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Here's what snapped it all into focus for me. Flemming Rose, the editor of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, a right-wing paper, realized that Muslims are offended by physical depictions of Muhammad -- drawings and the like. He thought this was stupid. So he decided to get artists to draw Muhammad in cartoons.
So: a person decides to do something offensive, purely because it's offensive, in order to see how the people to whom it is offensive will react.
We have a word for that here on the Internet.
It's called "trolling."
And once you realize that, the whole thing makes sense. . .
September:
Jyllands-Posten newspaper of Denmark:
"MUHOMMED IZ The SUXX0RS!!!1!1! IZLAM SUXXXX! MUZL:IMS SUX!"
Almost every Muslim who hears about this:
"It's a troll. Ignore the troll. Don't feed the troll."
Jyllands-Posten newspaper:
Is mostly ignored.
A couple Muslims, here and there:
"D00d, you're being an asswipe. Stop it."
Nothing much happens. Months pass. Then the Jyllands-Posten newspaper gets it buddies involved -- after all, if your FIRST attempt at trolling fails, get a bunch of friends together and troll again:
"LOOKAETZ THE WEEERD MUSLIMS ALL OFF#ENDED CAUZ MUHOMMED SUXXXORS!!"
Again, not too much reaction, until, finally, JACKPOT! Finally, they get a troll to bite on the OTHER side!
They are given the gift of Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, who bites exactly the way that Jylands-Posten HOPED someone would bite.
"OMG! WTF!1 YOU I KEEEEL j0000!"
Now, things have gotten good -- once you've got trolls on BOTH sides, THEN you're cookin'.
'Cause, at THIS point, you can't even be a REASONABLE person on either side without outside folks thinking you're allied to the trolls. And, in effect, at this point, if you're a reasonable person making reasonable points about the importance of freedom of the press, and secular society, or about the importance of multicultural respect, and treating other people's beliefs with dignity even if you don't agree with them -- well, then you ARE allied to one set of trolls or the other.
At this point, the only thing that reasonable, mature people can do is post the whole thing to LJDrama or fandom_wank, and point and mock the whole kerfluffle.
The problem is that this has become a flamewar with real flames. I mean, when we talk about incendiary rhetoric now, we're talking about actual, literal incendiary devices to go with it. And this rarely happens on the Internet, since few browsers have implemented POIP -- Petrol Over IP.
So: a person decides to do something offensive, purely because it's offensive, in order to see how the people to whom it is offensive will react.
We have a word for that here on the Internet.
It's called "trolling."
And once you realize that, the whole thing makes sense. . .
September:
Jyllands-Posten newspaper of Denmark:
"MUHOMMED IZ The SUXX0RS!!!1!1! IZLAM SUXXXX! MUZL:IMS SUX!"
Almost every Muslim who hears about this:
"It's a troll. Ignore the troll. Don't feed the troll."
Jyllands-Posten newspaper:
Is mostly ignored.
A couple Muslims, here and there:
"D00d, you're being an asswipe. Stop it."
Nothing much happens. Months pass. Then the Jyllands-Posten newspaper gets it buddies involved -- after all, if your FIRST attempt at trolling fails, get a bunch of friends together and troll again:
"LOOKAETZ THE WEEERD MUSLIMS ALL OFF#ENDED CAUZ MUHOMMED SUXXXORS!!"
Again, not too much reaction, until, finally, JACKPOT! Finally, they get a troll to bite on the OTHER side!
They are given the gift of Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, who bites exactly the way that Jylands-Posten HOPED someone would bite.
"OMG! WTF!1 YOU I KEEEEL j0000!"
Now, things have gotten good -- once you've got trolls on BOTH sides, THEN you're cookin'.
'Cause, at THIS point, you can't even be a REASONABLE person on either side without outside folks thinking you're allied to the trolls. And, in effect, at this point, if you're a reasonable person making reasonable points about the importance of freedom of the press, and secular society, or about the importance of multicultural respect, and treating other people's beliefs with dignity even if you don't agree with them -- well, then you ARE allied to one set of trolls or the other.
At this point, the only thing that reasonable, mature people can do is post the whole thing to LJDrama or fandom_wank, and point and mock the whole kerfluffle.
The problem is that this has become a flamewar with real flames. I mean, when we talk about incendiary rhetoric now, we're talking about actual, literal incendiary devices to go with it. And this rarely happens on the Internet, since few browsers have implemented POIP -- Petrol Over IP.