Zizek on Haider

[Seth Ackerman]

Nathan Newman wrote:

> Your position is for everyone to shut up until they clean their own house.
> I
> am much more in favor of activists organizing across the board to pressure
> for denunciations of each countries failures and hypocrisies.  I want
> progressive Austrians denouncing the racism of Israel's immigration
> policies
> and Israelis denouncing the racism of Austria. 
> 
	I was reminded of this argument when I read the LA Times article
Doug posted about the LAPD. There is a weird dichotomy. On the one hand,
exposures of institutional racism and corruption in the USA happen with
numbing regularity. Yet every time they happen, they are viewed by most
people as exceptions, aberrations. 

	After all, it's common knowledge that American society is steeped in
excruciating sensitivity, even kowtowing, right?. Doesn't our President feel
everyone's pain, pander to every group, want every cabinet to look like
America? Aren't we constantly apologizing for slavery, aren't we always
regretting some past wrong? Most whites think discrimination against blacks
never happens. 

	Clintonian finger-wagging against Haider -- or his support for
hate-crimes laws, for that matter -- is part of this phenomenon. It helps to
coat the system with a sheen of endless "tolerance" and "fairness" so it can
then more effectively abuse people's rights. 

	Seth