"Am I racist for being 'alarmed' at this?"

[conuly]

Seriously, be racist. See if I care. Nobody cares. But stop whining and acting like you're not! Just go whole hog and be a fucking racist and fess up to it like you're not ashamed to be a throwback in this day and age.

Or, since you *are* ashamed (and really should be) try not being a racist. Or just think once in a while, all right? And by think, I mean something deeper than "Oh, there's baby boys named Mohamed in England! It's so scaaaaaaary, those babies might cry on a plane, and it'd all be a plot. Ooooooooh!"

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

You're right; nationalism in general. However, it seems to me that nationalism is generally, if not invariably, fueled by religious fervor, and usually (though not always) the religion being whipped to a frenzy is one of the Abrahamic-based ones.

I'm glad you add that qualifying pseudo-, because although I haven't been to Germany, we've got some of a similar lot over here, and from what I see, they're nothing even close to 'pagan'. They look to me like a low grade of burn-again Protestant Fundies who've adopted a bunch of 'ancient' names and lore because it's So Cool, but still think and believe pretty-much what they grew up thinking and believing.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Hm, we'll have to agree to disagree there, I guess; personally I'm more inclined that religion is very likely to be used as an excuse for nationalist insanity, but that it's (often) not truly the cause. Christianity makes a fine example there, perhaps; look at the discrepancy between Jesus' teachings as recorded in the various evangelia, and the things some Christians did or still do...
I think the problem boils down more to humanity being, on the whole, less good and pure than one should like - and the tendency of people to justify their dealings (particularly the ones that need justifying, i.e. the nasty stuff) with their reference framework. While said framework very often happens to be of a religious nature, it doesn't have to be (Communist China comes to mind)...

Oh, I wasn't talking of that sort of people (though of course we have them, too). I was talking of Third Reich attempts to 'reinstate' a "true Germanic" religious cult, based on a sort of romantic idea of "What Our Noble Forebears The True-Blooded Spear-Bearing Germans Used To Believe Before Christianity (OMG JEWISH SECT) Came And Made Them Soft", a mix-and-match cult based on neo-pagan ideas, theosophy and other forms of 19th century mysticism, general social Darwinism and specific Nazi ideology. Pseudo in every direction, really.