4 ms·
It probably got flagged for being a racist dog whistle.
by istjohn 3y ago
It probably got flagged for being a racist dog whistle.
- LawTalkingGuy 3y agoThat's surely what happened, even though it obviously isn't correct. Islam is a religion, not a race. It's just as reasonable for the French to complain about Islam as for a progressive Californian to complain about Christianity. Sadly, HN doesn't seem to take away the right to flag posts when people abuse it.
- istjohn 3y agoA progressive Californian and a Christian Californian are as likely as not to have the same racial background. A French Islamophobe and a French Muslim, not so much. California never colonized a Christian country like France colonized Algeria. Sometimes the superficial truth is just that, and reality is more nuanced.
- LawTalkingGuy 3y agoYou're trying too hard to force a racial context onto France and deny one in the USA. In California a Christian is less likely to be white, and a progressive more likely to be white than not. And many of those Christians come from countries that the USA has been involved in and not always left in good shape so most of the same dynamics even exist. Regardless, criticizing religion is fair game and a Euro has a right to criticize Islam the same as to criticize Christianity, even if there's a racial disparity between the membership of the two.
- bell-cot 3y agoFirst reaction: Baloney - no mention of race, some previous French civil unrest has very much been white-on-white over economic issues, etc., etc. Second reaction: Well, we are talking about France. Where suspecting that ethnic or racial divisions are possible is verboten, and the government's policy can be summarized "Napoleon and his armies fought hard to make the Nile a river in France, dammit!". ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_campaign_in_Egypt_and_Syria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_campaign_in_Egypt_and_S... )
- ryandrake 3y agoIt could just be that the comment was deliberately vague and contained nothing but innuendo. HN gets these kinds of comments all the time, on all sorts of topics: "I know the answer but I can't say it because I'll get downvoted..." and "We're not allowed to talk about the truth, but we all know what it is..." and "Without going into details, I'll just say the article is wrong." These kinds of comments add absolutely nothing to the conversation, and I'd say flagging is 100% appropriate. If one has something to say, say it clearly or don't bother posting.
- aodonnell2536 3y agoI’m not following. In what way is user di4na’s comment a racist dog whistle?