Extraordinary article on Darkness and Light. I think the west is so tired of the Muslim assault on the west (starting centuries ago and now apparent in the latest wars in last few decades on three continents) that they find it easier to concentrate on aspects like pronouns and climate change and fashion than attempting again to get our collective heads around “what to do” with the way these totalitarians treat their citizens and how it will eventually and inevitably affect all of us. Again. And again.
We willfully just stood there and let this all happen. Events in Afghanistan and Sudan are of little importance to us if we’d rather listen to the latest report about Trump’s or Harris’s miscues…apparently.
Every day NATO Allies and partner countries kept the Talis out of power was a war won.
There wasn't enough outrage when President Trump was willing to negotiate with the Islamo-fascists, and and even more shocking was the level of acceptance when President Biden couldn't hand over the country fast enough (to say nothing of his administration's continued soft touch with Iran).
Even if you care nothing for those people, an airbase in central Eurasia has such enormous strategic value that it's abandonment is startling.
Murad was invited to speak at a book club for young girls about her book, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State. The first thing TDSB did was cancelled the event because they didn't want her speech offending anyone. It seems offending terrorists is not acceptable. They didn't want to be seen as promoting the made up word "Islamophobia". Shameful.
The people who are chosen to lead our Western Democracies are of "elite" status as only those with vast amounts of money can run for office, or today as we see, are "appointed" or "Chosen" to run for office. In case no one has noticed, there seems to be a dark connection between those organization's of terror and those in power in the West. If those who have been busy with our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity may notice, it has been overwhelmed with those dealing more with the darkness than with those in the light. As our churches are burned and synogouges attacked, there are no repercussions for the perpetrators of such crimes. Dare to disagree with the totaltarian style leadership of the Government's today, one finds themselves jailed for extraodinary lengths of time, punished both mentally, financially, and socially, to be made an example of. Our society is weak and willing to allow all this to happen with barely a whisper in the wind and in fact with the aid of the Corporate media and the spread propoganda in order to mislead the masses.
When it comes to even more aborhant issues of mass subjegation by those with power in other countries, they stand even less chance of anyone taking a stand against the horror and darkness beset upon them. Canada has a Prime Minister who is embolden to bow to those leaders of darkness and to kiss their hand in an awe, regardless of the murdering of Canadian's on board a plane that was shot from the sky in Iran. A Canadian Government that was unable to declare the IRGC a terrorist organization regardless of all the blatant facts before them. A Prime Minister who's own brother worked with the Iranian Government spreading propoganda to endear the regime as a misunderstood entity. We have a Government, Institutions, other Western Democracies, and World organizations, who can not decide who are the evil ones between Hamas and Israel. The facts remain that our own Government's are embracing this darkness and bringing it forward into all western democracies through mass migration. That includes human trafficking, the subjegation of people, selling children for body organs, and every other dreadful inhumane act that comes with the darkness one can imagine. We are dying nations, being inundated with evil as we are weak, spoiled, and easily led. To think that the West could stand up against the darkness in Afghanistan today, when most of the people can not even see it right before their own eyes where they are, leaves little hope for anyone, any country, or even this world. Many cannot see it before them, and the others turn the other way as to not disrupt their own lives. Weak people create weak countries, which create a weak world. That is exactly where we are today. Overwhelmed by darkness.
So well-spoken. 'Embracing the darkness': for example, welcoming 100s of unvetted Gazans in the midst of unprecedented outbreak of anti-Semitic agitation, violence and ppty destruction, mostly perpetuated by recent arrivals from Dar al-Islam.
We are on a road of loosing Canadian identity as media continues to print stories about Middle East, Afghanistan, etc, rather than highlighting deterioration of Canadian health services, messed up immigration policies of Liberal government, decreasing standard of living, increase of money laundering and crime in general, loss of international status, etc. while it feels noble to voice opposition to injustice wherever is happening, overdoing it at a cost of neglecting pressing national issues, it is a kind of escapism, not worthy of true patriots.
This is a powerful plea for sanity, marred only by its selective sensitivity to the suffering of women and girls. The Taliban - along with ISIS, Hamas, Boko Haram, etc. - is no picnic for the men and boys in its grip, either! The author mentions the child slaves in the Afghan brick factories, but neglects to note that there are almost 50% more boys working there than girls. (The split is 58% boys, 42% girls.) Yazidi women and girls were taken as sex slaves by ISIS soldiers, but the author neglects to mention what happened to the Yazidi men and boys. They were forced to convert and to fight and die for ISIS; those (many) who refused were summarily killed. The torture chambers in these places are full of men and boys. These death cults raise men and boys from birth to be cannon fodder in religious wars - roughly half of them on the aggressive side, and half on the defensive. Other authors, more competent and informed than I, have gone on in this vein at book length; I won't belabour the point.
