How Dare You?
Brought to you by CAIR and the DNC
How dare you!!!? That's the phrase that I've been looking for. I've been looking for the words that describe the attitude that I see from the Left, Islamists, and anti-American low-lifes of every stripe. It came to me while I was reading Mustang's post entitled "Stifling Criticism". To most reasonable Americans it would seem axiomatic to respond to a criticism of some kind with an explanation of the virtues and merits of the thing in question, most likely by some appeal to logic or reason.
Unfortunately, the opposition not only doesn't do this, but sometimes actually seems offended that we might expect them to do so. Their preferred response is to attack your right to make the criticism in the first place, thus the "How Dare You?" in the title. Where this all comes from depends to the person being outraged. The lack of reasoned discourse in our era has resulted in legions of intellectually and rhetorically crippled people to whom it would never occur that their beliefs need defending. Thus we wind up with people who can blithely support the confiscation of the wealth of an entire demographic group, but fly into a purple-faced drooling rage when asked to justify it.
There's a reason why these lavender-lipped losers are so livid. They have absolutely no clue why they believe what they believe and were blissfully unaware of that until you, you reality-enslaved son-of-a-bitch, pointed it out. They desperately look back into the logic centers of their minds and find only dusty old signs that read, "This Space for Rent". This can be rather distressful for people who were raised from the point of missed-opportunity-for-an-abortion to believe that their whims are immutable laws of the universe. So out pops a "how dare you?" type of response. Kind of like when an art critic challenges some no-talent abstract/modern artist who retorts, not with a defense of his painting, but with "You hate art don't you?"
So what does this have to do with Mustang's post and CAIR and the rest? Plenty. For most of us tolerance is encoded directly on our national "DNA". So it took us a long time to wrap our heads around the idea of being suspicious of Islam and its intentions. I know from personal experience because I didn't wake up until 9-11-01. Since that time I've been like a lot of other people. I've been studying up on and learning about that religion and its adherents and, like a lot of other people, I don't like what I see. The time when anti-Western Jihadists could pursue their agenda with impunity in the United States, effectively cloaked by most American's unfortunate contempt for academic pursuits. In effect, the victims have woken up and are peering at the enemy through a magnifying glass. For the anti-American minions, stealth has been stolen from them and is no longer an option.
So, if you're some anti-American and/or anti-Western lunatic, and your adversary is looking you over intently and challenging you, and you're the water-boy on the playing field of ideas, what do you do? You express indignant and righteous outrage of course. How dare you! You by-pass logic and reason all together and challenge their right to speak, period.
Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR SpokesthingFortunately for you the CAIR and the Quislings at the ACLU are there to make stripping the opposition of it's First Amendment right easy and carefree. They've even gone so far as to have a conference in Chicago where seminars on bringing lawsuits against critics are given. Critics are smeared as racists, bigots, religion zealots, slanderers, libelists, and worse, but rarely if ever answered. But strangely, despite such signs of "progress" like the recent issuance of a fatwa against terrorist, CAIR spokesthing Ibrahim Hooper, when given an opportunity to denounce Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad has been quoted as saying, "it's not our job to go around denouncing" and "we're not in the business of condemning" Makes me wonder if they read their own material.
I intend to continue to read, learn, study, and understand the mindset of these people. I encourage everybody to do the same. Demand that people be able to intelligently defend their positions of vital world topics. For those who won't, don't shy from calling them on it, preferably in the presence of those who can still be reached. Don't get sucked into arguing and name-calling. Remain cool and rational and most importantly be knowledgeable about your topic. I've come to believe that our society's injunction against discussing religion and politics, as reasonable as it once was, has come to do more harm than good in this perilous age.
I'm putting my money where my mouth is in this regard. Since 9-11 I've been intently studying my own religion, Christianity, and the religions of others. When time permits I study the various flavors of philosophy and history, psychology, economics, and so forth. My formal education has always been in the realm of science, but I've learned that the classical educators of old were right to include language and humanities in the Trivium and Quadrivium as well. I encourage everyone to do the same.
