Flay liberal Joseph and you'll find a redneck
Joseph Muscat: basically a redneck dressed up as a liberal
I never had much respect for Joseph Muscat because he’s shallow and superficial, has that absurd sense of entitlement that is borderline narcissism, has no political beliefs and so his actual politics are unclear and seem to depend on sniffing the wind, and worse than all that, he is not bright.
But this morning, after having read reports of what he said yesterday, I find him repellent.
While the prime minister spoke out against Italy’s failure to rescue a boatload of people who were just 14 miles from Lampedusa, so that the Maltese armed forces had to do it instead, the leader of the Opposition praised Italy for behaving that way and said that Malta should do the same.
But if Malta had done the same, those 170 people would have died a horrible death.
Joseph Muscat’s words meant only one thing: that Malta should have let them drown. He is typical of the redneck Maltese mindset ‘M’ghandix x’naqsam, hi. Jien x’ghandi x’naqsam?’
So liberal, so progressive. So not even human.
On this one, he has made the exact same mistake that the prime minister made on the issue of neutrality. Both of them failed to understand that politicians have multiple audiences. Some messages are ‘safe’ for all audiences. Some can be pitched at one audience while offending nobody else. But others please one audience while doing untold damage with others.
It’s strange, isn’t it, that while we have watched the Nationalist government warp into a facsimile of Labour on the matter of neutrality, military bases and ‘sending our children to fight’, we are now seeing ‘progressive, socialist’ Labour morph into a bunch of Far Right loons on the matter of immigration.
Since when does the Malta Labour Party emulate and admire right-wing Italian politics and politicians?
43 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Question: Since when does the MLP emulate and admire right-wing Italian politics & politicians?
Answer: Since Lega Nord took the lion’s share of the vote in Red Emilia Romagna! Umberto Bossi did very well in the red heartland of Italy. Ex-communists, dissatisfied by the hardships caused by the financial crisis, would never have voted for Berlusconi or Catholic bigot parties. But they would readily vote for the Lega Nord. I doubt whether Joseph Muscat knows this because he is stupid. But ironically he is emulating him & ensuring that this haemorrage does not happen.
There is one major difference. The Lega Nord plays to the tune of the Gran Padania, a traditional racist, not red, heartland, of the Italian peninsula. Bossi was not merely lapping up the votes of former commies disillusioned by the Rifondazione Comunista. Indeed it is Veneto, not Emilia Romagna which is home to the Lega Nord.
He was playing directly on what the vast majority of the Venetians feel – a huge and overwhelming sense of superiority not merely for things or persons Italian, but NE Italian. In fact they are convinced that they should be disenfranchised from the Italian state and ought to form a state of their own. This was in fact Bossi’s battle cry in the early ninties. This sentiment still prevails.
So, this was not a haemorrhage – but an appea to a regional sentiment to a certain extent, just as much as we cannot say that Norman Lowell merely laps up the votes of disgruntled Nationalist or Labour voters. The voters that a depsicable person like NL attracts are the intollerant racist xenophobes who find no solace in either party.
I think international politics have become too big for our local boys to handle. No harm in asking Cameron for a word or two of advice.
The word ‘sadist’ would suit a few Labour Party people perfectly and I know what I am talking about.
Why do half of the articles on timesofmalta.com end up in a comments’ board ‘fight’? Don’t people have a job in Malta?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110411/local/expat-gets-500-000-in-free-treatment-thanks-to-property-scheme
Better be careful – your own “liberal” side hasn’t been much in evidence, lately.
[Daphne – Might that be because I object to people relying on others to do their dirty work for them? Or because I object to our politicians refusing to help in any way they can to get rid of a dictator? Incidentally, that’s another area where the Labour Party failed the liberal test. I trust you belong to the ‘let’s keep our heads down and side with life’ school.]
I don’t think the stance adopted by Joseph Muscat on the immigration issue, or the Government on the Libya issue, can be termed as liberal or progressive.
Being liberal or progressive, and Iam not saying that I am, does not entail being ignorant of basic human need. It does not mean either to be indifferent to one’s plight or suffering.
I think that these stances are purely selfish and egocentric traps promoted by people bereft of the capacity to direct a cat to a saucer of milk, let alone a nation of people, forward towards a bright future in the second millennium.
timesofmalta.com
“j brincat(1 hour, 10 minutes ago)
Then the PN need to consult an ENT because they have defective hearing.
