oh, and the danish muhammad cartoons?

[rone]

As is often the case, Warren Ellis opines along the same lines as i do, except better.

Comments

too simple by half

[venividi.livejournal.com]

what ever happened to "sticks and stones"?

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

Except he neglects to mention the fact that nobody in the Muslim world gave a fig until radical Danish clerics circulated a manifesto that included bogus cartoons which were far more offensive than anything actually appearing in the paper.

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

... and a picture of bearded french farmer competing in a hog-calling contest while wearing a pig snout and pig ears, alleging same to be a cartoon depicting Muhammed as a pig.

Hey Rone, where'd you get/make your "Stop Casting Porosity" image there?

[waider.livejournal.com]

Neil Gaiman had a post with a similar-but-with-less-vitriol stance. Handwaving the stance of the newspaper in question (and the cabal of mullahs), you may have the right to express yourself, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

Or as the Clash put it, "you have the right to free speech...provided you're not dumb enough to actually try it."

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I think the problem here is idiots conflating "free speech" with "worthless speech".

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

That doesn't have much to do with the fact that many of the real cartoons are a big pile of shit written by adolescents.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

images.google.com, second hit.

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

Yes, and my point was that nobody seemed to care how adolescent and shitty they were until they were used as part of a deliberate propaganda campaign by religious fanatics to incite riots against Denmark.

As stupid and intolerant as it was for Jyllands-Posten to publish these cartoons, the response to them has been even moreso.

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

If they do nothing more than make people painfully aware of how much the people of this planet need to move beyond all types of religious fundamentalism in order to co-exist, then ultimately, I don't think they were worthless.

If that makes me an idiot in your book, so be it.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

If only that had been their goal, i might agree. But there's no reason to assume that i meant you when i used that word.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone is trying to defend the reaction. But some are trying to defend the cartoons.