This Wednesday's Racist, Colonialist Charlie Hebdo Cover

Three million copies will be printed; the paper usually prints 50,000.

I don't really get the intent of the cover, but then, I never understand any of their cartoons, really. As I don't understand them, I don't pretend to be able to divine their intent and judge their politics.

This separates me from the left, who also doesn't understand the house style of Charlie Hebdo humor, but which wants to portray itself as experts on all things, and have, therefore, been claiming to "really get" Charlie Hebdo since they heard of it last Wednesday. And they've decided, along with the Islamists, that Charlie Hebdo kind of deserved it.

For a political position which claims to place such a strong emphasis on empathy, it has been sorely lacking on the far-Left in recent days. That all of the journalists were murdered over a difference of opinion is apparently irrelevant; instead, I have seen a far greater effort on the demonstration on far-Left credentials through the condemnation of Charlie Hebdo and freedom of speech than on solidarity with democrats and anti-Islamists. More importantly, in criticising the cartoons in response to an outpouring of sympathy for Charlie Hebdo, it is implied that their deaths are less important than if those cartoons had never been drawn.

"Those criticising Charlie Hebdo's cartoons are implying that the victims are unworthy of sympathy whilst denying they’re doing such a thing." https://twitter.com/JoeMiles94/status/553218280241242112

This is the heart of the opposition towards people celebrating free speech in defiance of Islamist violence – that ultimately, people who disagree with the far-Left are worth less as people, and the legitimacy of what they have to say is devalued as a result. This perspective is far more dangerous to freedom of speech than violent lunatics, as rather than arguing the problem with freedom of speech is a cartoon mocking Islamist demagoguery, freedom of speech is instead criticised as a flawed value. It is what prompts the usage of 'Freeze Peaches' [making fun of the concept of free speech by calling it by a babytalk name -- ace ] or "Free Speech" in quotation marks. This, not gun-toting maniacs, is the real threat to freedom of speech over the coming weeks and months – that Charlie Hebdo’s insistence on satirising Islamism makes them too irreverent for their principles to be defended. They and their values must be.

Below then the new cover of Charlie Hebdo. I don't get it. Mohammad is saying "All is forgiven."

I don't... I don't understand what they're trying to say. I think sometimes this paper gets so lost in ironizing an ironic take originally made ironically that their actual message disappears somewhere up in the seventh dimension of their own assholes (which then allows ignorant American left-wingers to claim this communist- oriented left-wing magazine is Racist and ergo RightWing).

If anyone can explain this to me, let me know.

Of course, the actual meaning of the cartoon doesn't really matter. What matters is that someone wanted to print this cartoon-- and other people want to kill them for it.

And the Left Wing, which, unlike the Islamist scum, grew up in rich, decent civil societies, actually takes the killers' side in this argument, as they usually do.

Hey, getting back at your father is a lifetime job.

Incidentally, Charlie's first issue after the savage butchery of last Wednesday is obviously newsworthy, and of course so then is its cover; but the media will of course embargo.

Praise the Prophet Mohammad, and please cut our throats last.

Meanwhile, the Islamists and the New York Times, CNN, AP, and NBCNews are on the same page:

posted by Ace at 04:59 PM

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