On a walk in the forest I see this sign:

It is in Catalan. I can only translate it into: “Stay close, speak Catalan”.
A bit more into my walk I see another sign:

It says in Catalan: “Don’t change the language, always in Catalan”.

If I just landed on this planet I would be a bit confused and maybe concerned?

Someone wants to enforce the Catalan language in this region.

So everyone in this region is already free to speak Catalan. But the last sign “Don’t change the language, always in Catalan” makes me think that these messages are coming out of anger at something or someone.

In fact I’ve been living in Catalonia for 15 years now and I noticed a concerning trend. At least from my own perspective. Despite people here knowing Spanish perfectly fine, at times they may only choose to speak Catalan with you, even when you try to speak Spanish with them.

When I was taking driving lessons and was in the car with other Catalan students, I would mention that I only understand Spanish and not Catalan. And yet they would only speak Catalan with themselves and the teacher. Marginalizing me. The teacher had to awkwardly translate from Catalan to Spanish for me, despite the fact that everyone in that car knew Spanish…So why not simply speak Spanish then!? For me is a no-brainer.

When you have to deal with the hospital here, they will always send you messages or print medical results or treatments into Catalan, despite you making them aware that you do not understand Catalan. A reminder that Spanish is also an official language in Catalonia.

It is so awkward to go into a shop, open the conversation in Spanish, and only be replied in Catalan. So they understand, but refuse to speak Spanish. By “they” I do not mean all, but a good chunk of the people I have interacted with. Granted I rarely interact with people. But still, this is something well known in Catalonia.

One teacher asked if there is anyone who does not understand Catalan – Sasha and 3 others said they do not – and the teacher loudly, proudly and confidently said that is his right to speak Catalan and he will do so, albeit more slowly. As if you can slow-talk Korean to me, and I will get it, despite not understanding Korean.

The final exam was, of course, in Catalan only…

This is an audio with Sasha telling the head teacher her thoughts about the entire situation (enable captions):

What is more important, enforcing your preferred language or protecting the environment? If that course was about protecting the environment, then that should be the most important, no?

I cannot imagine someone coming to Romania, where I am originally from, and I or others to refuse to speak a common language with them. To exclude and marginalize them. This is an awful situation that makes the marginalized ones hate on you and your language.

This situation in Catalonia made me think about Cancer. How cancer is basically normal cells going rogue. They work against the other cells and eventually the body. And we risk to do that among each other, which leads to a cancerous society that is going downhill.

But we cannot simply accuse some Catalans for being cunts with others. Cuntalans! Maybe we are the cunts, the outsiders?! Maybe there is a reason why they behave like that!

But the fact remains that the situation itself is cancerous. I’ve seen how “they” made me hate “them” and “their language” as a result of “their” attitude towards those who “do not speak Catalan”. And I am not the only one who feels like that. It makes us pinned against each other, just like cancerous cells damaging the body. It helps no one. If the body dies, all cells die. Even the cancer.

Let’s use the Catalan example as the sandwich buns for this analysis. The bottom piece is in place. Now let’s add the ingredients and come back to the situation in Catalonia to make sense of all of this.

FOOD and FOOTBALL

In the same sense that there are many tribes who speak the same language but have vastly different cultures, there are tribes with totally different languages, but their cultures are very similar. I was born in Romania and my friend Roma was born in Russia. Romania and Russia look so alike culturally that it is quite eerie. The buildings, food, attitudes, even the babushkas. But the languages are vastly different.

For example we call this “traditional Romanian food” as “sarmale”:

My mother always makes it for all of the important Romanian holidays. If you search online for “Romanian national holiday” plus the word “food”, you’ll see this dish as the main one. So this is a Romanian dish!

Well that’s what I thought. Turns out that Roma knows this food very well and he calls it “Голубцы”. He says it might be Russian. But Wikipedia tells me that is a traditional food from the “Ottoman cuisine”.

So basically this was the extended Ottoman empire some-many-years-ago, with what is today Romania and Russia being either part of it or under its influence:

Its official language was Ottoman Turkish, but many other languages were spoken “regionally”. So this food comes from here, from this ancient culture.

However before this empire there was another empire called the Byzantine Empire:

And before this it was the Roman empire:

I wonder if the Romans were the ones who invented the “sarmale” in the first place?!

But the fact is that this “sarmale” food is not a “thing”, but a “flavor of things”. Some “sarmale” are made with meat and rice, some just rice, some with cabbage leafs and some with grape leafs. Different condiments. Cooked differently. They differ today from tribe to tribe, and even within the same tribe. (source)

So is this “sarmale” food Romanian? Russian? No. Nothing is.

Look at the evolution of the popular Chicken Tikka Masala (Wikipedia):

Speaking of France, this is their football team:

No, this is not an African team, it is the “french” team. Most of their players have African roots. In fact when they won the World Cup in 2018, 87% of their team was made up of immigrants (them, their parents, or grandparents). And historically this has always been true for France (source).

Lastly this is how the other finalists of Euro 2024, England, would look without immigrants (source):

Overall the African immigrants were some of the best players of this Europe football competition. (source)

Keep that in mind!

