Crying Wolf: The Genocide That Just Isn't

Greetings, good people.

For years now, some South Africans have been spreading the rumor that a genocide was taking place in South Africa - a genocide that has been proceding unimpaired, unattended to by law enforcement, ignored or downplayed by the media, and also ignored by the outside world - a genocide, which conspiracy theorists would have us all believe, is being conducted against white, Afrikaans-speaking South Africans - and farmers in particular.

Nevertheless, after Afriforum went to all the trouble of throwing South Africa under the bus by presenting a cocktail of lies to the man who might very likely be the very last US president and first actual dictator - and all that followed, I decided to take a serious look at these claims that a genocide was underway in South Africa against white South Africans.

What are the facts?

How "Woke" Became A Right-Wing Slur, What It Means, And Why The Left Should Reclaim It

Greetings, good people.

I recently made a post on Facebook in response to all the "Christian love" being shown to anyone daring to criticize the rampaging Nazis taking over the US of A, as well as the loony wannabes here in South Africa - especially those who so notably embarrassed themselves via Afri-treason's trainsmash of an attempt to convince Trump to turn our country into the 51st state. But that's another story for another time.

Coming back to the topic at hand, I was described - derogatorily - as "woke" by a cross-section of these sorts of people. It is a word these days employed as a slur, an insult, a means of mocking those who exhibit human compassion and caring for others - most notably, for those hated by the traditional right wing - to whom I frequently refer to as either fascists, or more accurately sometimes, as outright Nazis.

Today I'll be taking a close look at the word "woke" - and what it really means, where and how it originated, and how it came to mean the things it does today.

South Africa, Land Expropriation Facts vs Fiction & Afriforum's Treasonous Ambitions To Ask Trump To Overthrow SA Govt

To make it clear, Americans wondering what Afriforum is hysterically waving its arms about, this should help explain the new South African expropriation law for the uninitiated:

(Special note for context: when the initial announcement of this bill came some years ago, it was a lot less clear - and together with heckling from equally racist individuals demanding all whites be evicted from the country, there was some concern, even panic among all property owners.

Afriforum, an organized lobby group representing Afrikaner interests, deliberately played on fears that ALL private property would suddenly start to be expropriated, even along racial lines, and gained a massive increase in their support and membership - albeit a multicultural, multiracial mix of such.

Sadly, I too was swept up in that initial wave of concern initially - but because they claimed to represent the interests of residents and property owners (I am a property owner btw) and said some fairly innoccuous-sounding "right things", I too showed them some support. But it wasn't very long afterwards that I discovered their right-wing leanings and connections to neo-Nazi (others would play that association down and call them "conservative" - I don't like to mince words) groups around the world and in South Africa too, and terminated all levels of my relationship with them a number of years ago - long before this bill was even signed into law earlier this year.

That said, the final product is a lot clearer and easy to understand, and because I have a clear understanding of this now, I can see there's no reason to panic.)

In fact, it's even less invasive and draconian than the original law that governed expropriations under the old NP (Apartheid) government. That government used the earlier law to expropriate land whenever and wherever it wished to do so - and one look at the history of SA and the Group Areas Act should suffice to demonstrate my point. Yes, some money was exchanged - it is claimed "market value", but many people lost their private homes to political agendas to separate South Africans of varying races from living amongst each other and entire communities were obliterated in the name of white supremacy.

The new bill, as stated, does not target private homes as such, and only under very specific conditions - and only after following a rigorous legal process. I'm not sure if Afriforum has even read this law, or understands it and is just continuing to spread false information anyway - but the truth of the matter is, the South African government - just like the colonial British government did before it - has always possessed the power to expropriate property from South Africans. The only difference has been, and continues to be, the wording of that power. To date, not a single case of expropriation without compensation has occurred in South Africa - and the wording of the above FAQ slides provided by the Dept of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) explains the circumstances, conditions and process for it to happen pretty succinctly and simply.

If Afriforum understands this, or is as confused as the USA's new Predator in Chief seems to be by the concept of tariffs, isn't crystal clear to me - but suffice it to say they've done a good job of misrepresenting the facts.

The question we need to ask ourselves as South Africans is, why any group of local people would go to the trouble of approaching a foreign power to present blatant lies and disinformation that - if believed - could do serious harm to our country's image, economy, and even stability?

