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Duffy's tweets and Instagram posts are sad. He seems to be completely lost in a world of conspiracies. It is strange he appears to distrust basically everything in the world except for his (fundamentalist fear based) conspiracies. Fear seems to be the only real thing in his world.
I can give him a pass for some of his shit. I mean he missed out on a big payday (according to his 2014 interview), which could certainly make someone a bit jaded and he seems like a dude who is trying to make sense of a complex world with shitty conspiracies, but his anti-Muslim, anti-feminist, anti-gay, and anti-Canada fear mongering bullshit crosses the line for me.
Duffy obviously hates science, experts (except for his fear mongering "experts"), and is terribly fearful of technology. He promotes anti-vax bullshit, he promotes the notion that flouride is a poison (I hope he doesn't brush or use mouthwash), he hates the CDC, and he attacks the scientific consensus on global warming. He is also terrified of GMOs (I can't judge him too hard on the GMO shit because I used to worry about this as well.)
However, he hates the idea of corporations writing laws, lobbying for laws to be passed, corporations ignoring the common good (Nestle not really caring about public access to water), Monsanto's shitty business practices, but supports libertarians who believe that there should not be any regulation on business or the "free" market. This is just a strange contradiction. One minute he says "corporations have too much power" and then without skipping a beat he wants a world where no one will interfere with the actions of the corporations (that have too much power).
He hates "the media" but has no problem believing every unverified claim from his conspiracy websites (Jones's lawyers have argued twice in court that he doesn't believe the shit he says, but Duffy buys it (sandy)hook line and sinker).
He is afraid of the state, but he is obviously a "patriot" (the name of his Vox shoe). He loves "freedom," but has no problem retweeting those who call for the repression of a minority religion, which he constantly frames as scary, dangerous, uncivilized, etc. A huge portion of his posts are all about sharia law, (the mythical) no go zones, and other scary stories that all righteous fundamentalists tell each other.
It seems Duffy is exactly what neo-liberalism/libertarianism breeds. A distrustful, fearful, and hateful person who is upset that there is a loss of the commons and thinks everyone in the world is out for some evil purpose, except for the people who keep telling him (for a profit) to keep being fearful, and that competition and distrust are good and will lead him to a better world.
Fucking social media has to be the worst invention in recent history. I'd rather not know how sad the people I once looked up to really are.
As a resident of Canada, I'm yet to find a no-go zone. Also, I've been lucky enough to spend a fair amount of time in Finland, the Netherlands, and Greece in the past few years and I couldn't find a no go zone in any of those places.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sharia-law-muslim-no-go-zones/
From what I've heard there popping up in germany and france
https://www.rt.com/news/419978-germany-merkel-no-go-zones/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5698740/angela-merkel-admits-there-are-no-go-areas-in-germany/
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-27/merkel-finally-acknowledges-german-no-go-zones-vows-eliminate
Now I know RT is a russian funded news site but they tend to cover all ends of the spectrum. I know the Sun isn't held in high regard and I legit haven't heard anything about zerohedge before.
First, not only does this belief in "no-go zones" stem some inherent belief about the inherent evilness of another group of people, but all of these claims rely on the notion that advanced wealthy secular Western nations have (voluntarily) relinquished control of their city spaces to a religion (that isn't Christianity). It returns back to this notion of the loss of law in order in a decaying society (even though crime is going down). Adding to this absurdity, this means that police in these nations have also given up control of these spaces and allowed an unrecognized authority to usurp their power and authority. If anyone has ever interacted with a police officer this is a bit difficult to believe. The best way to piss off a police officer isn't by committing a crime, but by questioning his authority to be in control (especially, if one is already deemed an "asshole" by being an outsider or "out-of-place").
While there are plenty of sources to dispute this notion of a no-go zone, the easiest refutation is thinking about this objectively and looking at previous moral panics. It reminds me of Sarah Palin's "Death Panels" and the notion that x neighborhoods is a "no-go zone" because of poor people, young people, black people, etc. may be there (no-go zone is not a new term, just reinvented for a new "scary" group of people). Despite being complete bullshit, death panels certainly sound scary to those who doubt the benefits of socialized anything (and overtly ignore the claims that private insurance companies love to ignore) and are strong mythical symbols for a group of people to focus on and reinforce their intense fear/hate of something/someone that is different. It is great tactic for building solidarity among an in-group and ramping up intense emotions (see Durkheim's discussion of totems and interaction rituals). Also, there have been plenty of moral panics about neighborhoods of dispossessed or "scary" people in the past that were complete bullshit. The term isn't new, it is just placed on a new group of people. It reminds of the fear surrounding the mods and rockers in England after WWII. The whole country was afraid of any space that young people might inhabit. Or think of the intense fear that some people like to promote about skateboarding (or Dungeons and Dragons, which was also bullshit). Moreover, think of the way people from the suburbs describe places in the city with some of our favorite skate-spots. They ultra dangerous places where no one can go without being mugged, beaten, or shot. A great example of this might be Deck Park in Phoenix. I skated Deck Park in Phoenix a few years back. Yea, there were a few people that probably love smoking crack, but there wasn't a single person that gave a fuck about me or the dudes showing me around. This isn't to say there are no risks of crime, but many people's perception of risk has no relation to reality.
Second, none of the sources you list are reasonable. RT is not an outlet that "covers the spectrum," but is an state organized media with an obvious agenda. Zerohedge is part of the conspiracy theory section of the internet. The fact most (all?) of its articles are written by "Tyler Durden" should be a pretty good indicator that it isn't a reliable source. The Sun is a super-conservative tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch. None of this strikes me as objective content.
Finally, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I actively looked for the "no-go zones" during my two months in Athens. I started off my hunt for "scary" places in Exarchia (apparently a "den of anarchists and criminals"). All I found was an amazing pizza place (Mystic Pizza) and a decent cafe next to a park with a few banners up that I wasn't able to read, but I assumed were anarchist slogans. The next day I went looking for the no-go zones in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Athens. All I found was a disgusting red light district where I saw the hookers on one side of the road and the needle users on the other side (one guy decided to show me his catheter while asking for money, which was a bummer). Throughout my two months, I simply couldn't find a "no-go zone" (because they don't exist and are just another law-and-order hatred of the diversity of the city myth).
I'm taking next week off from work, please tell me where I need to find a no-go zone in Canada. Also, the American official in the video I posted walked back his no-go zone remark about the Netherlands, but if you tell me exactly where this no go zone is in the Netherlands is we can go look for it together next spring.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/paris-mayor-to-sue-fox-over-no-go-zone-comments/384656/ https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jan/14/steven-emerson/fox-news-guest-steven-emerson-says-birmingham-tota/ (Fox even (partially) apologized for their bullshit)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-29/unmasking-the-men-behind-zero-hedge-wall-street-s-renegade-blog
Topic: Pat Duffy is a far right kook (Read 21636 times)