File this under things I didnt consider when writing my Charlie Hebdo post (which is a pretty big fail on my part.) I honestly havent unpacked all the different perspectives on this whole issue. Its a nuanced and complex array of issues that have more levels than saying free speech and religious persecution that I need to do more critical thinking on. These are the things I am sure of at this point: 1. Murdering people who disagree with you is wrong, and horrific. 2. Its hard to criticize the work of victims in a moment of tragedy in an intelligent way. And theres a lot of stuff we missed. 3. Blaming the victims for this tragedy is unacceptable. Critiquing their work, trying to understand the intentions, and discovering why they provoke such rage merits discussion. But its hard to do that in a way that doesnt make people yell past each other. 4. I dont have good answers for everything, and on this issue I am way out of my depth. So Id love for you guys to link to some thoughtful content from elsewhere on the internets to read. Were many of the cartoons trollish hate speech along with being free speech? Was there underlying context to them that only the French understand? How has France treated its Muslim citizens? How do we talk about this in anything close to an intelligent manner? Again, Im out of my depth, and Id love people who are more informed than me to lay out what things we are missing in the larger conversation of speech and religion. Were all on the same page that this was a horrific murder by terrorists. But if we dont talk about the underlying cultural issues that got us here, and simply canonize the cartoonists, vilify every other Muslim citizen, and ignore the grey areas in between, we arent going to help, were only going to make things worse. So consider this an open thread to bring some nuance to the table.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 20:20:53 +0000