We are going to make a claim and back it up with an excerpt from a thesis. Not just any thesis but the winner of the African Thesis Award in 2017.
Here at Busting we believe that these white genocide online blogs, facebook groups, vloggers and pages are strengthening a myth of white victimhood. Subtly spreading myths about who the primary victims of farm attacks are and distorting the real nature of rural crime. Take this incident for example, reported on by “authority” website Farmattacks.co.za as well as white genocide pages, where there were two victims who get treated very differently in the report. Both are attacked the same but the farmer’s name, age and photo is mentioned whereas there is nothing to identify the farmworker or his state of wellbeing after the attack. No wonder people think farm attacks only affect white people. The farm worker is an after-thought and not deemed as important in this story most likely because the person’s image would poke many a hole in the white genocide mythology. Even if by some miracle someone comes up with evidence that the farm worker is white, what difference does this make to the cheap way farm workers are represented?
Now, here is an excerpt from Adriaan Steyn’s “A new laager for a new South Africa : Afrikaans film and the imagined boundaries of Afrikanerdom” To drive our points home: “Ever since the rise in farm attacks in the early 1990s, public perceptions have been shaped and public fears stimulated by mass mediations of these crimes. Consider, for example, the Afrikaans print media’s tendency to give a disproportionate amount of coverage to reports about farm attacks in comparison to reports about other crimes.[9] Often, pictures of a white individual who has survived a farm attack and has sustained severe injuries would appear on the cover pages of Afrikaans newspapers. It is possible that through these kinds of mass mediations of singular horrific events, many have generalized these brutalities, leading them to imagine it as characteristic of all farm attacks occurring across the country. In addition, similar stories about black farmers or farmworkers who have survived farm attacks are rarely reported on in Afrikaans newspapers. In the process, the Afrikaans media has been complicit in generating and reinforcing commonly believed myths about farm attacks, such as that whites are primarily targeted and that farm attacks are uniquely, yet all equally excessively violent. Moreover, white consumers of Afrikaans media being confronted with images of their fellow whites or their fellow Afrikaners falling victim to crime, produces amongst them what Comaroff and Comaroff (2006, 233) refer to as a “culture of vicarious victimhood”, where mass mediated crimes are often collectively experienced and create a sense that “we are all victims… we have all lost our freedom to violence” (Comaroff and Comaroff 2006, 233). In addition, the internet and social media have also contributed to compounding these fears and to the formation of this “culture of vicarious victimhood”. There exist numerous websites, and social media groups and pages where South Africans today can express their“victimhood”, and organize and mobilize themselves against an “onslaught” of violence. Groups with names like Boere Krisis Aksie [Boer Crisis Action] and Stop White Genocide in South Africa have mushroomed, attracting tens and hundreds of thousands of members and supporters. Much of these groups’ activities include circulating news articles that either show the incompetence of black leaders and the ANC, or buttress the myth of white marginalization and victimhood in South Africa. Yet, it is especially articles on farm attacks, and pictures of white bodies brutally mutilated that are posted, circulated, shared, liked, tweeted, retweeted, reflected on and commented on.” Here is a link where you can get hold of the thesis. If you have time to read it one day, it will provide you with a greater understanding of Afrikaans culture. Link: https://www.ascleiden.nl/news/winner-africa-thesis-award-2017-adriaan-steyn-new-laager-new-south-africa-afrikaans-film-and
(And Ernst Roets refers to us as a "Conspiracy" page 😂😂😂) Here is the footnote from the thesis [9]: "Although Naspers publications have reported on farm attacks at least since South Africa’s democratization, these publications have, in recent years, come under increasing pressure to report on these crimes with even greater regularity. There is, for example, the group, Boikot Naspers [Boycott Naspers], which states its raison d’être on Facebook as follows, “Created to launch an action against the lies, the twisting of facts and the media’s misrecognition of the genocide on our people.” In order not to alienate these consumers, however far-fetched their claims might be, Naspers publications have been pressured to report on farm attacks with even more dedication and regularity, and to show their overt support for the anti-farm attack cause. The effect of this compulsion is possibly best illustrated by Rapport, the Afrikaans newspaper with the highest circulation figures, being involved as a sponsor in the production of Treurgrond." Treurgrond was a movie about farm attacks starring Steve Hofmeyr.