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perjantai 8. heinäkuuta 2022

Persuille tappaminen on hyve - För sannfinnarna är det en dygd att mörda

Japanin entinen pääministeri Shinzo Abe joutui poliittisen murhan uhriksi. Suomen pääministeri Sanna Marin esitti - normaalin diplomaattisen protokollan mukaisesti - Japanin kansalle surunvalittelunsa Aben surman johdosta. Mutta koettakaapa arvata, miten persut, persumieliset ja persunjärkiset reagoivat tapaukseen.

Shinzo Abe, den japanske f d premiärministern, blev offer för ett politiskt mord. Finlands statsminister Sanna Marin framförde - som det är diplomatiskt att göra - sina kondolenser till japanska folket. Men försök gissa hur sannfinnarna och deras vänner reagerade på det skedda.

Aivan oikein: julistamalla, että sillä tavalla kansa meitä paremmissa maissa rankaisee kansanvastaisia poliitikkoja, ja uhkailemalla, että Marinille käy kohta samalla tavalla. Eräskin sankari korosti olevansa oikein haulipyssyn omistaja ja osaavansa myös käyttää tätä tussaria. No, mikäpäs siinä, kyllähän pääministerillä on henkivartijat, jotka voivat panna nämä tussariniekat kuriin - mutta mikäs herra tämä Shinzo Abe oli miehiään?

Precis: genom att förkunna att det är så här folket i bättre länder än Finland straffar folkfientliga politiker, och genom att hota Marin med ett liknande öde. En av dessa skrytmånsar påpekade att han var stolt ägare till en hagelbössa och att han också förstod sig på att använda denna studsare. För all del, statsministern har livvakter som utan svårighet kan ta itu med dylika bösshjältar - men vad var Shinzo Abe för en figur?

Abe kuului tietysti Japanin liberaalidemokraattiseen puolueeseen, joka nimestään huolimatta on lähinnä konservatiivinen: se on pitänyt maassa valtaa käytännöllisesti katsoen keskeytyksettä siitä saakka kun Japaniin amerikkalaisten opastuksella väsättiin toisen maailmansodan jälkeen demokratia. Abe on myös ollut tiiviissä yhteyksissä Nippon Kaigi -nimiseen äärinationalistiseen painostusryhmään. Kaikesta päätellen hän edustaa sellaista poliittista suuntausta, jonka luulisi olevan juuri meikäläisille persuille ja katuäärioikeistolle erityisen mieluinen.`

Abe representerar givetvis Japans liberaldemokratiska parti, som trots namnet närmast är konservativt: det har regerat nästan oavbrutet sedan amerikanerna efter andra världskriget införde demokrati i landet. Abe har också upprätthållit kontakter med Nippon Kaigi, en extremt nationalistisk påtryckningsgrupp. Av allt att döma borde hans politiska orientering motsvara våra sannfinnars idealföreställningar, för att inte nämna den finska extremhögerns gatuaktivister.

Olisi ihan odotettavissa, että äärioikeisto epäilisi Aben murhaajaa kommunistiksi tai "vihervasemmistolaiseksi". Japanissa on aika ajoin ollut ärhäkkää äärivasemmistoa ihan terroristiryhmiksi asti. Vuonna 1972 japanilainen terroristiryhmä "Japanin punainen armeija" teki yhdessä sen kaikkein vasemmistohörhöimmän palestiinalaisryhmän, PFLP:n, terrori-iskun Ben Gurionin lentokentälle (tuolloin vielä nimeltään Lodin lentokenttä), jossa kuoli pitkälti kolmattakymmentä siviiliä. (Iskun takana oli Wadi' Haddad, itse asiassa taustaltaan kristitty palestiinalaisjohtaja, jonka organisoimista terroritempauksista kuuluisin on israelilaiskoneen kaappaus Entebben lentokentälle.)

Man kunde faktiskt föreställa sig att extremhögern skulle misstänka mördaren för att vara kommunist eller representera "grönvänstern". I Japan har det av och till förekommit radikal vänsterverksamhet, t o m kommunistiska terrorgrupper. År 1972 slog den japanska terroristligan "Japans röda armé" i samspråk med PFLP, den mest vänsterradikala palestinska gruppen, till på Ben Gurions flygplats (då hette den ännu Lodflygplatsen) - denna terroristaktion krävde fler än tjugo civila offer. (Dådet hade planerats av Wadi' Haddad, en palestinsk ledare faktiskt av kristen bakgrund, som dessutom organiserat den välkända plankapningen som slutade i Entebbe i Uganda.)