Surely this is an incident of enormous gravity with epic consequences? They have not only embarrassed South Africa on the international stage, but sought to ultimately topple our democratically elected government by means of convincing that foreign power to bring pressure to bear - politically, socially and economically sabotaging South Africa for the sake of achieving their own ends. It is treason, by every definition of the word.

Make no mistake, Afriforum does not have any of our interests at heart - only the interests of their wealthy backers, who most likely stand the most to lose.

It's not in their interests to examine the facts, read and understand the resultant new law - to relent and say "oh, we were wrong about this, there's nothing to be afraid of if it's administered justly as afvertised".

Why?

Because fear is their main undercurrent - fear keeps their membership full of people willing to pay money, even R50 a month - to support their activities - which sadly, are nowhere near as good, benificent, noble or patriotic as they pretend they are.

Sure, they may fix a few potholes here and there - but that's only to win over hearts and minds - and so they can point out how "useless" the SA government is. And having a threat or an enemy to unite people against is what keeps them in business - a mass of supporters who feel culturally vindicated and productive. Even if they are being fed lies upon lies. This is the essence of populism, folks. Are you really stupid enough to fall for that?

It's exactly this sort of crap that put their would-be savior, Trump, back in the Oval Office, building his foundation on populism and fear-mongering and sowing divisions between Americans. That's why they were comfortable approaching him to help them - their aim isn't to "protect white South African's homes" (which are in no danger according to the law) but to deliver a scare tactic through blatant lies (there have been no such expropriations under this law) in the hope that Trump will assist them in overthrowing our democratically elected government.

And make no mistake, regardless of where we sit on party politics, as South Africans, this coalition government (GNU) is our democratically elected government - but this doesn't sit well with our local Nazis.

The ANC is too left-wing and dark-skinned for Afriforum's comfort - and the DA is majority white, but too liberal for their tastes as well. And they know they would never get anywhere if they acted openly as a political party - just as their stablemate, the FF+ hasn't and never will.

Afriforum is an extremist group. There's no denying that fact. They've literally just acted out in their extremism by taking domestic issues before the court of a foreign oligarch. And yet, there are still plenty of locals who will see this article - and my posts about this aggregious act of sabotage and betrayal - and attack me for it, as some have already on other posts and comments on social media.

The usual claim people of this ilk bring up is that "we're well on our way to becoming like Zimbabwe". Well, that's a blatant lie - because I've been hearing it - and even said it myself a few times - but you know, looking back - it's been THIRTY YEARS - and we're still nowhere near that claim becoming a reality. At what point do people finally wake up and smell the coffee and realize that it's not happening? It's a lie, a dogwhistle, a right-wing talking point and rallying call that denies the facts and abandons reason for the sake of unifying the local right.

Their supporters don't care if they're right - just as long as they say the right things - and that they're right wing.

I know many white South Africans who even today like to say in passing conversation (because they like to assume that all other white people around them will automatically agree with them) that "black people can't govern a country" - but if you were to look carefully at the whole of Africa and wipe the racist bullshit programming out of your mind, you would see numerous countries that are peaceful, stable, and growing. And should we look across the Atlantic at the imploding dumpster fire that is the USA right now - run by white people, what would they say then?

Of course that's okay with them - because Trump and his cronies represent America's right wing. Any criticism of that is just "lefty woke sour grapes" in their view.

When you point these things out, and point out their blatant racism - even small, residual levels of racism, they become hostile, even violent. Just like angry toddlers when you put them away for naptime, or take away the scissors before they hurt themselves.

People this stubborn don't like to admit they've been wrong about anything. It makes them seem weak and fallible - even if they have to cut their own nose off to spite their face, because they need to double down and prove how right and strong they are. They will typically do so, even if they know they will regret it afterwards, they still want to "show you".

This is the truth.

It's a sad truth that racism and hatred are still alive and well in South Africa, as these examples show:

And that's just the fallout from the first day of my addressing this outrageous incident. But even so, calling me names, insulting my late mother (who was a better person than I - or they - will ever be), and trying to shout me down, will not work. I'm quite sure there might also be some future threats inbound as well.

All I'm asking of my fellow South Africans is that you try to be better people than what the past has made you out to be.

