Bartlett Accepts His Bias

Well, what would you know, not all Democrats are US politicians, my fault, as it happens, Andrew Bartlett is Australian and he is an Australian politician. A Democrat Australian politician.

My fault, I stand corrected.

But I will take the opportunity provided by the mea culpa to provide more evidence about how some politicians who claim to care about human rights are in reality biased individuals who think their membership to a political party allows them to say whatever they may please.

Here you have Bartlett's update to his own post:

In a nice example of just how fraught it can be making any sort of comment on this sort of thing, I’ve discovered that the above remarks of mine have got me labelled as “Basquephobe of the week” by a blogger who campaigns for Basque independence. I guess it gives me another award to add to CV of achievements, although I must say I don’t know anywhere near enough about the situation in the Basque region to have an informed opinion on the issue (or even an uninformed one).

Leaving aside this blogger’s not-so-minor error of labelling me as a US politician - thus giving the writer a seriously wrong-headed excuse to bash US politicians - it is interesting how what I thought was a determinedly neutral piece can immediately be seen as vehemently anti-something (in this case anti-Basque). It seems that merely using the term “Basque separatists” is enough to place one in the category of ‘Basquephobe’, which is something I should remember if I’m ever going to mention that topic again. Seeing I have dipped back into this post to add this update, I may as well add for the record that my personal view on Kosovo is that it did seem unnecessarily quick for Australia to announce formal diplomatic recognition, although I imagine the eventual end outcome of an independent nation will be much the same, regardless.

First he belches out this sentence:

"No doubt Spain’s opposition is in part based on concerns about Basque separatists within their own state."

Then he says that he knows not "enough about the situation in the Basque region".

So, how is it there is no doubt on his mind that Spain's opposition to the diplomatic recognition of Kosovo has anything to do with the Basques? How can he be so sure that the inhabitants of a "region" he knows nothing about are to blame for Spain's decisions over Kosovo's independence declaration?

Then there is the fact that he keeps on labeling the Basque Country as a "region" despite having called Taiwan a "self-governing and autonomous country".

When you bestow upon the Taiwanese the very same right that you deny to the Basques then you are discriminating, period. And when you discriminate an entire people without even having the must basic information about their history and political struggle then you are biased against them for some obscure reason.

When you speak against the Basques without having consistent information about them you become a Basque-phobe, just like speaking against the Jewish makes you into an anti-Semite.

And then there is the issue of what the Australians did to the Aboriginals which got the Australian government to apologize not too long ago.

I rest my case.

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