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Finally: the ultimate proof that Darwin’s theory of evolution is fake is here! Marian Kowalski, one of the leaders of Polish extreme right and former presidential candidate explained during meeting with Polish diaspora in Kanada, that if it was true, then people would have two livers by now, as the alcohol has been discovered ages ago. If that has not convinced you yet, then how would you explain the fact, that ugly woodlices, that nobody likes or needs survived while the perfect and beautiful dinosaurs are gone? In your face, Darwinists!
To his surprise, his venture into the field of biology was not met with understanding, even on the right, and he was ridiculed by nearly everyone, regardless of their political views. Some suspect, that it might be true that Marian Kowalski is indeed not a distant descendant of a monkey, as it is more likely to be other way round, but let’s not go there, focusing rather on what the intellectuals have to say. Because the Polish right would not be themselves, if they did not tried to gain something for the church: popular publicist Rafał Ziemkiewicz for example shared another truth: believe or not, Darwin is not an author of Theory of Evolution. It was allegedly present in teachings of the Catholic Church as early as in XVI century, as how otherwise it could be explained that Noe managed to fit all the animals that populated the Earth as we know today into his small ark? According to Ziemkiewicz, while Darwin has some scientific merits when it comes to explaining the particulars of this theory, in the wider picture he spoiled it, by removing the God and replacing him with Science. Long story short, it has led to wars and mass homicides, that shaked the Earth for the most of XIX and XX centuries…
See, again, Catholic Church is a major force of progress and bastion of civilization. Therefore we should learn from Darwin’s mistake and should not let some “leftist, pseudoecological ideologies to force their message on us”, as minister of environment Jan Szyszko was so keen to explain. In his opinion, instead of reaching the international agreement on the methods of protecting environment, every country should be allowed to do as it wishes. Allegedly, this is what pope Francis said in his encyclical “Laudato si”. And the view popular on liberal West, that human activity is the biggest threat to nature, is incompatible with Polish tradition. Here, the natural resources should be used for the good of the people, as God said to man “fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” and so on (Genesis, 1.29 and following).
His favourite are amongst the first to realise this philosophy. They are proud of their traditions, and therefore a rite for the new members of the hunting community is to be baptised by making a cross on their forehead with the blood of the first animal they’ve killed. OK, sometimes the hunters get a bit carried away and it will end in covering the whole man’s head in blood in the accompaniment of vulgar language and rough jokes (this awful movie can be seen here) but is it really such a big deal? After all, those brave man save their fatherland from the epidemics of pig disease that has been brought to Poland from the East by wild boars. Call me strange if you wish, but if the reason of killing the animal was the fact, that it might be infested with dangerous disease, it would be yet another reason for me to do NOT have its blood placed all over my face, but what do I know about hunting…
What I do know, though, that it is told to be a fair fight between human and animal. This is why Polish hunters are now allowed to use night vision devices on their rifles. After all they are hunting a highly intelligent, dangerous species from outer space that have superior technical equipment and armour that allows them to survive even heavy machine gun firing. Or, wait a minute, no, I got it wrong again. This was that old movie with Arnold Schwarzeneger, The Predator or something. Polish hunters shoot deers, foxes, ducks and wild boars… So I don’t know, perhaps it is just indeed just about merciless killing?
Anyway, that issue is soon to become a thing of the past. At the current rate, soon there will be no forests to hunt animals in. This is why environmental activists have picketed headquarters of State Forests. They demanded that director of this institution would come to them and discuss the matter of extensive logging in Białowieża forest and other environmentally valuable areas. Instead, he reported them for the police for that they violate his domestic peace (“Naruszenie miru domowego”). Yes, they came with this absurd charge again, despite that last time it was completely shredded in the court. This time it was clear that this is only a pretext to bully activists, as they were kept in police vehicles for hours and driven around for no apparent purpose, then kept overnight in the police station without being given food or even water to drink. Some of the detained report that they were not even allowed to use the toilet. Meanwhile police raided their homes, asking question such like if detained have been receiving psychiatric treatment. When flatmates of one of the activists asked police if they have right to burst into their doors without a warrant, the police laughed into their faces saying that “they were watching too much American movies”.
And why would even anyone want to watch some American movies, if everything in Poland is going so great? Another of the long line of never ending successes prompted one of the reporters of TVP info to make a quick survey amongst politicians, asking them, what the biggest success of the current government is? He picked both well known faces and some obscure backbenchers, and yet everyone’s response was pretty uniform, they were mostly praising a flagship project of child benefits. And no wonder, if we realise the party affiliation of the interviewed MP’s: in order of appearance they were from PiS, PiS, PiS, PiS, PiS, PiS, PiS and PiS.
And it was only president Duda, that spoils the fun for everyone. According to the same station, today, on the Independence Day he said:
“On the eve of 100th anniversary of regaining independence, free, sovereign Poland is DEAD”.