Better than associating yourselves to a bunch of Nazi thugs and traitors willing to throw the whole South African nation under the bus to further their own disingenuous agendas - or just because they say a few "gevleulde woordjies" that seem to connect with your own views.

And before you jump to conclusions and rush to support those populists blowing their little dogwhistles from atop their soapboxes, I advise you do a little background check on them first instead of taking them at face value.

Warning: Panama Is The Key - This Is Why

Warning.

There's a lot of chatter right now about Trump's statements and mounting desire to invade Panama to take possession of the shipping canal. There's a reason why the canal is administered by an internationally neutral country - so as to not allow the canal to be hijacked for political or ideological reasons.

We've seen NO EVIDENCE that the canal is being "administered by China" as Trump has claimed on several occasions, or that the USA is being "unfairly treated" by Panama in the administration of the canal as an international trade channel. So why does Trump insist he wants the Panama Canal? He's said he wants Greenland and Canada too - but why all this belligerence? And why specifically Panama?

Does Takealot Support Fascism?

Dear Takealot & CEO Federick Zietsman,

I reacted with horror this morning when I learned that your platform markets or facilitates the marketing of MAGA merchandise, specifically in this case, the MAGA hat in various colors as shown in the attached screenshot.

All Choked Up

Well, their soup is pretty choked up with bigots now, alright.

It's orange and reeks of poop. They're going to need a whole new bowl to get rid of the mess.

Just another way I tried to warn them over the last few years - but nobody really pays attention much to writers anymore, do they? What do we know? We only research and study history and can more easily recognize bullshit artists when we see them.

It's out of my hands. 

Ode To The Fall Of The American Empire

Over the years, a lot of us sitting on the outside predicted the gradual rise of the American far right to ultimately seize power, and the collapse of civil rights and due process - of the dominionists (who make up the core of the GOP today) and the populist right who have perverted the version of Christianity they identify with, into the personality cult of Trump - and so they can justify anything they say or do, with religion. 

Banks & Getting Nickel-And-Dimed To Death

Ever wonder about the ethics of banking? That's easy - it doesn't have any. Not a one. Without exception, banks are the scaliest, scummiest operators on the planet. Think a bunch of Ferengi in a feeding frenzy - and that's an insult to the Ferengi!

So you have a savings account - and say you leave money in that account and don't deposit or withdraw anything from it - do you know what will happen? Go back in a couple of months and check.

Will the amount you left in there be more? Or less?

What do you thing?

Rotten To The Core - America's Deceptive Slant On History

Just Google the question: "What war did slavery cause in the United States?" and see what comes up. The American Civil War, naturally. There's no mention of the American Revolution (or "the American War of Independence") - and why should there be? The American Revolution was about... well, other stuff. 

Wasn't it?

Um...

Cultist Zombies At My Door

Today's tale comes with the compliments of social convention.

By that, I mean that it's acceptable standard practice for people to have some form of doorbell at the front entrance to their homes. Not having one naturally would make it harder for anyone visiting to attract the attention of those inside - except for knocking as the most likely alternative, followed closely by shouting, or "hollering" as our 'murican cousins call it.

Let me begin with the note that I'm on holiday - my annual vacation to be exact, and as such I've made it my mission to sleep later than my usual 5:45 workday routine the rest of the year. Things that make this quite difficult for me include various forms of body ache and pain left over from numerous accidents and injuries over the years (yes, I've lived quite an interesting life, haven't I?) - and that... fucking.... doorbell.

Or, rather more accurately, people who exist outside these walls who insist on ringing it. Especially the ones who actually mean to visit our immediate neighbors and can't seem to realize that our doorbell panel - mounted between our entrances - has a different number on it than the house they're visiting. But no, that wasn't today's issue. No, it wasn't.

The Christian War On Everything

Family, right? Love them or hate them. At the time of the winter solstace, the Chrispies among them - who've ignored you for the rest of the year, tend to suddenly remember you exist and around midnight send you "Merry Christmas" messages via text, or on WhatsApp or Facebook. Bearing in mind that they either know you're not a Christian, or that they just casually assume that you are, this speaks to a sort of detachment from reality, lack of empathy, and entitlement that flows from what I would describe as an expression of the narcissism inherent to the religion itself.

