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it must be encouraging to Al-Shabaab that many western intellectuals, progressives and talking-heads, agree with them on nearly every point, and indeed, tend to point out the same unsubstantiated irrational fears in order to bolster their political agenda towards their own recruitment and conversions.
We don't need to fear the authoritative right because they are in your face with their extremism, but we should fear the progressive left that tells you it's your friend then stabs you in the back.
originally posted by: skunkape23
I can't help but feel you are over-thinking the situation. The "country boys" and the "idealists on a mission" with guns will eventually tire of fighting at some point. New boundaries may be drawn in the end. It's the same old monkey game that's been going on since the beginning. Meanwhile, I will tend my farm.
It's not necessarily about right and left anymore
Orwell was a socialist (some have argued he is a conservative), but he had no reservations or restraints in criticizing either side for the sake of truth.
No religion can be a religion of peace.
originally posted by: muse7
Unfortunately your argument is based on a straw man fallacy.
Could you please link some proof that those on the left support radical Islamists and get offended when others criticize jihadist and terrorists?
I think those on the left, myself included, get a bit riled up when the other side starts to spew fascists solutions to the problem of terrorism.
Creating Muslim databases?
How will it be determined who is a Muslim and who is not? Do we create a religious test?
Massive raids of immigrants?
To me that sounds way more Orwellian than the Orwellian left you're trying to portray
originally posted by: woodwardjnr
a reply to: muse7 the debate is now being framed that if you don't want to ban all immigration you are Isis hugging sexual assault enablers. Orwell would have been seen as a traitor by many on ATS for fighting against Francos facist forces in the Spanish civil war.
originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: hubrisinxs
Orwell was a socialist (some have argued he is a conservative).
originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: hubrisinxs
Do you work in academia?
Yes the sorts of condemnations received for merely pointing out the hypocrisy and inconsistencies, and more, the effect such in insincerity can have on people's livelihood, is nothing short of insane.
originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
Recently that orange media-circus Donald Trump was used as a propaganda piece in an Al-Shabaab recruitment video, and as is protocol with anything Trump, this was all the left-wing media needed to vilify him some more. Hilary Clinton went so far as to call Trump “ISIS’s best recruiter”. The implication is that his remarks—and according to Obama, any criticism of Islam in general—is recruitment propaganda for ISIS. Oh, and also fascist.
But as is visible to anyone with a pair of ears and a set of eyes, the recruitment video was echoing the exact same rhetoric and sentiments of the left-wing media and its credulous parrots. Yes; according to both Al-Shabaab and the left-wing media (within which I would also place social media), Trump is some fascist monster akin to Hitler who is destined to enslave Muslims, toss them into concentration camps, and undoubtedly commit future holocausts. Of course, none of this has yet happened, and nothing shows that it might, but we can vilify him for thinking and saying some certain things which we would deem thought and speech crimes. And even though he explicitly expressed the exact reasons for wanting to halt Muslim immigration—to figure out what was going on, a declaration of ignorance and stupidity on his part (all the more reason not to vote for him)—many attributed his remarks to some specious form of bigotry or racism that would surely lead to atrocity if carried out. Besides refuting him we should ruin him. It makes for good entertainment. None of this according to any facts, mind you, but according to consumer demand.
This absurdity has even been promoted by many good members here at ATS, doing something less than denying ignorance. In regards to Trump’s immigration proposal, there were posts such as “this is America’s Reichstag moment”, or in another, comparing such a proposal without restraint to the atrocities at Kristallnackt. One can go on Twitter and find the exact same thing. The emotional content of these kinds of statements are hard to deny. But comparing Trump with Hitler, and at the same time, 2015 America to 1930’s Nazi Germany has no sincere merit, obviously, but most definitely a political one. When in doubt and in lack of a better argument, make your political enemies out to be evil, and those who support them, guilty by association. That doesn’t sound like such good faith in themselves and their fellow countrymen, if you dare request my opinion, but it works perfectly well on an exceedingly diminished attention span.