Cartoon protests - yes, still spamming.

[icarus]

In a new turn, a prominent Iranian newspaper, Hamshahri, invited artists to enter a Holocaust cartoon competition, saying it wanted to see if freedom of expression — the banner under which many Western publications reprinted the prophet drawings — also applied to Holocaust images.

Good point. Suddenly the Islamic cartoon protests make sense to me (if not the violence).

Comments

[mad_maudlin]

Here's how I see the cartoon protests: the original newspaper unwittingly crossed a line by publishing the cartoons. Muslims crossed a line by making their protests violent. So now crazy Europeans are saying "Nyah nyah, we can say whatever we want!" while crazy Muslims are say "OMG you can't ever say anything bad about our religion ever!!!"

In other words, both sides are being dominated by idiots. Which is nothing at all new. ::sigh::

[cheshyre]

My husband recently pointed out that this is like a flame war writ large.

Remember the comics were first published several months ago. Think of the paper as a troller, but who doesn't get many bites.

Then, the troller's friends (other European newspapers) started spreading the cartoons around trying to get a reaction.

Nothing happens until a pro-Islamic troll takes the bait, and then he and his buddies start egging each other on (to the point of making further fake cartoons to try to sway the masses in the middle).

If it were just words, this would be fodder for LJDrama or wank. But you're right. Both sides are being dominated by idiots.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Fandom_Wank as a microcosm of the human condition, eh?

Icarus

[cheshyre]

If you're still interested, Ian finally wrote up his version of current-events @ http://xiphias.livejournal.com/301591.html

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

And now it's spiraling out of control.

Is this why Miss Manners is a bastion of civilization?

Icarus