While the precise motivation for the rampage remains unclear, it is evident that Mr. Mateen was driven by hatred toward gays and lesbians. Hate crimes don’t happen in a vacuum. They occur where bigotry is allowed to fester, where minorities are vilified and where people are scapegoated for political gain. Tragically, this is the state of American politics, driven too often by Republican politicians who see prejudice as something to exploit, not extinguish.
Oh well done. Not one single mention of Muslim, Islam, imam, etc etc….and that’s the damn editorial.
There’s just no telling what caused this particular Muslim terrorist – who said he was a Muslim terrorist – to go on a Muslim terrorist murder spree.
His dad blames the nightclub security though, so hopefully America finally brings in gay nightclub bouncer control.
Tragically, this is the state of American politics, driven too often by Republican politicians who see prejudice as something to exploit, not extinguish.
Too right!
Omar “This one is for Allah!” Mateen was a registered Democrat, so it stands to reason that his murder of 49 innocent people is Marco Rubio’s fault.
They are working on the principle that if enough people tell a lie it becomes de facto truth.
We’re talking about the New York Times here.
You were expecting what?
If anyone wants a literally perfect example of why Donald Trump has managed to destroy the Republican Establishment, simply look at what Paul Ryan’s response to Orlando.
And somebody really should remind Ryan and the rest that Chris Christie was a Republican darling until he arranged to have himself walking arm in arm with Barack Obama on a New Jersey beach.
How’d that work out?
…response to Orlando has amounted to.
Worstall: Preview.
Republican politicians who see prejudice as something to exploit
I’m not a fan of either party, but my experience says that its the *Democrats* who go out of their way to maintain and then exploit prejudice. They’re whole schtick revolves around creating in and out groups and playing them off against each other for government favor.
That’s on top of their long history of actively opposing freedom and equality before the law.
What Agamemnon said.
In spades.
Oh, sorry is that rascist? Apols. Anyway, he nailed it.
Really, this just confirms my comment under the George Osborne post.
Threats backed up by violence work.
The NYT might be doing an Owen “I’m gay but I’m also a child” Jones with its conflicting views, but it also eschews criticising the One True Faith for fear of a bit of Semtex up the jacksie.
I really really don’t understand this whole islamic vs (seemingly self-hating) homophobic issue.
Clearly there was a bit of both in the mix – they are not mutually exclusive categories by any means, quite the contrary.
I sat and watch the Owen Jones Sky walk-out huff, and it was pretty clear that he was reacting to some imagined viewpoint rather than what was being actually said, and also desperately keen to make it all about homophobia rather than just islamism.
Maybe it will turn out that the guy was mostly suffering repression issues, and his religion was largely just a chosen avenue for violent expression of those issues. But that doesn’t absolve Islamist ‘philosophy’ of any part in this tragedy – he certainly thought it an important part of the shooting, and it probably caused a lot of the self-hate as well.
There are 10 countries, which happen to be majority Muslim by pure coincidence, where homosexuality is, by law, punishable by death. Yemen, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Iraq.
No doubt all the fault of Republican politicians – is there anything these evil monsters can’t do?
“While the precise motivation for the rampage remains unclear, it is evident that Mr. Mateen was driven by hatred toward gays and lesbians.”
He hated gays, despite being one, BECAUSE HIS RELIGION TOLD HIM TO. As the NYT would be the first to tell us had he been a fundamentalist Christian.
From what I can gather, a great many Middle Eastern men are gay or bi, so the fact that Islam is telling them it’s evil is a big, big problem.
Tel –
Religions only have a strong rule about something if there’s a lot of it about.
But on causality – in large areas of the ME there is no culture of mixing genders at school, making friends, dating, eventual free choice of partner. Gay or bi inclinations come out instead, perhaps?
Man, the GOP’s opposition to gay marriage is so powerful it makes a gay Muslim democrat brass up a gay club. It is also so powerful it makes gay marriage legal in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Or something.
Because narrative. Otherwise we might have to deal with the inconvenient fact that one client group wants another client group hanging from cranes.
“Precise motivation” for doing bonkers shit may seem unclear. That’s because it’s mad.
OTOH the motivation here could hardly be clearer.
Tel
“a great many Middle Eastern men are gay or bi”
I believe that it is only passive sodomy and campness that they disapprove of.
I’m quite cross that the line is that this is the fault of anyone who opposed gay marriage or whatever. So that’ll be Barack Obama pre-2012, Hillary pre-yesterday, the entire gay community pre-15-years-ago.
