Brenton Tarrant’s trial, including the searing testimonies of survivors, families and friends, received superficial coverage in the mainstream media.
Described as a “terrorist”, the ideological convictions which fuelled Tarrant’s atrocities were not considered. At the Nuremburg trials after World War Two, the perpetrators of heinous crimes against humanity were referred to as Nazis, not agents of terror per se. To depict Himmler, Göering and senior functionaries simply as terrorists would have insulted Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The terror they experienced was inseparable from the governing doctrine of anti-semitic genocide.
This insight is vital. Tarrant’s ideology and mindset closely resembles Nazism, yet daily news coverage displaced this reality.
His manifesto, “The Great Replacement”, claims that the white race is under attack and threatened with extinction. This conviction reflects a common concern of certain European (especially French) fascist groups which shaped Tarrant’s indoctrination: overseas migrants are invading Western heartlands; the general demographics of population growth are swamping white communities; and multiculturalist propaganda is weakening white values and traditions (dating back to Scandinavian mythology and the Crusades).
Of course, not all who share this worldview openly advocate the elimination of enemies (Renaud Camus, the primary intellectual proponent of “Great Replacement Theory” never advocated the incitement of racial violence). Crucially, though, violent expressions of “Great Replacement” thinking derive from Nazi race theory. The only difference is that, today, Islamic rather than Semitic culture is the object of erasure. With this caveat in mind, reflect upon the following observation from Wilhelm Reich’s The Mass Psychology of Fascism
The race theory is German fascism`s theoretical axis. In fascist ideology the economic program of the so-called 25 points figures solely as an expedient intended ‘to improve the Germanic race genetically and to protect it against racial interbreeding’ which, according to the National Socialists, always entails the decline of the ‘higher race’. Indeed, it is their contention that even the decline of a culture is to be traced back to miscegenation. Hence, ‘keeping the blood and the race pure’ is a nation`s noblest task, in the fulfilment of which one must be prepared to make any sacrifice. In Germany and the German-occupied countries, no means were spared in putting this theory into practice in the form of the persecution of the Jews.
The quoted sections within this excerpt derive from Adolf Hitler`s Mein Kampf—still the motherlode of fascist ideology today. The Tarrant trial and its mainstream media coverage was a missed opportunity. Public depiction of Tarrant’s ideology and its lineage would have raised disturbing questions. Can you imagine living in a society where people like Brenton Tarrant are in charge; where genocide of a marginalised ‘other’ is official policy and where the un-persecuted live lives of banal normality and ignorance? The absence of such reflections in the mainstream media reminds us that the dangers of white supremacist ideology were ignored by most journalists, politicians and security intelligence agencies in the years preceding Tarrant’s atrocities. After Anders Behring Breivnik’s bombing and murderous rampage in Norway, July 2011, 4chan and 8chan internet sites were alight with supportive commentary. The same happened after Dylan Roof’s church shooting of Afro-American workshippers in Charleston, June 2015. In New Zealand, violent Islamophobic internet chatter in the months before March 2019 was ignored by authorities, despite protestations from Islamic communities themselves. And, Tarrant’s internet activities and Tiki tour of European fascist enclaves raised no red flags. These oversights are worth remembering now.
A one-off terrorist monster? Think again.
I view him more as a sick and sad kid, who has thrown his life away for a grand illusion as well as taken the lives of so many innocents. This is a warning for parents everywhere to take charge and intervene on behalf of their young people whether they like it or not , to be kind, to monitor and steer them away from radicalism.
A few strong Dads and Mum’s can have an awesome effect. Not in antagonizing them, but listening to them. Counselling them. There are many family’s who are estranged, but we must do our best for our offspring.
I know this is like living in the ideal world,… but it must be attempted. You see your son or daughter going off the rails, you have every right to get involved no holds barred.
Told my son I want this played at my funeral among others.
Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd
https://youtu.be/sMmTkKz60W8?t=3
Beautiful song.
Wild K What you’re describing is an ideal which not all children are fortunate enough to have – starting with two – if any – reasonably well functioning parents.
The majority of NZ’s prisons’ occupants are survivors of state care – a harsh indictment of the patently crippling effect of this upon already disadvantaged kids.
My children’s father died when the youngest had just turned 13 and about to start secondary school.Apart from one bro who kindly shouldered the legal complexities of a complicated will, they had nobody but me.It was hard. I would go to my son’s ‘Meet the teacher’ nights then sit outside in the car and cry. I regard his peer group, fairly macho rugby players who were all drinking by fifth form, as his major formative influence. His closest friend’s father died at the end of that same year. They turned out ok, but the circumstances of my husband’s young death from an horrific condition, has probably impacted permanently upon my children, just as the Australian shooter’s father’s death may have impacted upon him.
The Australian murderer appears to have been friendless, with no social group, no participation in team sports, grew up in a small mono cultural town, then let loose upon the world with a stash of money and stunted brain power.
It has occurred to me, that apart from the horror of solitary confinement, the prison community may be the first community in which this individual has had a place, apart from his faceless group of online extremist sickos.
