"Torturing White People:"

[scarletwoman]

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

Let us say, and why not, that in 1995, after the Oklahoma City Bombing, the United States government decided to use any means necessary to break up and destroy any radical terrorist cells in the nation. Maybe we could even pretend that Timothy McVeigh wasn't captured.

<snip>

Let's say that the government declared "war on domestic terror" and the military, working with local law enforcement, went into compounds and farms in the Upper Midwest and Northwest, to South Dakota, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, and mass arrested anyone who was linked to Aryan Nations or White Aryan Resistance or name your favorite "stupid fucking backward ass losers who blame everyone but the white people who actually have power" organization. And in this sweep of short-haired white males and the white women who enable them, the local cops decided to pick up everyone who's ever looked at them crossways. Farmers, janitors, motorcycle gangs, all swept up and sent to the newly established prison at Guantanamo Bay. And maybe some of 'em were just thrown into prisons in South Dakota, Idaho, etc., etc., Packed 'em in there. Shaving the heads would be a quick task for most of 'em.

...We get pictures of all these suspected terrorists, white people one and all, with electrodes on their nuts. We get Red Cross reports about the way in which these evil white motherfuckers are subjected to routine humiliation, psychological torture, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, the usual shit. The government would justify it by saying they have to do everything they can to prevent another Oklahoma City. They're our own citizens and aren't subject to the Geneva Conventions, the administration would say. They come up with legal justifications in the form of memos. When they're ordered to give the terror suspects hearings on their charges, the government sets up kangaroo military tribunals....

Do you think, for a second, that if reports were that large groups of non-French white people were being routinely subjected to torture at the hands of our government (and, let's be perfectly clear, anything the government does is in our name; therefore, this is you doing it, too), that if photos of bloodied, battered, leashed, sodomized, dog-bitten, nude white people had "surfaced" that we would ignore it? That we'd just sit back and relax at the notion that the good and godly government knows what it's doing when it comes to torturing the white terrorists who, after all, blew up the Murrah Federal Building? That the media would give scant attention to the white people who are being deprived sleep in order to force them to give information about shit they know nothing about? That we'd look at those pictures of pyramids of naked white asses, shinin' in the flash of the camera lens, and think, "Fuck them, they killed children"? (The sad, sad, stomach-churning truth is that so many of us wouldn't care, we'd think they must deserve it, we'd "trust" the government.)

(Please go to the link for the whole piece.)

sw

[Political_Junkie]

1. Love the Rude Pundit.

[scarletwoman]

2. Yeah, me too.

I found this latest entry to be particularily striking, so I wanted to share... ;-)

sw

[Eric J in MN]

3. Regarding "would we ignore it" who is we?

I didn't ignore Abu Ghraid.

Neither did most people at Democratic Underground.

[Political_Junkie]

4. agreed, but I think he's talking about

the general public. After the initial shock wore off people just seemed to act like it never happened.

[scarletwoman]

5. As Political_Junkie posted above, "we" means the general American public

Think about it. How long did the outrage over Abu Ghraib last in mainstream America? And that's not counting those who outright celebrated it!

sw

(edited for spelling error)

[cali]

6. Terrific piece.

Love everything about it except:

and, let's be perfectly clear, anything the government does is in our name; therefore, this is you doing it, too.

That's just not true. It's like saying that even if you were in the German resistance against the Nazis, you were culpable of their crimes. I, and many other DUers have actively worked against this administration. I've marched in D.C.. I've written letters. I belong to a peace and justice group.

[scarletwoman]

7. I understand what you're saying, but...

I also see it from a different angle. As a U.S. citizen, the U.S. government IS my government, whether I agree with it or not. Therefore, saying that the "government does (this) in my name" does not necessarily imply my consent, it merely states that this is what the government of MY country is doing.

I guess I see this as a matter of semantics -- in the larger meaning that's being expressed in this piece, it's not terribly significant, imho.

sw

[bloom]

13. I think the article is suggesting that if those of us who would fall

into the category of being the victims of abuse (if what was done to Muslims of a certain description was done to white middle-west Americans) that people would have fought harder - protested longer - set up camp until it ended - and so on and so forth.

It is an awful thing to be a part of a society that abuses it's power the way our country does. It will take more people taking responsibility for what our country is doing before it is stopped.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. actually, Argentina DID tolerate white people being rounded up and

tortured in the name of "preventing terrorism" in the 1970s. :-(

Except for the relatives of the "disappeared," no one seemed to mind much until the Argentine junta lost the Falkland Islands War.

[scarletwoman]

9. Yes, but they were "LEFT WING" white people.

Union organizers, intellectuals, advocates for the poor, critics of the ruling military junta. Obviously, these sorts of people are ALWAYS a threat to The State.

Your point is well-taken, though. If you're part of the Ruling Class, seeking to preserve your privilege, then it matters not what color the "terrorists" are.

sw

[bvar22]

10. I'm all for it!!!

When do we start roundin up all the assholes!!!!!


I think Lindy England could use a part time job;
we can use my camera.

OH BOY, more fraternity pranks!!!!!!

[lateo]

12. lol

funny++

[Radical Activist]

11. Environmental Liberation Front is a terrorist group

which makes other radical environmental groups suspect, which makes all environmental groups suspect which would make fascism right around the corner. We are too close to losing all our freedoms.