They should listen to Dr Muscat’s speech again.
But then I am not surprised because the PN has a habit of twisting facts!”
Typical brainwashed (Super) One listener and viewer.
The next general election is roughly 700 days away and from now on we are in permanent campaign mode. It is all about the numbers. The last election was won and lost over about 1200 votes or so.
Given that socialism has been more or less (publicly) stripped out of the PL, the accusation that the party’s leader has ‘no political beliefs’ is, oddly enough, both accurate and unfair given that, as far as I can tell, neither party is currently belief-driven to any particular extent.
The Libya issue has made that clear to everybody.
Muscat is simply calculating that the votes to be gained by adopting a red-faced foaming-at-the-mouth anti-immigrant stance are far outweighed by the possible loss of limp-wristed liberals who are, in any case, being gently wooed over the divorce issue.
His calculation is that the audience he is pleasing is far larger than the one he is displeasing and will contribute to overcoming the 1200 vote barrier and then some. Populist? Oh yes. Opportunistic? Absolutely. “Not bright”? For now, he only needs to be brighter than those around him. I think he can pretty much manage that.
Sums it up pretty well in my view. Then again, when you think about it, the way the world is going is towards liberalism when it comes to internal social issues, and eventually far-rightist when it comes to immigration issues. When you have Cameron, Merkel and Sarkozy all claiming that multiculturalism doesn’t work, how exactly is what Joseph Muscat saying here dissonant with the views of Europe’s major leaders?
They’re not saying that immigrants should be left to drown. And Joseph Muscat is not saying that multiculturalism doesn’t work.
That’s why what Joseph Muscat says is dissonant.
We all remember the discriminate withdrawal of shop licences, the ruthless selection of recipients of import licences, the suspension of workers taking part in industrial action and the mass political victimization of the political activists.
It was only Labour under Mintoff that practiced facism…that is after Independence.
Ah! but this redneck is ashamed of his roots! Hence his insecurity about chosing a path to follow and sticking to it. First he sees what he THINKS appeals and is currently cool and then acts accordingly. People are catching up on this I think and time will tell.
Usually we say ‘scratch’ not ‘flay’ in a case like this. Flay sounds unnecessarily violent. I’d change it if I were you.
When you have thick hide, scratching isn’t enough. With a brass neck like that you’d need a diamond-tipped cutting tool.
Exactly my thoughts upon reading this:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110411/local/muscats-comments-on-italys-actions-shocking-pn
The PN is a leftie; the PL is Fascistic right.
The PN was leftie but moved to the centre in recent years. The PL is all over the place.
No, my friend Gakku. I cannot agree. The PL is, as someone below said, National Socialist.
‘The End of History’, – Francis Fukuyama.
The usual news portals and social websites give a good idea of the kind of people the PL is attracting. All those who normally support Norman Lowell are ecstatic at Muscat’s “guts”.
They do not ask themselves what taking a “firm stand’ on immigration really means. Or maybe they do ask themselves and are happy to find that it means allowing black people to drown.
Muscat did not even bother to temper his words with at least a token condemnation of racism. Sant famously said that he would forge a pact with the devil if it meant winning votes so, by reaching out to racists, Muscat is in line with traditional Labour thinking.
I wouldn’t have minded 2 months free of income tax. Was tempted by that.
One of your best pieces, Daphne.
Couldn’t have expressed my thoughts any better.
Your surname is quite obviously not “Catania”.
Labour are National Socialists.
This continual relating of conservatism and Nationalism to fascist and hard-right is so uncalled for and utterly deceptive.
Liberal beliefs are founded on socilaist interpretations in an effort to destablize traditional cultures and long-standing values. Whilst I fully agree that our politicians have lost all sense of political bearing and one is no longer in a position to identify the left or the right, we must admit that Europeans are crying out for solid leadership in terms of mass immigration and imported impurities.
The European Soviet Union as we have now become stands for a collection of welfare states, liberal policies, minority rights and the ultimate result will only be catastrophy. We claim to be the cradle of civilization while we continue to be leniant on a silent invasion in the name of humanitarian efforts. Islamic demographics are a force to be reckoned with and unless we stand firm, we will become a minority in our own continent before the middle of this century.
Lorna Saliba – be very careful. You yearn for a strong hand. That kind of yearning gave Germany Hitler and gave Italy Mussolini, and then the rest of the world had to cope. Stalin lasted longer and he ran his empire with an iron fist. Millions died in gulags just because they were different or because they were ‘enemies of the state’.
