grindy

How are they racist?

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Frownland

It's too bad that defending freedom of speech also includes defending ****ty and/or racist comedians. I'd still follow Voltaire's suit on the situation, though.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Chula Vista

On the cover of Charlie Hebdo: Michel Houellebecq's 'Islamophobic' book - LA Times

Again, what happened is awful. But why poke such a dangerous (and insane) bear over and over and over again? Especially after you were told that something like this would happen if you kept doing it?

This is less about free speech and more about lack of common sense to me in many ways.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

grindy

So they are racist because they featured a controversial writer/book on the cover?

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Oriphiel

Because the people who can't take criticism are often the ones who need it the most. There are some people who won't be bullied into submission, and these chaps risked (and gave) their lives to speak their minds (which by extension, contributes to a world where you can freely speak your mind).

I don't agree at all with this "they had it coming" nonsense.

Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, my post comes off as a kind of passive-aggressive reponse. Didn't mean to offend.

Frownland

Ja that's not racist, it's just an attempt at being edgy. My comment was more general, I wasn't insinuating anything about the comic.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Chula Vista

But they are not criticizing people in the normal sense. These are insane, lunatic, whack job, religious fanatics willing to blow themselves up for the cause.

And I'm not trying to imply "they had it coming" at all. (no offense taken BTW)

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

grindy

Yep, those people should be our role models for having the balls.
Everyone should be mocking fundamentalists.
Sadly I'm the first to admit that I would be to scared.

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Cuthbert

You do have a point but you've just said it yourself bud. Islam is not unique in that it is mocked but it is unique in how it reacts (look at the differing responses to South Park depicting the prophet Muhammad/entire show on Mormonism for example). Islam is the one that responds with violence. It is not the first time people have died because the prophet Muhammad was depicted in a cartoon.

The obvious point is that shit like Draw Muhammed Day came about because of the reaction to those cartoons and to emphasise the point they can, and to highlight the people complaining about it.

It would be pointless if it got no reaction, but the fact it does shows it's an issue worth highlighting. These knobheads today are just proving this point.

When you've got the Guardian of all papers backing this argument you know something's up.

Free speech must not be silenced in the wake of Charlie Hebdo attack | Media | The Guardian

Chula Vista

Not Islam.

Islamic extremists (terrorists). There's about 2 billion followers of Islam in the world so it's not fair to paint them all with a broad brush.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”