Does anyone know what the following equation represents?:
WP + SIOE = 573,710
Well, that’s the traffic volume you get when you combine the free WordPress blogging platform with the charming Stop the Islamisation of Europe group – it translates into 573k+ hits in the space of a couple of weeks.
The SIOE have leapt to relative fame as the new ‘blackshirts’, as the press reported the recent comments of Communities and Local Government John Denham. The SIOE, of course, are completely guiltless of provoking violence at recent ‘anti-Islamisation’ demonstrations, and reject ‘Dhimmi’ Denham’s criticisms of the SIOE and their ilk. (For the record, Denham did not give the SIOE the credit of being even remotely as savvy or dangerous as Mosley’s 1930s bootboys.) The SIOE are also totally politically confused, and will undoubtedly disappear up their own behinds before too long, as most right-wing anti-everything groups tend to do.
In the meantime, though, they are milking the opportunity afforded them by the combination of a free blogging platform, the ‘oxygen of publicity’, and the accessibility provided by Google. Half-a-million hits is fair going for any bunch of part-time loonies, and the SIOE must be lapping up the attention. I’m not going to link to anything in this post – far be it from me to give the SIOE any more hits; you can Google them if you like.
And since the SIOE are probably chronic self-Googlers, if they happen to end up on this site, I’d just like to say, “no, I don’t think for a second that your blog should be banned.” In fact, I think it’s great that we can all read your public discussions about the crimes of selling ‘ethnic clothes’ in supermarkets (I kid ye not), how left-wing the British National Party are, and how Benjamin Zephaniah supports “Nazislamists who want to install sharia law with it hanging of homosexuals, stoning of women and paedophilia.” [sic] The mind boggles.
All good stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. With the likes of ‘F*** Mohammad’ and ‘Anglo Saxon’ beefing up the supporting cast of commenting bigots, the SIOE site is a real joy to surf. I appreciate that this is far from an academic analysis of the impact and influence of a group like SIOE, but really – how can anyone take them in earnest? As Oscar Wilde is alleged to have said, “It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously.”