(I wrote this email to Professor Paul Craig Roberts on 7/17/2019 and received no reply. Below is the exact text of the letter except for a small amount of line editing. Anybody who feels broadly the same way I do about this issue is more than welcome to mirror this letter on their website.)
Professor Roberts:
I have followed your work for close to a decade and I feel that I have learned a lot from you over the years. However, over the last few years or so, I feel that your writing has become increasingly tendentious, and principally for that reason, I do not follow it as closely as I used to.
A few days ago, I was looking through your recent blog posts, trying to catch up a bit, and I was struck by a rather strange aspect of them. Finally, I thought to bring it up with you and see what explanation you would offer. Here is the central issue:
First of all, you seem (as always) to have a very strong understanding that the “Muslims as terrorists” meme is a hoax. Obviously, 9/11 is the centerpiece of that, but every other major terrorist attack attributed to Muslims also seems to be some sort of false flag or hoax. On that issue, you have consistently been a strong voice on the side of truth. In that vein, I see this recent post and this one.
However, you do not have a corresponding grasp that the “Muslims as rapists” meme that they (broadly the same people surely) rolled out afterwards. If sites like Breitbart and Infowars and the rest are to be believed (they aren’t!) women in Germany and Sweden cannot walk down the street nowadays for fear of these “Muslim savages” raping them.
Meanwhile, the official crime statistics are available for Germany, for example, and it seems that crime levels in Germany are currently at multi-decade lows. Well, one has to choose whom to believe, I guess. Either the appropriate ministry of the German government is telling the truth or Breitbart and the rest of Islamophobia Inc. are. Ergo, either articles such as the following are broadly true:
Germany’s crime rate fell to lowest level in decades in 2018
Crime in Germany at lowest level since reunification
Or these ones are:
Who is to blame for the rape epidemic that is sweeping across Europe?
Don’t Let Merkel’s Rape Crisis Happen Here
Now, it seems quite obvious to me that it is the German and Swedish governments that are, at least broadly speaking, the ones telling the truth. However, judging from this recent blog post or this one, you have drawn the opposite conclusion.
Well, I think you really do need to rethink this. For starters, maybe you should consider the following question:
Would you expect recently arrived refugees to Europe, who have gotten to Germany (or Sweden or wherever) at great risk and expense to have a high crime rate?
I mean, seriously, just think about that. It seems just to be common sense to me that people who have recently arrived and applied for asylum would have quite a low crime rate for the obvious reason that they do not want to mess up their chances of being allowed to remain in the country.
A couple of years ago, I mentioned this whole narrative of the “Muslim rape epidemic” to a Spanish friend of mine, who actually is half German. His mother is German and he grew up speaking German with her at home. He told me later that he had broached the topic to various Germans he had met, people holidaying in Spain, who lived in various parts of Germany. According to my friend, these people invariably just looked at him like he was crazy. They assured him that their cities or towns in Germany were completely safe, as always, and had never heard of any such “rape epidemic”. In short, they really just did not know what on earth he was talking about!
Well, hey, what do they know? They just live in Germany!
Obviously, to know that there is a rape epidemic going on in Germany, you have to read Breitbart and Infowars and other publications in that vein.
But, seriously, I am pretty certain that the German and Swedish governments are simply telling the truth when they say that this “Muslim rape epidemic” narrative is a fiction. It is consistent with other observed reality. Have you heard of the U.S. State Department warning Americans not to travel to Germany or Sweden because there is a “Muslim rape epidemic” taking place there? I haven’t. I know people who go to Germany quite regularly on business and such, and know the country quite well, and nobody has ever expressed the slightest concern about running into any “Muslim rape gangs”. The whole problem only seems to exist in a certain sort of wing-nut echo chamber.
Well, finally, I don’t know how to sugar-coat this, Professor Roberts. It is really quite clear that you have been had. This whole “Muslims as rapists” problem is just a hoax really, just like the “Muslims as terrorists” narrative is.
Now, in closing, I do have to make one point, which, given your background in statistical inference and such, should be easy for you to grasp.
I am NOT saying that no refugees have ever committed a crime. When you have a group comprising hundreds of thousands or millions of people, obviously, some of those people commit crimes. If you took a million random white Germans or Swedes, a few would be criminals. So, by this sort of law of large numbers, it stands to reason that there are a few genuine cases. However, it is also striking how many of these things, on examination, turn out to be hoaxes.
