Riots in England -- Part One, the American Spin

I think that, living in England, I should write something about what is going on. About the riots that are happening, and more specifically, the causation. But, the more I hear about what is going on in my country, or more specifically, what I am told what is going on by people abroad, coming up with these ideas that it is caused by socialism and government, I feel slightly confused at what is going on in foreign news; this is a topic I am learned in, and yet these ideas seem to be coming across that it is political riots. Well, let's bridge the understanding over the Pacific.

Well, I go to my local American bias news source, Fox News, and see what they have to say:

Sean Hannity is my first pick of the day.

I'm looking at what's going on in London right now and the rioting that's taking place there. Rioting is taking place in large part because of austerity measures because their country's going bankrupt. We should be learning from their mistakes but we're not; and people are out there, they're blaming conservatives, they're blaming the government, they're blaming "rich people" that it's their fault. They've got 16,000 police officers in London trying to handle this – more than they've ever had – and I'm thinking this sounds a lot like America ten, 12, 15 years down the road, because once those promises can never be fulfilled [sic].
I think this explains this very simply of the Fox News, or Amurikan, viewpoint. Now, Hannity sees a direct link between the riots and the recent austerity measures imposed in Britain. Yet he believes the best way to avoid a similar outcome in America is to impose even deeper spending cuts than the $2.4tn recently authorised by Congress. Although I agree with him that America needs deeper cuts, the grounds of the correlation is false: Correlation does not equal causation, as people have chirped before.

He discussed the problem with freshman Senator Rand Paul, a leading member of the Tea Party caucus, who agreed that the austerity measures that are due to be implemented in the US aren't nearly severe enough to stop Americans imitating their British counterparts. Although it may seem counterintuitive to think that the best way to prevent riots that both men believe were caused by austerity measures is to impose even more drastic austerity measures, Paul explains that it's best to start implementing cuts immediately, because if we wait too long, people will just get a bigger shock when their checks stop coming.

Neither Hannity nor Paul saw any merit in trying to find alternative means of dealing with our deficit woes (such as increasing revenue by revoking the tax cuts on the rich, for instance) that might avoid inflicting the sort of pain on the masses that could possibly cause them to revolt. Hannity was also upset that the Tea Party is being blamed for the downgrade of America's credit rating, which he fears will not be restored anytime soon.

In as many words, I remember him saying not too long ago that Half of America is not paying taxes, 15% of Americans are on food stamps, and it takes at least a decade to gain a rank for the S&P to improve their rating again (although we are still waiting for the other three companies opinion on the matter).

Rush Limbaugh

How can you not think this guy won't comment on the riots? I am wondering whether he'll blame the muslims, the blacks or the communists for the riots. Ah, wait. He mentions that "Obama would not be upset. Obama wants it." In addition to believing that the rioters and looters are no different than "Obama voters", Limbaugh goes on to assert than not only is it inevitable that the rioting is "precisely what we[America] are headed for".

The following is an extract from the horse's mouth :

All this is happening 'cause of rich people, the people that got businesses, the conservatives. That's why all this is happening. You're dubious about this? They burn down the stores to show the rich people we can destroy what they have so that they will have nothing, too. We can burn down the property of the rich people so that they've got nothing, either.

............

They live in a full-fledged socialist country. They have their equivalent of food stamps. They have interminable unemployment. They have free medical care, ostensibly. This is what they were promised. These were the people that bought into the false promises of socialism. These are the people that bought into the false promises of Utopia, and who are they mad at? They are mad at people who didn't! They are mad at people who are self-reliant. They're mad at people who are making something of themselves independently. They think they have been defrauded.

Now, if you didn't listen to English News on an English Topic, and thought this man spoke "the truth", I don't think you are well informed. So, being the great guy I am, I'll do an in depth analysis to his insanity:

1. "All this is happening to the rich people". Well, tell that to Haroon Jahan, Shezad Ali and Abdul Musavir.

These three men died trying to protect their area, after leaving from the local mosque. If I quote Martin Wainwright :

Neighbours said that the men had just left the mosque and were among large numbers of local people determined not to allow the fluid series of grab-and-run attacks in the city centre to spread to their area.

Now, unless you are in the mindset of it's good that they die, I think you, as well as I, will feel a grief and sadness for what has happened. They were not rich. They were not special. Just 3 victims in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the midst of anarchist violence.

"They burn down stores to show we can destroy what they have" Well, yes, I agree. That is the depth of the political message. We can, therefore we shall. This mindset follows with how they broke into the Barber of Aaron Biber. One the victims has been Aaron Biber, an 89 year old barber whose shop was wrecked by rioters on Sunday. Having worked in Tottenham High Street for decades, Biber despaired, “I will probably have to close because I haven’t got insurance and I can’t afford the repairs."

http://keepaaroncutting.blogspot.com/ Is the blog where people have donated to keep him in business. At my last check, it said 5:02pm. Do you know what happened? The people came in, with Biber still inside, stole the kettle and sugar, as well as some scissors, shavers, and a few other specialised haircutting goods, before leaving. That sounds like a brilliant way to make a message! Steal sugar! I want to meet the mastermind behind this attack! Their political genius must work at a level that I cannot even comprehend.

How about another youth, 19, who stole a violin for the reason of "[he] wanted to learn how to play it". How about all the cars destroyed on the streets? Why not march into Knightsbridge, instead of Peckham? (If you aren't strong with London districts, Knightbridge is one of the richest areas in the country, while peckham is one of the poorest). The genius of this man astounds me.

"They live in a fully fledged socialist society" Do I need to say anything? Anyone European, and a lot of non-europeans, would realise that Socialism isn't a bad thing. Only in America, as they say, is it seen as horrible and despicable (I am thinking a side-effect from the Cold War propaganda that existed, and communist censorship, as well as a deep-seated dislike for non-capitalism and The American Dream (see Death of a Salesman)).

I could do a more deep analysis of this man, but the king amongst Fox is coming up. I mean the big dog. The head Honcho.

Bill O'Reilly. America's answer to the Question "Who can Bullshit the longest and get away with it?".

Quoting Bill : The difference between America and Great Britain is that here in America, many of us are armed because of the second amendment. In Great Britain, they don't like guns, as you mentioned, the cops don't even carry guns. But here is a really good example of if you are a shop owner or a store owner and you don't have a gun, you're in big trouble. Now, is [sic] any of that been raised by the BBC and the other liberal British press?

Now, let's look at what Bill is suggesting. He wants to give all the English people weapons, so people won't kill each other. Brilliant idea! Let's give a bunch of idiots weapons and let them walk down the street! Now, instead of assaults, we get murders en masse! Brilliant! A+ Mister Reilly. Also, it's good to see the last statement is so baseless, he could be in the outer rings of Saturn just floating with the comets. It's not that no liberal press has said. it's not that no liberal person has brought it up. It's that no one has brought it up! I have not seen this in ITV, Channel 4 News, BBC News (which is renown for lack of bias, which I'll address in another post), Even Russia Today or CNN. Just Fox News, coming up with these ideas, yet again, folllowing "No Spin" O'Reilly.

But this is simply about the American spin on the riots. I will do a "part two" where I will go into depth of the riots going about in England, from what I can gather, and find on sources including News as it comes and goes, as well as psychological insight. 'Till then!