Don't say, "But that is men doing it to other men!" To begin with, I don't really care what gender my oppressor is; what matters is being a victim of oppression. Secondly, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali notes in her autobiography, it is mostly women - mothers, aunts, grandmothers - who perpetuate the female genital mutilation ritual in places where it exists. And who raise the boys who are the oppressors of women in the next generation. Does that make it OK, or less evil? Of course not! Nor is the suffering of men caused by dysfunctional theocracies any less evil because the theocrats at the top are men. It is characteristic of a dysfunctional morality that it harms everyone in its grip. "Verily, I say unto you, the lives of men and women are so intimately intertwined that the harms an ideology inflicts upon one group are bound to redound upon the other." (Grant 3:16).
The author wonders why western women have so little interest in the fate of women and girls under the Taliban and their ilk. She merely has to ask herself why she shows so little interest in the fate of men and boys under the Taliban and their ilk to get an answer to her puzzle. None of the distinctive harms suffered by men and boys due to the dysfunctional morality / theology / politics she rails against seems to be on her radar. People tend to be self-centred; their interests tend to be centred on things they share with others.
Thank you very much for this! It has been painful to see 'feminism' become a travesty of its first intentions. I admit that as I was reaching adulthood in the '80s a split had formed with one hate and hurt filled group with no liking for men and often extended this dislike to my young brother, who struggled as a result. The other group that I became aware of wasn't as cohesive. I would say I fit into this group who are perhaps as much humanist as feminist, and strive to elevate people in general. But there was a strange burst of focus on overt female sexuality, comparing female and male sexual needs urges. And I saw women displaying their bodies and sexuality as a supposed form of strength and power. Then came the #metoo movement and the move to use male responses to our female attributes to punish and humiliate men in positions of power. As this was happening, white heteronormativ males were being vilified (my son could be counted on to make note of the ubiquitous reverse sexism of everyday discourse or commentary), so can we be surprised they have jumped on the tranny train? They can have all that power, and hey, they are suddenly valued again, in fact they are now preferred to actual women! Not only do they get to devastate them in sports, but in beauty pageants and if I remember correctly, this year they even get to represent the many women of the European Union, while today's so called feminists stand by clapping. These are the people why blindly believe in their ignorance that they are morally elevated by their support of a radical Islamic movement which would destroy them. Feminism has taken shelter under that umbrella described so beautifully above, as far from any moral truth or ethical consideration as it can get. Could feminism be a whim of the past, have she/he/they have crawled under there to die? RIP, may your former promise rise from your ashes and rise to enervate a new generation of females fighting for humanity!
There is nothing true in post WWII feminism that wasn't already true in the humanist liberalism that predates it; and anything in post WWII feminism that wasn't already in humanist liberalism is an error. You cannot improve upon the truth. Instead, what modern feminism amounts to is an endless litany of special pleading.
I get the feeling I'm missing something, but I'm not educated enough to get your point. My comment was made strictly as a personal perspective and the terms I used were used as they are used commonly, and admittedly with my extremely limited understanding of the history and philosophy behind them. Also, was a spontaneous note of thoughts forming as I wrote, with no clear point but my opinion that Feminism has become an empty dead thing. But I love history and have learned a great deal since I started reading these substacks and the intelligent and informed comments of other readers. So if you feel like it, I would be interested to learn what I'm missing - in words I understand!
Unfortunately, so many people just don't follow news or care to understand what is going on in the world. It is depressing and hard to cope with the knowledge of all the horrendous abuses suffered in parts of this world. Much more pleasant to stick with newspeak.
Those with the power to change it are uninterested in human rights unless they can profit from it. If they could reap in obscene amounts of money, they'd be back to confront the Taliban in a flash.
So, what the hell to do? The Israelis are currently applying one apparent solution to the evil Hamas, sadly this involves considerable suffering for the “innocent muslims” as the evil islamists are eliminated. For providing this service to the world the Israelis receive the approbation of at least half of that world! Should we be the policemen of the world? I don’t know. Reality sucks!
Afghanistan is a country that I am at loss to see what the solution is. I know for certain the solution is not fascistic theocracy as it is now. I look at the neighbouring countries and it does not look good - Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. It feels like Uzbekistan is the only relatively reasonable and stable neighbour.
