Depression of early 21st century leads to infestation of racists making false claims

[mr_anderson]

what is a racist, a culchie calling a dub jackeen

I'd be offended ... if I could understand them !

[Twin Towers]

Jesus H Christ, your post is a rambling load of crap, did you post it in your sleep.

No, his points are true and well made about ordinary Greeks being blamed as a whole for the mess created by their incompetent government. Don't get what the wacist wacist angle is all about though which just detracts from his case.

[root for solidarity]

Oh, let me first say something about that “brown people” thing. As a matter of fact most of us Greeks have either brown hair or hair that might look a bit like black (but is actually dark brown). However there are many of us who actually have a brownish kind of blond hair and, believe it or not, there are even some who have a brownish kind of red hair (with nice brown freckles, included). So, all in all, we are a very brown people, indeed, and I hope that doesn’t seem too alien to some.

Seriously now. I am not at all offended by being called a member of a “brown people”. That is because I sincerely do not believe that any of “brown”, “white”, “black”, “yellow”, “red” people are in the slightest way better that the others. We are all as good as the “others” are. Period.

I do however trust that many of my compatriots might be a bit annoyed by such talk. That is because many of them are a bit racist themselves. Well, they should get over it…

I’ve been reading a great many comments in this forum, that seem to be really degrading towards our people (if not to say outright ignorant and hateful). I’ve been trying really hard to not label such posts as racist. I’m sure that most people who make such comments do not identify as racists and would be offended if they where called that. However that in itself doesn’t necessarily say much (in history, many real hardcore racists would not accept such a label for themselves, either…)

I must remind some, because it has been commented on, that the Jews are not a “race” either. They are a religious and cultural community, and perhaps, today, a nationality also (that’s not for me to determine, of course). But they certainly are no “race”.

That said, I too tend to believe that comparing the situation of the Jews in the 30s, with that of Greeks today, is a bit of an exaggeration (at least I hope it is… ).
Actually the mere fact that such a comparison could cross someone’s mind is in itself quite alarming. Has all that media propaganda against us really gone so far? I sure hope it hasn’t.

And that said, I still think that the OP is really making some very good points in his post. Greeks working short hours, retiring early etc is a very nasty generalization (if not to say utter nonsense). The fact is that most Greeks who have a job in the private sector (more than 20% of us are currently unemployed) tend to work from dawn till after dusk… And the same (or I would say even worse) goes for people who own small businesses or are self-employed ( a large part of the work-force, traditionally). At least it was like that when there was still a lot of work to be done… Only those who worked in the public sector were relatively privileged in those respects (but still even to call all of them lazy, would be a nasty generalization). There actually are a great many shortages in personnel in many parts of the public sector, especially in hospitals and schools. Yes there be many drones who have client relationships with politicians present in the public sector. But that still doesn’t mean that this sector is really “overmanned”. It’s just -in many respects- wrongly, inefficiently and unjustly manned. (Actually, only women employed in the public sector tended to retire early-and now even that is stopping. But that was because -traditionally- women are expected to take care, of families households, babies, children, grandchildren, relatives, elderly, well just about everyone and everything, with little or no help from the state, or from anybody else for that matter…Do you now, for example, that over here there waren’t even many public preschools, and of those that there were, many are being closed down because of the “crisis”? )

You are being lied to, people. Don’t fall for it. Behind any big and nasty lie, lies a big and nasty truth: and that big and nasty truth is, that this whole “crisis” thing is not really about …“bad” people who brought it on to themselves (and other people who will -supposedly- be spared cause they are the …“good” ones…). It’s about the inherent social injustice of the capitalist system (both in a global and in a local scale). If you think the Greeks, the Argentineans, the Thais, the Ecuadorians and so many many others, all brought it on to themselves because they were, em, …bad, you are in for a very bad surprise. Once those media vamps are all done with us, they will very probably go on to the Portuguese and then, you.

[root for solidarity]

There are some very interesting statistics in the oficial website of Eurostat, the official statics agency of the EU.

One is about average hours actually worked in the whole union, in 2008. Is Greece in some low division on this? No it isn't. According to this, French, Germans, Italians, Swedes, Danes, Finns, Slovenians, Belgians and Irish, all worked less in 2008 (and Good for them, that is!)

Politics ie does not allow me to post links because I don't have enough posts to do so, but it will be quite easy to find for anyone who is interested. You can google "Eurostat statistics explained" and when inside search for "Labour cost at regional level". The one I am reffering to is the second chart of that page. The first chart about hourly labour cost, that same year, is also very interesting.

[Jezza]

It may well be lazy scapegoating, but so is the OP calling it 'raycissss...'. Using an over-inflated concept to over-inflate what is actually the stereotyping of a nation, not a race.

[feargach]

It may well be lazy scapegoating, but so is the OP calling it 'raycissss...'. Using an over-inflated concept to over-inflate what is actually the stereotyping of a nation, not a race.

Reposted from another thread:

More pathetic scapegoating of an entire nation, because of a scam pulled by a former government. I pointed out the obvious racism of this in another thread, and would you believe that, instead of denying the accusation, that they were prejudicially attacking people they don't know on the mere basis of their ethnicity, they made the ridiculous "defence" that Greeks aren't a distinct "race".

Hello? No humans are of a distinct race to any other humans. We are all one race.

Things like skin colour are a hugely unimportant genetic variation, of virtually zero relevance biologically. In proper usage "racism" means attacking members of different cultures on the basis of ethnic heritage, regardless of whether they have a similar skin colour to you or not, for the rather obvious reason that we have known, ever since the discovery of DNA, that "races" do not exist.

So yes, attacking Lithuanians with racist speech is, in fact, racist, despite the fact that they look the same as you.

The notion that racism stops being racism if the victim looks similar to the racist is ludicrous.

Japanese people used to be very racist towards Koreans. The fact that many westerners can't easily tell the difference between the two peoples does not stop it being racist.

[Twin Towers]

Reposted from another thread:

More pathetic scapegoating of an entire nation, because of a scam pulled by a former government. I pointed out the obvious racism of this in another thread, and would you believe that, instead of denying the accusation, that they were prejudicially attacking people they don't know on the mere basis of their ethnicity, they made the ridiculous "defence" that Greeks aren't a distinct "race".

Hello? No humans are of a distinct race to any other humans. We are all one race.

Things like skin colour are a hugely unimportant genetic variation, of virtually zero relevance biologically. In proper usage "racism" means attacking members of different cultures on the basis of ethnic heritage, regardless of whether they have a similar skin colour to you or not, for the rather obvious reason that we have known, ever since the discovery of DNA, that "races" do not exist.

So yes, attacking Lithuanians with racist speech is, in fact, racist, despite the fact that they look the same as you.

The notion that racism stops being racism if the victim looks similar to the racist is ludicrous.

Japanese people used to be very racist towards Koreans. The fact that many westerners can't easily tell the difference between the two peoples does not stop it being racist.

Utter bollox. It refers to intolerance of other races. That's why it's called racism. You're entitled to your own opinions but you're not entitled to your own facts.

[feargach]

Utter bollox. It refers to intolerance of other races. That's why it's called racism. You're entitled to your own opinions but you're not entitled to your own facts.

What "races" are there? You still believe in that "negroid" and "caucasian" rubbish? That's ancient cr4p. We're all modern humans now. Minor traits like skin colour are utterly immaterial. Racism has been used as shorthand for discrimination based on national background rather than skin colour for years now.