Bombing in Oslo

[K9]

(honestly this surprised me. Are there any non-white people involevd in the EDL?).

There is a Sikh chap called Guramit Singh who is quite big in the EDL, and also demonstrates that they are absolutely 100% not racist in any way.

Talking about the EDL also gives me an excuse to post (re-post?) this superb video demonstrating the average EDL member

[Engels]

You stay classy Glenn Beck.

My favorite part of the article:

Beck's own 9-12 Project... includes children's summer Patriot Camps "to provide heritage-based education for youth,"

[apocrypha]

  @ the Glenn Beck thing. I am constantly amazed at the pond scum that are allowed to earn a living from spouting hateful shit under the aegis of politics around the world.

About the EDL, just as a kind of FYI, they grew out of the BNP in an attempt to keep the more militant sections of British fascism in check and unified to some extent. The BNP grew out of a split (and near-dissolution of) the NF. The BNP represent the "mainstreaming" attempt of British fascists, the respectable face of Nazism in the UK. The BNP's strategy is to do everything they can to outwardly hide their fascist nature and attempt to appear to the electorate as a normal political party. John Tyndall lost a leadership battle to Nick Griffin in the 90s I think, and that marked the evolution of the new strategy in British fascism, modeled on Jean Marie Le Pen of the French FN.

However within fascism there is always a conflict between those elements seeking power through electoral means and the shock troops, the thugs on the ground. For fascism to succeed it has to demonstrate that it can crush working class resistance with force and that's the role of the EDL - they're there to provide an outlet for the fascist foot soldiers.

But, since the EDL were created by the BNP they have also taken on board the same duality - on the one hand, to their members, they are a fascist, white supremacist organisation. But on the other hand they know they have to appear to distance themselves from unacceptable racism, hence the token sikh guy. What they demonstrate quite clearly is the recognition that Islamophobia has become the acceptable face of racism.

I don't really have a specific point here, just thought some background information on the EDL might be interesting to those outside the UK.

If you want a point, well, to me this act of Brevik's makes it even clearer that groups like the EDL need to be stopped and that fighting against the Islamophobia being incessantly rammed down our throats is even more important.

[Tale]

There's also a Murdoch WSJ editorial (in print and behind the paywall) claiming Breivik was actually left-wing.

[Ingmar]

To be fair, WSJ editorials were batshit *before* Murdoch too.

[Teleku]

Eh, WSJ actually use to be fairly decent when I read it back in college.  I've taken to reading it again, post Murdoch, and it seems to have gotten a lot worst.  Other than the opinion section (which is almost universally bad anywhere), they actually seemed fairly even handed with just a pro-business slant back in the day.

[Ingmar]

Eh, WSJ actually use to be fairly decent when I read it back in college.  I've taken to reading it again, post Murdoch, and it seems to have gotten a lot worst.  Other than the opinion section (which is almost universally bad anywhere), they actually seemed fairly even handed with just a pro-business slant back in the day.

The articles were fine, I am speaking specifically of the editorial page. For many many years that's been kind of a schizophrenic departure from the tone of the rest of the paper.

[apop]

I just wanted to share this : http://www.vgtv.no/#!id=42479
Norwegians has put flowers all over Oslo as a way to remember and honour the victims of this horrid event.

Edit by Trippy: fixed link