Je suis Charlie

[Niner Alpha]

Those marches to support freedom of speech and freedom of the press are impressive and socially comforting. Even Putin condemned that terrorist attack and murder. But the question still remains as to if people distinguish between the right to speak and what is spoken? Do you have to agree with what is said in order to defend the right to say it? Can you defend the right of neo-Nazi's marching in the street as a right of expression without agreeing at all with what they express? If the cartoonists murdered had been targeting Jews in the same negative way as they did Muslims and some Jewish nut group had killed them would the reaction be the same? Would people be marching in the street and world leaders be flocking to the front of the parade?

Glenn Greenwald asks the question in a recent article that I think is thought provoking. And Greenwald is a Jew, and is only speaking to the question. And I note this because of the anti-Jew politically bigoted cartoons he shows as examples to make a point.


https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015 ... -cartoons/

[Niner Alpha]

[jbayer]

"... last week’s celebration of the Hebdo cartoonists (well beyond mourning their horrifically unjust murders) was at least as much about approval for their anti-Muslim messages as it was about the free speech rights that were invoked in their support - at least as much."

Couldn't agree more. The French have NO interest in assimilating foreigners from their former empire. They've ghettoized Muslims, and now there's crap out there about "no go zones," where French gendarmes are afraid patrol. If the US of A is burdened forever with the curse of slavery, the French are cursed with the fruits of colonial exploitation.