Freedom of Speech and Terrorism
In the United States we have very few sources of satire. This is because Americans lack the necessary ingredients to make this satire: 1. metacognitive skills, 2. various forms of literacy, 3. the attention span and desire to read real news and interact face to face with people; 4. living independent media uncorrupted by corporate and political interest groups. Children are forbidden to make fun of people in school, and sent to therapy if they use extreme hyperbole in their creative writing assignments (if they even get any creative time at all in between testing). The closest we get to satire are certain television shows and cartoons, which still dance around the real issues because popular opinion rules over celebrity paychecks and the reputation of media channels, and because vox populare demonizes those indivdiuals who blurt things or commit particular acts identified as racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, sexist, homophobic, lesbophobic, biphobic, transphobic, offensive to the differently abled, offensive to the large, offensive to the small, elitist, etc etc etc. We Americans are losing our sense of humor because we can no longer differentiate between a joke and a threat, and so most of our writers and celebrities self-censor out of fear for their pocketbooks, their careers, their repulations.
The world, whether it be our immediate neighborhood, our town, our state, our nation, or our neighbors and our relations with them, has become an incredibly dysfunctional place. It suddenly has become OK for people of one culture to kill people from another culture if they poke fun at something from the offended party's culture. Governments are seriously considering allowing the offended party to have their own government and own state within their states because they do not know how to deal with terrorists. Instead of doing what is right, these governments are giving in to terror and blaming their own systems for angering the offended party. They are also turning a blind eye to the fact that good citizens most intimidated by these terrorists are leaving their countries, and that more terrorist-minded people are emigrating to their countries or being born and raised there.
In the nineteenth century, just like today, immigrants flocked to the United States for a better life. They knew, as they know today, that the United States would provide them with the safety, health care, and education that they would need to get ahead as long as they worked hard. It was never perfect for anyone. All immigrants, and their children, and sometimes down to their grandchildren, face discrimination. All newcomers, even US citizens who move from one region of the country to another, face discrimination. In a nation where we have the right to bear arms, it is still against the law for a civilian to kill another civilian with the intent to murder. If every person shot or firebombed a person or organization that slighted them, whether directly or indirectly, we could not build a shared culture, we could not come to a common understanding, and we definitely would not turn the other cheek or start loving our neighbors. Americans respect those people who say hello to their neighbors, shake hands and look you in the eye, work for a living, and contribute to the society through taxes or some form of creative, productive, educational, or therapeutic labor. We can respect someone of any race, ethnicity, or faith who is an honest, hardworking person who chases the American dream. And for those of us who emigrated to the United States in our lifetime, or whose parents, grandparents, or distant ancestors came here, however they made it here and for whatever reason, most of us express gratitude for being in this country, and being a part of it. For many of us, if we were not here, we would be dead, fleeing from oppression, starving, selling our bodies, or suffering from a wide variety of ailments or disfigurements. We would be told by our government how to be educated, what to believe, and where we would live. We would have to commit crimes in our home country to live.
Now, back to the terrorists who shot up Charlie Hebdo and firebombed the kosher deli. All of those people were French citizens, first or second generation, from Muslim backgrounds. One was even a woman (and unveiled, I may add). None of them ever lived in their parents' or grandparents' countries of origin. But ALL of those people are in France because their parents, grandparents, or other ancestors wanted a better life. They were trying to escape from poverty, volatile governments, war, starvation, and disease. Like immigrants anywhere, most had to start from the bottom. Some had the good fortune to rise, and some did not. The government can only do so much, and to be honest, if it did less, these people would be too busy working to plan out terrorist attacks. They also would not be violating social contracts, for if you are a citizen of France--or the United States, or Russia, or any nation--one must pledge their allegiance to the flag. In fact, the media has shown that a good number of people killed in these terrorist actions were also Muslim French citizens, who pledged their allegiance to the flag by getting an education and getting jobs, and working toward the betterment of their society as well as their community.
Pledging allegiance does not mean blind obedience. People can protest, make appointments with local, state, or federal government officials, or even file lawsuits if that is what it takes to make change. They can protest with the pen, to gain support of others, to build awareness of problems, to wake people out of slumber. They can identify problems in the system and attempt to solve them in a variety of ways. That is what people with critical thinking skills and big hearts in a democratic nation can do, when they know that they belong and that they fly the flag as high as anyone.
