* “my grandparents from Lithuania to South Africa, my parents from South Africa to London, my cousins from South Africa to Israel, myself from London to New York.”
So, basically, after helping to ruin South Africa, Roger Cohen’s family escaped it and now Roger is contributing his best to ruin the USA. Where does he think his grandchildren will go?
* Their shamelessness and total lack of reciprocal morality makes me sick.
* Dumping a few million unassimilable, violence prone Muslims into formerly peaceful western societies, thereby TRIPLING the incidence of violent rape (as happened in Scandinavia) and creating networks of domestic Jihadi terrorists where none existed before (as happened pretty much everywhere), has a way of triggering a “backlash” among the common folk. I can understand how their primitive response to the disintegration of their societies, the ongoing destruction of their culture, and their mounting economic insecurity would offend uber rational globalists such as the FT. But the irrational little dears are afraid of losing their homes, jobs, and all the other familiar things that make life worth living for people of limited imagination and a parochial perspective. Perhaps if the FT explained the many benefits of “globalisation” to them one more time they would see the light; I mean, discount HD TVs and cheap apparel give life its true meaning. Why can’t they can see that?
* “Arab Christians tend to integrate better into American life – among other things they are not prone to sudden jihad syndrome.”
That’s true but that doesn’t mean we should want them to come to the West (not that you are saying such, it’s just that I’ve encountered such sentiments on forums before).
Earlier this week Nassim Taleb said on his Twitter feed something about how Americans should forget about Mexicans and concentrate on Saudis instead. Now I’d be more than happy to see the Saudis (and other Sunni Gulf states) get their comeuppance, but how typical that a Christian Middle Easterner would rather Americans focus on his enemies in the old country rather than the Mexicans who are no threat to Professor Taleb’s people or his position in the US.
As for Cohen, he advocated Western intervention in Syria to remove Assad back in 2013. And IIRC he was rather bitter towards the Germans for not going along with it. (Or was that another Cohen? There are so many of them). Now the Germans are his heroes because of their willingness to flood Europe with Syrians and the Americans (and other Westerners) who were great when wanting to bomb Syria are a disappointment! The mendacity of the Cohens of the world knows no limits.
* It must be a great comfort to Cohen’s editor and readers that Hafiz Nassar is an Arab rug merchant, just as Cohen’s daughter is a Jewish psychiatrist, Cohen himself is a peripatetic Jew from an wandering family,* and a nameless Navajo woman shows up on cue to pawn** a turquoise ring for ten dollars. Those are all stock characters, archetypes which New Yorkers recognize faster than Malcolm Gladwell can blink. And those aren’t all! Cohen also gives us four Syrian Christians in a lonely monastery, Dust Bowl migrants on Route 66 to California, and Israeli roadblocks that “cement the violent status quo.” Cliches, every one. (Cohen’s readers understand that “Israeli roadblocks” are people as much as objects– probably Likudniks.)
Why this remarkable barrage of stereotypes? Is it just to flatter New Yorkers’ beliefs that nothing ever changes outside the five boroughs? Nope. The cliches are part of the hypnotist’s patter, lulling the reader into a uncritical state of mind, preparing him to accept suggestions. Nodding along as Cohen reviews familiar stereotypes, the reader is invited to just keep nodding as Cohen tells us swarms of migrants from violent societies half a world away are the same as the Okies of our nostalgic memories, and more importantly, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are really one and they are Nazis!
“The Vladimir Trump policy school,” Cohen writes, “teaches that big lies produce big fears that produce big yearnings for big strongmen.” New York Times readers know who invented “big lies,” Adolf Hitler! Flyover folks might think they’re afraid of being shot down by jihadists, but really, that’s just a big lie, put about to create a big yearning for Vladimir Trump’s election. And just look at Vladimir Trump, he’s really big!
If the New York Times caught someone outside their pages writing about Arab rug merchants and rootless Jewish psychiatrists and Navajo women pawning their jewelry they would demand an FBI investigation. The $PLC would feature the bigots in a fundraising letter. Loretta Lynch would hold a press conference to highlight the penalties for hate speech.
But Cohen, exploiting the prejudices of the comfortable, is just doing his job. As Camus’ Bernard Rieux tells us, that is the definition of decency.
* Israel would make a much better bazaar. We should withdraw all aid, enact sanctions, and bring all the pressure to bear we possibly can, until Israel becomes the Bazaar It Is Destined To Be. After all, location, location, location. Israel’s much better sited.
