snicker. Next time don’t try and use the metric system as a metric of achievement against the United States. Oh, and I lift my glass to Mohammad for the distillation process.
It might be wrong to enjoy other people suffering, but that’s not the same thing. Anyway I see emacknight is back to riding the ‘Americans are stupid’ train.
And he brought a knife to a gun fight in the process.
And just how “smart” do you think Americans are?
Seriously though, this protest is now being sold as, “we’re trying to help Muslims be enlightened.” When you flat out insult someone’s culture and way of life, there is zero chance they’ll take that criticism and look inwards. All you’ll accomplish is to encourage them to dig through your dirty laundry so they can fire back with, “you guys still don’t use the metric system.” And it’s true, I mean what the fuck. You’ll hear lots of shit about your own religious issues: school prayer, in God we trust, ending a state of the union with God bless America. I tuned into Daily Show today only to have every third word bleeped. Did a Muslim make them do that too? Why is “fuck” so offensive that it can’t be said after 10pm on a cable channel.
Magiver should know this better than anyone after his little hissy fit when I criticized the American health care system. He spent the next two pages going on and on about how bad the Canadian system was. Starving Artist pulled a 10 year old study out of his ass that listed what conservatives thought was wrong with European health care.
Isn’t that how it always goes? People don’t take criticism well. And this protest is targeting people that take it REALLY badly.
I tried to explain why it shouldn’t be done, and why it should be done other ways, and even suggested other topics that could be addressed first. Now all I can do is sit back and watch the comedy of errors.
In response to my criticism of your event, ya’ll chose to attack me personally. Ya’ll are doing everything possible to prove my point. The rest is just theatre.
The only thing left to say is that you people are really starting to grasp at straws here, and you’re illustrating perfectly the depths you’ll sink to in order to get your way. I regard this as victory.
Most of the time I’d say “not very.” I also think that has no real bearing on this discussion and you’re falling back on tripe like “you Americans are stupid” and “how’s that war going for you?” because you don’t have much of an argument.
That’s pretty consistent with some of the other stuff that’s been said here. Every religion is fair game for comedy.
In other words, they’ll act like you.
I know. However nobody’s been threatened with death for saying the word fuck on cable. (And cable stations are legally allowed to say fuck. Most of them don’t because they want to appeal to the largest possible audience.)
So that means they shouldn’t be criticized? Some people do take criticism well, and others don’t. How the criticism is delivered matters, but so does the attitude of the person getting the criticism.
Again: not my event. And your criticism has been more personal than anyone else’s.
It wasn’t a study. I inadvertently used the term, I admit, but the piece refers to itself as a “Lecture On Health Care”.
And I would imagine that if anything of import can be derived from the fact that it’s 10 years old, it would largely be that things have only gotten worse. When have we ever heard of government bureaucracies doing a 180 and suddenly becoming wonderful in a ten year span?
I’m afraid you’ve made the mistake of allowing elucidator - one of the board’s most dishonest, underhanded and would-be manipulative posters - to take the lead in framing your arguments, and that has not served you well.
But then again I’ve seen how you fare when on your own so I suppose it stands to reason you would seek outside help. 
Lesson to be learned here: People don’t response well to criticism, it makes them defensive, defensive people lash out.
That’s wrong and stupid on its own, and implies something even stupider: nobody should ever be criticized because they’ll take it badly. Insecure people respond badly to criticism, but not everyone is that insecure. There are a lot of different ways to deliver critiques, but it needs to be acknowledged that “excuse me, would you please” has its limits. It doesn’t work on some people, including the fanatics we’re discussing in this thread. I don’t hold Muslims collectively responsible for the treatment of Salman Rushdie or the threats against the South Park guys, and while he didn’t deserve to die, I think Theo van Gogh sounds like an asshole. All that being said, the message of the protest is valid even if the message is crude and the inciting incident is kind of stupid.
You came on an American board and lectured us as if Canada was a shinning example of health care and was surprised when someone with better health care didn’t want to flush it all down the drain in some altruistic moment of insanity.
Explain, lecture, call it what you want. The rest of the world needs to bend to the concerns of Muslims as if they were a shining example of respect for other religions. Somehow, you expect the rest of the world to live with the double standard because… Muslims are sensitive?
This is the United States, not Saudi Arabia. We have a different culture and freedom of speech is well defined. We are not going to change it. It’s not like we’re dropping flyers on Mecca during Ramadan. The only way you can see it is if you go out of your way to find it.
You mean like this?
And may I point out that drawing a benign image isn’t “criticism”, so people who “lash out” accordingly need to be shown that that shit ain’t gonna fly.
And on preview, what Marley23 said.
Actually, I think that’s what will happen. The Danish cartoons were compiled with some other random shit and a few made up pictures and passed around as propaganda.
Perhaps now is a good time to think about how information flows in many parts of the world. Who is going to handle your message on its way to the recipient? The only way “they’ll” see it is if someone shows it to “them.”
then who is doing the insulting? I’d say it’s the person passing it around.
The same internet feeding the Islamic Klan is also available to their children who, as we’re seeing in Iran, are not happy with the status quo. It’s just a matter of time before they tear down that wall of oppression.
So anyway, I’m not going to take part in this protest. Coal to Newcastle, you know? We Israelis offend more Muslims before breakfast than most people do all day.
Or get whipped up into a frenzy and tear down our walls of an embassy and take hostages. But you’re wrong, the internet that’s available to the guy at the top is NOT the same internet available to the guy at the bottom. You need the guy at the bottom, he is your target. Don’t piss him off in the process, and don’t make it easier for the Islamic Klan.
So yes, the guy that distorts your message is an asshole. The guy attacking embassies is being an asshole.
Lesson: Don’t be an asshole. Don’t fee the troll.
This is why people are telling you you have no perspective. The Iranian revolution was about some issues that were a little more substantive than cartoons. By the way, we’re done with the spelling and grammar corrections now, right?
Chris de Burgh, right?
“Coal to Newcastle”? Please explain this phrase.
It’s like “selling ice to the eskimos”… a pointless endeavor.
Lucas finally succeeded in his quest to burn every copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special and sweep it into the memory hole?
People also don’t take threats well either…even more so.