The curious case of Ilaria Salist

 It has been quite astonishing to follow this case. The background: there is an admittedly far-right demonstration commemorating the break-out attempt of German and German allied Hungarian forces from the besieged capital, Budapest. Which is quite bad in itself, and brings out the most unsavory characters. Such is life in a (reasonably) free society. You kinda have to tolerate the assholes, too. (You know, freedom of speech and yadda-yadda.)

But it also brought something else out. People from Germany, Italy travelled to Budapest to beat people they deemed neo-Nazis up. With viperas and other 'instruments', no less, essentially making these assaults into potential manslaughter/murder since it is quite easy to kill someone when a group of you jump him or her, beating their head, poking at them and whatnot with a piece of metal. And let me repeat this: the victims were chosen randomly.

Let me repeat this. People from other countries of the EU travelled to Budapest to potentially kill people they thought were neo-Nazis. The way they determined it? Why, anyone wearing black, green or camo is obviously a neo-Nazi. (I guess GAP is selling them clothes, too - I have a green coat which resembles a military-style jacket, bought by my girlfriend. But regardless -the selection criteria is somewhat suspect.)

Even IF the people who these staunch Antifa people were assaulting WERE neo-Nazis, I was not aware that laws did not apply any more. (I guess these "enlightened" foreigners believe that they can ignore the law of lesser nations.)

Funnily the Western media did not really get caught up in this strange chain of events, where foreigners travel to a place explicitly to almost murder the locals. I guess if it was, let's say, Hungarian neo-Nazis (of which there are not many) travelling to Berlin to assault a Pride Parade, we would have heard a lot more of it -which just shows the double standards and hypocrisy of Western media outlets.

That is, until, one of them got caught (actually, more), after assaulting people, and her father kicked up a fuss about it in Italy. First of all, this was a female teacher, so obviously, because it is a woman, we immediately feel that she must be blameless. Second, the Italian press and political establishment immediately jumped into her defense, despite the fact that she assaulted people in a foreign country where she travelled to do so.

So what does the Left in Italy do? They make her a candidate for EP in the EU. A person who almost beat someone to death. 

The reason? "Her candidacy is a positive symbol for the battle of rule of law and fundamental rights in Europe. We stand with our Italian allies against autocrats like Viktor Orbán and his barbaric methods of detention"

So the rule of law involves assaulting people in mobs? Great place Italy must be then. Oh, that is for only the filthy foreigners! Sorry, I forgot. The demagougy of this statement is astonishing. It is also interesting how Italy seeks to interfere with another country's judicial processes. Very democratic. Next thing we know, they send some exploding cigars or military advisors, a'la CIA in the '60s...

Imagine the uproar if the situation was reversed. This is an incredibly good demonstration of what people think of others living in the poorer parts of Europe -an actual example of cultural racism. Obviously if she was caught in Germany, all this would not have happened -but those untermenschen do not matter in the East. They can be beaten to death without us feeling any empathy. We need to save this poor woman!

And then the media-reaction: they immediately establish that the victims were ne-Nazis - which they were not by large. Out of the nine attacked there were plenty not having any connection to the far-right demonstration. But even if they were. OK? Even if they were -which, again, is not true- this is not actually something you would do in a civilized country, such as in Germany or Italy. So what does it say about you when you travel to some other place where you think you are free to do so? Or defend these people, hm? Are we back in the Weimar republic? Should we then allow the far right to beat people they think are Antifa? (Funnily enough, even reddit's very "progressive" community had a somewhat more balanced view on this... I guess not all is lost.)

Just read what the Guardian is writing - she was detained after a counter-demonstration, not after assaulting people. Obviously. Reuters was the only reasonably neutral source of information on this.

Second issue: instead of focusing on what they did, everyone is crying about prison conditions. Good job focusing on the main issue here, I guess. You may as well get the impression that these people were doing charity work and were detained in Iran... There are two things here. Yes, Hungarian prisons are not like the ones in Norway - if you want to be in those, well, do as Breitvik -over there. But neither are they full of rats, despite what the allegations (lies) state. Moreover: if you go to some "poor, backwater" place where you think you can beat people to the edge of death, well, you kinda need to face the realities there if you get caught. You get the same as all the other assholes breaking the law there. No special treatment for your entitled, superior little ass, no transfer to your country for you, ma'm, forgetting all about it, leaving some bloody mess behind. It is not tax evasion you did, but grievous bodily harm -no country will allow you to leave in such circumstances. Enjoy the prison sentence waiting for you in Hungary. You may be released in a couple of years if you behave yourself.

All in all, appalling reporting and appalling reactions to an Antifa action. (And just to repeat the first point: this is not to excuse this whole far-right jamboree happening in Budapest every year. But the problem is there is very little you can do about it in a country that still has vestiges of the rule of law...)

European values, West vs East in the EU, and the rank hypocrisy

It is interesting to see the contrast between reports of alleged Hungarian brutality towards migrants (with no actual proof, but in the he-said-she-said game we of course can take anything a migrant or an NGO says on face value), and the way they report on brutality by the cultured and civilised Western European countries.

Let's see...

We all remember when migrants rushed the border at Roszke, and threw stones at the border guards; the response was, not unexpectedly, some water jets to drive them back. The video footage was heavily edited leaving out the attack, and the footage of the poor kid his/her parent was dragging towards the violence, so later the child could be paraded as an innocent victim. The videos usually have shown the water cannon first, then the stone throwing, and the crying children last. (Here's the full video, by the way. You can see a child being dragged towards the tear gas at 1:29...  which makes the whole farce even more comical. Most of the condemning articles you can find in this blog, but here is a collection by a Hungarian news portal.)