And ongoing worry I have had is that Russia will intervene via Tajikistan to improve its standing in the world.
You should read my book, Bernard. Afghanistan was a "won" cause, not a lost one. Afghans overwhelming supported the NATO intervention, opposed the Taliban, supported the right of women to education and to work outside the home, and believed in democracy. Tens of thousands of Afghans gave their lives in the struggle for their embryonic democracy, and a new generation was just coming into power when the Trump-Biden concordat put knives in their backs and destroyed all their hopes and expectations. The image most "westerners" have in their heads about Afghans is an image created by effete westerners. It is not Afghanistan. It is Absurdistan. My curiosity about why EuroAmericans got everything about that country so damn wrong, and upside down, led to life-changing realizations about the intellectual and moral poverty of "left-wing" politics. I remain, metaphorically, with POUM, if you take my meaning. But all through those years of engagement, the harm done by the so-called anti-war movement, and by the "left" writ large, is unforgivable. This is not at all just about Afghanistan, which was our generation's Spanish War. "We" capitulated to the enemy, and we congratulated ourselves for it. And we see the result, in Syria, in Ukraine, in Hong Kong, in Burma, in Venezuela, in the 'Free Palestine" yobbery on our own streets, in the entrenchment of Khomeinism, and in the rule of Akhundzada's Talibs. We can run away from "forever wars" if we like, but that war will come to us soon enough. It is not a happy conclusion I've reached. We can choose to ignore it, lie to ourselves, flatter ourselves, leave it to our kids to fight, whatever. But the enemy will not go away.
I should read it. POUM is where I have always been, not that I am a POUMist
I hate that the left is n o longer willing to fihgt for basic human rights and are willing to accept intolerable act.
Could Afghanistan avoided the return of the Taliban? I do not spend enough time on the country but in my reading it really feels like they were inevitable.
Terry. This comment is unrelated to the excellent article above. The National Post had an extensive article that said, in effect, Cameron Ortis was framed, or perhaps put more civilly, dealt a hand he couldn’t win. Are you going to provide your faithful subscribers with your opinion on this matter? It would be most appreciated. Thanks.
Extraordinary article on Darkness and Light. I think the west is so tired of the Muslim assault on the west (starting centuries ago and now apparent in the latest wars in last few decades on three continents) that they find it easier to concentrate on aspects like pronouns and climate change and fashion than attempting again to get our collective heads around “what to do” with the way these totalitarians treat their citizens and how it will eventually and inevitably affect all of us. Again. And again.
We willfully just stood there and let this all happen. Events in Afghanistan and Sudan are of little importance to us if we’d rather listen to the latest report about Trump’s or Harris’s miscues…apparently.
Every day NATO Allies and partner countries kept the Talis out of power was a war won.
There wasn't enough outrage when President Trump was willing to negotiate with the Islamo-fascists, and and even more shocking was the level of acceptance when President Biden couldn't hand over the country fast enough (to say nothing of his administration's continued soft touch with Iran).
Even if you care nothing for those people, an airbase in central Eurasia has such enormous strategic value that it's abandonment is startling.
Exactly.
Bernard Schulmann: take note.
Murad was invited to speak at a book club for young girls about her book, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State. The first thing TDSB did was cancelled the event because they didn't want her speech offending anyone. It seems offending terrorists is not acceptable. They didn't want to be seen as promoting the made up word "Islamophobia". Shameful.
I remember that well.
The people who are chosen to lead our Western Democracies are of "elite" status as only those with vast amounts of money can run for office, or today as we see, are "appointed" or "Chosen" to run for office. In case no one has noticed, there seems to be a dark connection between those organization's of terror and those in power in the West. If those who have been busy with our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity may notice, it has been overwhelmed with those dealing more with the darkness than with those in the light. As our churches are burned and synogouges attacked, there are no repercussions for the perpetrators of such crimes. Dare to disagree with the totaltarian style leadership of the Government's today, one finds themselves jailed for extraodinary lengths of time, punished both mentally, financially, and socially, to be made an example of. Our society is weak and willing to allow all this to happen with barely a whisper in the wind and in fact with the aid of the Corporate media and the spread propoganda in order to mislead the masses.
