It is interesting that you write about these things that happened to Poland as very real and significant, whereas in an earlier exchange you said, "All nations are social constructs. Period." The usual view in philosophy is that either you are given an access to reality through your individual experience (this is empiricism), or reality is "socially constructed", in which case there are many different, equally valid (or invalid) realities. The philosopher who worked out how social constructs can be objectively true was Hegel. So I would suggest that you look at him more carefully than you have up until now. That would allow you to view the experiences of Poland as objectively true, while still being social constructs.

I might as well mention at this point that both my parents are Russian and were born in Russia soon after the revolution, although they grew up outside the Soviet Union.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns

btw, how much of this sort of stuff do you get in Hungary?

I'm not sure I understand the question -- do you mean to I hear of the Polish troubles in the local media, is there open anti-semitism in the media, or far-right-media--mainstream right collusion?

For the first, the answer would be yes, but not much -- the Archbishop issue was all over the news, but not too deeply.

For the second, yes there is, but the local little Goebbelses use a more veiled and less often religious language, and have a much more self-contradictory worldview, especially in terms of anti-semitism. Recently I talked to my brother who also knows some far-right types from work, and got similar impressions of a schisophrenic state of mind: these guys constantly talk about Israel (as if it were a domestic issue) and always note the Jewishness of an evil liberal media personality or Soros et al, but also proclaim that anti-semitism is a liberal slur on them and they have 'their' Jews.

Yes, far-right (even anti-semitic) Jews. Including one of the most notorious little Goebbelses, and there is also that interesting guy who was born to a Hungarian Jewish communist emigrée in South America, lived through the Pinochet coup and returned home then, where he volunteered to the secret service, met Carlos the Jackal here, got disillusioned when seeing what happens in Yugoslavia and became a mercenary for the Croats, later sought Jewish roots in Israel but found the I/P conflict, then came back to Hungary to become a speaker on Israel at meetings of the MIÉP party...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

That it has come in use after the end of the cold war suggest to me that the term (and its counterpart) are acknowledgements of the "American Empire" with the question of if you are for or against it.

I think someone accused of being "anti-american" should defend themselves with explaining that they are anti-liechtensteinian. That all there actions are determined by their hatred for everything from Liechtenstein and that their single-minded purpose is to crush that nation and everything it stands for. If delivered the right way it should expose the underpinnings of the term "anti-american" (and thus also "pro-american"). (If one lives in say Austria, Switzerland or Liechtenstein one might want to choose Andorra instead.)

</rant>

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