LANGUAGE and NORMS

Back to the Roman Empire for a bit, I could not talk about it without mentioning the fact that the most badass language in Europe was Latin at one point! Latin was spoken almost through the entire European continent for way too many years, and yet today is a dead language. Or is it?

Have you heard of the vulgar-latin? That’s Catalan.

In other words a “vulgar”, non Latin, or “bad” Latin language. Because, of course, all languages are mixes of previous languages. We wrote a 600 pages book about the evolution of languages where we explain in detail how there is no such thing as Spanish, Catalan, English and so forth. Languages are in a constant movement and are comprised, just like those “sarmale” food, of many kinds of flavors. Catalan, French, Romanian, Italian and so forth, are languages that have evolved from Latin. And Latin evolved from other language(s).

To my Catalans readers, to put it simply, the Catalan language (and this applies for every single language) is this:

What was there before?

Some Muslims it seems with their own language and culture.

To quote Wikipedia: “From the 8th century onwards the Catalan counts extended their territory southwards and westwards at the expense of the Muslims, bringing their language with them.”

The classic way of grabbing land, kicking off the “native” people (who very likely did the same thing to others who where there before them), put fences and borders and called it their land with their own language. The story of every tribe. Spain, France, USA … Every single one.

But these are our “roots”, right? Or if we go back our roots in Europe were the Roman empire. Should we go way back? Why do we regard “our culture” as the “happenings” that have happened only for the past hundreds of years? Isn’t that an arbitrary line to draw and call it “our culture”? Especially since we know we cannot freeze that culture in time and hope to take it with us intact into the distant future.

The forces of our trade-based society with its marketing tentacles, are transforming the culture more than any dictators and philosophers do. That you should keep in mind.

Not to mention that ideas revolving around religion, family, sexual orientation, and so forth, have been changing and mutating a lot over the years. What was once prohibited in one culture has become the norm in the same culture, and vice versa. From women being allowed to vote, to gay marriage, or the separation of religion from state. In our book “Morality and Ethics” we showcase how the norms, traditions and what it was accepted as “normal” in the past, changed over millennia, from culture to culture.

Therefore any discussion about “our culture, language, traditions” should always be put under the powerful light of history in order to understand that these “things” are remixes at best, and will always be. This, I think, is crucial in order for us, humans, to be able to have relevant discussions about them, without being too emotionally entangled with them. To put everything into a historical, and realistic, perspective.

The Extreme Hypocrisy!

Of course pretty much all products in Catalonia come from abroad: food, clothes, cars, electronics. I cannot name a single product that is Catalan made. Same goes for Spain overall or any other tribe. Their phones, the apps they use, the knowledge they have, research, even media, everything either comes from outside or is remixed from outside.

Everyone knows this guy unfortunately (Trump) and how he wants to make America Great “Again”… And how he is deporting so many “illegal” immigrants, and how he makes it difficult for others to come to the USA tribe.

Here is him posing proudly with the US Physics team that won five gold medals at the 2025 International Physics Olympiad (source).

These are all children of immigrants. As you can tell.
None is a “native” American, whatever that means.

In Catalonia they provide courses for “immigrants” to learn Catalan so they can integrate into the society. We know many Moroccans who take these courses, and sometimes they can even get benefits from taking them.

In Spain is quite impossible to rent any place for long term since the owners of apartments and houses prefer to rent for tourists: short term, more money. But who are these owners? Spanish, Catalans…

Same Spaniards or Catalans would prefer to employ immigrants for a lower pay and no paperwork since it is more profitable for them. Money is a lot stronger of an influence than culture.

And the height of the hypocrisy of holding tight to your own culture and land is the fact that ALL inventions, research and human knowledge that is at the basis of any society, all of that comes from people from all around the world.

Would we have telescopes or even the modern science without the Italian Galileo Galilei? Or medicine and healthcare without the French Louis Pasteur?

The Internet, gadgets, buildings and blueprints, discoveries and experiments, are all a mush of work being done by humans from all around the world, from different tribes. So it is astonishingly hypocritical and primitive to “hold onto your own tribe, your own culture” as if you did anything for it or it belongs to a particular group of people.

Now that we understand how culture is a mix of ideas that mutate over time, let’s talk about the cancerous aspect of it because the important focus is to understand where the Cancer of Culture originates in order to be able to prevent and treat.

“cancer” is a very strong word, but is to be understood for its medical meaning: the cells of the body who mutate and work against the body itself, for their own interest. A self sabotage. Remember if the body dies because of cancer, the cancer also dies.

And culture can be just that. If we care more about our local language at the expenses of protecting the environment, that’s cancer. If we care more about our old traditions, beliefs and territories at the expenses of other humans, that’s also cancerous. It erodes the society itself. It erodes our relationships. It divides us into groups of people who only, or mostly care about their own “cultural” interests. How can this evolve into anything positive when we have a global society with global problems and common challenges? It can’t!