When it comes to even more aborhant issues of mass subjegation by those with power in other countries, they stand even less chance of anyone taking a stand against the horror and darkness beset upon them. Canada has a Prime Minister who is embolden to bow to those leaders of darkness and to kiss their hand in an awe, regardless of the murdering of Canadian's on board a plane that was shot from the sky in Iran. A Canadian Government that was unable to declare the IRGC a terrorist organization regardless of all the blatant facts before them. A Prime Minister who's own brother worked with the Iranian Government spreading propoganda to endear the regime as a misunderstood entity. We have a Government, Institutions, other Western Democracies, and World organizations, who can not decide who are the evil ones between Hamas and Israel. The facts remain that our own Government's are embracing this darkness and bringing it forward into all western democracies through mass migration. That includes human trafficking, the subjegation of people, selling children for body organs, and every other dreadful inhumane act that comes with the darkness one can imagine. We are dying nations, being inundated with evil as we are weak, spoiled, and easily led. To think that the West could stand up against the darkness in Afghanistan today, when most of the people can not even see it right before their own eyes where they are, leaves little hope for anyone, any country, or even this world. Many cannot see it before them, and the others turn the other way as to not disrupt their own lives. Weak people create weak countries, which create a weak world. That is exactly where we are today. Overwhelmed by darkness.
So well-spoken. 'Embracing the darkness': for example, welcoming 100s of unvetted Gazans in the midst of unprecedented outbreak of anti-Semitic agitation, violence and ppty destruction, mostly perpetuated by recent arrivals from Dar al-Islam.
That was powerful.
We are on a road of loosing Canadian identity as media continues to print stories about Middle East, Afghanistan, etc, rather than highlighting deterioration of Canadian health services, messed up immigration policies of Liberal government, decreasing standard of living, increase of money laundering and crime in general, loss of international status, etc. while it feels noble to voice opposition to injustice wherever is happening, overdoing it at a cost of neglecting pressing national issues, it is a kind of escapism, not worthy of true patriots.
This is a powerful plea for sanity, marred only by its selective sensitivity to the suffering of women and girls. The Taliban - along with ISIS, Hamas, Boko Haram, etc. - is no picnic for the men and boys in its grip, either! The author mentions the child slaves in the Afghan brick factories, but neglects to note that there are almost 50% more boys working there than girls. (The split is 58% boys, 42% girls.) Yazidi women and girls were taken as sex slaves by ISIS soldiers, but the author neglects to mention what happened to the Yazidi men and boys. They were forced to convert and to fight and die for ISIS; those (many) who refused were summarily killed. The torture chambers in these places are full of men and boys. These death cults raise men and boys from birth to be cannon fodder in religious wars - roughly half of them on the aggressive side, and half on the defensive. Other authors, more competent and informed than I, have gone on in this vein at book length; I won't belabour the point.
Don't say, "But that is men doing it to other men!" To begin with, I don't really care what gender my oppressor is; what matters is being a victim of oppression. Secondly, as Ayaan Hirsi Ali notes in her autobiography, it is mostly women - mothers, aunts, grandmothers - who perpetuate the female genital mutilation ritual in places where it exists. And who raise the boys who are the oppressors of women in the next generation. Does that make it OK, or less evil? Of course not! Nor is the suffering of men caused by dysfunctional theocracies any less evil because the theocrats at the top are men. It is characteristic of a dysfunctional morality that it harms everyone in its grip. "Verily, I say unto you, the lives of men and women are so intimately intertwined that the harms an ideology inflicts upon one group are bound to redound upon the other." (Grant 3:16).
The author wonders why western women have so little interest in the fate of women and girls under the Taliban and their ilk. She merely has to ask herself why she shows so little interest in the fate of men and boys under the Taliban and their ilk to get an answer to her puzzle. None of the distinctive harms suffered by men and boys due to the dysfunctional morality / theology / politics she rails against seems to be on her radar. People tend to be self-centred; their interests tend to be centred on things they share with others.
Thank you very much for this! It has been painful to see 'feminism' become a travesty of its first intentions. I admit that as I was reaching adulthood in the '80s a split had formed with one hate and hurt filled group with no liking for men and often extended this dislike to my young brother, who struggled as a result. The other group that I became aware of wasn't as cohesive. I would say I fit into this group who are perhaps as much humanist as feminist, and strive to elevate people in general. But there was a strange burst of focus on overt female sexuality, comparing female and male sexual needs urges. And I saw women displaying their bodies and sexuality as a supposed form of strength and power. Then came the #metoo movement and the move to use male responses to our female attributes to punish and humiliate men in positions of power. As this was happening, white heteronormativ males were being vilified (my son could be counted on to make note of the ubiquitous reverse sexism of everyday discourse or commentary), so can we be surprised they have jumped on the tranny train? They can have all that power, and hey, they are suddenly valued again, in fact they are now preferred to actual women! Not only do they get to devastate them in sports, but in beauty pageants and if I remember correctly, this year they even get to represent the many women of the European Union, while today's so called feminists stand by clapping. These are the people why blindly believe in their ignorance that they are morally elevated by their support of a radical Islamic movement which would destroy them. Feminism has taken shelter under that umbrella described so beautifully above, as far from any moral truth or ethical consideration as it can get. Could feminism be a whim of the past, have she/he/they have crawled under there to die? RIP, may your former promise rise from your ashes and rise to enervate a new generation of females fighting for humanity!
