Confronting ISIS

Much is being done by way of military action against groups such as ISIS; but not enough is being done by way of changing people's minds. I believe that more needs to be done by this way in order to reduce the need for loss in lives and money. Here is one effort toward that effect.

The ISIS claim that they are moral and that the West isn't. This is the biggest lie. The ISIS kidnap children and sell them into sexual slavery. They throw sulfuric acid into girls' faces for going to school. They are the most morally debased bunch of degenerates on the planet; and it is outrageous that they be getting away with the moral argument.

The ISIS sees United States as the source of world's evil. Here again they are wrong. If not for the United States, they would be practicing Communism. And if they had been practicing Communism, they would not be able to be Muslims at all. Whereas with America at the top they can be as Muslim as they want to be for as long as they are not killing Americans or their allies.

The ISIS hates Israel and thinks that it has stolen the land that rightfully belongs to the Muslims. They have not studied their history. Israel existed before it was conquered by the Muslims, and the Muslim invaders were far more brutal than Israel ever was. That land was Jewish for a far greater time than it was Muslim. If it is OK for the Muslims to invade and subdue Israel, then it is most certainly OK for the Jews to live there now.

For the Muslims who want to live peacefully in the West: You have a job to do. You need to confront those among yourselves who are at war with the West and bring them to justice. Peace is a two-way street, and if the Muslims really want to live in peace in the West then they will stop those among them who are at war with the West.

The more this is done, the lesser the need for military action, the greater the savings in money and in lives.

The French and the Terrorists

It looks like the terrorists really did themselves in this time.

The French took an accommodating approach with them, but they won't be accommodating to them when they are slaughtering French people.

For a long time, the French have been seen as cowards. The real situation is that they are pacifists; but that does not mean that they are weak. They have goodwill to all sorts of people and want a peaceful co-existence. But that doesn't mean that they are cowards, and it does not mean that they will put up with people who want to kill them.

This conflict will be an opportunity for the French to show that they are not cowards. The shame that they suffered through their dismal performance during the Second World War stands a chance to be redeemed.

I wish the French the best, and I hope that they prove themselves during this conflict. Then they will be again taken seriously as a real power with willingness and ability to stand up to aggression.

Antisemites

by Vladimir Vysotsky

Rather than be a vandal and bandit,
I'd like to apply to be antisemite,
On their side, though laws are missing,
Is support and fervor of millions of people.

I've chosen, and that means to beat up somebody,
But I need to know who are all these semites,
And maybe they are after all decent humans,
And maybe from them I can get something useful.

But teacher and friend, alcoholic and grocer,
Has said that semites are Jews, nothing more, and
It is such a great luck, brothers dear,
I am now calm, there is nothing to fear.

I've kept myself strong, and with high admiration
I have in my life viewed Albert Einstein,
People will forgive, but I ask, unwilling,
How am I to view Abraham Lincoln.

Among them is Capler, whom Stalin made suffer,
Among them is Chaplin, respected by me,
My friend Rabinovich and victims of Nazism,
And even the very founder of Marxism.

But alkie told me after this conversation
That they drink the blood of the Christian babies,
And then by the pub the fellows told
That they crucified God a long time ago.

They suck people's blood, and not parking their truck
They tortured, damn creeps, elephant in the park,
And I Know, they stole from the people
Bread crop from the last year completely.

And alongside the Russian railroads
They've built houses and live there like gods.
I'm ready for violence, and in righteous passion
I'm beating up kikes and am saving Russia.

Translated from Russian by Ilya Shambat.

Western Civilization and Sexism

According to some recent theories, racism, sexism and other forms of oppression are an artifact of the Western civilization and reflect the hegemony by the white man. Anyone with real knowledge of history knows this to be wrong.

Sexism and racism exist in all sorts of places that aren't the Western civilization. Afghanistan is far more patriarchial than America or Western Europe, and the lives of women there are far worse than are the lives of women in the West. A woman who really cares about women's rights will recognize that and be respectful of covenants that protect women's rights while confronting rightfully the covenants that don't.

