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talkpoliticsSo Everyone Draw Mohammed Day has come and gone on Facebook. Since Facebook isn't known for its intelligent conversation, I thought I'd talk about it here.
Despite hearing many arguments for it, I thought "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" was a horrible thing to do. Those arguments boiled down to:
- The Muslims were violent, or threatened violence, so they deserved it.
- The Muslims need to be less sensitive about this.
- I have freedom of expression, and I won't stand for that to be curtailed.
In our amped up, everyone-hates-the-Muslims new Western society, these arguments make sense to people. But if we ignore the hate, we find this isn't consistent with our values. What if the Facebook page wasn't "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day", but "Everyone call a black person a Ni99er" day? Try doing that, and you are likely to encounter black people who would be violent or threaten violence. The violent ones would be a small percentage; a much greater number of black people would likely just be highly offended. Should they be less sensitive to it? And while it is within our legal right to do so, why would you hold an "Everyone call a black person a Ni99er" day? Would anyone honestly believe this would help people become less sensitive to the word? Or would it just be an excuse to take a shot at a group that they don't like?
I don't respect people who are so easily moved to violence. But I also don't respect people who like to piss other people off, just because they legally can. There is no decency in going out of your way to needlessly aggravate people. This also applies to enders_shadow's current post.
Despite hearing many arguments for it, I thought "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" was a horrible thing to do. Those arguments boiled down to:
- The Muslims were violent, or threatened violence, so they deserved it.
- The Muslims need to be less sensitive about this.
- I have freedom of expression, and I won't stand for that to be curtailed.
In our amped up, everyone-hates-the-Muslims new Western society, these arguments make sense to people. But if we ignore the hate, we find this isn't consistent with our values. What if the Facebook page wasn't "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day", but "Everyone call a black person a Ni99er" day? Try doing that, and you are likely to encounter black people who would be violent or threaten violence. The violent ones would be a small percentage; a much greater number of black people would likely just be highly offended. Should they be less sensitive to it? And while it is within our legal right to do so, why would you hold an "Everyone call a black person a Ni99er" day? Would anyone honestly believe this would help people become less sensitive to the word? Or would it just be an excuse to take a shot at a group that they don't like?
I don't respect people who are so easily moved to violence. But I also don't respect people who like to piss other people off, just because they legally can. There is no decency in going out of your way to needlessly aggravate people. This also applies to enders_shadow's current post.
