Before you jump on the Charlie Hebdo outrage bandwagon, ask yourself what you tried to censor yourself just in the past year alone? What “offensive” material on Facebook upset you and you wanted taken down? How many tweet wars did you get into? I am a provocateur – but I am totally against censorship – and hypocrisy. While I tweet complaints about the manner in which Adam Carolla handles his business or “Pirate ship” – or the hypocrisy of Lena Dunham and liberal privilege (the *true* white privilege) – I WOULD NEVER want them forced to be silent. I would proudly stand for their rights to exist, earn a living in a competitive marketplace of ideas.
Still ruminating on my earlier question? Let me elaborate. Rather than de-friend or block that individual who gave you the red-ass, how many of you reported them to Facebook? How many of you jumped on a particular mob false Internet rage bandwagon. How many of you take the hashtag #sjwcauses to heart to selective apply the 1st amendment? What do you think free speech suppression leads to?
Nothing is theoretically above criticism or satire although there are standards for taste. Never to the level of murder. Never worth murder though. If every publication would reprint those pictures, it would send a message. They can’t kill everybody. It likely will not happen -but we can dream, can’t we?
I try to adhere to a principle on my own social media accounts. I generally do not remove posts based on opinions or block people for that reason. I would hope that Facebook emulate America – which to me represents a marketplace of goods, services, ideas, and insults. I have had to remove/block people based only on reasons such as spam, potential libel trolling – and the occasional relative who can’t control racial epithets.
Terrorism and intimidation, with the ultimate goal of imposing religion on others is anti-American and is not meant for the 21st century. And now we have people trying to skirt the line to say victims of religious violence bring it on themselves – first from Islam’s Fred Phelps – http://www.usatoday.com/…/islam-allah-muslims…/21417461/
and now even from Bill Donahue: http://www.catholicleague.org/muslims-right-angry/ – The one-man operation of the Catholic League. I wonder how the Pope feels about this guy’s statement. He is starting to fulfill the satirical prophecy of the South park episode from 2006:
http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/Fantastic_Easter_Special
http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/Fantastic_Easter_Special
Well – He gets his due in this interview which is like a trainwreck: http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/catholic-leagues-bill-donahue-gets-his
I simply finally defer to the words of one man who can truly relate to the hate of radical religion: Salmon Rushdie: http://www.englishpen.org/campaigns/salman-rushdie-condemns-attack-on-charlie-hebdo/
“Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. ‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’ Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”
Awesome words!
Nerdodamus 