Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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Notes -
Last night, there was a "stabbing attack" in Belfast.
The reason for the scare quotes is that video footage of the assault is circulating on social media, and "stabbing attack" must be the understatement of the decade. The attacker straddles his victim, stabs him in his eyes and then attempts to saw his entire head off with a blade. Thankfully, some brave good Samaritans intervened and tackled him before he could finish the job.
The attacker is Sudanese. The BBC is reporting that he migrated to Belfast from Dublin and was granted leave to stay in Northern Ireland. Less than twenty-four hours after the attack, politicians in Northern Ireland were already calling for "tensions not to be raised" in response, and insisting that no ethnicity or race has a monopoly on violence. Commenters in /r/ireland seem more concerned about Protestants rioting than they are about the victim of the stabbing, who will probably never be able to see again on top of his various other injuries.
The attack, the diligent but futile attempts to suppress the identity characteristics of the perpetrator, the criticisms of the people drawing entirely reasonable conclusions from the attack, the naked emotional appeals and guilt-tripping – all as tiresomely predictable as the tides. I feel like I'm in Groundhog Day.
I'm genuinely so fucking sick of this.
Seeing how fast this story escaped containment I think Starmer/the government's internet censorship focus is more rational than I gave it credit for. I found the video immediately. Just insane stuff.
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