A new (to me) type of spam

Within six minutes of my posting about the BBC and the BNP I had a comment. It is largely unexceptional. It is firmly anti-racist. It is rooted in a reflection on the Bible. And it is entirely non-responsive to anything I said. I guess that someone has got a robot running: find any post that says “Nick Griffin” and post this response. I have deleted it from the comments as non-responsive, However, I quote it here.

Racism begins with our families, parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, people we admire, respect and love.

However, as we grow and mature we come to the realization that what we were told by our family when we were children were slanted lies base on their prejudices. We realize that most people are like ourselves and not so different and want the same things, like a home, steady work, a Medicare plan and schools for our children (if you travel you will see this). We realize that most people are of good hearts and goodwill.

This reminds me of a parable from the good book where a Levite and Priest come upon a man who fell among thieves and they both individually passed by and didn’t stop to help him.

Finally a man of another race came by, he got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy and got down with the injured man, administered first aid, and helped the man in need.

Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his fellow man. You see, the Levite and the Priest were afraid, they asked themselves, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

That’s the question before us. The question is not, “If I stop to help the immigrant in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help the immigrant, what will happen to him or her?” That’s the question.

This current climate of blaming others for our woes is not new. We have had this before and we have conquered it. Remember “Evil flourishes when good men (and women) do nothing”. Raise your voices with those of us who believe we are equal and we can win this battle again.

There are some problems with that. Some of us (many of us?) learn our ability to reach out to those who are different precisely through our families. The idea that it’s axiomatic that “I’m the first person in my family not to be racist” is both smug and a bit creepy. It’s also worth noting that the writer doesn’t entirely overcome his own prejudices that we all have children. How heterosexist and famliyist is that?

The Good Samaritan is certainly pertinent, but I’m not convinced of the details of this exegesis. Not least the idea that Samaritans and Jews are different races. That’s about as plausible as talking about the different races of Indians and Pakistanis. The (majority) religious and cultural affiliations are significantly different. That’s not the same as the races being different.

However, It’s not my disagreement with the details of a comment (whose thrust I accept) that made me delete it. Otherwise I wouldn’t have published it in its entirety. No, it’s the seemingly automated nature of it, together with its almost total non-repsonsiveness that consigned it to the trash.

Tagged as: Blogging, spam