The Antisocial Socialist

I made the mistake at lunch today of reading comments on the Torontoist and the Star to articles about the continuous Tamil protests in front of the U.S. Consulate. Now, granted, blog comments and online newspaper comments are not a good barometer of public opinion, because I will give up all hope if the average IQ of Hogtowners is that low. But it's a dismaying read nevertheless.

The worst comments are the ones that claim that the Tamil community, by inconveniencing a few commuters, has lost the goodwill of the "Canadian" (read white) population. This is bollocks. Most white Canadians had never heard of the Tamil struggle before the protests started, and probably couldn't find Sri Lanka on a map even now. But the consensus seems to be that the genocide currently being perpetrated by the Sinhalese government has nothing to do with "us." I kind of want to go all Godwin on their asses and ask them if they'd have objected to Jews protesting Nazi atrocities in the 1930s, but I'm a bit afraid of what the answer would be.

At any rate, the unaffected "us" does not include my white Canadian ass. Greater principles of universal human rights aside, I know people whose families are under fire right now. It's as personal as it would be if it were happening in Brampton or Calgary or somewhere else where I don't actually know anyone directly but I know someone who knows someone. I don't understand the hatred and apathy in my city, I really don't.

Which brings me to springheel_jack making a good point as usual about the swine flu and what's likely to happen when it's all over. Many, many people will die; just nobody you know.

Damn.