Our lesson here has to be to speed up addressing all the circumstances which cause our New Zealand children to be disadvantaged and alienated from mainstream society.Do I think our major political parties have the will to do so? Answer: No.
Yeah, I know, that’s why I mentioned the bit about ‘the ideal world’.
But that’s also why I alluded, in a veiled sort of way… modern B.S alienating, divided community’s and society’s…and why I gave the song, with a shout out to rural, family type values which we, – aided by the clown Roger Douglas who hastened up the process,- have left behind.
Because it all starts right there, – strong family’s with a values system that views other human beings as our brothers and sisters and places a value on looking out for our neighbors.
Its that simple.
Fat man Bradbury, what a vindictive, cowardly, deluded, egotistical loud mouth you are. You’re an enemy our our people & a dead man walking!! Watch your back buddy!!
The book to read here is, Kaufmann Eric “ White Shaft “ Penguin ( 2018 J
It’s fairly cerebral tome, addressing ethno-demographic change esp in the USA and Europe, and the issues future generations will be facing; facts, not thesis.
Presenting culture, not economics, as becoming the central battleground of western politics, goes some way to explain – but certainly not excuse – the abhorrent and counter-productive atrocities of white supremacists.
As Bradbury did not write the book, nor the above article, nor is responsible for the changing paradigms, your analysis of him is way off the mark, and your threats should be a matter for the N Z Police to address, pronto.
threats should be a matter for the N Z Police to address, pronto.
Agree.
That’s not nice, why are you being like that and threatening him?
The analogy to Nazi thinking and the Holocaust is facile. The Jews in Germany were thoroughly assimilated and contributed hugely to German society. Tarrant’s ideology stems from fear of an intolerant, misogynistic, violent creed that has been responsible for atrocities in host countries worldwide where people feel their governments ignore their safety by promoting reckless immigration policies and forced multiculturalism. The outstanding fact about Tarrant’s actions is that they are relatively unprecedented when compared with Islam’s atrocities.
Gaby -I place aside analogy with the Holocaust, and Hitler’s brand of politics, because of historical and contemporary differences.
The fact remains that the message of all the great world religions is the same, and it is the message of the Sermon on the Mount.
The fact remains that this message becomes twisted and distorted, and at times utilised for evil in the hands of
followers of religious belief systems. The cruelty and wickedness of the Spanish Inquisition, largely instigated and implemented I think, by Christian Jesuits, probably far outweighs any contemporary atrocities carried out by Muslims.
There are a huge range of factors at play here, not the least being hordes of testerone-fuelled young men for instance, adrift and unemployed in the depressing slums of Paris; middle eastern men with good reason to regard oil-fuelled western countries like America, as the great Satan. But none of them can reasonably explain or ever justify extremists like this Australian murder and his ilk.
”The fact remains that the message of all the great world religions is the same, and it is the message of the Sermon on the Mount”…
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No . Its not. The sermon on the mount entailed no holy war, no eye for an eye, it was a radical departure from Old Testament law, and had nothing to do with UTU either. It was a radical idea that treated women as equals, that treated all humanity as brothers and sisters, and hence family, that taught the sacrifice and redeeming love of the Father God as expressed through his Sons death on a cross equated to eternal redemption* if people believed in his Son Jesus Christ. It was a blood sacrifice. Not to be used by political opportunists as it often later became during the crusades, not to be used in justifying wars and slaughter for material gain, simply for people to know the truth of this universe and who created it.
* Eternal life, – all things in this universe according to quantum physics operate by ‘vibration’. Scientists say there are as many as 11 different dimensions. I don’t know about all that. But apparently all matter ‘vibrates’. And that vibration is measured in light frequency’s. Which essentially means we live in a hologram! Wild, huh? Who would ever have thought…
Traditional Newtonian science only measures in tangible formats, mass, weight, volume, speed etc, … but at the subatomic, the nano measurements, the vibrational frequency’s,…we need an amalgam of both Newtonian physics and quantum physics. That is where we find true science. Its all about math’s I cant even begin to be bothered about learning. I find it hard enough to wake up in the morning and drag my sorry butt around and make a coffee with having to think all of that out !
But the Bible and its redemptive message is written so even a child can understand it… as God realized not all of us were born and called to be Einsteins…
John 3:16
King James Version
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And this :
New International Version
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
And that don’t mean killing them because they disagree with you / my and your / mine temporal ( and I mean temporal as in this lifetime ) ideology. Its a hard act to follow and I don’t know one person on this earth whose ever achieved it. Therefore:
Romans 7:24 Context
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
And that’s original.
And bloody tough to always live up to and keep that thought in mind. We are only human and we usually cant see 3 feet in front of us on a day to day basis. So we got to constantly check ourselves. It aint easy.
No other message comes close.
And this is the crux of the matter in what you said…
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”The fact remains that this message becomes twisted and distorted, and at times utilized for evil in the hands of followers of religious belief systems;;…
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And that’s the truth. Taken out of context by ruthless, power grabbing and Godless secular individuals, this is world history from its beginnings. Cold and devoid of anything good, they only use these messages for their genocides and political advancement. The concept of a loving creator is merely yet another self centered opportunity to advance themselves. And that is all.
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