It seems that terrorism in the age of information has deployed a new and interesting type of bomb: the explosion occurs in a place and time – reality, even – vastly different from the one where the actual violence took place. The blast wave does not travel in a sensible physics-based trajectory either; as it happens, it seems quite capable of vanishing without a trace only to suddenly reappear in force in a location that no perceivable reason would point to.
By way of explanation: the German President’s reaction was an urging for peace: “The hatred of those who committed this crime shall not lead to hatred on our side.”
When it comes to giving condolences, the Czech President, Miloš Zeman, and his sock puppet PR, Jiří Ovčáček, just love to express their support for mourning states – they are such softies that they even send condolences to the dictators of countries that they’d most likely have problems finding on a map. So when a major terrorist attack hits one of our neighbors, one – at least someone sufficiently naïve enough to expect some degree of civilized behavior from their President – could reasonably expect the utterance of a few choice words; after all, dignified sorrow tends to go down very well with the voters. Alas, that was not meant to be. “Regarding the terrible crime that took place in Berlin, the President can only regret that his repeated warnings about the risks of terrorism have come true,” stated Ovčáček, who has apparently become a hybrid between a prophet of inevitable doom and an advertising agent. He even proceeded to become a forensic expert by adding, “The perpetrator being a refugee just reinforces the President’s stance: no refugees shall set foot on Czech territory.” Wait, what? [...]
His mistake is symptomatic of the atmosphere of today, which is saturated and perpetuated by the media. It turns out that nationality and religion are now valid replacements for the motive of a crime. For contrast, let us take a look at another crime that took place on that day: the shooting in Zurich, where the police went out of their way to confirm that the suspect “is Swiss and we don’t know anything about the motives”. Yet for the Czech Government, the information received that the Berlin suspect was Pakistani was quite enough to judge, condemn and triumphantly announce his capture. One rather suspects that if it were an option, Chovanec would jump at the opportunity to display the suspect’s head mounted over his mantelpiece, or, more traditionally, on a pike; after all, the presumption of guilt is such a quaint medieval tradition.
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