For example, the notorious case of the 13 year old girl who was kidnapped and gang raped by whatever “Muslim savages” turned out to be a hoax. See: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/31/teenage-girl-made-up-migrant-claim-that-caused-uproar-in-germany
In one of your recent blog posts, you write:
When young white girls 10 years old are gang-raped by the migrants, it is “racist” to complain.
You did not provide a link, but I had to think it was that (now debunked) case of the 13-year-old girl who pretty clearly made up the story. Interestingly, somehow a few years were shaved off the girl’s age and it is now a 10-year-old girl who got gang-raped… Whatever… It does not seem to have happened.
The most notorious case reported from Cologne 2015 New Year’s Eve later turned out to be a hoax. See: https://www.rt.com/news/353911-cologne-woman-rape-allegations/
Regardless, the above two stories were all over the place for a good while. As best I understand from systematically researching it, it is very dubious that anything really happened on that New Year’s Eve in Cologne. It was basically a bunch of random stuff that happens on any significant public festivals in major German cities — New Year’s Eve, Carnival, Oktoberfest, and such. And the typical stuff that happens during such public festivals was blown up into some big story, and tied into all this synthetic hysteria about Muslim refugees raping women all over the place.
I have a distinct memory that I wrote you about this issue before. And I distinctly remember writing you to tell you that the story you mirror here did not happen. It is an absolute certainty that this is a made-up story. In fact, I contributed an article on the Unz Review in which I shared my findings on that.
But, in closing, to get back to the main point, I feel compelled to ask you:
Why is it that you are able to see through the “Muslims as terrorists” nonsense yet are seemingly helpless against the “Muslims as rapists” propaganda?
It is a crucial question because, quite frankly, I am pretty certain that you do huge damage to your own credibility this way, in particular by repeating these kinds of malicious stories without proper fact checking. In my own case, I can certainly say that this problem has caused me to largely stop reading your blog. I doubt that I am the only such case.
Best Regards and Greetings from Spain,
Jonathan Revusky
P.S. Now, finally, I spent a certain amount of time composing this message to you and I would appreciate acknowledgement that you received it and read it. If there is no acknowledgment of it, I guess what I’ll do is that I’ll just put up this letter on my website (or perhaps a more polished version of the text) and point out that you never did acknowledge it, and then anybody can draw whatever conclusion they want from that.
P.P.S. I likely will post it in any case, but I feel you should be given a right to react beforehand.
Obviously, DC Dave finds truth and value in this letter by Jonathan Revusky to Paul Craig Roberts.
I do not.
The reasoning is flawed and is more like a set-up. It was so full of common logic fallacies that I could not read much beyond the first few paragraphs.
It is fine to negatively criticize Paul Craig Roberts’ work, and I think I could supply some very strong points of argumentation regarding Roberts’ 9-11 work.
Unfortunately, tendentiousness rules when criticizing coverage of major false events.
If you’re going to claim that I (or actually, anybody else) is engaging in logical fallacies, then you must state what those logical fallacies are.
I believe the Thomas Sowell line about what he used to write in red on students’ papers is called for here, “Specify, don’t characterize.”
I am sorry but I just do not have time to point out the faulty reasoning but no one else seems to notice it so maybe Mr. Roberts won’t either.
Mr. Revusky makes the case for the crime rate to not only not increasing with the huge influx of Muslims but that the crime rate is actually going down and that these Muslims are on their best behavior in order to secure their future status in Europe.
Are we to think that the several other European countries complaining about the behavior on the “immigrants” are just terribly confused?
The same people who are flooding the USA with many people with criminal records from many countries including many from the Muslim countries are the same people who are flooding Europe with the same kind of people.
The orchestrators and drivers own the driven and they own or almost own the destination countries, and they have no need to drive their own because their own are already their ruining the destination countries in a myriad of ways.
Christians appear only able to play the “choose the chosen or choose the “islamofascists” game. Christians are the only ones who can fast and pray to the One True God to defeat the evil one who is the main orchestrator of this evil plan.
To me, this qualifies as an obvious lie and and there is zero tolerance for liars here. I suspended all your posting privileges for a 2 week period. If you come back at that point and start lying some more, I will simply delete your account.
