What have Amanda Knox and Gary McKinnon got in common?

A lot more than you might well have imagined.

Apart from the stupidity and pointlessness of their offences, these two individuals benefit from huge and utterly illogical waves of support from their countrymen and women - purely on the basis of the fact that they share the same nationality.

There is an oft misquoted line, wrongly attributed to Hermann Goering, which goes along the lines of: 'whenever I hear the word 'culture', I reach for my gun'. In fact the actual quote is "Whenever I hear [the word] 'culture'... I remove the safety from my Browning!"

It is a line in a Nazi play by Hanns Johst and while the play and its purpose were of dubious purpose and origins, the sentiment applied in the quote aptly describes how I feel about both patriotism and nationalism. For whenever I witness acts and sentiments of raw nationalism and national assertiveness, I also wish to reach for my gun, take the shit off safety and happily remove all lifeforms from the room in a hail of well-shaped lead.

I believe nationalism makes stupid people even more stupid, by playing to their emotions and making them excitable and allergic to reason and basic common sense.

Read this brief piece in the Telegraph, and you will know where I am coming from.

According to the piece, swathes of America have erupted in fury and anger at the Amanda Knox trial. They believe it a fix and that the verdict was unfair and wrong.

Here are a few paragraphs from the piece which set out this fact:

"As angry Americans promised to boycott Italian holidays, wine and food, a vociferous support group calling itself Friends of Amanda Knox urged people to email Barack Obama to ask him to support her appeal."

"Sen Cantwell and Knox's supporters can already count on the sympathy of a large chunk of the US media which has always portrayed her as an innocent abroad, a victim of an unfair legal process and unscrupulous prosecutors."

"As they regularly did during the trial, the American media has been quick to wheel out domestic legal experts to rail against the iniquities of the Italian justice system." "Reaction has frequently taken on an anti-Italian sentiment, with people threatening to boycott the country and its products."

"A local New York Times reader commented: "I was thinking of going to Italy for my honeymoon, but now I'm not sure if it is a safe place." Emailing the same site, a Washington DC resident said: "Time to send in the diplomats and twist some arms! A decision of national emotion!""

Many Americans do not like the verdict, because it adversely affected an American. The sole motivation behind the anger is nationalism. It is that simple.

I do not believe for a moment that Americans are passionate about all and any miscarriage of justice cases. I do not believe they would care very much if a court passed a perceptibly dodgy verdict against a foreign national on their soil and I doubt they would comment if Knox were not American, regardless of any attached media hype.

Countless Americans will be boycotting these goods, because a women from the same vast geographical land mass as they, whom they will never meet or know, got convicted of a crime thousands of miles away in a trial they never attended, under a legal system they do not understand.

Burger King from now on it is, then.

But even more important here is the total fact free basis upon which this uproar has arisen. There is nothing to suggest that the verdict was dodgy. The case was complex, heard by a jury, publicised to the maximum and open to journalists who reported the facts and it went on for a long time.

Huge amounts of evidence was heard, notwithstanding character evidence and information about Knox's lifestyle.

Do you seriously believe for a split second that your average American citizen has much of a thorough understanding of the Italian legal system? To the extent that they can possibly pass any form of informed, in depth judgement on their process?

This, from a country that is happy to allow its President to initiate illegal and bloodthirsty wars against peaceful nations. A country where, in some States, 17 year olds and mentally ill people are put to death by the State for capital crimes, regardless of any doubt regarding mens rea.

A country known for its careless friendly fire against its allies in war, a country where police are as quick to pull and use their weapons on people with the enthusiasm and verve of George Michael in a public loo.

A country where, in many of its States, there exists something known as 'The Three Strikes Law', which produces farcical and fantastical results, notwithstanding a huge and unwieldy prison population.

Why don't you sort your own fucking legal anomalies out, before casting knee-jerk, fact-free, nationalistic and stupid assertions against other countries, simply because 'one of your own' got banged up in a foreign jail?

Britain is not immune from this sort of infuriating, nationalist hype and stupidity. Although I doubt Britons get as much of a hard-on about flag waving as your average, dumbed-down, Fox News watching yank.

Over here, a comparable case would be the Gary McKinnon trial, where many right leaning people desperately want McKinnon to stay in Britain and not get extradited to the States for his crimes...because he is British.

What difference does it make, really? Knox is American, McKinnon is British. The first has been sent down abroad, the second under due process and the law should and must stand trial in America.

Is it really good enough to beat the drum for these people based on this lie? The lie being, people pretend they care about justice, but in reality they care about attending to their nationalist pride, knee jerk patriotism and sense of collective, self-righteous martyrdom.

The Knox and McKinnon supporters are hypocritical, stupid and ill-informed mug punters and shit bags.

Proof lies in that fatuous New York Times reader letter, as quoted above and in the Telegraph piece. He was thinking about going to Italy, but he's not sure if it is 'safe'! You have to love that. Tell you what mate, do you know how you will go to Italy and be safer than Amanda Knox? Don't ambush the bell boy in your hotel room and slit his throat while your missus fucks him up the wrong'un with a strap-on.

Reckon you could manage that?

If not, then do try and resist the temptation to do cartwheels and handstands down the cop shop once old Vincenzo has pulled you in for a few words.

Still no dice?

Aw, well, there's always Hawaii.

And as the other reader said: "time to send the Diplomats and twist some arms!"

That's probably the first time I have heard a rally-cry from an American that involved the words 'send the Diplomats'. This is a bit like Hugo Chavez yelling 'send in the Stockbrokers! or an Aussie screaming 'Send the Intellectuals!'

Except, ask yourselves: why do they want to 'send in' anyone? Italy is a sovereign nation with its own legal system and ways of doing things. I did not read any dispute or bad press about their system prior to the verdict. Now all of a sudden it is bent.

At the end of the day, 100% of Americans, minus the Knox family, weren't there to hear the fucking evidence, and so all this faux outrage and patriotic flag flying xenophobic 'boycott 'em!' bullshit annoys me to the brink of criminality.

No-one cares about all that over here, but if Knox were British the press would be having a field day. And the mug punters over here would be distracted from X - Factor for a record 10 seconds in order to rage about it all. It would be carnage.

If that happened, I would be kicking off about it in much the same way as I have slated the American idiots going on about the Knox 'injustice'. Because in reality, no-one really knows or cares and Knox couldn't give two shits about these people railing back in the Homeland. What she cares about is herself.

Which, weirdly, probably makes her more sane and rational than most of the pricks kicking off in La-La land.