I mean, who - what sort of person, and in what sort of mental state would send someone they barely know (and face it, some relatives really are that distant) this sort of message AND tack on a "thank God for sending Jesus" at the end?!

No, everyone is not a Christian - and just because you are, and just because you believe in these fairytales doesn't mean everyone else does too - or should - or should pander to your shortsighted, selfish and wilful imposition of your beliefs onto them.

What message does all this actually deliver? Ah, let me count the ways!

The Dichotomy Of Left vs Right Wing Is Why Modern Democracy Is Failing

Why are democracy and politics such an overwhelming shit-show? Do you want to know? Really? Here, let me tell you why - in one brief summary:

The dichotomy of left vs right in politics itself lies at the very root of the mess. It is in itself a major flaw in modern democracies, because this instantly and irrevocably sets up issues like basic human rights at the center of a perpetual maelstrom, placing human rights and dignity up for grabs for whichever side wins any subsequent elections - and that's precisely why nations like the USA rarely make any substantial or lasting progress on human rights issues, because their entire political system is set up around fighting either for or against who is allowed or supposed to have equality, and the opinions of those who oppose them having those rights or equalities. 

Just Let It Go

Religion is not something permanent or everlasting. While this is unsurprising, because nothing in this universe truly is, in the context of continuous human evolution, religion can be understood to be a tool developed by humans to facilitate its survival and growth as a species. In this respect, it's certainly played a monumental role in shaping our perception of reality today. It's irrevocably placed its stamp on our civilizations and cultures for a start, and we only need to look at our history as a species to see how we got here today. I've long said that the history of religion is written in blood, and I doubt anyone would ever be able to convince me otherwise. 

 

But, just like the journey from stone tools to electron microscopes, traveling by horse-cart to flying rockets to the ISS, or wearing skins to mass-produced synthetic clothing - or, in the biological sense of growing then shedding baby teeth - religion was something humanity needed and even found indispensable for a time - all in order to develop to a particular point... by which time it then grew out of it. 

 

Religion then, may be a necessary tool useful to a young developing child species still trying to get to grips with its own nature as sentient, thinking animals. That time however, is - or has, drawn to a close. Its demise is long overdue.

South Africa's Right Wing Has No Originality

 

 

So on Saturday morning I noticed the above screenshot of a poster put out by the local Afrikaner nationalist newspaper, "Die Burger", being circulated on social media. The poster makes it fairly clear that "Die Burger" are trying to encourage local right wingers to join in with the hate for Taylor Swift - presumably for the very same reasons that the US variety of right wing loons are doing it.

But this set me to wondering why the local right wing nutters would focus on Taylor Swift? Why should they even care about Taylor Swift?

What is it with Afrikaners these days? Is it something in the melktert? 🤔

Last I heard, the US singer really had nothing to do with South Africa, other than some of her music making its way out here, and I think it's really bizarre that the local right wingers have managed to put down their Klippies and biltong and have stopped arguing about rugby or singing De La Rey long enough to focus on sending hate towards a remote American singer who probably doesn't even know they exist, and whose music they have probably never even listened to, probably because it has no concertinas  or right wing icons in it.

Don't South Africans have enough problems of their own - closer to home, to be concerned about? 

More to the point, why is it that every time the red-cap brigade over the pond get their panties in a twist about something, the attention of the local right wingers seems to follow their example?

Don't they have any originality?

Breaking Into The Echo Chamber

  

Yesterday I wrote an article about the Dear South Africa petition post on Facebook against the implementation of gender sensitivity training for children at schools across South Africa.

Of course, sometimes I just can't help myself, and I happened to leave a comment on the Facebook thread as well - which naturally attracted the attention (and ire) of all kinds of nutters who are the sort of people who believe all the bullshit meme-like trash being put out there about LGBT+ people - you know the sort - that we're "groomers", that transwomen transition in order to molest children or women in public bathrooms, or because we find participating in women's sport so much less of a challenge.

The hate from people like this is palpable and tangible. This article will focus on the sort of propaganda-based arguments used by transphobes and homophobes to attack attempts to bring inclusiveness and understanding of diversity into classrooms that appear to be universal when it comes to their source - imported right wing propaganda.

Lock Up Your Schools, The Transgenders Are Coming!

