Commentary by Alexander Maistrovoy
…His name may be Paul, Scott, Kurtz or Giacomo. He might live in Chicago or New York, Melbourne or Paris, Milan or Vienna, Madrid or Ottawa. He has a European background and a good profession. He has achieved everything on his own and considers himself an accomplished person. He doesn't know much about political philosophy, but loves football, historical films on Netflix, to spend time with friends for a beer and travel with his family out of town.
He has liberal views; arrogance and intolerance are alien to him. In elections, he traditionally votes for the Social Democrats — their position corresponds to his views. He lives in a harmonious and well-equipped world, and does not want to change it.
Over time however he discovers that this world is changing. In his city, "pride parades" are increasingly taking place. He doesn't care, but he doesn't want his children to see vulgar unbridled sights, naked bodies and aggressive exhibitionism. And for what purpose? What are these people proud of?
The culture of same-sex minorities aggressively invades his life. He is surprised to learn about the legitimization of same-sex marriage. A child is in a family with two fathers or two mothers? It's a little bit strange, but everyone convinces him that this is fine, and he agrees shrugging his shoulders in bewilderment. He and his wife used to read fairy tales in childhood about a prince rescuing a beloved princess from captivity. Now his daughter is reading the fairy tale “King & King” about the love between two princes and the adoption of a “little prince” by them.
He has always naively believed that since the time of Adam and Eve there have been two sexes. Now it turns out there is a great variety of genders and their acronym is LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP. Surprised, he finds out that Fairy Godmother in new ‘Cinderella’ is played by a black gay man.
They explained to him that a person of traditional orientation is a kind of "passé", retro; supporters of heterosexual marriages are harassed and branded on social media as chauvinists. His friend, who tried to convince his teenage daughter not to turn into a boy, was sent to prison.
He has always supported equal rights for women. But why banning Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood because of sexist stereotypes?! This is already too much...
Basically he does not care who and how one turns to God. But using "gender-neutral language" when addressing God ...? Giving up the words "Lord" and "He" because "God" could be a lesbian or a transsexual?!
He was never against helping refugees. On the contrary, he grew up firmly convinced that the weak and the desperate needed help.
But ... His country accepts not refugees, not children and women, not political dissidents, but masses of young, strong, assertive men from Kalindia, Barrida or Farhestan. They first settle in a neighboring area, and from there people in a hurry move to another place. In the school where his son is studying, drug dealers are becoming increasingly popular. He hears scary stories and refuses to believe them. He hears about gangs from Farhestan who seek out girls, drug them, and then turn them into sex slaves. In a nearby town, people told that during the holiday many girls were sexually abused by "refugees", but the authorities were silent and urged the girls to “ keep men at arm's length”... Okay, his daughter is only 12 years old now, but what comes next?
The son told him once that a boy from another class was caught by a gang of Kalindia refugee teenagers. They sneered at him and urinated on him because he was white, but …the authorities protected the torturers.
His suburb, that until recently was quiet and prosperous, is now turning into a vespiary. Stealing cars is already commonplace, and he decided to buy a second-hand car hoping that it would not be touched. But alas... Hooligan gangs set cars on fire just for fun, and this show happens regularly every year.
The media tell him 24/7 about "cultural enrichment" and "cultural diversity", but so far he sees only "cultural impoverishment" and a direct threat to his family.
He was never against any religion, and when a mosque was being built near his house, he was even glad of it. However soon enough he discovers that he cannot sleep, because at 4 am every morning he is awakened by a muezzin. He comes to work feeling tired and with a headache. On the streets he increasingly sees women wrapped in black clothes from head to toe. This worries him, but everyone says, especially feminists, that cultural traditions should be respected. Well, he won't argue ... If they really like it ...
But it gets worse... He shudders to learn about female circumcision in Muslim community center near the mosque. His blood runs cold when he thinks anything like this could have happened to his adorable daughter. But again and again he is called to respect cultural traditions of other people. Moreover, he is told that in the name of diversity he should get rid of his own "superstitions." Piglet and "Three Little Pigs" disappeared from shops because they "offend Muslims." Instead of a traditional Christmas tree, ridiculous designs appear in the central city square on Christmas Day.
In a neighboring town, someone shouting "Allahu Akbar" and holding a knife in his hands rushes at passers-by, but the police and the media claim that "the motives of the attacker are not clear." Someone set fire to a church near his home, where his parents took him as a child. He himself has not been to church for a long time, as he is rather an agnostic than a strict believer... But why? Who could have been disturbed by this small church, with its quiet garden and cemetery?
Discomfort, bitterness and anxiety are filling his life that only recently was calm and steady. Still the worst is yet to come.
The murder of a black man committed thousands of miles from his home shocked him and his friends to the bone. Yet he couldn't even imagine what it would lead to...
