I Am Not Charlie Hebdo

[Holac]

New York Times

David Brooks

 

 

 

The journalists at Charlie Hebdo are now rightly being celebrated as martyrs on behalf of freedom of expression, but let’s face it: If they had tried to publish their satirical newspaper on any American university campus over the last two decades it wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds. Student and faculty groups would have accused them of hate speech. The administration would have cut financing and shut them down.

 

Public reaction to the attack in Paris has revealed that there are a lot of people who are quick to lionize those who offend the views of Islamist terrorists in France but who are a lot less tolerant toward those who offend their own views at home.

 

Just look at all the people who have overreacted to campus micro-aggressions. The University of Illinois fired a professor who taught the Roman Catholic view on homosexuality. The University of Kansas suspended a professor for writing a harsh tweet against the N.R.A. Vanderbilt University derecognized a Christian group that insisted that it be led by Christians.

 

Americans may laud Charlie Hebdo for being brave enough to publish cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad, but, if Ayaan Hirsi Ali is invited to campus, there are often calls to deny her a podium.

 

So this might be a teachable moment. As we are mortified by the slaughter of those writers and editors in Paris, it’s a good time to come up with a less hypocritical approach to our own controversial figures, provocateurs and satirists.

 

The first thing to say, I suppose, is that whatever you might have put on your Facebook page yesterday, it is inaccurate for most of us to claim, Je Suis Charlie Hebdo, or I Am Charlie Hebdo. Most of us don’t actually engage in the sort of deliberately offensive humor that that newspaper specializes in.

 

We might have started out that way. When you are 13, it seems daring and provocative to “épater la bourgeoisie,” to stick a finger in the eye of authority, to ridicule other people’s religious beliefs.

 

But after a while that seems puerile. Most of us move toward more complicated views of reality and more forgiving views of others. (Ridicule becomes less fun as you become more aware of your own frequent ridiculousness.) Most of us do try to show a modicum of respect for people of different creeds and faiths. We do try to open conversations with listening rather than insult.

 

Yet, at the same time, most of us know that provocateurs and other outlandish figures serve useful public roles. Satirists and ridiculers expose our weakness and vanity when we are feeling proud. They puncture the self-puffery of the successful. They level social inequality by bringing the mighty low. When they are effective they help us address our foibles communally, since laughter is one of the ultimate bonding experiences.

 

Moreover, provocateurs and ridiculers expose the stupidity of the fundamentalists. Fundamentalists are people who take everything literally. They are incapable of multiple viewpoints. They are incapable of seeing that while their religion may be worthy of the deepest reverence, it is also true that most religions are kind of weird. Satirists expose those who are incapable of laughing at themselves and teach the rest of us that we probably should.

 

If you try to pull off this delicate balance with law, speech codes and banned speakers, you’ll end up with crude censorship and a strangled conversation. It’s almost always wrong to try to suppress speech, erect speech codes and disinvite speakers.

 

Fortunately, social manners are more malleable and supple than laws and codes. Most societies have successfully maintained standards of civility and respect while keeping open avenues for those who are funny, uncivil and offensive.

 

In most societies, there’s the adults’ table and there’s the kids’ table. The people who read Le Monde or the establishment organs are at the adults’ table. The jesters, the holy fools and people like Ann Coulter and Bill Maher are at the kids’ table. They’re not granted complete respectability, but they are heard because in their unguided missile manner, they sometimes say necessary things that no one else is saying.

 

Healthy societies, in other words, don’t suppress speech, but they do grant different standing to different sorts of people. Wise and considerate scholars are heard with high respect. Satirists are heard with bemused semirespect. Racists and anti-Semites are heard through a filter of opprobrium and disrespect. People who want to be heard attentively have to earn it through their conduct.

 

The massacre at Charlie Hebdo should be an occasion to end speech codes. And it should remind us to be legally tolerant toward offensive voices, even as we are socially discriminating.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/opinion/david-brooks-i-am-not-charlie-hebdo.html?_r=0

[somalee]

He got what he deserved.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

^^ A hijabed pregnant woman lost her kid because idiots beat her up in response to the shootings. Did she get what she deserved?

 

By the way, if your God is incapable of defunding his religion and needs you to go around shooting people to do so, you should rethink something's.

[Safferz]

<cite>

@Naxar Nugaaleed

said:</cite>

By the way, if your God is incapable of defunding his religion and needs you to go around shooting people to do so, you should rethink something's.