There are 5 main stages of cancer:

The Catalans are quite angry at the “outsiders” who do not put in the effort to learn Catalan, or care about the Catalan culture and community. They try to forcefully speak Catalan regardless if the others understand or not, and refuse to speak Spanish at times. They marginalize the outsiders and create a tense situation.

And the “outsiders” hate the Catalans and their “tribalistic” and rude attitudes. Or simply do not give a fuck about Catalonia in general, and whatever is happening there, making the locals even angrier at them.

The mix is anger, discomfort, separation, marginalization. From both sides.

However, this cannot be too much of a generalization. This is mostly happening in smaller villages from my knowledge, or very touristic regions.

Most people in Catalonia seem to be nice and decent people overall. Most will speak Spanish if you only know Spanish. My doctor even speaks English just to make it easier for me, even if is a bit harder for her. Granted she is not even from Catalonia. But she tries to speak Spanish, Catalan, and English.

However you do feel a tension between the Catalans and the rest.

You just feel it…

There are many similar situations happening all around the world, like for example in Romania, where I am originally from. There, many “romanians” regard the “roma” people, the “gypsies”, as inferior. Dirty, lazy, stupid. When I was a kid I’ve heard countless times not to play with the gypsies kids. Avoid them!

And the discrimination against them can turn ugly at times. From denying them basic care and necessities, to physical violence or rarely murder. This is a stage 1 Culture Cancer. Confirmed and localized in pockets. (source 1, 2)

Think about immigration. Watch this video closely please:

This is not just a crazy random woman in UK, she is or was part of political parties in the UK, gives speeches, has a bit of an influence over people. She is a loud voice and is not the only one thinking like that. One of her presentation was for a group called Traditional Britain Group. From their website:

With courage, pride and determination, the Traditional Britain Group says, ‘No more! The ancient traditions, peoples and beliefs of these isles are worth preserving. There is an alternative for Britain. The fight back begins now!’

Basically there are so many in the UK, and elsewhere, that strongly believe their culture is being destroyed by the immigrants.

The hatred against immigrants, and the mixing of cultures due to immigration, have led to more than just rallies and nasty words, or mild forms of violence. Both sides can and will do acts of stage 3 Culture Cancer.

In 2015 two French-born Algerian Muslim brothers armed with rifles and other weapons went in the middle of the day in France and killed 12 people.

After those cartoonists were killed, a French teacher decided to have a conversation about free speech with his students. He would do this every year, showing the cartoons that made those Muslims kill the cartoonists. In 2020 one of his students, a “muslim”, beheaded the teacher after the classes. For a cartoon… (source)

The hate against “immigrants”, the outsiders who came into “our tribes” and are now changing “our culture”, seems to be on the rise. It is spreading and it is hard to tackle. There are “leaders” of these hate groups who have massive followings, spreading the cancer rapidly and further. And this hatred can and will transform into horrific acts of violence.

Another example of stage 2-3 Culture Cancer is that of the occupation of West Bank by Israel. They have literally caged in a group of people, like you would do with livestock for consumption. (source)

On top of that some people from the Israeli tribe are forcefully taking the land from the West Bank residents, beating, mocking them, even murdering them. (source)

In fact the thumbnail of this article is a gross representation of what Culture Cancer really means:

I recommend these two documentaries to see the insane cancerous situation between Israel and the West Bank:

These are examples of a stage 2-3 Culture Cancer. It has spread significantly and it is hard to tackle. Thus it has a great influence over a population of people who can turn violent against each other.

That case of Culture Cancer left 6 million people dead just because they were “Jews” (source).

Speaking of Jews, Israel has systematically murdered, starved, and abused many tens of thousands of people in Gaza. Has destroyed hospitals, targeted doctors and journalists, refused to let food in leading to mass starvation, and overall leveled almost the entire Gaza. (source)

Such a terrible irony….

(source for the photos)

I recommend these two documentaries about the situation:

Overall from 1956 to 2016 it is estimated that around 50 million people were killed in these genocidal acts. Insane!

These are global acts of Culture Cancer, where weapons of mass destruction are used against a group of people, to destroy them.

THE CAUSES OF CULTURE CANCER

As you can see there was a lot of trauma when it comes to the people living in Catalonia.

So maybe this is the reason why some people in Catalonia are so desperate to hold onto their language and culture, and as a result marginalize the outsiders?

This past trauma has been dragged one way or another into the present. In 2017 some leaders in Catalonia decided to allow people to vote for independence from Spain. The entire thing ended up in a lot of violence, particularly from the side of the Spanish police who was deployed to basically destroy this voting initiative. I was in Catalonia at that time. I remember it was a lot of violence of that sort.

Of course people should be able to decide if they want to be independent, and not have their heads smashed by the police for trying to vote for independence, but all that considered, everyone is free to speak Catalan in Catalonia, express their cultural traditions, and so forth. The school is primarily in Catalan. Everything is in Catalan first or Catalan only. No Catalan is treated differently from a Spaniard.

So why do they want independence now?

Money? Politics? The hope that if Catalonia becomes a nation then their living standards will be higher and their culture will be more important? Their language has more chances of being preserved?

A hope for a better life if they become independent maybe?