I bought into the anti-Western stance during my learning stages, and I regret having taken it. I have since then acquired a much more patriotic – if not necessarily jingoistic – perspective. There is much more being done in the West to improve things for women, black people and cultural minorities than there is in the Middle East. And a person who truly seeks this well-being will put things into perspective.

No, the West is not perfect; but it is better than ISIS and it is better than the Taliban. And it is these entities that threaten social liberties the most. Even the most misogynistic Westerner would not throw sulfuric acid into a girl's face for going to school. There are problems here; there are worse problems elsewhere.

My suggestion to feminists is to work with the Western system to implement rightful change and take a strong stance against entities outside the West that seek the West's destruction. The white man does not own misogyny or racism; these take far worse forms outside the West. A person truly interested in the well-being of women, or in social freedom, will confront these entities. In doing so they will earn their right to see themselves as defenders of liberty and no longer be seen as traitors.

Domestic Violence and Football Stars

Recently Australian football stars expressed embarrassment about standing up against domestic violence.

They should not be embarrassed about it. They should be proud to be taking that stance.

Now there are many arguments against domestic violence; but one argument that these people can make, that not everyone can make, is that real men don't beat women. Being a real man requires self-control. And a man who beats up women is not practicing self-control; he is being a bully and a coward.

A lot of feminism-affiliated men are regarded by wife beater types as sissies and commies. When someone who is strong and is not affiliated with Marxism speaks out against domestic violence, he has much more credibility. These men would not take it from feminists, and they would not take it from me. But they just might take it from a football star.

The claim that these men make – that real men control women – is a transparent lie. I've known any number of strong, successful men who were good to women, and any number of weak men who weren't. Men should be taught to look up to these strong, successful men who are good to women and stop looking up to barbarians like Eminem.

At the root of this is something very important to society: Defining manhood. Right now, manhood is associated in many people's minds with misogyny, which results in terrible wrongs being done to women and girls. A case needs to be made on a large enough scale that real men don't beat women.

And for that, the football stars are a perfect messenger.

On Suffering

There are all sorts of beliefs that blame women, or the Jews, or desire, for the suffering in the world. In all cases they are completely wrong.

Suffering has two sets of causes. One is man-made; the other is non-man-made. In first case we see wrong decisions made by people; in second case we see at work forces that nobody can control.

Man-made suffering has two origins. One is evil; the other is ignorance. In the first case wrong is done while knowing of the consequences of the action; in the second case wrong is done without knowing the consequences. In the first case we see such things as slavery, colonialism and the Holocaust. In the second case we see pollution and natural destruction by people who do not realize what they are doing to the world.

With non-man-made suffering, there is nobody at fault. Nor is this suffering limited to humanity. Animals suffer from diseases, floods and hurricanes as well. And they did so long before there was humanity and long before there were women or Jews.

Man-made suffering, for its part, owes a lot more to men than it does to women. Suffering is worst in places such as Afghanistan, that do not have women's rights, than it is in places such as Sweden that do. Far more people were killed by men throughout history than by women. And men dominate the world's prison populations.

As for the Jews, they have made vast contributions to the Western civilization, and the Western civilization owes them gratitude not holocausts. When a tiny percentage of the population wins over 100 Nobel prizes, they should be respected for that. And failing to do so is an act of supreme ingratitude.

Desire, for its part, is only a minor cause of suffering compared to all others. Far fewer people die from desire than from hunger or war. There are wrong desires; there are also rightful desires. I see nothing wrong with desire for love or desire for comfort or desire for prosperity or desire for recognition. Desire turns wrong when one starts desiring wrong things, such as oppression over the next person. But in and of itself, desire is nowhere close to being the source of suffering.

Suffering can be man-made, or it can be non-man-made. The solution to the first is rightful decisions; the solution to the second is protecting people from non-man-made sources of suffering. Put together, these two have the possibility of actually ending suffering in the world. I fully believe that this is possible.