Fisking Antonia Zerbisias...And a Little Bit More

Wonk is having to work for a living today, but can't resist jumping into Cartoon-gate, the gift that keeps on giving. And it does, too, because it has really forced people, even in strange quarters, to focus on the real issue here as well as in the War on Terrorism: The Culture Wars.

First, a typical diatribe from the morally superior, haven't-got-a-clue wing of the Canadian left, ripe for a bit of fisking:

To be honest, I think that, here in Canada anyway, our Muslim communities are too diverse and too embedded in our culture and society for any kind of concerted reaction.

Yep. It can't happen here. Where have we heard that before? Paris?

As for violence, I would guess that Muslims are more victims than perpetrators....

Yes again, guess we'd better arrest all those Danish cartoonists who are running around slaughtering people.

Frankly, we're a lot more tolerant society than our own intolerant right would like to believe.

Indeed, we Canadian lefties tolerate everything except the obviously intolerant people who disagree with us.

Which makes me wonder who the real hate-mongers are: those who are cut off from modern communications technology and are more easily subject to the machinations of ignorant clerics — or those that should know better and who claim to be morally superior.

Like the writer herself, Antonia Zerbisias, no doubt? Note the brilliant illogic of the Gramscian pivot here: since we have superior communication technologies, Islamic riots are our fault, for how can you blame the mullahs who are so obviously ignorant that they can ignite coordinated, worldwide bogus demonstrations and fund them on only a few hours notice? Here, Zerbisias simultaneously blames the victims, blames the right (which had absolutely nothing to do with the cartoons), and creates an entirely new Known Fact™ regarding the existence of "obviously ignorant" mullahs. Who somehow know how to manipulate hi-tech media with unparalleled brilliance. A new class of idiots savants? Gee, we would hate to see what an intelligent cleric in the Middle East might do.

But back to my Antonia. How, pray, does the Toronto Star's resident Marxist get there from here?

Follow their [the right's] politics and you'll understand why they're on this particular blogwagon: they hate Muslims. In fact, if they were to write about Jews the way they sometimes do about followers of the Prophet Muhammad, they'd be denounced as anti-Semites or Holocaust deniers.

So it isn't surprising that some of their more eager acolytes have gone far beyond denigrating the fanatical rioting, which has, at deadline, claimed six lives and left hundreds of wounded.

Yes. It's George Bush's fault!!! (Well, she didn't get there, but that's probably because she ran out of column inches.) The rest of this article is padded with the usual namecalling that serves as a substitute for intelligent comment on the left side of the aisle.

This is why the left simply can't be treated seriously anymore, whatever the country—and even in liberal Canada which just couldn't take this stuff unadulterated anymore, electing its first Conservative government in what seems like decades.

Let's get Zerbisias' dialectical argument straight: satirical cartoons, published several months ago in a clearly liberal Danish publication, suddenly get "discovered," perhaps by pro-Iranian mullahs and their friends, looking to take a little heat off their current Hitler-in-training President. These "holy men" stir up riots from their mosques around the Islamic world to divert attention from from their own fanatics, and to maybe cow the Europeans into "submitting" to the dictates of foreign nationals without those foreign nationals needing to fire a shot in Denmark. And oh, yeah, a few of these peace lovers get carried away with their vehemence and other people get killed.

But it's all the fault of the right-wing bloggers. Even though it's lefty journos who are publishing all the cartoons. Go figure. But then again, as we've said many times before, you can't expect logic from people who regard logic as a capitalist tool and rely instead on the constant agitprop lies at the core of Marxist-Leninism's yet-beating heart. Dialectical argumentation is a tough thing to grasp because it never has to make any sense. It just has to shout louder and slam home incorrect terminology with ruthless abandon until you actually believe it's correct.

But don't take this from us. Instapundit (where we discovered the link to this nonsense) quotes a few sage reader comments as well, like this one:

Ms. Zerbisias' logic is flawless. I think if we've learned anything from this, it's that the ONLY people to blame for the rioting are the people sitting in their homes on a continent where the cartoons did not originate and where there is no rioting. It's as clear as day. Oh and also Michelle Malkin is fat.

Or this sinking curveball:

Zerbisias condemns those Westerners who "claim to be morally superior." Well that is absolute horseshit. I am tired of being told not to judge other cultures through my "American lens" because I don’t understand their circumstances. I believe in equal rights without regard to race, religion, color, gender or country or origin. I believe in the freedom of homosexuals to marry and live freely in society. I believe in freedom of expression, and speech, and the free exchange of ideas. I believe in kindness, compassion, consideration, and that dogs make life better. I don’t "claim to be morally superior" to those ass-hat murderers; I am morally superior.

Okay, we right-wing knuckle-draggers draw the line at "homosexual marriage" (another attempt by the Gramsicans to rearrange a long-agreed-upon secular-religious tenet), though many of us have no problem with civil unions. But you get the point. The correspondent above has had it up to here with leftist multi-culti crappola and states his case about as clearly as anyone dares state it in our politically correct times.

Read the whole blog entry here. There's lots more and lots more links.

Perhaps the current deadly cartoon brouhaha, stage-managed by Islamofascists intent, like their Gramsican friends, on undermining the entirety of Western culture without too much damage to themselves, has finally revealed the ultimate Culture War for what it is: The somewhat culturally debilitated West vs. fanatical fascists from the Middle East and from the dead end of Soviet Totalitarianism. Both enemies are united in a weird, violent scrum dedicated to overthrowing all that is decent so that everyone can live at last in equal squalor and misery, cowed, huddled, and dictated to by screaming, self-righteous fascists seething with rage while lacking entirely the saving grace of an immortal soul.

The outlines of the past century are now becoming quite clear, although those with a short-attention span and no knowledge of history will find this difficult to grasp. Since early in the 20th century, we have been involved in a nearly continuous Hundred Years' War of unprecedented scope and complexity. Whether ignited by the first flutterings of Bolshevism in Russia, or the domino-like collapse of a decaying European elite that ignited what is currently known as the First World War, civilization has embarked on an ultimate war that has yet to be concluded. Its major battles have included the First War Against Fascism (WWII); The War Against Communist Totalitarianism (The Cold War); and the Second War Against Fascism (the Global War on Terror or GWOT).

For over a century we have been engaged with a protean enemy whose visage always looks the same: The Negative Utopian possessed of a simple, Final Solution to all the ills of society. And the end is not yet in sight. Let's face what's going on for what it is. And together, bring it to an end.