I posted some responses to the comments on the BigPeace article:
**************** Some responses - part I
These comments really put up a good fight with moveon.org for
producing unbelievable amounts of pure nonsense.
Hitler and the Nazis were Christians. The Hutus are mostly
Christians, and they slaughtered almost a million people in the Rwanda
genocide of 1994. Then, last week, Hutu rebels gang-raped 250 women
in the Congo.
So please try to get it out your head that Christians have a better
historical record than Muslims, because I can assure you they don't.
You can't judge any religion by the actions of a small segment, and
every religion looks bad in history.
You don't have to be Islamophobic to oppose the Ground Zero mosque.
There are plenty of good reasons why it's a bad idea -- bad for
Americans and bad for Muslims.
What's all this talk about Sharia law? Most Muslims HATE the
distortion of Islam and Sharia law practiced by al-Qaeda and the
Taliban. Are you really afraid that if a Muslim builds a mosque, then
America will turn into a Sharia state? What the heck are you talking
about?
Now here's what I want all of you to think about:
When Muslims bombed the WTC in 1993, the bombers were tried in
criminal courts. Even after 9/11, we went to war with Afghanistan,
but I can't recall anything like today's level of Islamophobia. In
2005, we gave to the Pakistanis after the tsunami, and there was no
outcry.
The point I'm making, and that I'd like you to think about, is that we
have a trend here: Islamophobia has been monotonically increasing from
1993 to 2001 to 2005 to the present day. What's causing that trend?
The answer is that the 1990s were a generational Unraveling era, run
by the Silent generation of WW II survivors, and they didn't see
bombing the WTC as tiny compared to what happened in WW II. London in
particular had suffered something like three 9/11's a day for months
during WW II, so even 9/11 didn't cause the kind of national hysteria
that the mosque is causing.
If you don't like that explanation, they YOU explain what's going on.
What's happened since 2005 that has caused this reaction?
John
****************** Some responses - part II
oreoexpo wrote:
> Generational Dynamics is a good theory as far as it goes. I
> believe it is correct to the extent that it predicts uphevals
> every 80 years or so. But what I think GD fails to take into
> account is the influence of ideas in the culture. GD might predict
> a revolt in Iran, but it can't predict whether it'll be a revolt
> in the name of Islam or in the name of freedom. It might predict
> upheaval in the US, but it can't predict whether that upheaval
> will take the form of fighting for greater freedom or for greater
> government controls.
That's a good summary of what Generational Dynamics can do. But I've
also done a lot of work combining "short-term forecasting" with
"long-term forecasting" to produce much better results than this. See:
** Generational Dynamics forecasting methodology
**
http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... cast090503
> As for Islamophobia, a fear is only a "phobia" if it is
> irrational. As a woman, I can guarantee you that I don't want to
> live under Islam, or anything resembling Islam, and that I will
> fight such an eventuality with everything within me. Better to die
> on your feet than live on your knees.
This makes no sense whatsoever. Who's talking about living under
Islam? What could that possibly have to do with the mosque issue or
with providing aid to Pakistan? Are you afraid that if you say
something nice about some Muslim then you'll get sucked in or
something?
> nceeno wrote:
> I guess since more Pakistanis are killed by Islam, we should be ok
> with Islam? Wow, what a nutter. Dude, go back to crunching
> math. You suck as someone who thinks they know more than they
> really do. Islam is not a religion, but a hate filled political
> ideology.
It's always fun to deal with total morons like you. I may not know
know as much as I'd like to know, but I sure know a hell of a lot more
than you. And yes, Islam is a religion, and sometimes an ideology,
just like Christianity and Judaism and Buddhism.
> vhistory wrote:
> My respect for this site as a whole just went up a little bit.
Since I don't get many compliments, I'm going to assume that this
is a compliment. Thanks.
> Tyler520 wrote:
> Still waiting for evidence of "Islamophobia"...<crickets>.
> phobia is an irrational fear; I have no fear of Islamists - I
> loathe them, and I know exactly why. Sorry to burst your bubble,
> Mr Xenakis, but not all cultures are equal.
> Sadly, "moderate" Muslisms, if there really is such a thing, are
> the pseudo-faithful, living in a fantasy
> Ignorant people such as Mr. Xenakis have utterly destroyed the
> meaning of "bigotry" and "racism" to the point that they have
> absolutely no impact anymore. He and his ilk simply toss excrement
> at the fan hoping something will stick.
> A man once said, "If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes
> truth." That man would be proud today
Another moron. What about the Christians who perpetrated the
Srebrenica massacre? Do you loathe all Christians too? And the only
excrement I can see is coming from you. Yuk.
Well, that's enough for now folks. If I have time, I'll try to
respond to a few more comments. There are almost 100 comments now,
and with any luck I might be able to find one or two that actually
evince intelligence.
Sincerely,
John