People who destroy those voices are terrorists. We may not like what they have to say or draw, and that is OK--we have plenty of other things that require our attention. The truth is that governments in Europe are letting Islamic terrorists dictate what people can and cannot do, and those people against Islamic terrorism are going to make MORE cartoons of Mohammed, jihadists, women in burqas, and people in turbans with beards, because they are pissed off and their rights are being trampled upon by what they consider a foreign enemy. They are not against Muslims; they are against terrorists. Unfortunately, the terrorist flavor of the month is Islamic, and it is real.
Some people are blaming the Jews and the Occupation for the uptick in Islamic terrorism. Those are the folks who hate the Jews, who for generations blame all of the world's problems on Jews. No, the Islamic terrorists want to live in a world where everyone looks and thinks like them, where the world is flat and women are covered, where no one eats pork and everyone prays five times a day, where there is no one greater than the mysterious Allah. Mind control and physical control is how Islamic terrorists want to fight the infidel enemy--the West--who they perceive as the cause of all their problems. Not all Muslims are Islamic terrorists. At the same time, most moderate and secular Muslims have not come forward to critique or protest against the terrorism. Reza Aslan said that it is happening and we just have to Google it, but honestly that is BS--if it is happening we would not have to search for it, it would show up in news media and social media. The Israeli Arabs have quite a few social media channels showing how they support Israel, fight in the military, and are Israeli citizens as good if not better than any other. I do not need to find a needle in a haystack--the needle will find me.
I am ashamed to say how many of my fellow academics are siding with the terrorists. Yes, that's right. They believe that the oppression that these people have suffered in France justifies the murder of innocent people. Not long ago, the United States was dealing with Ferguson, and working on the Black Lives Matter movement. No one who demonstrated or protested in support of the rights of people of color in this country would EVER say that they had the right to shoot police officers, which did happen, and was condemned by the general American public. Somehow it is OK to kill people who make cartoons because they poke fun at the truth that hurts! They confuse and anger you! Well, that is the whole point! To make you think again about things, or to make you groan and roll your eyes. The fact that the terrorists choose murder of civilians over negotiation means that they miss the point, and they do not want the point to be made altogether. In a secular, democratic society where we are supposed to receive education to think critically, nothing is so sacred that we cannot question it, and nothing is so pressing that we cannot disagree. That is a value shared by Americans and the French--we both fought revolutions for this right, for this freedom--and we are going to give it up to the ungrateful, the closed minded, the people who hate what we have written in our federal laws but yet enjoy all of their benefits? Americans will not give this up so easily, even as ignorant as we are. Perhaps the most ignorant of us are the most clear-headed on this issue--they will simply say terrorists get the fuck out, we do not negotiate with terrorists. They do not have a say if they have to kill innocent people to say it. When murder is included under freedom of speech, then we have let the terrorists win. France, instead of getting offended that Obama could not make it to your day of mourning, if you really do mourn the loss of those good people from Charlie Hebdo and those who were killed in the kosher deli who make innocent pastrami, give us some troops while we do the dirty work of actually fighting terrorism.
The world, whether it be our immediate neighborhood, our town, our state, our nation, or our neighbors and our relations with them, has become an incredibly dysfunctional place. It suddenly has become OK for people of one culture to kill people from another culture if they poke fun at something from the offended party's culture. Governments are seriously considering allowing the offended party to have their own government and own state within their states because they do not know how to deal with terrorists. Instead of doing what is right, these governments are giving in to terror and blaming their own systems for angering the offended party. They are also turning a blind eye to the fact that good citizens most intimidated by these terrorists are leaving their countries, and that more terrorist-minded people are emigrating to their countries or being born and raised there.
In the nineteenth century, just like today, immigrants flocked to the United States for a better life. They knew, as they know today, that the United States would provide them with the safety, health care, and education that they would need to get ahead as long as they worked hard. It was never perfect for anyone. All immigrants, and their children, and sometimes down to their grandchildren, face discrimination. All newcomers, even US citizens who move from one region of the country to another, face discrimination. In a nation where we have the right to bear arms, it is still against the law for a civilian to kill another civilian with the intent to murder. If every person shot or firebombed a person or organization that slighted them, whether directly or indirectly, we could not build a shared culture, we could not come to a common understanding, and we definitely would not turn the other cheek or start loving our neighbors. Americans respect those people who say hello to their neighbors, shake hands and look you in the eye, work for a living, and contribute to the society through taxes or some form of creative, productive, educational, or therapeutic labor. We can respect someone of any race, ethnicity, or faith who is an honest, hardworking person who chases the American dream. And for those of us who emigrated to the United States in our lifetime, or whose parents, grandparents, or distant ancestors came here, however they made it here and for whatever reason, most of us express gratitude for being in this country, and being a part of it. For many of us, if we were not here, we would be dead, fleeing from oppression, starving, selling our bodies, or suffering from a wide variety of ailments or disfigurements. We would be told by our government how to be educated, what to believe, and where we would live. We would have to commit crimes in our home country to live.
