The xenophobic movement Heimssyn is now exporting its propaganda abroad. EU Times published what seemed to be an article written by someone claiming to be a credible journalist who had been misinformed by the propaganda coming from Iceland.
I replied in the comment section, thinking there was a foreign journalist that needed some background on the real state of affairs. Silly me. Of course this mad post originated from a conservative talking head and pen for hire Hjortur J. Gudmundsson of Heimssyn and Morgunbladid.
Propaganda machines usually attach contradictory names to their ventures. Christian extremists in the US usually try to attach some sort of “family” tag to their organizations like Focus on the Family which is focused on siphoning cash from the weak and ignorant . Heimssyn’s name indicates a “worldly vision” to mask the xenophobic, isolationist and conservative focus the movement has on preserving a corrupt political system where nepotism and state-sponsored oligarchy is the goal, as long as it is the Independence Party which is allowed to divide and conquer and the rural factions of other parties are happy with their crumbs from the table.
Another word in Icelandic which is often attached to Heimssyn in Icelandic conversation is “heimska”. Heimska literally means stupid but also indicates that those it is attributed to approach the world and its challenges from a very narrow viewpoint of their own home (heimili). So Heimsksyn (Stupid Vision) is a more apt name for an organization which consistently misinforms and misleads the Icelandic public on issues related to the EU.
Why do they spend the time and the effort? Because they are part of social cliques who thrive in the corruption and nepotism which only small societies and small minds can produce. By participating they gain positions and a sense of belonging on the behalf of those who pay the way, be it the fisheries or agriculture powers who have pawned the fish in the sea to purchase businesses and media through which they can assert their will.
A typical effort by Heimssyn might involve bringing crackpots like Daniel Hannah to Reykjavik to lecture on EU affairs. Then Morgunbladid reports on his lecture as if a leading voice from the EU is warning Icelanders about the evils of the union. It might be followed up with a fawning interview and an op-ed by the editor in chief and other former ministers or editors from failed former governments and bankrupt businesses still acting as if they had any credibility left. Then the conservative blog-jerk-circle takes over. Yes, you do have to shower afterwards.
Here is the outstandingly stupid article and my comments below. It turns out it was originally published in the Brussels Journal, The Voice of Conservatism in Europe.
To anyone wondering about Iceland from abroad, do not take their bait. Too many Icelanders all too ignorantly do.
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icelandbob
1 year ago
Well done there HAHAHAHA!!
and you’re right, Icelandic media has done this before. A two bit hack does a piece about Iceland with no research, or a fringe crackpot comes to iceland to talk nonsense to other idiots and it’s heralded as the second coming!
I still cringe at the the first time i really saw this in action, when restaurant & TV critic for the Times, AA Gill, did a puff travel piece on Iceland after the terror laws fiasco in 2008. Nevermind that he barely left 101 , never spoke to anyone affected by the crisis, and was all “fire & Ice” and other such nonsense about the hard-working, clever Icelanders, Frettablaðið said it was a brilliant detailed expose! Must have been reading something different that day….