It is hard to see how this can be the case because being an “independent” tribe is hardly doable today. Your stuff, imports and exports, media, tourism, the trade society itself, will push and pull on your language, society and culture and morph them in the process. Just like it does now. Look at the “island nation UK” who has 0 neighbors basically, is independent, is a bloody island. And yet many there complain about their culture loss, immigration, difficult living conditions, etc.. Being independent, your own tribe, is hardly a shield that can preserve your culture.

The Catalan language is quite similar to the Spanish one nowadays because they have merged in many ways. There are so many foreigners here too from the rest of Europe but also South America. Spanish is spoken by more people in Catalonia than Catalan. Catalonia is a different girl, and no one is saying she has to forget the past trauma, but she cannot come back to before the trauma. She needs to embrace her new identity.

Today is not 1939, It is almost 100 years later.

Therefore the reasons the Catalans want so badly to preserve their culture and language seem to be a mix of a past trauma combined to a belief that if they become independent their culture will have more chances to survive and their lives will get better overall – maybe they get better paid, have better regional services, etc..

But reasoning that you have to enforce your language and culture by all means, even to become an independent tribe, in order to preserve them, seems unreasonable to me. All it does is to create a cancerous situation between the Catalans and the outsiders. I can tell you from my own experience that when I hear Catalan it annoys me. And I am not the only one. It should not be like that, but I feel like all of those messages on the walls and on the trees, and all of the refusing to speak Spanish (the marginalization), make me hate on their language and culture. Unfortunately.

So how about the outsiders then? The “I” and others?

The truth is that a lot, if not most culture clashes happen because of our Trade Based Society. People are forced into migrating from one part to another on this semi-round rock. Combine that with the fact that most such humans are specialized workers who know little about the world or have no time to learn, and the mix is as good as putting 100 crying babies in one tiny room. Or 20 snakes, 30 goats, 2 lions, 23 alligators, and 14 otters. Plus 200 rats. Same room. You can even keep the crying babies there for fun.

I came to Catalonia because my parents were so poor they had to leave Romania and come work as slaves almost, in this Catalonian “paradise”. Better paid yes, but also overworked, illegal working contracts, badly treated.

When I came to Catalonia I did not care about their culture, or language. I didn’t even know they speak Catalan and not Spanish. As far as I knew, I came to Spain. I had no idea about Catalonia’s history, or Spain’s history, or anything else. I came here because of socio-economic pressures and was here to try to have a better life for myself and my family.

And we know countless people in very similar situations who came to Catalonia because of the same poverty reasons. From Europe, South America, Africa…

Is not easy to leave your family in Romania, let alone Africa, and come work in Catalonia in the tourism industry, or in a field somewhere picking up apples. This is hardly a choice…If these people would have had a good life in their tribes, for sure they would have stayed there.

Let’s play the immigration quiz:

If we look at the statistics, the main reason for migration is…wait for it…economic. Just like my parents, people go to other tribes to make more money. Often escaping poverty. But others try to escape wars, conflicts, or are pushed by climate change or other factors. That’s a statistical fact! (source 1, 2, 3, 4)

Therefore we can statistically understand that migration is mainly a direct effect of our Trade Based society, forcing people to be displaced.

As you can see in the chart above, is true that in some regions there have been more people migrating than in others. But also keep in mind that those migrants do not stay “migrant”, they become part of the tribe, or go back to their tribe eventually, like my parents did. Is not like they are a virus infection that keeps on growing, despite some portraying them like that.

Speaking of which….

Is true that between 1990 and 2010 in the UK there were a lot of sexually abused children and is thought the vast majority of the abusers were indeed of this race called Pakistani Muslim.

From Wikipedia:

A 2013 report by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee describes a group first making contact with the child in a public place. After the group’s initial contact with the child, offers of treats (takeaway food, cigarettes, drugs) persuade the child to maintain the relationship. Sometimes a boy similar in age presents himself as a “boyfriend”; this person arranges for the child to be raped by other members of the group. Children may end up being raped by dozens of these group members, and may be trafficked to connected groups in other towns.

This sounds like organized child rape and trafficking.

There are ongoing investigations since the case is not that simple. Might be over reporting of these groups of people to the police and under-reporting for other groups. Or vice versa. Might be that many Pakistani Muslims can more easily get jobs in the taxi industry, combine that with the UK night life, and there you go, more chances for this “other race” to encounter vulnerable girls at night. There are many ideas and theories, and you can read about it here.

Point is this cancerous situation between the “british” and “pakistani muslims” in this case, comes from some nuggets of truth. Crime, violence, abuse, discrimination. But of course blaming this group or that group of people is like saying the cause of lung cancer is smoking tobacco, without even once considering the marketing of the Tobacco Industries, their lobbies of governments, their deception and lies, the Trade Society itself or the fact that many poor people smoke as a stress reliever. You have to go deeper, else you do not understand much, so there will be no solution in sight. You blame the Pakistani Muslims today, the Chinese tomorrow, or Jews, or Gypsies, or the “hipsters”, the black and brown, the Mexicans…

When some conflict crime with being a gypsie, Mexican, African, Pakistani, Romanian or whatever outsider, they do not understand that is not these labels that make these people commit crimes, is the environment of struggle, in the same way that Americans in America’s poor cities commit crimes, or Brits in the UK, or French in France. Lots of crime, drug trafficking, and shady communities made up entirely of locals.

