I don't often (if ever) agree with Bill Maher, but I have to rant in his defense. Bill Maher and Sam Harris are trying to make a valid point. Radical Islamist cannot be ignored just because there are a billion "moderate" Muslims in the world who wish no one harm and that liberals are dangerously hypocritical if they ignore it. If only 20% of the supposed 1.5 billion global population of Muslims are "radicals", then that is over 300,000,000 radicals. to put that in perspective, that is just about the population of the US in the last census. Please listen to this exchange on Real Time:
The point that Maher and Harris are trying to make is that liberals fail miserably by not speaking out about this. If they champion equality for women and homosexuals, and yet fail to speak out about what conservative and radical Muslims do to subjugate both, they fail miserably. But, according to Ben Affleck, because not every single Muslim is radical and wants to kill then no one should criticize Islam at all. If we want to start "the conversation" about what is truly right and wrong, then we cannot allow leftist idiots like Ben Affleck to shut down any discussion or frankly, to even allow them to ba a part of the conversation. They are useless because they shut the conversation down with their moral equivalence and their sheer idiocy.
Let me be honest. In my opinion, Ben Affleck is an idiot...a liberal idiot and a dangerously stupid one at that. He argues even though neither Ben Harris nor Bill Mayer are stating that ALL followers of Islam are terrorists, that anyone who criticizes Islam is Islamaphobic and that anyone who wishes to stop Islamic-led terrorism, is a bigot and racists just because they dare to criticize beheadings, stonings, gentital mutilations, and the attempted assasinations of young girls who wish to learn to read. Seriously, why is anyone asking Ben Affleck for his opinion anyway? He's an actor - an over-protected, over-pampered, over-paid, body-guard protected, only has a high-school diploma...ACTOR.
Okay, I have ended my rant.
The point that Maher and Harris are trying to make is that liberals fail miserably by not speaking out about this. If they champion equality for women and homosexuals, and yet fail to speak out about what conservative and radical Muslims do to subjugate both, they fail miserably. But, according to Ben Affleck, because not every single Muslim is radical and wants to kill then no one should criticize Islam at all. If we want to start "the conversation" about what is truly right and wrong, then we cannot allow leftist idiots like Ben Affleck to shut down any discussion or frankly, to even allow them to ba a part of the conversation. They are useless because they shut the conversation down with their moral equivalence and their sheer idiocy.
Let me be honest. In my opinion, Ben Affleck is an idiot...a liberal idiot and a dangerously stupid one at that. He argues even though neither Ben Harris nor Bill Mayer are stating that ALL followers of Islam are terrorists, that anyone who criticizes Islam is Islamaphobic and that anyone who wishes to stop Islamic-led terrorism, is a bigot and racists just because they dare to criticize beheadings, stonings, gentital mutilations, and the attempted assasinations of young girls who wish to learn to read. Seriously, why is anyone asking Ben Affleck for his opinion anyway? He's an actor - an over-protected, over-pampered, over-paid, body-guard protected, only has a high-school diploma...ACTOR.
Okay, I have ended my rant.
18 comments:
Opinions like these, Ben's merely fast-tracking himself to be the junior Senator from Massachusetts one day, maybe even Secretary of State. What exactly is in the water up there anyway?
There is so much wrong with Affleck’s perception of Islam that it’s hard to know where to begin. He calls his opponents on the carpet regarding their expertise, but offers none on his side of the debate. Cheap. But his idiotic arguments in obeisance to the Hollywood Doctrine are not the point.
We often say the phrase, “majority rules,” in many applications, usually having to do with democracy. But in history – even our history – "majority rules" has never been the case. History is made by minorities – small minorities at that. Franklin conjectured that perhaps a third of the American population supported the revolution. But far, far fewer actually engineered it; the majority just followed along. Vocal, committed and violent minorities change the entire world almost constantly. Hitler’s Brown shirts were few in number, but they took over the country and launched a world war of breathtaking scale and misery. So, when you have 300 million vocal, committed and violent Muslims, what do you have? A religious war that will last for generations.
We forget that Islam almost crushed Christianity in 732, but the Moors were stopped by Charles ‘the Hammer’ Martel at Poitiers. Go look at Poitiers on a map – it’s almost in northern France! Martel stopped it by assembling a mass of Frankish dukes into an army that fought a battle of annihilation. From that point, the Caliphate began to recede. It’s that Caliphate the Islamists seek to restore. We’re facing the same threat from the same evil today.
The Hammer saved the future western society because he had the voice, the conviction and the willingness to wreak violence upon his enemies. Today, we have Ben Affleck and the Hollywood Doctrine.
We’re gonna lose.