Mutta ilmeisesti persuilussa on kyse ihan itsetarkoituksellisesta ja ilkamoivasta yhteiskunnanvastaisuudesta. Jos joku murhaa tunnetun poliitikon, se on tuon roskajoukon mielestä aina ja poikkeuksetta voitto heikäläisille. Pystyn kuvittelemaan, että tuo pohjalieju alkaisi oikein velloa ja kurluttaa riemusta, jos joku persupomo joutuisi poliittisen murhan uhriksi. Äärioikeistolle, kuten ääriaatteiden edustajille yleensä, "omat" julistetaan tarvittaessa heti pettureiksi - samanlainen ilmapiiri leimaa tunnetusti myös pieniä kommunistipuolueitamme, jos kohta ne eivät harrasta fyysistä väkivaltaa.

Men uppenbarligen handlar sannfinskheten om raljerande samhällsfientlighet som självändamål. Mördar någon en känd politiker, uppfattar den där pöbeln detta som en seger för sin sida. Skulle en sannfinsk partipamp bli offer för ett politiskt mord, skulle den där mänsklighetens bottensats börja bubbla och gurgla av jubel. Ty för extremhögern, som för extremistiska ideologier överhuvudtaget, är det alltid lätt att utmåla en av de "egna" som förrädare. En liknande atmosfär präglar också våra små kommunistpartier, låt vara att de inte ägnar sig åt fysiskt våld.

Tämähän näkyi esimerkiksi silloin, kun Timo Soinia uhkaili joku hänen oman puolueensa jäsen, tai kun vaalipäällikkö Katajan pääkallo rusikoitiin melkein kappaleiksi (senkin teon tekijät taitavat yhä olla vapaalla jalalla, koska persut nauttivat poliisin ja oikeuslaitoksen erityissuojelusta rikoksilleen). Niin kauan kuin Katajan pahoinpitelystä saattoi epäillä epämääräisiä vihervasemmistolaisia juutalaismuslimijättiläispygmejä, persut metakoivat raivoissaan. Heti kun tuli tieto siitä, että iskun takana olivat puoluetoverit, hiljaisuus oli korviahuumaava. Pojat varmaan pelkäsivät, että jos tuomitsevat puolueen sen ryhmäkunnan, joka rikoksen oli järjestänyt, saavat vasarasta omaan päähänsä.

Det här såg man t ex när Timo Soini hotades av en av medlemmarna i hans eget parti, eller när valchef Kataja fick sitt huvud slaget nästan i stycken (det förefaller att de skyldiga fortfarande går fria, eftersom sannfinska brottslingar åtnjuter polisens och domstolarnas särskilda beskydd). Sålänge det gick att beskylla vänstergröna judisk-muslimska jättepygméer, gjorde sannfinnarna mäktigt väsen av det hela. Men när de fick höra att det var egna partimedlemmar som låg bakom dådet, - ja då blev det tyst som i graven. Killarna var väl rädda att de också skulle få skallen inhamrad om de fördömde den partiinterna grupp som hade organiserat brottet.

maanantai 4. heinäkuuta 2022

The Finnish-language media: an instrument of transnational repression

There is a new expression going around: transnational repression. It means authoritarian or totalitarian governments silencing their critics even in other countries. Typically, critics thus stifled are émigrés from those authoritarian states, believing that in Western democracies they are free to say what they want about their country of origin. What happened to, say, Khashoggi, Litvinenko, or Skripal suggests that you can't rely on this anymore. However, my own story shows that even foreign nationals, living in their own countries, aren't free to find fault with how an authoritarian regime with few scruples about repression and state terror conducts their policies. I am thinking of Russia, obviously.

In 2006 I was recruited by a major Finnish-language news site so as to write polemical commentary to topical events. As soon as I wrote something critical about Russia, though, I was immediately attacked by the online lynch mobs of the extreme Right. When I pointed out the similarities between this kind of harassment and the way how Solzhenitsyn had been pestered by self-appointed "good citizens" in the years after Khrushchov's abdication as the leader of the Soviet Union (as described in his memoir The Oak and the Calf, one of my staple readings since my teenage years), I was obviously gaslighted by the very same online lynch mobs. People who were behaving exactly as those who pestered Solzhenitsyn called me a lunatic for what this online mob violence was bound to remind me of.