Ironically when Romania became part of the EU some 20 years ago, many poor Romanians “invaded” the other EU countries to make a living, just like my family did. And with it came a lot of crimes since these Romanians were desperate to make money, and could not easily get good jobs abroad, didn’t know other languages, and so forth, therefore stealing, scamming, and lying were efficient tools to make a quick buck. And so for many years “Romanians” were the “Gypsies” of Europe. You would feel a bit ashamed to say that you are Romanian, since many thought of them as thieves and scammers. Same Romanians discriminating against Gypsies. The irony…

But now that less and less Romanians are engaging in these “acts of making a quick buck” and more and more have “real jobs” and a better life in Europe, the hate and discrimination against Romanians kinda faded away.

Irony again: People from Pakistan and India started to migrate to Romania for a better wage. Considering Romania has some of the lowest, if not the lowest wages in Europe, I am shocked anyone would migrate there for making money. But well, since now the Pakistani and Indians can work for even less than the Romanians, often for food delivery services, there seem to be an anger against these “brown intruders” who take our jobs and do not speak our language or care about our culture. Such an irony.

See how the pressures from our Trade Based society change who we see as the “others”, the bad ones, the dirty, the uneducated?

Look, if I were to live in this town, in this tribe, and I speak this language. I grow up here. Is not paradise, but is ok. I know some people, some shops where I buy food from, I have a life routine. Then some people from other tribes come here, they do not speak the local language (the only one I know), they may sell drugs on the streets, make a bit of a mess, are loud and different…I will get bothered! It is normal. Let alone if they come in with all sorts of crazy ideas like religion…it may feel like a nightmare to me. We have to understand this aspect too.

But also the fact that the vast majority of immigrants are going to integrate and are as good or bad as the locals. Only a minority of immigrants go on to commit crimes, especially violent ones. And broadly, the crimes committed by immigrants are a mix of political and media exaggeration, socio-economic pressures, police practices, discrimination, etc.. (source)

Overall:

The immigrants are being considered outsiders because we divide our world into tribes and put borders in place. Often tribes from the North have exploited and still exploit the ones from the South. Take their resources, influence their politics, enslave, corrupt, destroy their nature, send their garbage to them, start and maintain conflicts in these regions. And so, poor and beaten up humans from these regions seek for an escape. And many of them come to these “developed” tribes to have a better life. Is like these rich tribes are lighting up their shoelaces with matches, and wonder why their pants are on fire.

Combine that with primitive values on both sides, like: We are Christians, We are Muslims, We are Jews, this or that, my God, no…my God!, and is like drinking gasoline while your pants are on fire.

Such a terrible mix.

If the bun of the hamburger is Catalonia, the opening of our analysis, then the “meat” is “immigration”. It is the most caloric rich ingredient of the entire burger since it is the most spread Culture Cancer phenomenon.

Is normal to be angry when you cannot even rent a place to live in since the rents are insanely expressive, all due to short term rentals for tourists. I know it very well. I lived for 15 years in a small coastal town 2h North of Barcelona. It is IMPOSSIBLE to rent long term here. It is all for tourists. I am not a Catalan, but I can see how such situations make us think of “us vs them” again, and play very well into the separation of people into groups, which will lead some towards nationalism, and politicians will take advantage of that.

Catalonia, like all of Spain, relies so much on tourism to make money. So weirdly enough, the industry is feeding a lot of Catalans in the process. They can hate on the tourists, but they also rely on them a lot. Same way that the Catalans take advantage of people like my father who are vulnerable, so they will pay them less and work them more. Just to make a profit.

Tourism is like the slice of cheese in the burger. Not the most important, but certainly part of it! 🙂

So is a very weird mix in Catalonia, Spain, Romania or everywhere else. People migrate due to economic reasons mainly, they work for less, do not speak the local language in many cases, do not care about the local culture, they just want to make a buck. Others come in for holidaying, to consume the tribe. Some locals take advantage of them, abuse the migrants at times, make money off of tourists, then complain about them, and so forth.

What is clear is that if people were to have a decent life, the Catalans, the Gypsies, the Mexicans, the Romanians and the rest, then there will be a lot less people migrating and “stealing” the locals’ jobs or committing crimes, and thus less of this forced mixing of cultures. Less consumerism, and thus less tourism, less short term rentals. And if people were not to be workers for most of the year, then them holidaying could be more spread-out through the year, not creating the insane tsunami of tourists in July-August in all of Spain, and probably all over the world.

In essence is not the fault of the Catalans, or the immigrants, or my fault, or anyone’s fault. Is this society that transforms us into consuming working idiots who then mix and clash with each other.

So far we have explained the causes of stage 0 to 2 Culture Cancer. Groups of people hating other groups. At times we see violence, crime and even murder. But this is the bedrock for the next stages of Culture Cancer. This is how it all starts and then grows.