International condemnations, talks of overall racism in the whole country; the furore was real. Facts were taken quite liberally, but the whole incident was used to paint the whole country as the racist black sheep of the EU. Even the UN Secretary General had some harsh words.


In contrast, this is how an Italian use of the water cannon was reported upon.

The report is more like a factual description, and the Guardian had no thundering opinion piece on it. It kind of happened, and that was that.


Same thing about alleged violence against migrants/refugees in Hungary.

Apparently guards have been taking selfies with beaten migrants. Proof of any of these are obviously missing (even though these things tend to come out as we have seen with the US soldiers who took selfies in front of corpses they tortured to death), but let's not let facts get in our way.

In contrast, there are just dispassionate descriptions of the horrors if they are perpetrated by Western countries. No broad generalisations, no bleating about "European Values", no finger pointing to the highest level of power; I've yet to see anyone accuse Macron of being a horrible human being because of the well documented brutality of the French police, and the inactivity of the French government to help these people. (Who, let's just mention it, left the migrant processing centers without registering hoping to get through a richer country.)

The point is: Western media, and the Western world in general loves virtue signalling with the Eastern members of the EU. The political elite, the media are blatantly biased. It's not exactly a big revelation, but something that is worth recording.

Don't let good bigotry to go waste

When is it OK to be bigoted, xenophobic (or racist, although this is a bit of a murky distinction)?

Why, when you're talking about those smelly Eastern (well, Central) Europeans! Just do a quick search on the comment section of any so-called progressive, liberal newspapers, and you will find extremely bigoted views expressed against Poles, Slovaks, Hungarians, all in the name of liberalism, equality, anti-xenophobia and European Values.

Seriously. Just check it out. (Yes, it's only one. You can look for the rest. It's not very difficult.)

Anyhow, enter Mr Frenchman. (If you wanted to know his name, you can find out. He DID say he does not hide behind an anonymity, he DID post his comments under his own name, he IS a journalist, and he DID try to erase all his misdeeds. I find especially the last part repugnant.)

Anyhow. Do a quick read of this reddit post from a black girl asking about Hungary.

Mr High Horse, a self-confessed journalist and teacher assesses that "most of Hungarians ARE racist", and then brings up two unsubstantiated little stories, and a lot of (probably intentionally) misinterpreted things (like a candy called Negro) to support his claim. Let's stop here for a second. Someone, claiming to have journalistic integrity and whatnot, talking from a liberal point of view simply makes a bigoted statement that essentially puts him into the same camp as the people he decries (racists, not Hungarians). Then proceeds to make a couple of off-hand comments, and when he realizes he really, really put his foot in his mouth, he proceeds to erase his comments and delete his account.

I decided to immortalize this little performance as it is very much a representative sample of the treatment of these smelly Eastern Europeans all over the Continent, with the exception that most journalists and politicians are not forced to face a reality check. Well, here's an indication for you what would happen in a larger scale if that was the case.

The difference between war crimes and human shields -how the media and politics see the same thing through different glasses

Weird things you can read in the news.

Siege of Mosul (incredible bloodshed, street fighting and massive civilian causalities) is something that we should look at as the forces of good fighting the forces of evil. (I think ISIS is supposed to be the evil here, but given the fact that the US has been supporting these very same guys in the past makes this distinction a bit murky.)

Anyhow. Mosul is great.

Aleppo, however... at Aleppo we see the evil Ruskies and Assad massacring civilians and attacking helpless rebels who are definitely moderate, and would not chop heads off even if they could. Also: the fact that NATO is putting troops right on Russia's borders is something that will ensure peace. Definitely. How else to make sure you have peace other than provoking a nuclear power? By talking to them? Don't make me laugh. (And let's not forget who those rebels really are.)


So. There is an interesting duality how the media (and politicans) deal with bombs that kill civilians depending on who drop said bombs. We can safely conclude that victims of Western airstrikes are collateral damage only. Also, victims of weapons sold by Western powers to barbaric kingdoms and used on civilians are fine. They don't kill civilians. We're the good guys. (Things can get a bit weird when your allies murder your allies, but what the heck. Let this one slide, I say.)
But victims of Russian bombs, however, are victims of a war crime. And the Ruskies are barbarians. Let's just forget the siege of Fallujah, and the indiscriminate killing of civilians of US forces (not to mention the use of white phosphorus against human targets, which is, you know, a war crime).


It's kind of weird when the two sides do the same thing, but they are not really the same. US (or Israel) hits a hospital: oh well, mistakes are being made, sorry. And the terrorists were hiding there deliberately, anyhow, so it's not a mistake. They were also using human shield, forcing us to kill all those people, while at the same time we hit the hospital by mistake.

Ruskies hit a hospital: WAR CRIMINALS. OMG, THEY ARE TOTALLY EVIL. Poor insurgents who are forced to hide in a city against the superior force! Let's send them more weapons!


Seriously. Do a google search. I can imagine all these people's spirit discussing how one side were murdered by an evil regime, and how the other were just collateral damage. I'm sure the victims of Western bombs take a great solace in the knowledge.


It's astonishing. It's so bad, even the Independent noticed it -after several decades too late.