Remember “Je ne suis pas Charlie”?
Sarah Haider of EXMNA:
It has been four years since the murder of 10 staff members of Charlie Hebdo. Remember “Je suis Charlie”? Remember, mere *days* after the massacre, “Je ne suis pas Charlie”? (Thread) 1/?
— Sarah Haider (@SarahTheHaider) January 8, 2019
“…The Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were not mere gadflies, not simple martyrs to the right to offend”, the writer continued,“they were ideologues”. And he was not alone- scores from the chattering class asserted opinions on the *content* of the speech for which cartoonists died. 3
— Sarah Haider (@SarahTheHaider) January 8, 2019
That was Teju Cole. I remember reading the piece with disgust.
In less free parts of the world the “violence veto” is an ever-present shadow looming over every writer, thinker, activist, and artist. In the West, it is easy to forget how extraordinarily precious a healthy, rich civil society is and how lucky we are to enjoy it. 5
— Sarah Haider (@SarahTheHaider) January 8, 2019
I think, however, we are *starting* to remember the importance of maintaining and supporting the foundations of liberal democracy – foundations like the freedom of speech. Yes, there is a rise in populism, and the farthest fringes of our politics are stronger than ever… 7
— Sarah Haider (@SarahTheHaider) January 8, 2019
It *won’t* require a miracle to get us back on track – just a bit of patience, compassion, and sacrifice. And while it is not good to linger too long on acts of violence and horror, let’s stop to honor those who have given everything and resolve to do our part. #JeSuisCharlie 9/9
— Sarah Haider (@SarahTheHaider) January 8, 2019
If I remember correctly, Le Monde published an analysis of Charlie Hebdo’s covers shortly after the “Je ne suis pas Charlie nonsense” started.
The vast majority of their targets were political. When they did run a cartoon aimed at religious figures, the vast majority of these were aimed at the Catholic church. Which is what you would expect from a French satirical magazine.
The Anglophone writers leveling, frankly weaselly accusations against the magazine were not only disgusting. They were also too lazy to bother finding out what it was they were criticising.
Quite a condemnation; undoubtedly well deserved.
Islam’s present contributions to world literature, science and understanding are pretty well totally negative.
It is a terrible religion.
I don’t think the ‘Je ne suis’ crowd were bothered by laziness or incuriosity. They were, and are, blindly committed to groveling before Islamism. There’s a long decline in standards and morals demonstrated here. I suspect its leftover Cold War loyalty from the days when Nasser made the United Arab Republic a Soviet client-state.
JtD – I think it’s more than that. It’s an overreaction to western imperialism (something worthy of reacting against) that mindlessly parrots any school of thought that is non-western, and assumes all things western must be bad and all things eastern must be good. That is a form of laziness, because it doesn’t require working on the moral ambiguities, or sorting out which things in western thought might be good (and there are many) and which things in eastern thought might not be so good (like murdering those who disagree with you or putting women in bags). But it isn’t just laziness, it’s a deeply-held determination to be woke, to always side with the oppressed, even when the oppressed are on the side of harming people, to justify all actions that target western thought and western ideas.
In fact, it is so embedded in certain parts of our culture that I often see people referring to “western science” and “western medicine” in an argument against using some drug/technique/etc, without stating why the thing argued against might be dangerous or bad for you. In fact, many of the things argued against are not bad for you, they merely spawn a knee-jerk reaction from the ultra-woke crowd because they either arose in the west, or are perceived as having their roots in the west. Any embrace of “western” science or philosophy by someone from the eastern or southern countries is perceived as a sell-out to imperialism by this same woke crowd.
In short, it’s the same thing driving many of the trans-activists that are not trans themselves – the desire to be on the “right” side, and the identification of anything and everything that is on the “wrong” side as bad and dangerous. Laziness coupled with dogmatism and ideology can be a dreadful combination.