Colon cancer or other cancers do not become something else when they are stage 3 or 4; potentially deadly. They simply multiply and spread through the body taking over other organs that eventually cease to function properly.

That is the danger. The spread and the speed.

Next are the spices. The pickles, the onion, the hot sauce. What gives the burger its flavor.

Religion, anger at the US and their allies, a traumatic childhood, prison time and bad influences, and a weapons’ black market where those who sell care mostly to make money. This is how they built their reasoning, confidence, and tools to kill those cartoonists.

One of the brothers said:

“We are not killers. We are defenders of the prophet, we don’t kill women. We kill no one. We defend the prophet. If someone offends the prophet then there is no problem, we can kill him. We don’t kill women. We are not like you. You are the ones killing women and children in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This isn’t us. We have an honour code in Islam.“

To kill cartoonists for showing your “Mohamed” butt naked in a magazine is absolutely idiotic and primitive for most of us, but for the people who see themselves as “Muslims” or whatever, and are hurt by the society and global events, can be a deep insult that they are ready to die for.

The kid who killed the teacher who was showing the cartoons in the classroom, didn’t seem to have had deeper reasons more than feeling insulted by the cartoons. In this case being insulted by such silly things can mainly come from a primitive mindset that should not even exist in the 21^st century.

The same way that prisons are like fast-food restaurants, a cheap “solution” to a problem that is not even understood, the educational system is similarly a failure. Not a place to educate really, but a place where teachers are workers who get a monthly salary, and the kids are being livestocked through a mix of facts and classes, with grades and groups. A precursor to becoming workers. Most students will forget most of what they’ve learned the moment they finish school.

School is also a place to leave your kid while you go to your job, every day, 5 days a week. Babysitting pretending to be something of a higher value. Unfortunately.

Since everything needs to be mass produced in our Trade-Based society, graded, sold and quantified, prisons and schools have emerged as part of the production chain of services, where humans are treated like pieces of meat that need a score. A grade, a sentence, a label.

Is not the fault of teaches or students, but the society itself. We know by now quite well that we are part of the greatest story ever discovered: the evolution of life. We are the Universe. Quite literally.

If school was a student, with its primary goal of educating a group of people, then this student would be a total failure.

And so, a failed educational system coupled with a sad life in the Trade Society where people are cogs in a machine, poverty, trauma, dealing with death, all of these will for sure make a lot of people embrace these silly stories where they feel like they are part of something better, more important, and after they die all will be ok. They won’t have to work and struggle anymore. What a silly and comfortable story that is.

If people were not workers (forced to trade most of their lives), but humans with plenty of free time and skills that can be used to better the society, create proper educational systems, then we would understand what culture really is, and the fact that there is only one human species. The Universe inside of us would understand who it really is. Perhaps primitive ideas like religion would fade away because if people have a better life, there is less need to appeal to an imaginary creator and story.

Even today, perhaps most Muslims would never think to kill for a cartoon, especially those who have a satisfying life. Family, friends, passions.

You know who else is exactly like those “Muslim terrorists”? “White terrorists”. Their enemies.

The same Deeyah Khan got terrorized by “the white people” in Norway where she grew up, simply because she was “brown and Muslim”. Moved to London where the abuse continued. Moved to the USA where she eventually faced the abusers. In the documentary “White Right: Meeting The Enemy” she gets to understand that the same kind of hurt people become the “White Right”, the “Nazi”, her haters and some of them terrorists killing people. Same exact story of a failed society, trauma and abuse, loneliness and no purpose in life. It is quite eerie to hear the same story from a Muslim terrorist and a White/Nazi one.

Let’s unpack.

In the case of the New Zeeland shooting that resulted in 51 dead people, the killer was influenced by an idea that was hundreds of years old: scientific racism. The belief that there are more human races and some are inferior than others, and that you can identify them by looking at visual clues: bones, skull, skin, location, etc..

Shockingly enough this unscientific and insulting idea was commonly accepted within the scientific community up until some 100 years ago.

The shooter also believed in another story: this idea that people of color, Arabs, or especially Jews, are plotting the replacement of the “white race” by migrating all over the world, having babies, multiplying, taking the land from the “white people”, bringing their own culture with them, and so on. Maybe not as a mastermind plot, but like an evolution of these other “races” that will displace the “white race” eventually. And since the “white race” is superior, he must do something about it. Therefore he decided to kill 51 Muslims.

You see these unscientific and truly primitive ideas start from an imbalanced world of haves and have-nots. The “scientific racism” is thought to have started around 1600 with a French physician who traveled the world and observed differences between people. Physical, intellectual, the way they lived, what they ate, etc.. Cultural differences.

He admitted it was just what he observed. He published his writing anonymously (pussy!) in a popular academic journal in Europe and made the “scientific racism” a popular idea.

He saw Europeans as the high race. Of course, he was an European…he must be smart!

