- Dec 2018
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www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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I believe you should take a very, very, very aggressive stance against radical Islam. And I realize there are other aspects that are not as militant and not as aggressive and that’s fine.
He should just say the word "crusades" and save us the anticipation. What does he mean by "aggressive military'' response? The West has been doing that faithfully for a while now. The War in Iraq and Afghanistan being two of many examples. Does Bannon think the wars in Iraq were "not aggressive enough"? Does Bannon have no sympathy for the civilians killed by the hundreds of thousands due to the U.S.' political ego trips in the Middle East? Where's Bannon's empathy? Is he a sociopath? Or is his identity so solidified and rigid in who he "thinks he is as an American" he simply cannot "interpret" human beings who practice Islam as "human" like him and his loved ones?
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And so I think we are in a crisis of the underpinnings of capitalism, and on top of that we’re now, I believe, at the beginning stages of a global war against Islamic fascism.
The only fascism which has the means and capability to cause wide spread death on a large scale is the fascism Bannon subtly proposes while claiming Islam is the fascist one. Turning away Muslim immigrants/refugees who are fleeing war torn areas, much of which was spurred by U.S. & European involvement in these areas, precisely because they are people of Muslim faith is Fascism 101.
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By SCOTT SHANE FEB. 1, 2017
Shane has been apart of Pulitzer Prize winning news teams centering on U.S. & International Affairs. He has done extensive work on Russian interference in the U.S. 2016 election and U.S. involvement in the Middle East. Has written on interrogation, torture, and federal contracting. He seems objective enough.
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It’s very easy to play to our baser instincts, and we can’t do that. But our forefathers didn’t do it, either. And they were able to stave this off, and they were able to defeat it, and they were able to bequeath to us a church and a civilization that really is the flower of mankind, so I think it’s incumbent on all of us to do what I call a gut check, to really think about what our role is in this battle that’s before us.
What is the psychological power of Bannon asserting his world view as the "correct" and only alternative available?
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And I would ask everybody in the audience today, because you really are the movers and drivers and shakers and thought leaders in the Catholic Church today, is to think, when people 500 years from now are going to think about today, think about the actions you’ve taken — and I believe everyone associated with the church and associated with the Judeo-Christian West that believes in the underpinnings of that and believes in the precepts of that and want to see that bequeathed to other generations down the road as it was bequeathed to us, particularly as you’re in a city like Rome, and in a place like the Vatican, see what’s been bequeathed to us — ask yourself, 500 years from today, what are they going to say about me? What are they going to say about what I did at the beginning stages of this crisis?
He sounds like the Pope inspiring soldiers to fight in the Roman army for the crusades. Bannon is trying to inspire a return to glory in his alt right audience.
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Asked how the West should respond to the threat from radical Islam and “not lose itself in the process,” Mr. Bannon for the first time drops the adjectives and talked simply about the “struggle against Islam.”
In my opinion, the key is to not engage these distorted world views that are only validated by giving them attention...but what is the solution? Bannon speaks to archaic and base fears of a conquering, exploitative society and finds the most resonance in the very identities which are most invested in said society and its domineering narratives. How to combat it?
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I think strong countries and strong nationalist movements in countries make strong neighbors, and that is really the building blocks that built Western Europe and the United States, and I think it’s what can see us forward.
Selective memory is amazing. Nationalism built in racism, intolerance, systematic oppression and the socio-economic and political crippling and exploitation of non-white groups is literally the "building blocks" of Western Europe and the United States. Does Bannon TRULY not understand this or consider this? Goes to show how at the end of the day, our identities override and influence our worldview in such an all enveloping way that any information which contradicts this view in many cases will not register. Chilling.
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And that unpleasant fact is that there is a major war brewing, a war that’s already global. It’s going global in scale, and today’s technology, today’s media, today’s access to weapons of mass destruction, it’s going to lead to a global conflict that I believe has to be confronted today. Every day that we refuse to look at this as what it is, and the scale of it, and really the viciousness of it, will be a day where you will rue that we didn’t act.
