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“Dilbert” Creator Convicted of Thoughtcrime
This is hilarious, but also sad: Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip “Dilbert” and a man who has been convicted of thoughtcrime by the good folks at Gawker Media on more than one occasion, transgressed again this week.
Adams wrote a blog post entitled “Global Gender War” that decried the condition and treatment of women in areas dominated by radical Islam. He contrasted that treatment with conditions in Western nations, going on to say that the current, increasingly and alarmingly global battle in which we find ourselves is a clash between cultures that treat women well and cultures that treat them horribly. Adams also chalked up the fervor that fuels suicide bombers, et al., to an impulse of desperation by young men who have no access to anything sexual.
Gawker, of course, cannot allow that to stand.
Writer Ashley Feinberg extracts a few quotes from Adams’ post to make it seem like he’s justifying — perhaps even defending — the behavior of ISIS jihadists.
The funny part is that, although they should agree with Adams’ position, Gawker’s campus-fomented strain of progressivism trumps logic, preventing them from siding with a white (read: racist) man (read: misogynist), even when he is bemoaning the poor treatment of women. From his article:
I wonder if the discussion of so-called radical Islam is disguising the fact that male-dominated societies are at war with female-dominated countries. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Islam doesn’t look so dangerous in countries where women can vote.
Here, Adams is actually taking issue with those who attribute violence and terror to something inherent in Islam — a point that Gawker should like — while also saying that the solution to this problem is embracing measures that increase basic gender equality, such as giving women the right to vote.
Tsk, tsk, says Gawker.
Despite theoretical alignment with Adams’ fairly non-controversial premise, Gawker’s progressive, white-guilt-fueled impulse leads them to rip Adams for … I don’t know what, exactly. It’s unclear. They certainly didn’t like him saying “so-called radical Islam,” which they interpreted as Adams arguing that all Islam is radical.
They also somehow interpreted him to be “blaming women” for terrorism, when he’s clearly doing the exact opposite — he’s blaming oppressive men for it.
But, hey, it’s tough to know which way is up when mental gymnastics are your stock-in-trade.
Whatever we want to call this, it certainly isn’t journalism.
Published in General
well, yes and no:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/jul/25/female-circumcision-children-british-law
I will not stop. It’s no bother if you’re offended. Personal incredulity is not an argument.
Male genital mutilation is unnecessary surgery that removes healthy tissue and causes horrific pain. Complications lead to complete dismemberment and death. If you support it, then you have no logical reason to oppose tattooing infants or lesser forms of female circumcision such as removal of the clitoral hood or small cuts. Ayaan Hirsi Ali opposes genital mutilation of both sexes. She’s a victim. She’s not afraid to make the comparison. (Of note is that her father opposed mutilating her. It was her grandmother and mother who did it when he wasn’t around.)
Despite a complete lack of knowledge of Judaism the guardian article conformed to everything else I’ve read about FGM.
“I didn’t know exactly what it would entail but I knew something was going to be cut. I was made to believe it was genuinely part of our religion.<according to a young Muslim woman who endured FGM>” …
But the desire to conform to tradition is the most powerful motive. The rite of passage, condemned by many Islamic scholars, predates both the Koran and the Bible and possibly even Judaism, appearing in the 2nd century BC…
It has no basis in Christianity, it has no basis in Islam; none of Muhammad’s daughters had it done. For some parents it is enough to let them know that and they will drop it completely…
<Brackets are mine>
Hmm. Actually, some kinds of Islam have adopted FGM and carried them outside of Africa. Shafi Sunni Islam and Bohra Shia Islam seem to carry on the tradition.
I hear you Kate.
I think it’s the rule of even-steven as Jay Nordlinger puts it. He talks about this on some of the podcasts with Mona Charen. Westerners aren’t allowed to say, our culture is much better in this way. The West is allowed to be worse than other cultures but it can’t be better.
For example, in a podcast that I didn’t listen to all the way through, some liberal college-student who was a Christian Arab reverted to this logical fallacy. As she put it, “When I was in college there was an attack on contraception based on white maleness so I hate to be lectured about the misogyny of Arab culture.”
Like Obama referring to Islamic violence, he has to mention the crusades in order to make it even. Same as my friends complaining about all religions after the Paris attacks.
After Chicage 1968, Liberalism became so open minded it couldn’t take it’s own side in a fight.
Circumcision actually serves a medical purpose. It reduces the rate of infection, and does not prevent the patient from enjoying normal function.
You are clearly a zealot for the anti-circumcision side, so I doubt anything I said would convince you. I do love the forced moral equivalence, very much like a leftist.