There is nothing true in post WWII feminism that wasn't already true in the humanist liberalism that predates it; and anything in post WWII feminism that wasn't already in humanist liberalism is an error. You cannot improve upon the truth. Instead, what modern feminism amounts to is an endless litany of special pleading.
I get the feeling I'm missing something, but I'm not educated enough to get your point. My comment was made strictly as a personal perspective and the terms I used were used as they are used commonly, and admittedly with my extremely limited understanding of the history and philosophy behind them. Also, was a spontaneous note of thoughts forming as I wrote, with no clear point but my opinion that Feminism has become an empty dead thing. But I love history and have learned a great deal since I started reading these substacks and the intelligent and informed comments of other readers. So if you feel like it, I would be interested to learn what I'm missing - in words I understand!
You are so correct.
Unfortunately, so many people just don't follow news or care to understand what is going on in the world. It is depressing and hard to cope with the knowledge of all the horrendous abuses suffered in parts of this world. Much more pleasant to stick with newspeak.
Those with the power to change it are uninterested in human rights unless they can profit from it. If they could reap in obscene amounts of money, they'd be back to confront the Taliban in a flash.
So, what the hell to do? The Israelis are currently applying one apparent solution to the evil Hamas, sadly this involves considerable suffering for the “innocent muslims” as the evil islamists are eliminated. For providing this service to the world the Israelis receive the approbation of at least half of that world! Should we be the policemen of the world? I don’t know. Reality sucks!
What "innocent" Muslims? Gaza is a death cult; they all perpetuate it from birth, and have done for generations.
Afghanistan is a country that I am at loss to see what the solution is. I know for certain the solution is not fascistic theocracy as it is now. I look at the neighbouring countries and it does not look good - Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. It feels like Uzbekistan is the only relatively reasonable and stable neighbour.
And ongoing worry I have had is that Russia will intervene via Tajikistan to improve its standing in the world.
You should read my book, Bernard. Afghanistan was a "won" cause, not a lost one. Afghans overwhelming supported the NATO intervention, opposed the Taliban, supported the right of women to education and to work outside the home, and believed in democracy. Tens of thousands of Afghans gave their lives in the struggle for their embryonic democracy, and a new generation was just coming into power when the Trump-Biden concordat put knives in their backs and destroyed all their hopes and expectations. The image most "westerners" have in their heads about Afghans is an image created by effete westerners. It is not Afghanistan. It is Absurdistan. My curiosity about why EuroAmericans got everything about that country so damn wrong, and upside down, led to life-changing realizations about the intellectual and moral poverty of "left-wing" politics. I remain, metaphorically, with POUM, if you take my meaning. But all through those years of engagement, the harm done by the so-called anti-war movement, and by the "left" writ large, is unforgivable. This is not at all just about Afghanistan, which was our generation's Spanish War. "We" capitulated to the enemy, and we congratulated ourselves for it. And we see the result, in Syria, in Ukraine, in Hong Kong, in Burma, in Venezuela, in the 'Free Palestine" yobbery on our own streets, in the entrenchment of Khomeinism, and in the rule of Akhundzada's Talibs. We can run away from "forever wars" if we like, but that war will come to us soon enough. It is not a happy conclusion I've reached. We can choose to ignore it, lie to ourselves, flatter ourselves, leave it to our kids to fight, whatever. But the enemy will not go away.
I should read it. POUM is where I have always been, not that I am a POUMist
I hate that the left is n o longer willing to fihgt for basic human rights and are willing to accept intolerable act.
Could Afghanistan avoided the return of the Taliban? I do not spend enough time on the country but in my reading it really feels like they were inevitable.
The above link was related to a comment I posted a few minutes ago
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulfinlayson/p/i-am-being-thrown-in-the-slowly-grinding?r=iy2ds&utm_medium=ios
Terry. This comment is unrelated to the excellent article above. The National Post had an extensive article that said, in effect, Cameron Ortis was framed, or perhaps put more civilly, dealt a hand he couldn’t win. Are you going to provide your faithful subscribers with your opinion on this matter? It would be most appreciated. Thanks.