The very next day, his city is seized with horror. The streets are filled with hundreds of black muscular guys with coiled faces and anarchists with red flags. They destroy monuments and statues, they "cut off the head" of Columbus. He knows that Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America. Columbus certainly didn’t do anything bad to anyone. They say Lincoln and Washington go next.
Another monument to a famous European writer was desecrated near his office. Why?
Some people demand to demolish the statues of Christ for the reason that he is "white", and the Egyptian pyramids too. Leftist California pastor claims Jesus was ‘a racist’. OMG!
Shops, restaurants, offices, businesses and museums are on fire. With the onset of darkness, frightened people hide in their homes, police are inactive. One of his friends is desperate. The shop of masks, which he had been collecting from all over the world for years, was burned down and ransacked. A year has passed, but violence is becoming commonplace.
Once a crowd of pogromists forced his wife together with other men and women to kneel down for the crimes allegedly committed by their parents. Yet her parents (same as his parents) did not commit any crimes. They are not guilty of anything. His father was from Hungary. His wife is Irish-Italian descent. They didn’t do anything wrong to anyone.
He appreciates that black people have a harrowing history and empathizes with them, although some forms of repentance seem absurd to him. He smiles when looking at his son playing Battlefield1 computer game, where the roles of the soldiers of the European armies of the First World War are given to... Muslim Bedouin woman and an African American soldier. He can't believe that some local library burned Astrid Lindgren's 'Pippi in the South Seas' because of "racist content." He is shocked that his favorite movie "Gone with the Wind" was banned because of its "racist depictions"; that the Queen Anne Boleyn is played by a black actress from Jamaica; that the Little Mermaid turns into a black woman; and that Agatha Christie's novel "Ten Little Indians" is renamed. Do Tom and Jerry cartoons depict scenes of "racial prejudice"? Really?!
How one can accuse Mozart, Beethoven or Strauss of racism? How is Eskimo-brand ice cream related to racism? Who found racism in the Dumbo, Jungle Book and Peter Pan.
He gets used to the fact that his daughter plays with Barbie doll wearing a hijab. He has come to terms with the fact that Mark Twain's novels were censored in order not to hurt feelings of black men. He is no longer surprised that the city museum removed exhibits from the collection of Charles Darwin as a "legacy of racism and colonialism."
He is shocked that math is racist because it requires a correct answer, and hatred to white people becomes part of the educational program.
However there is a limit to everything. He is not prepared to see his wife being forced to kneel by some brutes. He cannot watch his country flags being burned and trampled. On the whole, he loves his country.
But ... With a mixed feeling of confusion and despair, he realizes that the ruling elite betray him. He learns that all white people are sub-human with “recessive genetic defects.“; that it would be good if all white Christians were subjected to genocide at Christmas; that the great thinkers, poets, scientists and artists of the past are no more than Dead White European Males (DWEM). The mayor of his city refuses to give interviews to white reporters. His nephew talks about the hardships he faces as a white man in University. It is not surprising if the works of Plato, Locke or Descartes are excluded from the university syllabus, and the portrait of Shakespeare is changed to a portrait of a black lesbian…
With horror, he learns that the preference for vaccination is not given to his elderly parents, but to black and dark-skinned minorities. His friend told him that his elderly relatives of were kicked out of their apartments to make room for Muslim migrants.
He finds himself living in a racist caste society, ruled by militant sectarians, where he, a white heterosexual man, and his children have no place unless they find African roots or become transsexual.
He already votes for the Conservatives, but sees that those have their hands tied too. The country's legally elected leader is being hounded like a wild boar: his posts on social networks are banned, his voice is hushed up.
He goes to a peaceful demonstration, but something unimaginable happens — someone invades the parliament building and organizes a pogrom there. What for? Who needs it? He doesn't understand anything. But from now, he is not just a pariah. He is a haunted pariah. He is already outlawed.
What can he do? Immigrate? But to where? To Hungary? He doesn't know Hungarian…
Despair gives way to bitterness. Is he a fascist, supremacist, racist, sexist, homophobic? Well, okay ...
He begins to look for like-minded people and easily finds them. They advise him to buy a weapon, and he, more recently — a pacifist, does it. He is told that there are forums and sites where people like him can exchange ideas and support each other. He learns that there is a party in his country, which the media calls "fascist", and "extremist", and this party is gaining strength. Its leader proclaims a return to national values, to the restoration of dignity, to an end to the suicidal "cultural enrichment". Even at the cost of tough bans and tough decisions.
5-7 years ago he would have been horrified by this. But now it is his camp, his "home". He is no longer sentimental and complacent. He is cold, angry and calculating. He hates the minorities that destroyed his life and the state that betrayed him. Yes, from now on he is a fascist, a supremacist, a racist, a sexist, a homophobe. Welcome to the club. He is just one of tens of millions who have no choice. And who made him that way?
Born in Moscow, Alexander Maistrovoy is a journalist based in Israel and the author of “Agony of Hercules or a Farewell to Democracy (Notes of a Stranger)”, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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