KRS - Very well written. And further to that, a determined minority renders the majority irrelevant. Just like the Nazi Brown shirts, just like the Japanese who sought to over take China, just like Stalin who slaughtered 20 million, just like any tyrannical minority.
My wish is that people like Ben Affleck will try to prove their point by moving his family to Iraq or Syria or Iran or North Korea or now even Russia. But they won't because it is much more simple to hide behind a giant wall.
EricP - My head just exploded...Sen. Affleck. Nah, sounds like the quacking duck of a insurance commercial
Islam is badly in need of a reformation. As happened during the Reformation, outsiders will play something of a role in the process, but aren't really in a position to get involved directly.
Look at Islam in particular or religion in general as kind of like being in a party. Standards change over time but the overt interference of outsiders tends not to go well because there is distrust of the outsiders' motives. Unlike political parties, religions don't have to rely on outsiders for anything, so they are even less receptive to outside criticism.
Ben who?
Ben truly is a moron. And like you Bev, I wish he would put his money where his mouth is and go live among the people he claims are so peaceful... where he can get stoned for letting his wife drive, his daughter go to school, being Christian, not being the right kind of Muslim, committing Western sins, etc. I wouldn't mind seeing him beheaded too in the name of tolerance.
Andrew - I don't want Ben Affleck lose his head. I just want him and people like him to stop making easy shots at people who condemn radical Islam and who won't murder them and to take on the REAL target. Radical Muslims. He can yammer on about how not ALL Muslims are bad while ignoring that enough of them ARE and these are the ones who want to kill anyone in their path. Heck even radical Christians aren't going to kill him.
The point Maher was making is that there are people who have made cartoons or written books about Mohammed and Islam who are now in the witness protection program. South Park has a recurring character - Jesus - who has a talk show and they lampoon. Yet, one mention of Mohammed and they ban the episode for being incendiary and for "the safety" of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Christians are easy targets because they may be annoyed, but they won't hunt you down and kill you...
Writer X - If only...
Bev, I don't generally wish death upon anyone, but I am a fan of irony. And when someone is so strident and so offensive in his smears at people who are tying to point out genuine dangers, I am a fan of people like that getting a full dose of ironic punishment.
Maybe stone him half to death and have US soldiers save his butt. That would chap his ass.
Andrew - I know you are a kind and gently soul. I just wanted to cover the CIA and NSA bases just in case. ;-D
Just two things. Well, three, actually.
First, it doesn't surprise me that Affleck is such an idiot. Then again, Bens are interchangeable in Hollywood. For some reason, when I saw this headline, I got him confused with Ben Stiller- another Obama boob.
Second, what does it say when Affleck actually makes a pair of horse's a**e* like Harris and Maher (a pair of poor man's Carl Sagans, which still isn't saying much), look good? I'd say not much.
And third, well, I should explain that last Thursday I was preparing for a long family weekend. Nothing like Oktoberfest in the Midwest with family. The brews, the music, the dancing, the food, the football games, the beer-tray relays...good times. Long story short, I only had enough time last Thursday to reply to Bev's "caption this."
That being said...
CONGRATULATIONS, Andrew!
How long were you going to hide this from us? :)
Seriously, I'm speechless!
I guess all I can say is good luck and hi-keeba!
Thanks Rustbelt! I wasn't trying to hide it. I just didn't think to mention it. Strange, I know, but true.
Bev & Andrew - silly me, I thought this vid was proof that Ben had already lost his head.
I don't wish ill on the guy at all. As aggravating as people like Affleck are, my FAITH dictates that they are more deserving of pity than malice. (There, that will really annoy them!)
Anyway, I think it is a completely predictable confrontation; everyone on the panel is acting precisely as their biases dictate - even the Republican wuss, whathisname, whom I had hoped never to see on TV again.
The truth is that Maher and Harris are able to present a sound critique of Islam because they actively critique and hate all religions all the time, so unlike the other fellows, they have studied their adversaries and can distinguish between each. In their book, Christianity is a very weak mental crutch and no one fights in its name, so it is self-evidently preposterous to compare it to the bloody evil and active threat of radical Islam. They can therefore see that liberalism, in order to be consistent, must condemn it.
The other three haven't expended the effort to think this through, so they are incapable of separating Muslims the victims from Muslims the murders, which locks them into the "Islamophobia!!!!" cry.
I admit it is sorta fun to see liberals fight over base issues and the best part is Affleck's very apparent confusion and frustration at being mowed down by men he must have considered liberal icons. But, other than that, meh.
Isn't it cute when one liberal makes another one melt down?
NARCISSIST ANYONE!
To say Ben Affleck is not the sharpest tool in the shed, is putting it mildly.
This guy is mental, and a light weight! So, he wants to get into politics, lmao! This guy is about as unpolished as a tarnish silver tray!
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