Lamplighter
Member
' ... anti-Catholicism is no different to anti-fascism'. Eh? That's a pretty silly thing to say, really. It's like something out of a sixth-year debate. John Eden makes one good counter-point, but the main problem is that the whole 'argument' hinges on an extremely simplistic, not to say slightly odd, understanding of fascism:
Only a stubborn tribal mind virus that insists that is good to belong to a certain ethnic group.
Fascism in other words.
Even without questioning the conflating of ethnicity and religion here (if the Catholics are an 'ethnic' group now, then what about the Quakers, and so on? Are they all ethnic groups too?), that's a fairly strange definition of fascism. If I remember my political science correctly, it's normally considered to be an extreme form of liberal democracy, the belief that the majority have more rights than minorities. Ethnic pride is surely far too widespread a phenonenom to be given the name 'fascism'? African tribal conflicts, all kinds of nationalist movements all over Europe for hundreds of years, Chinese Han nationalism from 2000 years ago - they're all fascist now, right? It seems to me fascism is now just a cipher for 'bad'.
Actually, I've changed my mind, that's not really the main reason that this is a really silly thing to say. I remember a while ago John Eden, I think it was, wrote something along the lines of ordinary people living ordinary lives, helping people out, being nice, that they were the best political activists there were. I think my point is kind of the same. There are millions of Catholics all over the world, in almost every country, who are what I would call 'good people'. They don't abuse kids, they don't burn Mayans, they help people, they're nice - and if you asked them they would describe themselves as Catholics, and most would say that they live their lives the way they do because of their faith. But we should hate them because they're catholics, and hating catholics is the same as hating fascists, right?
Aw, my second post here and I'm kind of having a go at someone. One of the administrators, no less. It's not my fault, the internet has made me bad.
Only a stubborn tribal mind virus that insists that is good to belong to a certain ethnic group.
Fascism in other words.
Even without questioning the conflating of ethnicity and religion here (if the Catholics are an 'ethnic' group now, then what about the Quakers, and so on? Are they all ethnic groups too?), that's a fairly strange definition of fascism. If I remember my political science correctly, it's normally considered to be an extreme form of liberal democracy, the belief that the majority have more rights than minorities. Ethnic pride is surely far too widespread a phenonenom to be given the name 'fascism'? African tribal conflicts, all kinds of nationalist movements all over Europe for hundreds of years, Chinese Han nationalism from 2000 years ago - they're all fascist now, right? It seems to me fascism is now just a cipher for 'bad'.
Actually, I've changed my mind, that's not really the main reason that this is a really silly thing to say. I remember a while ago John Eden, I think it was, wrote something along the lines of ordinary people living ordinary lives, helping people out, being nice, that they were the best political activists there were. I think my point is kind of the same. There are millions of Catholics all over the world, in almost every country, who are what I would call 'good people'. They don't abuse kids, they don't burn Mayans, they help people, they're nice - and if you asked them they would describe themselves as Catholics, and most would say that they live their lives the way they do because of their faith. But we should hate them because they're catholics, and hating catholics is the same as hating fascists, right?
Aw, my second post here and I'm kind of having a go at someone. One of the administrators, no less. It's not my fault, the internet has made me bad.