Bannon draws the audience and the reader into his dooms day world view whether they agree with its validity or not.
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But I strongly believe that whatever the causes of the current drive to the caliphate was — and we can debate them, and people can try to deconstruct them — we have to face a very unpleasant fact:
Careful! Can't accidentally step into the truth!
Bannon slides by the historic and modern forms of U.S. & European Imperialism which has so destabilized and undermined socio-economic and political prosperity in the Middle East. He brushes by the historical facts of animosity toward the U.S. and Europe being based in ill treatment by the West toward Muslim majority countries (Bannon is elite educated, so he must be aware of them, right? Does he truly not believe these historical truths are relevant or is he intentionally misleading a (perhaps) largely uneducated biased audience?) Moral ambiguity and political nuance leaves room for empathy and doesn't mesh well with racist, xenophobic and fascist rhetoric like a binary, "A Righteous Us vs an Evil Them" worldview does.
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particularly when you deal with the elites,
Populism Bells! Who are the "elites" and why would they not want Judeo-Christian tenets "defended" according to Bannon's world view?
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It’s a great question. I certainly think secularism has sapped the strength of the Judeo-Christian West to defend its ideals, right?
I don't think Bannon is a practicing Christian (if it matters any) but he uses the historic and emotional appeal of Christianity as a political tool. Bannon sees Christianity as an imagined juxtaposition to Islam and uses this unspoken assumption to appeal to xenophobic, Islamophobic, and racist audiences.
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They have a Twitter account up today, ISIS does, about turning the United States into a “river of blood” if it comes in and tries to defend the city of Baghdad. And trust me, that is going to come to Europe. That is going to come to Central Europe, it’s going to come to Western Europe, it’s going to come to the United Kingdom.
Fascism needs conviction, but statistically flimsy and unfounded claims from Bannon. ISIL is not a "state" and has neither the means nor the capability to significantly overthrow or pose an "existential" threat to an European or a U.S. government. But the truth isn't convenient for ideologues. He has a habit (or strategy) of proclaiming fear based opinion as inevitable fact.
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Mr. Bannon discusses the hopes of the Islamic State,also known as ISIS or ISIL, to slaughter people in Western Europe and the United States:
emotionally provocative language Bannon uses for a political purpose.
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They have driven 50,000 Christians out of a town near the Kurdish border. We have video that we’re putting up later today on Breitbart where they’ve took 50 hostages and thrown them off a cliff in Iraq.
Bannon's website fuels an alt right audience who feeds on hatred and opposition toward the perceived Other. Bannon stirring up flames of fear and loathing isn't "righteous" reporting like he seems to believe. It only feeds generalized Islamophobia, paranoid and dangerous preconceived notations which incentives alt right fanatics to target Muslim Americans/Europeans they may encounter on a day to day basis.
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He emphasizes their targeting of Christians and their use of contemporary social media:
Fear mongering
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Vatican meeting of the Institute for Human Dignity, a conservative Catholic group based in Rome.
Is Bannon just spreading his far right ideology to whoever he thinks will be a willing and receptive audience?
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the order “is not a Muslim ban” and noted that it singled out only seven of about 50 majority-Muslim countries.
Didn't some of the countries excluded from the ban, such as Saudi Arabia, have business ties to the Trump family? Since Bannon is such an alt right ideologue, what did he think of this political compromise?
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Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief of Breitbart News and now President Trump's chief strategist, was the main driver of the president’s rapid signing of the executive order on immigration on Friday, which set off a political firestorm
Bannon is a popular figure, nationally and internationally, for being linked to the Trump campaign. However, he left (or was ousted) shortly after Trump took office. With Bannon's support Trump won a large section of alt right, very conservative U.S. voters.
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Stephen Bannon in 2014: WeAre at War With Radical Islam
Bannon is an ex-government official and a right wing public figure. Is his individual interpretations of Islam important enough to continue reading? The NYT seems to think so.
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