On a positive note, I received this response from “CAB,” who seems to be having difficulty logging onto Heresy Central:
Wow, this was a fabulous article, first thing I’ve seen like this, and I totally believe it. I was always skeptical about the reports of the gang rapes in Germany. Yeah, sure. They don’t do that back home, so they surely are not going to do it in a place that is giving them sanctuary when they have no options at all otherwise. The Muslim people are the most spiritual people on the planet. They walk in the total fear and reverence of God every day of their lives. It is their culture. Everybody knows that. Far as I know, they don’t have prisons in the Muslim countries – or nursing homes, or mental hospitals. I have never read this, but this is what I assume. The Muslim people are very orderly and tied in with their family life and their religion and their countrymen. The stories of the torture of Muslims turned Christian I can believe – because to a Muslim to go against your religion and your traditions as a Muslim is the height of evil. That’s exactly why I believe and would be willing to bet that Muslim nations don’t have nursing homes, prisons, or mental hospitals. Well, maybe Saudi Arabia does, because they are aligned with the Banksters and the U.S.
I do love and admire the Muslim people. When I watched the 8 hour series called The Arrivals, done by a gifted Muslim filmmaker, that’s when I got a real insight into the heart of the Muslims. They are holy people, no other word for it. They are full of love and worship and gratitude to their Maker, appreciate God’s Creation and are thankful. They are humble people. They are forgiving and good natured, cheerful people also. These are all the charter qualities God is looking for in the Bible, and mentions them also as what He is looking for. I think Heaven will be crowded with Muslims!
The other thing I noticed in The Arrivals is the dread and avoidance of decadence. There may be a morbid curiosity, but in the end their moral upbringing will win out. I also learned from that film (8 hours) that they are really into the Virgin Mary, and their own Koran (which I DON’T believe in the Koran) states that Baby Jesus was conceived by the Word of God. Muslims exalt Mary almost to the same degree that the Catholics do (which I do NOT AGREE WITH THAT!) … but they love her and honor her, but do not pray to her or worship her. They also do believe the Bible, but they put the Koran over the Bible and if there is a contradiction they go with the Koran. The story of Mary and Jesus they tell in the Koran that Mary went into the dessert alone to have Baby Jesus and that God came to Mary and gave her water (per Hagar story with Ishmael, so they kind of blended those two stories) … and that Mary asked God, “What can I do when I go back to my village and the men will kill me because I have no husband?” And God told her, “Let the child speak for you.” So the Koran states (according to The Arrivals) that when Mary came back to the village with her baby, that the men were furious with her and demanded to know how she had a baby! Baby Jesus spoke up and said, Leave her alone, God is with her,” or something to that effect. Arrivals says that all the men fell backwards, and then got up and ran away.
Evidence suggests that back in 2000 in Sydney, alleged serial gang rape crimes by Lebanese Australians of which a huge amount of fuss was made in the media were fake.
“Jessica’s” story as reported by A Current Affair doesn’t add up.
She mentions in a TV interview that the guys had access to the change room and she didn’t know how it was open for them to have access. Yes, one does wonder - how did they when that change room would have been owned by council or some other public institution and would normally be locked? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWPx3E9bE6c And isn’t this an awfully public place for a rape to continue for hours with people outside cheering the raping on inside?
Really? A woman enters the police station with this horrific story and they police say “Oh, we’ve got another one”? When they say they’ve got another one, one might infer they’re familiar with this gang … if so, why haven’t they already acted.
Further down:
But she did report it so how can she regret she didn’t say anything. Also, her manner in recounting her horrific experience isn’t convincing.
Well, there are so many of these dubious things, of course.
Of course, there surely are genuine cases of women being raped. On the other hand, this idea being put out there that women are being raped en masse in Western countries and there is a rape culture and all this… well… This is big on the so-called “Alt Right”, this whole story that there is some “rape epidemic” taking place in European countries like Germany or Sweden.
It’s a delicate matter because obviously there are genuine rapes. But, I am also quite sure that there are genuine cases of women, for whatever reasons, falsely claiming they were raped. This concept that any female simply must be believed in the absolute absence of any hard evidence – well, I hope you agree that this is a very dangerous idea.
Out of curiosity, did you read my Tale of Two Hoaxes piece?