In a world where Europe was developing fast (technologically and culturally), the contrast between them and the “others” seemed so big, that some theorized they must be superior and the rest inferior. We can call that French guy an idiot, because he was, but keep in mind that his observations and interpretations were within this context of a big societal difference between Europe and other parts of the world.

So keep these two ideas in mind: scientific racism (some thinking there are different human races based on skin, skulls, etc.), and the “white genocide” idea that says the “white people” are intentionally displaced by “the others”.

You will see how it all connects.

The Earth moves through space, the ground on Earth shifts too via the plate tectonics. What was once here, is there in the future, or may not be at all. Same is with groups of people.

So a bunch of Jews got influenced by this “viral post” and started to go “there” where “their land is”. And fought for it with many other humans who were there for hundreds if not thousands of years, and were like “WTF are you talking about. Go back!”. And for hundreds of years this happened until the Jews got tired of being punched in the face, and got dispersed even more ending up all around the world in pockets. Mostly in Europe and North Africa.

Now other crazies called themselves “Christians” and were becoming popular in Europe. Because their God-Story and that of the Jews kinda conflicted, and they could kick ass, they abused the Jews too for a long period of time.

Then next came the Islamic religion who was like “This is the true God, you all infidels should die!”. And they also kicked the Jews’ ass in North Africa. The Muslims took over Palestine some 1.400 years ago.

I think it is fair to say that the conflicts were not simply religious conflicts, as they were a lot about land and resources. Religion lubed it all into misery.

Eventually the tribe Palestine formed with a name and a border. Kinda. But like with all tribes things are on the move, both geographically and ideologically. A plethora of people and cultures, religions and languages inhabited this region for many hundreds of years.

The history is long, messy and complicated, but what stands out is that for many hundreds of years the Jews got terrorized, killed, oppressed. Here are a few examples:

These are almost random examples because for almost 2.000 years there have been countless cases of Jews being smashed. And don’t think for a moment that they have not “smashed” other groups too, because they did. And if you think enough is enough with Smashing-The-Jews, wait for it. Fast forward to the 18^th century the Jews got a bit more integrated into an industrialized Europe somehow.

Nobody liked the Jews.

It makes you wonder, what in the name of history made the Jews so hated by so many groups of people from around the world and for such a long time? So angry at them that they burnt them alive.

Since they were so beaten up in Europe and dispersed, the idea of a “land of their own” resurfaced and became not only popular among their members again, but a necessity. Their “promised land” was Palestine. A place of diverse people, mostly Arabs but some Jews too, tho underdeveloped technologically and still under the influence of other big tribes.

But this time the Jews got support from the Europeans for their cause. For one because the Europeans wanted to get rid of the Jews, and second because being white, even if you are a Jew, is better than being brown or black, which was inferior in their “scientific racism” religion at the time.

“So why not ship the white Jews into the heart of the black and brown primitives of the Muslim world?”, thought the finest of the races, white Europeans?! This way they can get rid of the Jews and also create a pocket of influence in the Middle East.

So “fuck the Arabs” said the Europeans. “Fuck the Arabs” said the Jews. Let’s colonize them. With money, power, resources, armies.

While they were settling there and pushing away the Arabs with brute force, same as it happened to them in Europe, the Nazi, another crazy group of people in Europe, started to declare war everywhere. For resources and ideological reasons. (source)

In Germany, before Nazi’s were a thing, a popular dude who basically started the modern antisemitism movement (the hate against the Jews) wrote that Jews are “being a harmful and alien element in German culture, who corrupted morals and were, in fact, parasites incapable of creating truly German art. The crux was the manipulation and control by the Jews of the money economy.“ (source)

When Hitler came to power the hate against Jews was stoned into the fabric of Germany. The Nazi stripped the Jews of all of their basic rights.

They murdered other groups of people too, such as gypsies or people with disabilities. Basically Nazis were believing in their race superiority and murdered a lot of people who they deemed lazy, disabled, weak, gay, prisoners, etc..

“More than 400,000 people were sterilized against their will, while up to 300,000 were murdered under the Aktion T4 euthanasia program.” (source)

Real problems like resource distribution, poverty, inequality, the reliance on trade to survive and thrive, trade-based migration of people, mixed with beliefs about races and religion that either arise from these problems or get propelled by them, were a perfect mix to create the Nazis and what they did. Again, sounds familiar?

This was a severe case of stage 4 Culture Cancer.

The wars and what Nazis did, displaces hundreds of thousands more Jews from Europe. So hundreds of thousand more immigrant Jews ended up in the “promised land”, Palestine.

Lots of them there now. The Jews started to take over more parts of Palestine. At times committing massacres. They have displaced 740.000 Palestinians and in 1948 the tribe of Israel was formed. The absolute irony of displaced Jews due to genocide, now creating a genocide themselves.

Between 1947 and 1949 the Jews destroyed 530 villages and some 15.000 Palestinians were murdered. In one instance in April 9, 1948, the Israeli paramilitary attacked a village that already agreed to a non-aggression pact. They murdered everyone there, including women and children. (source 1, 2, 3)

This is an image from that day, with the migrant-Jews-fleeing-terror who are now the “militia” creating terror:

Immediately after self declaring a tribe with a flag, Israel went on war with the neighboring Arab nations. Of course those Arabs were pissed off. They wanted to kill the Jews. “Fuck them” they said!

