France Mourns 12 Dead In The War Against Free Speech

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

 

That's losing ground too, as increasing numbers of people choose ignorant beliefs over knowledge. The internet is a prime enabler of this nasty trend.

 

I don't think education as a whole is losing ground. Good journalism seems what is going to lose ground, especially if nobody wants to pay for it (I admit i'm guilty of that too atm).

 

You didn't have to wait long for evidence that the situation may actually be worse than you or anyone else feared.

Over the last several days, in at least ten different Islamic countries, massive public protests have been held. Protesters are outraged at France standing up for free speech, especially for the right to depict Mohamed in a negative way. This has not been limited to areas that are dominated by fundamentalists. Moderates are getting involved too. They are saying that all the "I Am Charlie" signs and t-shirts seen all over the Western world are insults to Islam that cannot be tolerated. Living in places where free speech is an unknown concept, they are unable to separate support for free speech in general from support for specific anti-Mohamed messages. This situation could quickly get out of hand.

All this is exactly what fundamentalist leaders wanted.

 

I think you're right, though it should have the opposite effect. There is so much bad information out there too though, causes a lot of cognitive dissonance.
Public education isn't doing a great job either apparently.

I can agree with Asmo to a point as well, There's very little in-depth reporting these days, mostly just glurbs and snippets. Lots of people are losing their attention spans for absorbing info from long articles. Unlike print media, theres always a distraction, a link, an ad, facebook alerts, and so on. Even Npr's in-depth reports are getting shorter.

 

Bingo

 

Not going to happen. It'll calm down in a few days.

 

Remember 2006, when regional anger over a Danish cartoon from 2005 depicting Muhammed sparked months of violence all over the Middle East? Western embassies in many countries were attacked, and many had to be closed for a while. As recently as 2010, radicals were still trying to kill the Danish editor. Well, this round is likely to be bigger and last longer, because all the European countries are rallying around France in a way that they didn't do for Denmark. Also, last week's massive free speech demonstration in Paris is being taken in the Middle East as a profound insult to all Muslims. As far as I know, there was never a high profile street demonstration in Denmark.

The only good thing I can find in any of this is that for once, the US isn't seen as the main bad guy. Actually, I wonder now if some of Obama's advisers saw this coming, and decided it would be wise to stay away from that rally and just apologize to the French later. If so, it was a smart move.

Most US media companies are refusing to show the latest Charlie Hebdo cover, including CNN. I think a lot of Americans are wondering if showing this material is worth the potential cost. Islamic fundamentalists have made it clear they consider the ban on depicting Muhammed to be an international law, regardless of the laws of any individual country or its form of government, and they are prepared to impose the death penalty anywhere on earth. Fuck national sovereignty.

I'm not prepared to die over a cartoon, especially one pertaining to this subject. I haven't publicly posted any specific comments about Muhammed, and I don't plan to. People who know me well won't have any trouble guessing what I think.

I'm also not posting one of the English or French versions of the "I Am Charlie" sign in my signature, like so many are doing online right now. That can be seen as an endorsement of everything that magazine has to say, not just their right to say it, and I don't even know all of the positions they have taken.

A lot of people are playing with fire. I hope they are thinking through the risks and consequences. Just because you have the legal and moral right to do or say something... doesn't make it a good idea.

 

Yup. I also remember what happened when that idiot Terry Jones announced he'd be publicly burning Qur'ans. Another thing I remember is the pakistani girl who almost got a death sentence over allegedly burning some pages of the holy book.

Me neither. But I really hate the retardation behind this stuff. I just don't live in the middle ages anymore.

Difficult .... keeping silent could be seen as saying the other side is right.

 

I guess the fundamentalists leaders are hoping for more. Anyway, what they want or not should not really matter to moderate muslims. I think many are seriously offended by the depictions and mocking of their most holy person and if they want to demonstrate or protest that by going on the streets they can of course. People are getting their panties in a twist over nothing.

Look, it is best if everything decides for themselves consciously if they share or say anything about Muhammed or Hebdo's cartoons (so nothing's wrong with the decision not to share such pics or comments by default). But there is very little chance you are the one that is going to die over a cartoon and this is important to keep in mind. So to not say or share stuff out of a fear to die seems silly to the point of absurd to me. Especially here on an internet forum. And if we care about our freedom of speech.
I am one of the people who posted pics about Muhammed and the actions at Hebdo but I still used my own wits about what I find funny or useful in that regard. If I was working at a wellknown magazine it might be more worthwile to think about what I share where it comes to the safety of my own life, but then I would hopefully conclude like the people at Hebdo that (although I am not eager to) I am prepared to die for a cartoon. Well not really for that cartoon but for our rights to publish it and against oppression from terrorists.

 

Yeah, it's so easy to let certain types of people drag you down to their level. We have to resist.

Hackers can get your IP address and figure out where your computer is located.

Is that a pay phone? What kind of backward country still has those?

 

So what? The chance that actually happens and someone is coming for you because of you saying something about a prophet or posting a cartoon that insults him is still so extremely small it is almost hilarious to think one would not post it just because of this fear.

 

Is that a pic of the cop that got killed in Paris? Then you would be grossly taking that line you quoted of me out of context. It was taken from a reply to what KarenJ said about those muslims protesting in the streets about their prophet getting insulted. Those are not the people that killed in Paris, nor is what they are doing something different then what western people would be doing when they are outraged over something. What those protesters are doing is certainly not the the same kind of extremist reaction as what those terrorists in Paris did. Even you can see and acknowledge that they are different people doing different hings. It is kind of curious why you insist to make it seem like they're all the same.

 

The powers that be are doing a marvelous job directing the western world into a war with Islam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnw9sMEK25s

 

Point blank range, high powered rifle. No blood on a very light backdrop weeeeeeeeeeeurd! Laughable, really.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slj5S9ibM8c

Awesome! He left his ID card in the getaway car! This is almost as fortuitous as the intact terrorist passport we found ejected from the plane that exploded into that sky scraper in 2001!

 

[sigh] I guess we can expect you to mess up all the serious threads until you get tired of everyone hating you.

 

Do you seriously think that video is really an execution? Did you really watch it?

I do think Islamic Extremism is a threat on some level but I also think these events are very often staged as a measure to initiate profitable wars. This particular section of video was NOT an execution. Are you asleep on the reality of false flag operations? Gathering public support for your wars is an extremely important step of the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw

Any journalists that die for their work is a fucking travesty and the perpetrators of those acts of violence should be brought to justice. The Danish cartoon incident was horrible. The people who went after Salman Rushdie and Ayaan Hirsi Ali were horrible as well.

 

Nerd, if you want to argue that that cop wasn't killed on the streets there why not do that in a different thread (in the conspiracy forum would suit fine).