Not Isis throwing gays off buildings, Iran hanging them from cranes, Saudi Arabia beheading them and whatever.
Suddenly the supposedly “nuanced” left has lost all nuance they claimed to have had, just to try to keep the narrative going…
So this guy was supposedly so religiously Islamic that he went on a terrorist rampage motivated by religion, but also was such a bad Muslim that he went to gay nightclubs drinking alcohol and trying to pick up young men? Get a grip.
There’s no doubt at all that he was just a nutcase weirdo loser motivated by repeated, humiliating rejections. Apparently the only people he was kidding when he shouted Islamist slogans were himself and racist nutjobs.
To paraphrase Voltaire, those who can make themselves believe absurdities, can make themselves commit atrocities. The Left is complicit in importing the sort of demented murderous beasts who think, correctly, that shooting a bunch of people is a fully-sanctioned expression of their faith. The absurdity is the belief that it could be otherwise; the atrocity is that many of us are going to die as a result.
Theophrastus
What is passive sodomy?
Do you mean like catching instead of pitching? Or more like reading the Guardian and having a cup of tea while the sodomy occurs?
We’re talking about the New York Times here.
You were expecting what?
From the NYT? “Gay nightclub attacked; women and children hardest hit”
“Because narrative. Otherwise we might have to deal with the inconvenient fact that one client group wants another client group hanging from cranes.”
The dissonance is crushing, and it’s driving them mad. Their only response is a tangent of unreality. But alas It won’t stop the killings. Still, so what? Interest groups are pieces on the chessboard which come and go.
“There’s no doubt at all that he was just a nutcase weirdo loser motivated by repeated, humiliating rejections.”
Loser in the wider US society, yes. But rejected at a gay club? Unlikely. What he couldn’t handle was his inabillity to reconcile his homo desires with the anti-homo teachings of the religion/political movement that made him feel like a big man.
“Apparently the only people he was kidding when he shouted Islamist slogans were himself and racist nutjobs.”
So, religious/political organization he has been a fan of for years calls for lone wolves to carry out mass murder in the US. He answers the call and commits mass murder in their name. He even shouts out their name while doing it. But apparently he’s just kidding when he called out their name. Whew. Nothing to worry about then.
@agamemnon:
“They’re whole schtick revolves around creating in and out groups and playing them off against each other for government favor.”
Which is not so coincidentally the one skill that successful “community organizers” have.
Dave – “Apparently the only people he was kidding when he shouted Islamist slogans were himself and racist nutjobs.”
What racist nutjobs would these be Dave? You mean the ones that said importing millions of Third World sheep shaggers was not going to work out well? Or the ones who were thrown in a cell for saying that gangs of Muslims were raping White girls in Rotherham?
Theophrastus – “I believe that it is only passive sodomy and campness that they disapprove of.”
You would think. But in the glorious world of Third World dysfunction now in the West, a Muslim in Austria killed his girlfriend. Because she told people he had taken her up the ar$e.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3642592/Muslim-boyfriend-stabs-girlfriend-death-discovering-filmed-performing-sex-act-considered-taboo-Islam.html
There is no end to the social pathology of the Third World. Now imported to Austria.
The only “evidence” for the blokes gayness seems to be statements from assorted alleged gays who are saying he was/did etc… Since this would suit the CM crew right down to the gang–Dave just having given voice to the exactly narrative they want to peddle— I think caution should be exercised. When his computers have yielded details of what websites he frequented then a better picture of this git will emerge.
I think islam a far more likely reason for his actions than any other so far presented.
“right down to the gang??” –right down to the ground.
For Christ’s sake get the preview back Tim. If you are too cheap to hire someone to do what you can’t we will have a whip-round.
Mr Ecks – “I think islam a far more likely reason for his actions than any other so far presented.”
He did spare a Black …. girl’s life. On the ground that Blacks had suffered enough in America.
It looks a lot more like being a Social Justice Warrior than anything else to me. But then maybe that would go with the whole Gay thing.
Random comment on the interwebz thing this morning:
Yeah. Pretty much. The Left will never let a crisis go to waste.
Mr Ecks,
“I think islam a far more likely reason for his actions than any other so far presented.”
Such notions are readily dismissed by pointing out that only an Islamaphobic, racist nutjob would make such a comment.
The problem most definitely is Islam, as made up by PedoMo, not some perverted or radical form of Islam, but mainstream, Medieval, barbaric Islam.
But since we cannot speak about the true nature of the problem (even to the point where to do so is potentially illegal) we will never be able to come up with workable solutions.