"Ian Fleming’s Bond was grotesquely, unstintingly racist"

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Silly bitch. There are other takes on the British Empire. John McTernan's for instance:

Quote :

I still remember a meeting with the Singaporean Defence Minister which he started by thanking Britain for its legacy to his country. “What’s that?” we asked. “English, and the rule of law.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/Jeremy_Corbyn/11844972/The-Corbyn-doctrine-on-war-is-a-betrayal-of-what-makes-Britain-great.html

I just recently learned that Taylor Swift's new music video is 'racist' and 'colonialist' because it portrays white actors shooting a film in Africa circa 1950. It's apparently colonialist despite the Yanks not owning any colonies in Africa. But anyway, it's symptomatic of the way the likes of Sarah Diddums and Twatter SJWs have stripped the word 'racism' of any meaning and created a totalitarian environment where people can lose careers and livelihoods if they express opinions inconsistent with the prevailing orthodoxy on multiculturalism. Ian Fleming never harmed anyone outside of the war but some would have us believe that he's one rung below Hitler because there were a couple of not-so-nice African-Americans and Koreans in his books.

Also perhaps one should keep in mind that Bond is not a traveling salesman. He's not sitting behind a desk in London, having a wank whilst thinking "Fuck, I hate Mexicans," rather he finds himself in high pressure situations where he could easily be killed. You can forgive him for having internal thoughts that are less than flattering to the individuals poised to murder him.

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Yes, not destabilising regimes and creating power vacuums for Islamists to step into is a good start. The idea that more Western interference would have prevented the rise of ISIS and the subsequent migration problem is ludicrous. Though, ironically, now that the genie is out of the bottle, you will need Western intervention to push back against ISIS and secure ports in the Middle East and North Africa against people smuggling ventures. One clusterfuck begats another.

CJB wrote:

Koreans in his books.

Fleming's comments on Koreans are the most overtly racist of his writings, but even they were made not long after nearly 100,000 British troops had been fighting in Korea on behalf of the UN (at least 1000 Britons were killed and countless others wounded). Ian's Fleming's best friend Noel Coward gets a free pass for writing 'Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans' in similar circumstances, possibly because he was homosexual, the left's equivalent of a Get Out of Jail Free card:

Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
When our victory is ultimately won,
It was just those nasty Nazis who persuaded them to fight
And their Beethoven and Bach are really far worse than their bite
Let's be meek to them
And turn the other cheek to them
And try to bring out their latent sense of fun.
Let's give them full air parity
And treat the rats with charity,
But don't let's be beastly to the Hun.

Little did Coward know how things would turn out.

In a similar fashion to Coward's 'free pass', I've never heard of the Pythons being given a hard time over this little ditty -




Maybe their critics actually spotted that it was satirical (or were 'spent' after the Life Of Brian furore).

CJB wrote:

I just recently learned that Taylor Swift's new music video is 'racist' and 'colonialist' because it portrays white actors shooting a film in Africa circa 1950. It's apparently colonialist despite the Yanks not owning any colonies in Africa. But anyway, it's symptomatic of the way the likes of Sarah Diddums and Twatter SJWs have stripped the word 'racism' of any meaning and created a totalitarian environment where people can lose careers and livelihoods if they express opinions inconsistent with the prevailing orthodoxy on multiculturalism. Ian Fleming never harmed anyone outside of the war but some would have us believe that he's one rung below Hitler because there were a couple of not-so-nice African-Americans and Koreans in his books.

Swift probably earned this extra scrutiny for her latest video because of the public little tiff she had with Nicki Minaj (or however you are supposed to spell it) about some silly awards show.
That also led to accusations of racism/white privilege.

Having said that, I too think it's an odd choice to have a video supposedly set in the heart of Africa without a single black character (even in the background).
Not that I would make a big deal out of it, since it is basically just some pop stars advert for her new single.

CJB wrote:

Also perhaps one should keep in mind that Bond is not a traveling salesman. He's not sitting behind a desk in London, having a wank whilst thinking "Fuck, I hate Mexicans," rather he finds himself in high pressure situations where he could easily be killed. You can forgive him for having internal thoughts that are less than flattering to the individuals poised to murder him.

The way Fleming is perceived today is not unlike how some of the early Tintin comics are now regarded.
"Tintin in the Congo" is undeniably racist by today's standards, but it is a comic book written in 1931.
Thus at a time when such ideas would have been very much the norm, not the exception.

It was precisely because Hergé had so slavishly conformed to western ideas of faraway places that he was introduced to Zhang Chongren prior to starting his work on "The Blue Lotus".
Hence why that book holds up far more today. And is regarded as Hergé's first truly great work.

CJB wrote:

Also perhaps one should keep in mind that Bond is not a traveling salesman. He's not sitting behind a desk in London, having a wank whilst thinking "Fuck, I hate Mexicans," rather he finds himself in high pressure situations where he could easily be killed. You can forgive him for having internal thoughts that are less than flattering to the individuals poised to murder him.

Exactly. I mean who would have thought that a war veteran in the 1950's who writes about a trained killer would have an unabashed sense of patriotism and less flattering thoughts about his homeland's perceived enemies? It's unheard of for someone who's risked their life for their country to possibly feel a little attached to it and have fears about it's future. How dare Ian not have the foresight to ignore what were the societal perceptions of that era mixed with his own life experiences when writing his stories. Shame on him for instead of realizing how much of a big meanie he is in the eyes of future generations he gave the world something entertaining to read that people like me continue to enjoy until this day fully understanding his worldview was different from my own.

Cinematic Bond fucks black girls so fuck off.

Does this mean EON must cast Idris Elba and have him bonk a bevy of white women, in order to create an entirely new fan base and alienate the old?

Yes, that does sound racist and intolerant, doesn't it? Makes me sound like a middle-aged novelist clinging to the last remnants of the England of my youth, or a caucasian fan reluctant to see an established character undergo an unnecessary radical change in order to placate a minority of critical non-fans.

Cor, that sounds even worse. I'd better quit while I'm behind...