4 years on, #JeSuisCharlie. Je suis toujours Charlie.
The isn't just to express solidarity with Charb and his slain colleagues. Today, it's an epithet that leaves no room for doubt where one stands on the primordial rift between those who value free over closed human minds.
The isn't just to express solidarity with Charb and his slain colleagues. Today, it's an epithet that leaves no room for doubt where one stands on the primordial rift between those who value free over closed human minds.
The concept of blasphemy, including its various manifestations (lesse-majeste, sedition, etc) continue to be wielded against dissenters around the world.
In fact, it appears to be getting worse: autocrats are emboldened, while a secular strain of blasphemy is thriving.
In fact, it appears to be getting worse: autocrats are emboldened, while a secular strain of blasphemy is thriving.
Even as PEN international drew attention to journalists routinely subjected to oppression and incarceration around the world, writers including Junot Díaz & Joyce Carol Oates signed a letter in protest against a PEN freedom of expression award for Charlie Hebdo.
Should we be surprised that so many have reacted cowardly, with a strain of regressive moralizing that often culminates in victim-blaming?
Not really. The way the Salman Rushdie affair was handled in the late 80s & early 90s was surely a sign of things to come.
Not really. The way the Salman Rushdie affair was handled in the late 80s & early 90s was surely a sign of things to come.
Blasphemy laws effectively criminalize offending the religious, which offers unwarranted protection to the ideology.
When mixed in with the state, it serves only to concentrate power & stifle all dissent. Today we see these political instincts on both the far left & far right.
When mixed in with the state, it serves only to concentrate power & stifle all dissent. Today we see these political instincts on both the far left & far right.
Blasphemy today is grounded not in scripture but in the shifting sands defined by the whims of despots or mobs.
The open hostility to the mere feeling of offense justifies the murder of innocent cartoonists and the vilification of folks like Maajid Nawaz and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
The open hostility to the mere feeling of offense justifies the murder of innocent cartoonists and the vilification of folks like Maajid Nawaz and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Beyond that, a similar worldview underlies the campus machinations against non-woke speakers and the outrage industrial complex that seeks to police comedy in the West.
The longer we protect an ideology's sacred claim of possessing an inalienable right of not being mocked or satirized, the more we perpetuate the autocratic nature of how it is applied and practiced in the real world.
Stand against this. #JeSuisCharlie
Stand against this. #JeSuisCharlie
