[ExI] riots again

Charlie Stross charlie.stross at gmail.com
Mon Sep 24 08:55:02 UTC 2012


On 24 Sep 2012, at 04:59, Giovanni Santostasi <gsantostasi at gmail.com> wrote:

> You can explain how much you want but the bottom line is that the muslim culture is repressive and backwards. 

Note that throughout the middle east, there has been NO tradition of free speech in living memory.

State censorship is ubiquitous, because the dictatorships the west encouraged (and I include the USSR in "the west" in this context -- communism is an ideology rooted in western enlightenment ideas) wanted to stamp out opposition.

Consequently, we're dealing with people who have grown up KNOWING that any publication whatsoever MUST HAVE BEEN APPROVED BY A GOVERNMENT.

Therefore they see an insulting film and they *know* without being told that it was organized and approved by the US state censors.

It's going to take more than a generation to break them of this habit, and in the meantime we're all in for a bumpy ride.


-- Charlie



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