Recently, a photo was shared on a Facebook group page for Norwegian people opposed to immigration and which perfectly encapsulated everything the group’s members most fear deep down in their xenophobic hearts. The only problem is the photo isn’t actually of anything they would consider scary. It’s of a damn empty bus.
The public transportation snapshot was uploaded to the “Fedrelandet viktigst” page (translated to “Fatherland first”) with the simple question, “What do people think of this?” The groups members responded as if they were looking at some terrifying Magic Eye poster, calling it “frightening,” “tragic,” and “scary,” because when they looked at a set of six empty bus seats, what they really saw was six women wearing burkas. For these racist isolationists, the threat of invasive Islamic culture is around every corner, even in places where it actually isn’t and totally doesn’t exist because it’s completely imagined.
“It looks really scary, should be banned. You can never know who is under there. Could be terrorists with weapons,” wrote one commenter, who presumably walks to work out of fear that under every seat cushion is a terrorist lying in wait.
Sindre Beyer, the man who originally posted the photo and shared screenshots of the group’s reactions, told a local publication that he’d been following the group for awhile and wanted to expose the members’ tendency toward prejudice and quick judgement. “I shared the post so that more people can see what is happening in the dark corners of the web,” Beyer added. Luckily, this sobering look at the dark side comes with the added bonus of everyone’s favorite pastime: laughing at racists.