If we are to survive as a race, humanity needs to become more tolerant of the differences. Don’t expect cultures to remain static. They change and we adapt. Incidentally Europe was made up of pagan tribes so which traditional cultures and values are you so worried about? Don’t forget Christianity came from the east and that much of northern Europe remained pagan until at least a thousand years ago.
yor/malta, what I do yearn is for our civilization to protect itself against an undesired influx.
I certainly do not yearn for the Muslim riots in Paris which happened three years ago or for Islamic factions to be allowed to grow within Europe.
Above all else, I certainly do not yearn for mosques sprouting everywhere for the sake of cultural and religious tolerance giving ethnic minorities the chance to evolve into hostile and dominant majorities.
We remember the uproar when they closed the house of worship on the Sliema front and how these people defied our authorities by worshipping on the Sliema front.
[Daphne – 1. The Sliema mosque was closed down by the Planning Authority because it was in a block of flats and did not have a ‘change of use’ permit. Nor could it get one, being in a block of flats. 2. Praying on the Sliema front is not a crime nor does it constitute defiance of the authorities. I lived for 21 years in that exact place and remember untold numbers of Christian groups clapping and singing. They were immensely irritating, their clothes were terrible, the sound pollution was immense, but it’s a free country. Besides, scenes like that add colour and life. Part of the problem with Malta is that it’s homogeneity makes it dull and its residents even duller.]
This is not the society we would like to bring our children up in and hardly the society wherby half the female population run around in veils as if they are still living in some Islamic state.
[Daphne – Speak for yourself, Lorna. I don’t think you understand how out-of-tune you sound when you claim to speak on behalf of all Maltese, as though all Maltese think as you do.There are many Maltese who, like me, would rather live on an island where some women wear veils than on an island where Maltese racists try to burn alive in their beds those who don’t agree with them. It’s not as though Malta is a stranger to insufferable religious bigotry, and yet you speak as though you have been living in Norway or Sweden for the last 20 years. “Can’t have those Muslims coming here and upsetting our grand democratic tradition of private religion and freedom of worship.”]
Comparing a strong hand to Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin is hardly the case. Australia is not a totalitarian state but preserves its identity by disallowing these people to make excessive demands.
One should also bear in mind that ethnic invasions create the likes of the extreme right and we should not allow that to happen before it’s too late!
[Daphne – The extreme right exists already in Malta. It is a strong political sentiment among supporters of both the PN and the MLP, but mainly, I have noticed, the MLP.]
He shall morph again again…….and again , uggh.
‘Redneck’ is a racist term. Only a racist(closet racist) would use it.
[Daphne – It isn’t. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/redneck ]
Rednecks are not a race. What they share is a mindset. It seems you do too.
It is a derogatory slang word http://www.answers.com/topic/redneck
Daphne, perhaps what Reuben meant was offensive rather than racist. It certainly is disparaging to a certan class of people.
The fact that you can find the term on an online dictionary doesn’t meant it isn’t racist or offensive either. I mean, even this can be found on the same dictionary:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigger
[Daphne – Redneck describes an attitude.]
Joseph Muscat can be described as redneck because of how he behaves and the choices he makes not because of where he was born.
Would you describe a Black, Chinese or Mid Eastern person with this word?
[Daphne – Black? Black is not a nationality. ‘Black or Chinese’ indeed. ‘Redneck’ describes an outlook, an attitude, a way of thinking. So yes, a ‘black or Chinese or Middle Eastern’ person can be a redneck. For example, I see lots of rednecks protesting in Tripoli, on television, in favour of Gaddafi, kissing his photograph and the rest. They look very much like Maltese rednecks to me.]
I’ll answer that for you…………………No.
Find me one instance where this word has been used to describe anyone other than a White European or a person of White European ancestry.
‘Redneck’ is a racist word used to offend Whie Europeans.
[Daphne – You are hardly likely to know how and when ‘redneck’ is used, or what for. English is clearly your third language. So save yourself the effort.]
Rednecks are originally Americans from states like Texas and what is known as “the deep South” in the USA. The word is a reference to how farmers in these areas have red sunburnt necks from working in the fields in the sun.
It’s not about a race of people who have red necks. So it’s not racist. It’s like the Maltese word “Hamallu” or the English word “Chav” in a way, referring to an attitude and manner of living.