Po 30 minutach …… pic.twitter.com/wUcWAzs5wQ
— RADEK (@RadekRadek_) 11 listopada 2017
And even though after 30 minutes someone finally spotted the spelling mistake and added missing “ch”, changing the message to “Long live free, sovereign Poland on the eve of 100th Anniversary of regaining independence”, I still believe that the former message was true. Just look at him, writhing like a schoolboy in head teacher’s office while being grilled on the live TV by its director, father Tadeusz Rydzyk himself:
No wonder that after such humiliation president Duda had to let it out on someone, and so president of the EU Council Donald Tusk, invited by him to take part in the official celebration of the independence day, was given a seat somewhere in the third row. Tusk was also booed while placing flowers at the grave of the unknown soldier in Warsaw – this had filled many right wingers with joy.
Some other guests could count of much warmer welcome. Amongst them, Roberto Fiore, a proud fascist from Italian party Forza Nouva, Milan Mazurek of Kotleba – Ľudová strana Naše Slovensko – both of them attended the main event in Warsaw. In Wrocław the honourable guest of the Nationalist rally was Jayda Fransen of Britain First, praised as a “hero who has courage to fight islamist paedophilia” by a former priest and radical nationalist Jacek Międlar (the one, who was kicked out of UK as hate preacher). The rally in Wrocław was organized by a fascist Piort Rybak, who was sentenced to a jail term for burning an effigy of a Jew during one of earlier marches, but then his sentence, allegedly after intervention from the ministry run by Zbigniew Ziobro, was changed and now he has to wear an ankle monitor and return home after a curfew hour:
The participants of the rally managed to carry their message pretty loud. One could hear calls such as “kill all the fags”, “fuck citizens!” (Citizens of the Republic of Poland – Obywatele RP – is an active opposition movement), “get the fuck out of here, commies!” etc. One of popular slogans is also a rhyme “Raz sierpem, raz młotem, czerwoną hołotę” which can be translated as “hit the reds with sickle, and repeat with hammer”. They attacked counter-manifestation and also the media, one of the journalist was chased by a youths shouting “burn that bitch!”.
According to Jarosław Kaczyński, Poland owes its patriotic revival to his late brother Lech. This is of course a lie, as it is not that there were no patriots before Lech Kaczyński’s presidency, but there is a grain of truth in this statement. Poland owes this particular kind of “patriotism” that we can observe today to one Kaczyński for sure – my very first piece for Britske Listy (here in English) was on that very subject. The problem is, that what they call patriotism, is known in the rest of civilised word as fascism. And it is now being openly supported by the state. In Warsaw some 45 anti-fascist activists from Obywatele RP were detained by the police on their way to the protest. Police was about to accuse them of spreading fascist ideology, as they were carrying a banner depicting Nazi soldiers and members of ONR, radical fascist organization of today with a message “SHAME ON WARSAW”. This charge was dropped after Obywatele RP lawyers managed to explain the absurdity of the situation to the officers.
Meanwhile things such as omnipresent symbols of white power, nationalists praising Ku Klux Klan, National Socialism and shouting “Sieg Heil” were overlooked by the police, just as the widespread use of pyrotechnical flares, which is against the law on public events due to health and safety reasons. And this is actually a valid concern, several people had to be treated for burns.
Hymn. #11listopada #ŚwiętoNiepodległości #MarszNiepodległości pic.twitter.com/Bp6zmRstzu
— Agnieszka Zaręba (@pressagnes) 11 listopada 2017
All that with a full support of the church. One of the Obywatele RP activist participated in a holy mass, during which the priest was praising nationalist and fascist organization. She could not stand it any more, so she took out a banner she had prepared for the protest she planned to attend later: it has a quote from pope John Paul II on it: “Racism is a sin, which is a great insult to God”. She was then brutally kicked out the church and several skinheads followed her until she mixed into a group of tourists. The priest completely ignored the situation.
Minister of Interior Mariusz Błaszczak lied to media, that the celebrations were peaceful and safe as never, and “everyone was allowed to demonstrate”. When questioned about the facts by a journalist from a biggest Polish weekly “Polityka”, he accused him of “taking a role of quarrelsome politician” and “speaking from particular ideological position”. He said, that banners carried by nationalists, such as “Europe only white” can indeed be interpreted in different ways, but this fact only proves that there is freedom in Poland. He had not seen any controversial slogans during the main march, although according to him fascist slogans were present on the anti-fascist manifestation. Well, apparently the government message is perfectly in line with radical nationalists and fascist, as can be observed here when a women being detained by the police for participating in anti-fascist protest hears from the officer “sit down, bitch”.
This year slogan of “March of independence” was “We want God”. There is a certain irony in those words when we remember words of Pope Francis who said to refugees “Everyone of you, knocking to our doors, has the face of God”… Some try to seek the bright side of it, arguing that this annual event acts as a safety valve for Polish extreme right, and after shouting and feeling strong, nationalists just get back home to their everyday lives. But I am not convinced with that, as if the pressure is so big that it needs a safety valve on such scale, the problem is really serious.
Poland today is divided as never before, and the best commentary is this poster by a famous graphic designer Andrzej Pągowski:
This piece was published in Britske Listy
Picture: royalty free via Pixabay
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