Eventually the wars stopped and Israel ended up occupying 78% of Palestine. Caging in the Palestinians into Gaza and the West Bank.

For decades the Jews and Christians got friendly because they thought after all their silly religious stories were not so different from each other and they have common interests, from resources to power. Oh and they are white and superior.

Europe, and especially the USA began to see Israel as a friend, an influence in the Arabic world.

Decades of displaced, tortured and killed Arabs, cultural differences, nonsense ideas like “scientific racism” or religion, resource scarcity, political power and influence, led to “terrorist organizations”.

Sources (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

What is equally important and terribly obvious to mention is that whatever “Jew” or “Palestinian” means changes with time. There is no such thing as a Jew that is the same Jew for thousands of years. The Jews today watch Netflix and are endlessly scrolling TikTok, craving for fast cars and big booty bitches or whatever is in today’s global culture. They party, consume, dress in a totally different way than even a few years ago. It is the same with what a “Palestinian” is, of course.

People drag on these fantasies about their identity, while being totally oblivious to this elephant of a fact.

The sheer scale of slavery was mind-boggling. It is the most powerful example in regards to how Culture Cancer is created and reinforced primarily by the Trade Society.

And unfortunately there are so many other examples out there, from history to present.

I simply wanted to use other examples in order to force myself, and the readers, to think more deeply about this problem.

SUMMARY

This is the story of pretty much all Culture Cancers:

The Catalans, the Gypsies, the Migrants, the Settlers, Jews or Nazis, acts of terrorism, land grabbing, slavery, they are all part of the same recipe for disaster and emerge from the same causes. It only matters the scale and intensity of these situations. Same as with the cancer cancer.

In other words, while the tension here in Catalonia that I feel between the “outsiders” and the Catalans is not a big worry, is like that weird looking spot on your skin that your dermatologist tells you to keep an eye on. Leave it unchecked for a while and it may transform into melanoma.

We have to be careful because cancer is a spectrum, and its severity is how rapid and how much it can grow.

I feel like I am mentioning this a lot, but it is damn important: the more informed and relaxed we all are, the less anger between us. More chances for us to find a balance, understand and respect each other.

But mind you, no article, documentary or speech can change the situation much unless there is real change on the ground. Trade-Free services and goods to help people. Ways to detach them from their enslaved Trade Based Life. Help the people!

We need to Prevent the Culture Cancer

“Greater than a reported 75% of cancer deaths could be prevented by avoiding risk factors including: tobacco, overweight / obesity, an insufficient diet, physical inactivity, alcohol, sexually transmitted infections, and air pollution.” (source)

Despite the progress humans have made to tackle cancer, from chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, or immunotherapy, the best way to prevent cancer deaths is still PREVENTION. To try and stop it before is too late. And by doing simple things.

And same is with the Culture Cancer.

Prevent simple minded people from mixing with each other. Feed, cloth, shelter, take care of people. And make them smart. There is no better solution than this! There are plenty of ways on how to rethink the educational system, and many ways in which we can provide the basic needs of humans as trade-free. And they are available now, not in a fantasy-land of the future

Who can kill for a Mohamed cartoon if people were to embrace reality and not fantasy!? Who would regard the blacks, gypsies, mexicans, jews or others as inferior when we know there is only one human species and these are just some labels?! Who would give a flying fuck about the skin colors, shape of the head, or other things like that when we are relaxed, educated, and understand how we are a mix of genes and cultures?!

So the freer from the Trade-Based society people become, and the more time they have, the more likely is for them to be smarter and more relaxed. A better life. A meaningful life. People who can focus not on how to trade, but how to create a better society. And so a lot less reasons to “migrate” and “invade” other tribes. No one to steal your job or make it hard to find a place to live in. Actually you should not need to have a job in the first place, or trade yourself for a place to live in.

This simple change: detach people from the Trade Based Society, at least when it comes to their basic needs, would change the situation as dramatic as the Pap Smear test did for the cervical cancer. Or other cancer screenings and prevention measures.

And even when the Culture Cancer is stage 3-4, is here and is awful like in the case of Israel vs Palestine, violence against immigrants, or terrorist attacks, even for these we have some powerful tools. The chemotherapy, the radiotherapy, the immunotherapy.

I will give you 3 examples:

These are just some powerful examples of real world solutions in regards to dealing with conflicts between groups of people. But is damn hard to see any of these approaches have a significant impact when our entire Trade Based Society is pushing us all, like an ocean current, into the opposite direction: to be separated, stupid, scared, busy, individualistic, etc..

Unless we also knowledge that immense force, we are doomed to fail. The Trade Society has to be left behind and we have to start acting like smart humans, take control of our lives, help each other have meaningful lives, and not be held back by imaginary rituals (culture), imaginary tokens (money), imaginary rules (laws), imaginary society (trade).

Keep in mind: Culture Cancer cannot form or spread too much in a population of smart and relaxed humans.