 

Somalee is not thinking at all, considering he seems to be under the impression that Charlie Hebdo is a person.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

lol @ Safferz, definitely true.

[DoctorKenney]

<cite>

@Naxar Nugaaleed

said:</cite>

^^ A hijabed pregnant woman lost her kid because idiots beat her up in response to the shootings. Did she get what she deserved?

 

By the way, if your God is incapable of defunding his religion and needs you to go around shooting people to do so, you should rethink something's.

 

With all due respect, your input here isn't very necessary....and your attempts to use this incident as a hammer to bash Muslims is especially offensive

[Safferz]

<cite>

@DoctorKenney

said:</cite>

With all due respect, your input here isn't very necessary....and your attempts to use this incident as a hammer to bash Muslims is especially offensive

 

You're more offended by Naxar's post than Somalee's post justifying the killings?

[DoctorKenney]

<cite>

@Safferz

said:</cite>

You're more offended by Naxar's post than Somalee's post justifying the killings?

 

I find it a little strange that you condemn Somalee's post but yet you ignore what Naxar Nugaleed said! Talk about double standards here.

 

What happened in Paris was obviously a crime, and should be roundly condemned. But that doesn't mean we should allow opportunistic Non-Muslims like Bill Maher and Naxar Nugaleed to use this incident to bash us.

 

You really need to be more balanced.

[Safferz]

<cite>

@DoctorKenney

said:</cite>

I find it a little strange that you condemn Somalee's post but yet you ignore what Naxar Nugaleed said! Talk about double standards here.

 

What happened in Paris was obviously a crime, and should be roundly condemned. But that doesn't mean we should allow opportunistic Non-Muslims like Bill Maher and Naxar Nugaleed to use this incident to bash us.

 

You really need to be more balanced.

 

There's no "us" being bashed, the comment was specifically directed at somalee, who represents a particular view that justifies the killings for religious reasons (feeling disrespected by the cartoons in his mind makes murder legitimate). And Naxar Nugaleed is right, if somalee thinks God needs the murder of cartoonists to defend religion, he DOES need to rethink things.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Killing people is always wrong , people do not deserve to be killed. And every one must condemn this act against the people of France. Though i agree that the world press the west in particular tries to show one perspective of the whole issue. Though its an honer to defend the Prophet of Islam but killing and shooting is not one of them or trying to kill cartoonist. You havent done islam a great honer nor the prophet nor Humanity. Every single person will be judged by God we are not here to judge people nor to send them to their grave.

[DoctorKenney]

 

 

[samiig]

surreal what these people kill for, its akin to murdering people for insulting robin hood.

[LayZie G.]

<cite>

@Safferz

said:</cite>

Somalee is not thinking at all, considering he seems to be under the impression that Charlie Hebdo is a person.

 

 

 

Safferz, lol, good one.

 

 

Hahahaha@@@the Robin Hood line, that's classic.

 

 

The video of the gardheer will not take the focus of Kenney's Islamist leaning self.

 

 

 

Yarta, be honest with yourself. Come out of the closet.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

LayZie G.

[DoctorKenney]

<cite>

@LayZie G.

said:</cite>

Safferz, lol, good one.

 

 

Hahahaha@@@the Robin Hood line, that's classic.

 

 

The video of the gardheer will not take the focus of Kenney's Islamist leaning self.

 

 

 

Yarta, be honest with yourself. Come out of the closet.

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

LayZie G.

 

I don't think it's exactly a secret that I'm "Islamist leaning"....read my posts and you'll see it for yourself. The opinion of Yasir Qadhi and Nouman Ali Khan are the opinions which I hold. And I do not appreciate opportunistic Kaffirs to take this incident in Paris and use it as a sledgehammer against us. And I sure as hell don't appreciate seeing Muslims apologize for this attack in Paris, as if we were in any way involved in this crime.

 

It goes both ways saaxib. You don't see me demanding that some random Buddhist guys apologize for the atrocities being committed against Muslims by Burmese Buddhist Monks right? I mean right now, Muslims are being killed/oppressed in Burma but you'll NEVER see me blame the Buddhists for this. This isn't their fault.

 

Similarly, a Muslim who lives in Somalia or the United States shouldn't have to be harassed or shamed because some murderous thugs in France killed an entire newspaper staff. Both actions are undoubtedly wrong.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Should you bother to really ask me and I would tell you I don't like bill maher but then again what can we expect from simpletons. A normal person would take my condemnation of senseless murder as a defense of of Islam rather then an attack of Islam. Either way please do all of us a favor and move to the mountains of Afghanistan already.