For The Record
Jan. 8th, 2015 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribThe Usual Suspects (a list which has expanded as of late) are in full Clash of Civilizations mode over the Paris shootings. For the record, I am against people shooting other people over what they said. I have some other thoughts to express for the record:
1) Islam is not a monolithic entity. There are various sects and factions, as evidenced by the massive and ongoing Muslim vs. Muslim fighting in Iraq and other locations. Treating all "Mohammedans" as one indiscriminate Blob of Evil Other does no good.
2) During previous wars, the US attempted to make clear that their beef was with the government, not the people, of the places we were fighting. This was done both because it was accurate and would hopefully result in some people deciding to, if not assist the US, sit the war out.
3) Suggesting that a specific line of operations, such as invading a country that did not attack the US, might not be a good idea is not "siding with the Jihadists." It is, rather, a suggestion that the line of operations may not be effective and/or produce the desired results.
4) Pointing out on other forums that the "white Christian men" who built Western Civilization were not in fact perfect is not bigoted or slanderous. It is in fact the truth. (Also, two wrongs don't make a right, either way one slices it.)
5) Although evil and wrong, the assassination of 12 people is not the end of the world. A better author than me said "fear is the mind-killer" and much of the hyperbole coming out of The Usual Suspects looks pretty fearful and mind-killing to me.
6) Pointing out any of the above does not put one "on the side of the Jihadists."
1) Islam is not a monolithic entity. There are various sects and factions, as evidenced by the massive and ongoing Muslim vs. Muslim fighting in Iraq and other locations. Treating all "Mohammedans" as one indiscriminate Blob of Evil Other does no good.
2) During previous wars, the US attempted to make clear that their beef was with the government, not the people, of the places we were fighting. This was done both because it was accurate and would hopefully result in some people deciding to, if not assist the US, sit the war out.
3) Suggesting that a specific line of operations, such as invading a country that did not attack the US, might not be a good idea is not "siding with the Jihadists." It is, rather, a suggestion that the line of operations may not be effective and/or produce the desired results.
4) Pointing out on other forums that the "white Christian men" who built Western Civilization were not in fact perfect is not bigoted or slanderous. It is in fact the truth. (Also, two wrongs don't make a right, either way one slices it.)
5) Although evil and wrong, the assassination of 12 people is not the end of the world. A better author than me said "fear is the mind-killer" and much of the hyperbole coming out of The Usual Suspects looks pretty fearful and mind-killing to me.
6) Pointing out any of the above does not put one "on the side of the Jihadists."
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Date: 2015-01-09 11:05 am (UTC)Treating all "Mohammedans" as one indiscriminate Blob of Evil Other does no good
OH YES it does. The Terrible They justify ALL measures taken, the destruction of ALL liberties during the Current Crisis - and sanctify and glorify the goodness and holiness of We!
> What is concerned here is not the morale of masses, whose
> attitude is unimportant so long as they are kept steadily at
> work, but the morale of the Party itself. Even the humblest
> Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and
> even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also
> necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic
> whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and
> orgiastic triumph. In other words it is necessary that he
> should have the mentality appropriate to a state of war. It
> does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and,
> since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter
> whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed
> is that a state of war should exist…