It became clear overnight that the extreme Right is fighting for Putin. But how did my media employer take it? They actually sided with the online lynch mobs. Earlier, my writings had similarly provoked left wing people and feminists, but then the employer's representatives had staunchly defended me and made it clear that whatever those groups demanded, they would not fire me.

But everything changed when it was the extreme Right - the alt-right, if you prefer - that targeted me. The occupational safety there had been until then, immediately vanished. The producer of the site actually told me "not to provoke them". But how the hell do you "not provoke" them, when they spread their crap even in the comments box of such blog articles that had no political content whatsoever? If I wrote a feelgood text about some nostalgic TV show from the eighties that was being rerun, the same online volunteers filled the comments box with entirely irrelevant racist crap.

What kind of racist crap, you ask? Well, for instance links to an online Finnish-language version of the now well-known extreme rightist screed "The Turner Diaries". Anyone who has read that screed knows that it is a neo-Nazi fantasy about America being overrun by the hate objects of the extreme right and about brave and courageous Nazi heroes fighting back, by killing and massacring children and other civilians. 

The extreme rightists who spread such links in my comments box went to complain to the producer of the site I was working for, because I conducted "censorship" of their "opinions" (i.e. deleted the link to "The Turner Diaries"). AND THE SITE I WROTE FOR WAS HAPPY TO COLLUDE WITH THEM, WITH PEOPLE WHO WERE SPREADING "THE TURNER DIARIES" IN MY COMMENTS BOX, AGAINST ME, THEIR EMPLOYEE. So, basically Finnish has turned into a "Turner Diaries" kind of language. It's OK to link to the Finnish version of the "Turner Diaries" in Finnish mainstream media. It is not OK to try to block such links.

It is also important to note that when I was attacked especially furiously in the comments box of a certain blog post, and closed the comments, I still got one extreme rightist comment. This was only possible if there was an alt-right infiltrator in the publishing company that maintained the site, one who was able to reopen the comments for his or her own addition.

You could think that somebody who has no difficulty writing jargon-free literary Finnish, speaks seven languages and reads news material in several other ones would be a valuable asset for any news media? Well it seems I wasn't. And a friend of mine who dared to stand up to right-wing propaganda and fact-check its statements wasn't, either. The guy speaks fluent French and Spanish, two languages which aren't widely spoken or studied in Finland; moreover he has experience in peacekeeping in Afghanistan and probably has some idea of Dari and Pashtu too. He, a more experienced journalist than I, was similarly excluded from writing in Finnish - because he had irritated the voluntary online troops of the extremist Right. I think I am allowed to see a pattern here

In these nine (and counting...) years after my seven-year stint as a paid online columnist, I have not been able to publish one single line in Finnish outside this blog, be it online or in print media. Not even about stuff I am practically the only person to have a scholarly understanding of, i.e. the Irish language. It is quite telling that two short stories I have written in that language have been published online, on the web pages of the Museum of Literature Ireland, as some of "the very best of modern short fiction in Irish". So, basically what I write in my seventh language - Irish - is said to be "some of the very best of modern fiction" in that language, while I am being ghosted by every single publishing venue in my native language.

What about publishing in domestic minority languages, then? Well, actually I have been able to see my stuff in print in Finland - in Swedish. I don't really have any difficulties getting my scholarly essays about Celtic languages or modern Russian literature printed. Had there been objective quality reasons to exclude me as a Finnish-language writer, most probably I couldn't have been published in these other languages either. So, this is about political persecution by the Finnish alt-right, and the whole spectrum of Finnish-language publications and publishing houses is more than happy colluding with the persecutors.

But I was speaking about transnational repression. Well, the alt-right online battalions did not target me before I suggested - and I was the first ever media voice in Finland to make that suggestion - that right-wing extremists and racists might be cooperating with Russia. It was only then I was targeted. 

Moreover, if there was an ideological undercurrent to what I wrote, it was the attempt of making traditional Finnish patriotism more palatable for left wingers and immigrants. When I started writing my columns, certain old-school militarist patriots actually liked my opinions and understood just fine what I was about: the revival of the Winter War spirit. But the alt-rightists are not old-school patriots. They are spreading an international hate ideology which has nothing in common with our traditional patriotism. Actually, they could not care less about Finland's national interest. As it turned out, they were more interested in Russian national interest.

(wait for continuation...)