There I was, just minding my own business, when an ad from Dear South Africa - that's right, the petition website portraying itself as a civic-minded action entity - crossed my feed.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed the heading "Have your say on the Department of Basic Education's gender ideology training programme".

The...what?

The actual FUCK did I just read?

Wait-a-minute... Why is this even an issue?

And if you're thinking "this is bound to be another case of hysterical screaming, and panicked arm-waving again", well - you'd be perfectly right.

Too Much Money, Too Little Sense

Y'know, the very furthest thing from my mind when I was finally able to buy my first brand new car some years ago, was to try and see whether it was bulletproof - least of all by actually taking a gun, and shooting it. Like, with a gun. Deliberately. For reals.

 

And people have been doing it - Americans, naturally, because this vehicle, the Tesla Cybertruck, won't be available anywhere else. The main reason for this is that no other country, apparently, has as low an appreciation for the safety of its citizens as America.

A Goose-Step Too Far

So J.K. Rowling is a Holocaust denier now.

Since she first kicked the door of her right wing closet open a good few years ago now to launch an unprovoked 'total war' against transwomen, Rowling started taking large steps - you might say goose-steps - up the staircase of fascism, and with each step, the sound becoming increasingly reminiscent of the ominous stomp of jack-boots.

Even before Rowling started crowing the anti-science TERF rhetoric which gathered to her a new base of transphobes to feed from the trough at her feet, there were those who had reservations about her anti-Semitic characterizations of the goblins in her stories, just as much as there were those who undoubtedly enjoyed and approved of them.

But as I watched over the past few years, I saw Rowling being increasingly fawned over by the sort of low-brow creatures like those who cheered on while Magnus Hirschfeld's institute and all his pioneering work in understanding and helping transgender women was fed to the incinerator of base national-socialist populism. 

So you see, for some time, I've had a pretty fair idea that it wouldn't be too long before she went full neo-Nazi.

As it turns out, I wasn't wrong.

Bonfire Of The Inhumanities a.k.a. The Great Israel-Gaza Shit-Show

I just got called 'anti-Semitic' for commenting on a shared quote by JFK in the 1960s (oddly enough shortly before he was assassinated) in which he criticized Zionism, for saying that I thought it was possible that it was why he was assassinated...

The quote was later found to be fake, but nevertheless, I feel my comment was relevant in the light of the information available at the time. Even so, my suggestion was taken to be 'anti-Semitic' and 'offensive'.

'Offensive' I understand - people are 'offended' by all sorts of things all the time. Most of the time, there's an increasing reason to be offended. Sometimes, though, that reason is that they're idiots.

"Anti-Semitic"...

I shit you not.

Let's take a closer look at this issue, shall we? Firstly, do the people using it even know what anti-Semitism is?

The Kids Are Alright

For the hundredth time this month, it feels like, I saw someone around my age posting a meme praising Generation X for being "the last great generation" - apparently "before all these sissies were born". That set me to thinking.

Yeah, us Gen Xers.... we're tough, but for all the wrong reasons.

Thoughts on Forgiveness

I've come to wonder why there is such a powerful emphasis on forgiving those who hurt us in modern society?

The answer, naturally, is religion - specifically Christianity, which places a disproportionate burden on the individual to forgive all transgressions committed against them, no matter what they were, or how much they were hurt by them.

These are my thoughts on the subject.

The Microsoft Challenge

Has anyone wondered why new computers are always so slow?

It used to be expected of older, physically slower PCs, but these days it's true even of brand new computers.

 

I mean, back in the day - when I first started working as a PC technician back in 1999, I had a 486DX 100mhz with 48mb of RAM using Windows 98 2nd edition, and that was faster than most of the newer PC's I've used since. Such was my expertise back then that I rigged up a live toggle switch to the jumper settings on the board so that - while the PC was running - I could overclock it to 120mhz - play my first-person shooters - and then set it back down to 100mhz again. I even managed to play Heretic and Hexen on it smoothly, and without any trouble. I even built a cooling duct over the CPU and heat sink that ran to a fan at the front of the case to improve cooling and stability, and occasionally augmented that by placing a saucer filled with ice cubes in front of the case so that chilled air would be sucked in!

But then we got newer, faster PCs - with more RAM, bigger multi-core CPUs - and much, much bigger Windows.