South Africa Blind-Sided
While the hordes of misinformed and ignorant statists called out for the burning of Gareth Cliff and Chris Hart over what can in no stretch of the imagination be called racism, the national government was able to distract us from two major events. First, a controversial nuclear deal with Russia has practically been greenlit by the cabinet as the procurement process begins, and second, it seems everyone has forgotten that Jacob Zuma’s stupidity with the finance minister debacle is continuing to devalue our economy to junk status.
It is a common practice among all governments to latch onto, even orchestrate, events to distract the populace from what really matters. We call these Red Herrings. As an example, the Pistorius trial was by no means orchestrated by the state, but it was used to good effect to distract us from corruption and ill-thought out legislation. This row against racism is no different.
We live in South Africa, a country only 25 years out of one of the most racist systems on the planet. We’re bound to still have racists. We have affirmative action and a myriad of brutal racist policies to try “right the wrongs of the past”. Racists from the old days aren’t converted or gone yet, and the ANC aren’t helping by perpetuating blatant racism in the form of BEE and a myriad of verbal and regulatory attacks on whites, all of which only anger current racists and turn more whites into racists.
Racism has always been in post-1994 South Africa. Only the most optimistic fool would think otherwise. It’s nothing new. Social media is rife with racist comments way more brutal than Penny’s stupidity or Khumalo’s hate speech. The only difference now is that the state made a good show of using it to distract us from what really matters – that the ANC is singlehandedly raping our economy through corruption, stupidity and a blatantly detrimental nuclear deal.
The sad thing is that we all fell for it. Idiots clung onto the “Ban Racism” mantra and Libertarians tried to point out how stupid that was, when we all should have been sticking to the #ZumaMustFall, #ANCmustFall and any other anti-government ideals. Instead, we let the ANC distract us like moths to the light. We fell for it and now we’re sinking into an abyss that does not only mean the continued destruction of the economy, but now the destruction of our freedoms.
As a competitor, I have to congratulate the ANC on their prowess. They were able to keep us in the dark. Able to not only distract us long enough to forget about their fuck-ups, but also so they could get some nice kick-backs from their ex-Soviet pals. Above that, they may actually be able to start declaring anything racist to shut up their detractors. Even if their ban on racism doesn’t go through, the current witch hunt shows they won’t need it. All they need to do is use the R-Word and the populace will gather their pitchforks and torches and march on whatever company is spineless enough to listen.
Due to our blindness, we have more problems to deal with. We have to continue to defend the economy in whatever way we can (or just run for it), we have to continue to condemn the nuclear deal (for all the good that will do) and we have to fight not only legislators but the idiotic masses who are baying for blood.
It may not be as professional as the other articles on this site, but I feel it succinct to say that we fucked up big, South Africa – and now we have to pick up the pieces.
Nicholas Woode-Smith is the Managing Editor and a Co-Founder of the Rational Standard.