Relax, It Was a Freakin’ Joke!
ByOrdinarily, when a group that feels slighted by a bit of off-color humor gets all riled up and calls for a boycott or a formal apology on behalf of all mankind, I look askance. Some people are sensitive (read uptight) and they take some things in life very seriously (generally intangible things that ironically make for the best off-color humor). I give them their space and sometimes the benefit of a doubt, because I cannot usually relate. I’m a white anglo-saxon male raised in a relatively non-religious atmosphere, and it’s pretty darn hard to offend my sensibilities unless you start going off about Mom, apple pie, and Uncle Sam.
But I’ve had it up to the proverbial “here” with the fundamentalist Islamics, particularly over this latest row over cartoons. Iran wants to nuke Israel, Iraq is the center of the region-wide war against Jihadistan, Palestine is now run by murderers, Somalia is starving, and Afghanistan’s principle economic staple is dirt, and these people are concerned with cartoons!
An off-color newspaper cartoon about the prophet Mohammed has started printing presses in the Middle East cranking out fatwas left and right calling for the heads of editors and artists across Europe. Protestors are burning flags and chanting “Death to Denmark,” the home of the artists who apparently created these blasphemous images.
Death to Denmark? Denmark? You’ve got to be kidding. Of all the nations in the world to get all riled about, if you pick Denmark, then you, my friend, are way too uptight.
The worst thing of it all is that just when you thought the Europeans might show some spine for a change, they are buckling like belts in the face of Danish flag burning and so forth, tripping over themselves to issue apologies and fire editors for reprinting the cartoons.
Why is it every time the Islamic world feels that they are slighted in some fashion, the civilized world has to start walking on eggshells? Perhaps it is because they are like children, and when children throw tantrums, you have to play mind games with them, let them think they will get what they want, when in the end they most definitely will not. However, these “children” have guns, and will soon have the atomic bomb.
Maybe I’m making too much light of this. Maybe there is a level of decorum that we should abide by, a level of sensitivity that we should adhere to. That never hurt. But neither did taking a deep breath and relaxing when someone gets under your skin.
It's the end of the post, now what?
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9 Comments
February 3rd, 2006 at 7:58 pm
A few things. On one hand, in a strange, twisted way, it’s nice to see someone else as the subject of protest for once…Usually, it’s the US that is the center of this sort of PC crap, so I’m pleased to see that every Muslim radicalist also keeps a stash of Danish flags on hand for burning in protest. On the other hand, while the European response has shown some semblance of solidarity on the so-called free speech front (including a pro-free press statement from Mr. Fairness, Tolerance and Equality himself, Kofi Annan), it leaves me to wonder why the Euros are usually seen on the other side of the PC fence (if they even show up at all) when the US is the subject of protest, flag burning and bashing….
Second, there is no need to fear, because in order to continue to suck up to the fundamentalists and promote peace, the French have acquiesced. (Surprise, surprise) The FT reports today that French supermarket chain, Carrefour, has pulled all Danish products off their shelves in their Middle Eastern operations. (This means your only choice of breakfast pastry is now croissant.)
But on the whole, this is stupid. It’s unbelievable how many people have all the time and energy to be yelling and burning flags in the street. Maybe if they stopped getting so upset over stupid, trivial things and put that energy into working and developing their nation, they wouldn’t be angry, starving, and their GDP wouldn’t be based upon piles of rocks and dirt.
February 3rd, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Danish flag burning?
I’m sorry, I was more consumed in Gail saying she reads the FT.
Hubba, Hubba!
February 3rd, 2006 at 10:39 pm
If this was a comparable incident that offended Christians, all the memebrs of the Republican Religious Radical Right; Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, Donahue and their minions would be crying persecution.
Reminds me of faux talk televsion channel’s War on Christmas.
Faux outrage. Everyone needs to just relax. I agree with you Brownell.
Meghan
(Who thinks Brownell is one of the saner blokes on this blog.)
February 3rd, 2006 at 10:50 pm
haha! Yes, Nick, I try to read the FT, but unfortunately it and my WSJ mostly go unread and straight to the recycle bin every night before I leave the office. And, yes, I did say recycle. Rick, I’m leafing through this week’s Economist at the moment….
February 4th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Rick, when someone from deep within the feverswamps counts you among the “saner blokes”: cause enough for a long period of self-examination. Still, it’s nice to see your flirtatious friend can agree that cartoons should not inspire murderous fatwas, even as she does so with her usual brand of offensive ignorance.
Meghan, please.
# of deaths carried out by faithful upset over “Piss Christ”, taxpayer dung on the Madonna, ACT-UP tossing around condoms and consecrated hosts during mass: Zero.
Something has twisted you so that while living among the blessings of liberty you can fail to discern between your political opponents and the murderers of Theo Van Gogh.
And one would think that since you spend so much time driving yourself nuts with this stuff, you would be sufficiently savvy to be skeptical of your own bs “Radical Religious Right” confabulation. Please by all means persist in excluding “Churchgoers” from your vision of mainstream (and continue lumping in Catholics with evangelicals, but that’s a point for another day). Are you 17 years-old, memorizing and regurgitating what you read in last week’s “Village Voice” or are you an adult for whom willful ignorance is somehow in your self-interest?
February 4th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Radical Religious Right is not my confabulation. It’s a term used all the time by many people to describe the nutjobs that run your party.
It’s mostly the extreme Evangelicals, but Catholics like Donahue who spew bigotted, homophobic, misogynistic vitriol also falls in with the extremists.
I’m mainline liberal protestant. I don’t condone extreme egregious acts that are disrespectful to faith. But the Radical Religious Right gets their knickers in a bind crying faux outrage while they go around trying to stop workers in Africa from handing out condoms, degradate homosexuals, seek to marginalize women’s rights, and on and on.
Meghan XX OO
(who thinks tim wolff is a cracker-jack)
February 4th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
I’m a sane bloke, but Tim is a cracker-jack. Now I’m jealous.
No worries, Wolff Man. Self examination is such a high priority with me, I was thinking of billing myself for the hours, but I haven’t figured out how to write it off on my taxes yet.
Tim brings up a great point, though. When groups in this country, particularly the aforementioned “radical religious right,” (however that is being defined this week) get upset, they pursue democratic means of expressing their views and desire to affect change. These means include boycotts and demonstrations that draw media attention, and voting elected officials out of office that don’t represent their ideals. When the citizens of Jihadistan get upset about relatively victimless afronts like “Piss Christ” or Danish cartoons, people die by the bushel.
Equating Christian religious activists in this country to the Islamists across the pond is like comparing apples and motorcycles. Not to say that Junior specifically is doing that, but we all must admit that many of her morally equivalent brethren are drawing exactly that parallel.
February 6th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Gail,
You would really get a kick out of Mark Steryn’s editorial in today’s NY Sun on the Danish protests. He too makes reference to the question as he asks, “Even if you were overcome with a sudden urge to burn the Danish flag, where do you get one in a hurry in Gaza?”
His response, “the nearest European Union Humanitarian Aid and Intifada-Funding Branch Office”.
February 6th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
I have no sympathy for these people because every chance they get, they are burning American flags and pictures of Bush and chanting Anit-American slogans……….Seems a little critical to get upset over a cartoon…..
ps-I personally enjoyed the cartoon!