I AM WEARY TO THE DEPTHS OF MY SOUL OF HAVING TO FIGHT AND PUT UP WITH BLAND DEPRECIATION, INDIFFERENCE AND INSULT SIMPLY TO MAINTAIN IN PUBLIC THAT A IS NOT NON-A.
I've seen that quite recently - the desperate clawing at moral equivalency between Islam and Christianity. The Boston Bombing has really revealed the insecurities of the liberal world - you have an article in Salon openly wishing for the bomber to be a white American, and the usually reliable Glen Greenwald doing a fantastic ostrich impression by insisting that the culprit's obvious affiliations with radical Islam have little to do with the attack, and calling it 'terrorism' is a step too far. And the never ending non-argument of "Islam has jihad, Christianity had the crusades" - as if a one-off, belated response to centuries of Islamic aggression is anything like a central religious doctrine that commends never-ending military aggression as a religious duty. Ugh. I blame Karen Armstrong.
If you want, we might also say that they are both Caucasian - with a far better title to the adjective than practically everyone whom American authorities so defined.
This is semi-related, but I would be interested in hearing your views about the Crusades. I've studied the subject a small amount, and while I can see that it has very little to do with most of the modern and post-modern ideas about it (i.e. the absurd Imperialist/colonialist reading), and little to do with Islamic ideas of jihad, my actual concrete knowledge on the topic is fairly small. Do you have any good works on it you could recommend, or perhaps an essay or two on the subject? I would greatly appreciate it.
And yes, the liberal response to the Boston bombing has been absurd. But then, most liberal reactions to just about anything these days are absurd. Perhaps the worst has been the feeble attempts to somehow pin the Gosnell horror on pro-lifers...some things are simply beyond all parody.
("Gay marriage" I won't even touch. There are only so many threats of male rape one can take before one decides that the game is not worth the candle,)
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-26 09:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-26 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-27 01:24 am (UTC)And the never ending non-argument of "Islam has jihad, Christianity had the crusades" - as if a one-off, belated response to centuries of Islamic aggression is anything like a central religious doctrine that commends never-ending military aggression as a religious duty.
Ugh. I blame Karen Armstrong.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-13 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-13 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-29 11:31 pm (UTC)And yes, the liberal response to the Boston bombing has been absurd. But then, most liberal reactions to just about anything these days are absurd. Perhaps the worst has been the feeble attempts to somehow pin the Gosnell horror on pro-lifers...some things are simply beyond all parody.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-26 11:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-26 11:45 am (UTC)Sorry you're having a bad day.
To be surrounded by idiots...
Date: 2013-04-26 03:40 pm (UTC)