I just found out that a guy I'd never heard of before, Bruce Allen, is on the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee. Well, actually he's on the ceremony planning committee, but in any case, there are apparently quite a few people who want him off that committee. Why? Because he has said some things that those people found offensive.
If you have no idea who Bruce Allen is, that's probably means you're not Canadian. Apparently, he manages musicians, and is on the radio. But that's not really what this article is about.
This article is about an email about Bruce Allen that's apparently been making the rounds in some circles. Essentially, the email claims that the things Bruce Allen said had to do with a call for the Canadian National Anthem to be sung in Hindi at the Vancouver Olympics. But that never happened. Bruce Allen did say some things that pissed a lot of people off, including a comment saying that immigrants should "shut up and fit in."
But rather than deal with those comments, he author of the email simply took another email, which was also a load of BS, and changed a few details to make it Canadianized, and then sent it out to see how many idiots would buy it. Apparently at least one did, because he republished that email here on Gather.
While this kind of thing isn't funny, I couldn't help but laugh when one of the reasons given for refusing to allow the Canadian national anthem to be sung in Hindi was because it was written in English and should be sung in English. The problem is that O Canada was originally written in French!
So when I wrote a comment pointing out that the information in the Gather article was a bunch of lies, the response from the author was "never let the facts get in the way of a good story" and "you're all a bunch of ass kissers". The author said the story in the email didn't really matter, because the point he was trying to get across was that "[t]oday's immigrants feel they can come over here and we have to kiss their ass."
In addition to our fellow Gatherer's displeasure with immigrants' attitudes, he has said that he's aware of Bruce Allen's comments, and he agrees with them. It seems that in Allan Janssen's opinion, people who choose to immigrate to Canada should all "shut up and fit in" like he and his parents did when they moved there.
Allan apparently didn't like the fact that I called him a liar and an ignorant bigot, so he has "blocked" me by removing one of my comments:
"The Point (in a nutshell) was that "Immigrants used to come here and try to learn their obligations to be good citizens. Today the first thing an immigrant wants to know is what their "rights" are! Big difference in attitude."
If that's the point you wanted to make, it might help if you back it up with something besides a big pack of idiotic lies.
"Since you only seems interested in causing trouble and acting like the moral police for gather I just simply block you and then you can bug somebody else since that seems to be your purpose here."
Looks to me like you're only interested in causing trouble by lying and acting like an ignorant bigot, but you go ahead and do all the blocking you think will help you spread your lies and bigotry, then you do what you think you've got to do. It doesn't worry me.
I guess I should consider myself "blocked."
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Comments: 24
Just this comment alone clearly showed this guy for the wacko he is......
That's usually a pretty good clue, isn't it BERF?
Especially when, after they've made it clear that they're trying to be offensive, then they complain about commenters "causing trouble", "acting like the moral police" and irritating them.
But then I've noticed that you tend to get that kind of thing with ignorant bigots and gutless cowards. And wackos, of course. ;)
Some people are their own worst enemy!
Anna - A local town voted a couple of years ago to only conduct government business (driver's licenses, welfare, food stamps etc.) in English only. The cost of providing all of the needed materials in Spanish and English was crippling the small town financially and taking away from the amount of money they were able to give. I think the "cost" of trying to accommodate everyone is something many people don't take into consideration.
Maybe so, but there's a difference between telling a story without providing any facts, and telling a story by making up lies.
And in this particular case, there was no good story. There were just bigoted attacks on immigrants. Allan doesn't like their attitude, or their interest in their rights.He says that he agrees with Bruce Allen's statement that immigrants ought to "shut up and fit in."Apparently the shutting up part doesn't apply to himself, despite the fact that he claims he is an immigrant.
Why? Are you posting lies and feeling neglected, Corporal?
I'm trying really really hard to find just a hint of bigotry in Alan's comment that you quoted, but I just don't see it.
Maybe you're not looking hard enough, Tim. But I'll see if I can help you out. The statement you quoted is an example of overgeneralization. An overgeneralization is a belief about all members of a group that is not actually true of all members. Prejudice is a negative feeling directed towards a group, or individuals within a group, often based on overgeneralization or totally false belief. A bigot is an intolerant, prejudiced person.
It's just like if I were to say that people from Kentucky are poor, ignorant, inbred, backward, violent, and lazy, that would be an overgeneralization. If I were to have negative feelings about you as an individual, or about people from Kentucky generally, based on that false belief, I'd be bigot.
Not only does Allen make repeatedly overgeneralize about "[t]oday's immigrants", he then uses those overgeneralizations as an excuse to demand that they all "shut up and fit in." They have to shut up; he doesn't. He believes he has the right to say what he likes; he believes they don't.
I noticed he's taken that whole idea step farther in some of his more recent posts. Did you see the one where he goes off on the protesters because he doesn't like the messages on their signs, then starts up about free speech when his post supposedly gets flagged for hate speech?
Yours and those of many other Kentuckians, I'm sure. But if I were a bigot with prejudiced views about people from Kentucky, then I probably wouldn't care. Because bigots don't care about hurting peoples' feelings, and they don't care whether the things they say are true or not.
That's possible I suppose. But then again it could be like saying " Kids these days just don't study as hard as we did when we were kids " Of course a person who makes such as statement doesn't mean that all kids these days don't study hard, but on the average they don't. At least that's the way that I see it.
But you are right. It's all in how you interpret what you see.
Well written and expressed article! I understand your point.