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Never thought I'd say this, but loving Laurence Wilkerson his common sense and hating Bill Maher for his bigotry.
Laurence Wilkerson used to appear on MSNBC regularly and often sounded pretty reasonable. I was also glad to see him push back on Maher and Emily Miller. I'd never heard of Miller until tonight. I don't think I've ever seen anyone involved in a televised discussion come off as clueless as she did.
seabeckind
(1,957 posts)Her bio in wiki shows she's a batshit crazy.... used to work for Powell and Rice, then was awarded a fox affiliate slot.
That was trip across the Styx.
nolabear
(41,961 posts)He seems to have a taste for them. I'm as anti-GOP as they come but there are people who aren't as cutesy-nutty as this out there. The RW bimbo factor gives me the pip.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)in many ways and have a lot in common, but their big meeting ground is their shared contempt for people of moderation and belief that moderates and the people they elect are the big problem.
MellowDem
(5,018 posts)One of the 99
(2,280 posts)MellowDem
(5,018 posts)Thanks for the link.
I'm sick of the false equivalencies, and I'm really sick of people excusing the carnage Islam causes every fucking time by saying "but wha abut Christianity..." Well, it's shit too, believe me! But Islam helped inspire THIS attack, and Islam IS partially to blame as a result, and that should be talked about. And trying to distract from that is offensive as hell.
So many liberals are so provincial that they only think criticism of Islam can come from hypocritical Christians. But guess what? There are a lot of people that are consistentally calling out both, and they never have a reply to them.
And the majority of people identify with hateful belief systems, so of course they love any narrative that excuses these hateful belief systems wholesale and places blame on "lone wolf" individuals that "twisted" the religion. Because religion can never be bad or inspire bad things apparently.
It's transparent and shameful as fuck, defending their religious privilege for the luxury of not having to examine these belief systems with so much power.
One of the 99
(2,280 posts)It is not provincial to demonize 1.4 billion people for the actions of a few. Wilkerson was the only one on that panel that has real experience in this area and he wasn't buying into Maher's bigotry either.
MellowDem
(5,018 posts)That's for sure, excusing Islam and Christianity from anything bad, that's the position most people do take, no doubt about it.
How is it "demonizing" people to call them out for identifying with a hateful belief system?
The only bigotry going on here is the bigotry of Abrahamic faiths, and people fall all over themselves to pretend these bigoted religions have nothing to do with the hate they clearly inspire.
One of the 99
(2,280 posts)who said comparing Islam and Christianity was a false equivalency.
MellowDem
(5,018 posts)from Wilkerson, and such a common one. The false equivalency is that Islam, as of right now, is inspiring much more hatred and death than Christianity, worldwide, so on that comparison, they are not the same. Can't say I disagree.
Christianity has been neutered to a much greater extent by the secular world than has Islam, and that has lessened the negative impact it can have.
One of the 99
(2,280 posts)than Maher does. And he is not clouded by any bigotry.
Vote2016
(1,198 posts)movement that promotes violence because it opposes the freedoms which America represents, I will stop suspecting bigotry of those who want to disparage Islam based on the acts of terrorists.
ISIS is Islamic in the exact same was the IRA was Catholic. It is true that the members of the IRA were Catholic, and it is true many members of the IRA justified their terroristic acts on religious grounds, but to call the IRA "a radical branch of Catholicism" is only something a complete fucking moron would do. This same reasoning applies to ISIS.
MellowDem
(5,018 posts)and Trump and Fox are hypocrites. Christianity explicitly promotes all sorts of violence in its texts.
MurrayDelph
(5,294 posts)I found the only thing I was watching was John Oliver, whose show is terrific, but not worth $19/month.
edhopper
(33,576 posts)Game of thrones, Veep, Silicone Valley, Game of Thrones True Detective, Boardwalk Empire and did i say Game of Thrones.
MurrayDelph
(5,294 posts)so the TV series seemed like all sex and violence (and sex-violence, my least-favorite kind), so I couldn't get into it.
I was once challenged to describe Game of Thrones in a Tweet:
"Oh, look! That looks like a nice fellow. Too late; he's dead!"
edhopper
(33,576 posts)but with dragons and tits.
Paladin
(28,257 posts)I sure as hell don't miss Maher and his weekly doses of anti-Islamic bigotry.