Quote:
Originally Posted by Patricia
Nate, unfortunately it is not always that straightforward. Various extreme right-wing groups in the UK, such as the British National Party, claim in their manifestos that they are not racist.
However, when undercover reporters record their meetings and rallies, it is an entirely different story, and racist hate-speech has often been recorded.
Currently UK police officers are not allowed to join the BNP because it is felt that they would not be impartial to all members of the community.
I've seen the effects of hate-speech. Racists murdered a refugee in the grounds of our local hospital a few years ago. They killed the man in front of his young step-daughter. Her father had been killed in her home country. Her mother had died after an illness. She lost the only other person in this country who was close to her.
The BNP failed to condemn the murder and have stood regularly for election in that constituency ever since.
If you are in the UK then I urge you to vote in the forthcoming EU elections. If you don't, then the BNP could benefit from the system of proportional representation.
Meanwhile, remember that political groups often say things for public consumption. It is safest to look at their actions and omissions.
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The BNP are neo nazis, yes. There is a fair amount of congruence between the Wikipedia article, the BNP website, and articles from British newspapers. Left wing ideology + terrorist arm + targeted group to hate = classic NSDAP)
The Sweden Democrats are another matter. I have found no news reports of anyone sneaking into a meeting and hearing neo nazi ideology. I have found 2 news stories where someone did sneak into party meetings. In the
first, the reporter overheard racist jokes. In the
second, party leader participated in a singalong. Some of the songs were by a white power group.
While each story is distasteful, please put them in to perspective. Some of the music I listen to includes rap. This does not make me a cop killing, women beating, thug. And if racist comments make one a neo nazi, then Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a neo nazi. (Look him up.)
I'm not saying the party doesn't have racist members; I'm saying there is not enough evidence to label the party itself neo nazi.
As for Carl Lunstrom being a neo nazi, I have found no evidence to support the claim. I am beginning to think the label was attached by his political enemies as a way to hurt him. One article I found was on an English language news site based in Sweden. It was a
profile of the 4 Pirate Bay defendants. They do not call him a neo nazi, nor even allege it. I have to assume they have more information than I do, and that the label is bogus.
And I think I found out what really happened in that "100 neo nazi candidates" story.
Here is a second source on the story, in English.
I think the whole idea got started when one site found the story in Swedish and used Google to translate. The translation was garbled, and they misunderstood it. That site then reported the garbled story, and everyone on the internet repeated the story without bothering to confirm the accuracy. (This is what Harry did.)