Now, back to the terrorists who shot up Charlie Hebdo and firebombed the kosher deli. All of those people were French citizens, first or second generation, from Muslim backgrounds. One was even a woman (and unveiled, I may add). None of them ever lived in their parents' or grandparents' countries of origin. But ALL of those people are in France because their parents, grandparents, or other ancestors wanted a better life. They were trying to escape from poverty, volatile governments, war, starvation, and disease. Like immigrants anywhere, most had to start from the bottom. Some had the good fortune to rise, and some did not. The government can only do so much, and to be honest, if it did less, these people would be too busy working to plan out terrorist attacks. They also would not be violating social contracts, for if you are a citizen of France--or the United States, or Russia, or any nation--one must pledge their allegiance to the flag. In fact, the media has shown that a good number of people killed in these terrorist actions were also Muslim French citizens, who pledged their allegiance to the flag by getting an education and getting jobs, and working toward the betterment of their society as well as their community.
Pledging allegiance does not mean blind obedience. People can protest, make appointments with local, state, or federal government officials, or even file lawsuits if that is what it takes to make change. They can protest with the pen, to gain support of others, to build awareness of problems, to wake people out of slumber. They can identify problems in the system and attempt to solve them in a variety of ways. That is what people with critical thinking skills and big hearts in a democratic nation can do, when they know that they belong and that they fly the flag as high as anyone.
People who destroy those voices are terrorists. We may not like what they have to say or draw, and that is OK--we have plenty of other things that require our attention. The truth is that governments in Europe are letting Islamic terrorists dictate what people can and cannot do, and those people against Islamic terrorism are going to make MORE cartoons of Mohammed, jihadists, women in burqas, and people in turbans with beards, because they are pissed off and their rights are being trampled upon by what they consider a foreign enemy. They are not against Muslims; they are against terrorists. Unfortunately, the terrorist flavor of the month is Islamic, and it is real.
Some people are blaming the Jews and the Occupation for the uptick in Islamic terrorism. Those are the folks who hate the Jews, who for generations blame all of the world's problems on Jews. No, the Islamic terrorists want to live in a world where everyone looks and thinks like them, where the world is flat and women are covered, where no one eats pork and everyone prays five times a day, where there is no one greater than the mysterious Allah. Mind control and physical control is how Islamic terrorists want to fight the infidel enemy--the West--who they perceive as the cause of all their problems. Not all Muslims are Islamic terrorists. At the same time, most moderate and secular Muslims have not come forward to critique or protest against the terrorism. Reza Aslan said that it is happening and we just have to Google it, but honestly that is BS--if it is happening we would not have to search for it, it would show up in news media and social media. The Israeli Arabs have quite a few social media channels showing how they support Israel, fight in the military, and are Israeli citizens as good if not better than any other. I do not need to find a needle in a haystack--the needle will find me.
I am ashamed to say how many of my fellow academics are siding with the terrorists. Yes, that's right. They believe that the oppression that these people have suffered in France justifies the murder of innocent people. Not long ago, the United States was dealing with Ferguson, and working on the Black Lives Matter movement. No one who demonstrated or protested in support of the rights of people of color in this country would EVER say that they had the right to shoot police officers, which did happen, and was condemned by the general American public. Somehow it is OK to kill people who make cartoons because they poke fun at the truth that hurts! They confuse and anger you! Well, that is the whole point! To make you think again about things, or to make you groan and roll your eyes. The fact that the terrorists choose murder of civilians over negotiation means that they miss the point, and they do not want the point to be made altogether. In a secular, democratic society where we are supposed to receive education to think critically, nothing is so sacred that we cannot question it, and nothing is so pressing that we cannot disagree. That is a value shared by Americans and the French--we both fought revolutions for this right, for this freedom--and we are going to give it up to the ungrateful, the closed minded, the people who hate what we have written in our federal laws but yet enjoy all of their benefits? Americans will not give this up so easily, even as ignorant as we are. Perhaps the most ignorant of us are the most clear-headed on this issue--they will simply say terrorists get the fuck out, we do not negotiate with terrorists. They do not have a say if they have to kill innocent people to say it. When murder is included under freedom of speech, then we have let the terrorists win. France, instead of getting offended that Obama could not make it to your day of mourning, if you really do mourn the loss of those good people from Charlie Hebdo and those who were killed in the kosher deli who make innocent pastrami, give us some troops while we do the dirty work of actually fighting terrorism.