She said strangers had begun taunting her to speak English or leave.

Claudia Martinez, who is Mexican-American, Catholic and a devoted Republican, said she had wept in anguish after voting for Mrs. Clinton. But choosing Mr. Trump was not an option. “If he said those things as a candidate, what will he say as president?” she asked.

…Given Mr. Trump’s vow to bar Muslims from entering the United States in an attempt to curb terrorism, Mr. Rashid, an American citizen who is Muslim, worried that his family — Pakistani nationals who live in Dubai — could never visit him here again. And he ached for a young cousin in Michigan whose classmates were mean to her after Mr. Trump won a mock election at school, prompting her to cry all day.

“All of us are just scared,” Mr. Rashid said on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of talk on Facebook about getting ready for the next four years because people are going to question you, and your point of view won’t matter. The feeling is, we’re not accepted any more.”

…Still, he did not want his fear to show. And so he boldly dressed in Pakistani clothes and clipped a sign to his shirt that declared, “I’m not Scared.”

Source

British Jews have responded angrily after Jonathan Arkush, the president of the Board of Deputies, publicly congratulated Donald Trump on his election win. In a statement published on the Board’s website this morning, Mr Arkush said: “I would like to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory. “After a divisive campaign, I hope that Mr Trump will move to build bridges and ensure that America’s standing as a beacon of progress, tolerance and free-thinking remains strong.”

…Dr Ruvi Ziegler, law lecturer at the University of Reading, tweeted: “What does an organisation representing British Jewry congratulate this vile man endorsed by the KKK? #NotInMyName” Rachel Wenstone, a former National Union of Students vice-president, responded: “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! Why did you think this was at all necessary? You do know that you’re congratulating the KKK-backed candidate?” Ivor Caplin, a former British Defence Minister and ex-MP for Hove, was personally critical of Mr Arkush, saying:“Arkush should have kept quiet but he seeks publicity instead of reflecting concerns of Jews.”

Source

Sorkin Girls,

Well the world changed late last night in a way I couldn’t protect us from. That’s a terrible feeling for a father. I won’t sugarcoat it—this is truly horrible. It’s hardly the first time my candidate didn’t win (in fact it’s the sixth time) but it is the first time that a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has.

And it wasn’t just Donald Trump who won last night—it was his supporters too. The Klan won last night. White nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons. Angry young white men who think rap music and Cinco de Mayo are a threat to their way of life (or are the reason for their way of life) have been given cause to celebrate. Men who have no right to call themselves that and who think that women who aspire to more than looking hot are shrill, ugly, and otherwise worthy of our scorn rather than our admiration struck a blow for misogynistic shitheads everywhere. Hate was given hope. Abject dumbness was glamorized as being “the fresh voice of an outsider” who’s going to “shake things up.”

…The Trumpsters want to see people like us (Jewish, “coastal elites,” educated, socially progressive, Hollywood…) sobbing and wailing and talking about moving to Canada. I won’t give them that and neither will you.

Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter

Here (((Melanie Phillips))) and (((Simon Schama))) discuss the goy rebellion.

Netanyahu: