Tolerating intolerance kills tolerance
Having tolerated Muslim intolerance, Europeans are now horrified to see rightwing political movements gaining ascendancy:
Socialists' long-standing support for European unification, religious tolerance and integrating immigrants has made them vulnerable to right-wing populists like the Sweden Democrats, Geert Wilders' Dutch Freedom Party or France's National Front. (Reuters - Anti-Immigrant Europe)Angry, bigoted Muslims, the recipients of European tolerance, repay their liberal benefactors by spewing intolerance of anything outside their narrow, bigoted ideology. Europeans are growing weary of it and voting rightwing as a result.
The People Get It
"People in Europe have grown comfortable in the decades since World War Two and now they see that level of comfort threatened," Grabbe said. "The result is that tolerance is no longer held dear as a European value, even in countries that used to be proud of being open and liberal." (Reuters - Anti-Immigrant Europe)I am not bashing Europe. They have way too much socialism for my taste, and they fund it by confiscatory taxation while having us carry their defense burden. But it is their choice. They have built a nice, peaceful life for themselves, and it is being ruined by liberal immigration policies.
An Example from Nature by Dr. Michael Savage
Michael Savage best explains it best by taking an example from nature (I’m paraphrasing from memory). A society should be like a strawberry, luscious and juicy and sweet on the inside, but with barbs on the outside to keep the predators away. Yes, many varieties of berries have barbs, they are just so fine that they don’t bother humans eating them, but they do repel the pests that try to eat them on the vine.
Europe is a beautiful continent and the people are wonderful. They are way too collectivist for my tastes, but it’s their society, not mine. If they want to hold on to the world they have built, they need to put some barbs on their berries.
NY Time - Swedish Anti-Immigration
Reuters - European Socialist Crisis
9 comments:
I lived in Europe for 6 years. Although it has been many years ago, I saw their quality of life as inferior to ours: much smaller living quarters (600 sq. ft apartments seemed average for a family of 4). Their refrigerators were smaller than the ones you see in a typical college dorm room.
The average car got 40 mpg, and was the size of a golf cart. And the average family did not have one. And if they did, they had to pay an arm and a leg to park it. That, and they pay the equivalent of $8.00/gallon to drive it anywhere.
They pay income taxes, state and local taxes, and a Value Added Tax on everything they buy (Mehrvertsteuer). Like the Beatles song, if you take a walk, they tax your feet. If you have a TV, the German government taxes you on the mere fact that you have one. Every year the tax man comes to your door to verify that you still have your TV, and demands the TV tax.
And on and on and on....the average European's quality of life is half that of the average American.
Socialism sucks. Trust me, I've seen it up close and personal.
I just may scribble a post on the above rant, and expand on the misery I saw in Europe a bit more.
It really does suck, trust me.
Fredd: We've had similar experiences. Europe is a wonderful place, and I hate to see it taken over by uncivilized hordes.
Liberals love to idealize Europe and hold it up a superior to the US, but most who do that have never actually lived there.
See Health care isn't free,you pay for it one way or another.
I have a friend who lived in Germany who cut her arm really bad and was one big open gash. No stitches,no tetanus sot,no anti biotics just cleaned up and bandaged until it got badly infected and she was hospitalized with an IV.
OK they did treat it when it got infected but isn't an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure?
Anyway I like your "Barbs on berries" comment.
I would submit that the level of European 'intolerance' has been growing since the formalastion of the European Union and that of their currency, the Euro the long held and proud idea of state soveriegnty began to disolve as did their ecomonmy (as though each individual country in the union needed help with that?)
As this is being realized (too late), individual natioanl pride and identity is reasserting itself (most notably Germany) hence what is deemed the intolerance on display. Sort of like France telling Germany; I like my brand of socialism, not yours.
The EU was abad idea from the get-go decades ago and the European citizens are just now waking-up to this fact.
You're right Christopher. The EU project has had the opposite effect, and not just on a national scale, but regional as well. Catalonia, Bavaria and other regions strain for greater autonomy.
I think our liberal friends need to learn what tolerance is. To me (and Websters dictionary) Torrence is allowing something to exist. Tolerance and acceptance are two different things. I can tolerate Islam, it does not mean I have to accept it.
I also lived in Europe and I will agree it is truly beautiful, picturesque, but the cost of living was phenomenal.
They have only themselves to blame for what is occurring in the countries.
Just like the states, Muslims have been given free reign for far too long.
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