It is not used by people of other races to offend White Europeans. It is a word that was first used in the USA by white people talking about other white people.
In times of great distress and upheaval a few good men ( or women ) are what is needed to give good council to their brethren so that a nation’s soul is not lost in the actions that follow .
This man does not have a very reliable track record.
When he first took up his post as leader of the opposition Dr Muscat started praising Mintoff. But what followed seemed to me to be more significant.
He suddenly makes the Labour party “the Liberal” party. In doing so he just moved the goal posts. Suddenly all liberals, who usually voted PN for obvious reasons, felt like they couldn’t be Nationalist supporters because apparently they weren’t the liberals despite restoring democracy in Malta and getting us into the EU.
Most realized that this was all rubbish and could see through it all, but others didn’t and quickly ran to the PL’s side lest they get called conservative.
Then LGBT Labour shows up on the scene, and suddenly if you’re gay then you should vote Labour. Really?
There are as many homophobes in the PL as there are in the PN, but the PN have two openly gay politicians, one of whom is an MP.
The PL is full of homophobes with supporters who are just as bad if not worse – their beloved LGBT Labour has done nothing. There has been no headline with their name in it since they first opened shop. What is their purpose anyway?
So all LGBT citizens, although initially excited that a party had taken a stand on the issue, suddenly felt like they were just another group of divas out to promote themselves and nothing more.
So the goal posts have been moved, but just for the sake of moving them. Nothing was done. And some gay men and women in Malta still think that the PL is liberal. A vote for Labour is not a vote for gay rights. If it were they would be far more prominent than they are now, or at least be doing something other than discussing how to get votes for PL.
Then the issue of divorce sprang up. Thanks to Dr Muscat’s little gimmick of becoming good friends with JPO we suddenly have the issue of divorce thrust upon us and we are all rushed to vote at a referendum.
But we can’t even agree on the question.
Once again, Dr Muscat creates confusion by moving goal posts, disillusioning supporters, creates some sort of power vacuum, but then doesn’t actually do anything afterwards. So he’s getting us all to rely on him, consequently vote for him, and then does nothing.
He does nothing about the issues he has created. What he does do, however, seems to go totally unnoticed by these new supporters who do nothing but wave the flag of liberalism. He brings back some undesirables from the past (while supporters insist that he will fire them once he wins the election so there is no need to worry-che?) and carries on praising Mintoff.
And now this! Well done, Dr Muscat, there go all your liberals.
Well, if they are real liberals they will have trouble accepting what you’ve just said. If they have no trouble with it, then what on earth are they doing calling themselves liberals? Dr Muscat learnt a few tricks up in Brussels, and he thinks he can use office politics in real politics to mess around with our country. Boy, is he wrong.
Is Muscat looking at green slime on his index finger?
It is ironic that Joseph Muscat had this to say about immigrants only about 24 hours from his visit to some Maltese immigrants in New York. I would give him the benefit of the doubt – he was probably still suffering from jet lag after his return from the States.
Redneck is a historically derogatory slang term used in reference to poor white farmers in the Southern United States.Go to Wikipedia for the rest !
Do you remember what the ‘bright’ boy Muscat said in the beginning of the Arab risings? To take advantage of it tourism wise in Malta? The conflicts are actually making some foreigners afraid to come here. What a boy Labour has!
Even I one of the great unwashed could tell that it will spread (I remember telling you Daphne during the Tunisian uprising that even the Arabs are protesting).
Lorna Saliba, you are already on the far right so don’t kid yourself. Your type needs to understand that no religion has a monopoly on faith or truth.
You mention Australia – so if you were say of northern European ancestry living down under in the 1950s and 1960s, what would you have thought of the Maltese? The Maltese were ‘coloured people’.
We have come so far up our evolutionary ladder and yet people still entrench themselves within causes that ultimately bring about the likes of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. Your ideology insidiously establishes a foothold based on fear and propagates itself through the hate of anything that is different.
The main problem is integration – if as a society we can get integration to work then plurality of races and cultures may allow our race to reach our next step, reaching out to the stars , if not the we are stuck here for an eternity.
The world is witnessing the total failure of politics and politicians. The Middle East is in turmoil due to dictatorshiops. The west is in turmoil due to failed policies and crooked politicians. It’s time for US to stand up and be counted – maybe we will have some loose change left in our pockets at the monthss end instead of debt.