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"Dissident voices are ruled out of order and successfully demonized (Pim Fortuyn), killed (Theo van Gogh) or face such severe threats to their security that the
by sfk 17y ago
"Dissident voices are ruled out of order and successfully demonized (Pim Fortuyn), killed (Theo van Gogh) or face such severe threats to their security that they are forced to emigrate, as in the case of Somali-born politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who violated the Dutch norms of “consensus” by insisting on publicly discussing female genital mutilation; honor violence; honor killings; and forced marriages."
The author conflates many issues here. Most people disagreed with Fortuyn because he was a right-wing populist who managed to form a fringe party that consisted of sorry losers. The guy himself was intelligent, witty and utterly narcissistic. He was like a character in Oscar Wilde's plays who had a bon mot for everything and solutions for nothing. Not the kind of person who should have political power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pim_Fortuyn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pim_Fortuyn
- gaius 17y agoNot the kind of person who should have political power. That is up to the voters to decide, no?
- cousin_it 17y agoNo, the author doesn't conflate anything. Yes, the people mentioned differ in many ways: gender, political views, popular image... But they do have something in common: they vocally attacked Islamic practices and were punished.
- lucumo 17y agoYes, because the idiotic actions of crazy individuals are totally the responsibility of all people in a society. Have you repented for the murder of JFK, Lincoln and some school personnel in San Diego (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Ann_Spencer) yet?
- cousin_it 17y agoI don't know exactly why people downvoted you (I didn't), but guess it's because you attacked factual statements with emotional statements.
- lucumo 17y agoMy tone was a bit overly confrontational I think, for which I apologize. But I do think the analogy holds. Theo van Gogh was indeed killed for his anti-Islam statements, but by a disturbed individual who had hoped to solve the situation that way. It only made it worse, of course. The murder of Pim Fortuyn follows more or less the same pattern. Killed by a disturbed individual that figured that was the only way to stop him. Fortuyn especially had a relatively large following among the Dutch. I don't think "punished" is the right word for it, since it implies that there is any legitimacy to their murders, or even sanctioned by the populace, which is simply not the case.
- cousin_it 17y agoIf in a certain country vocal criticism of a certain ideology is frequently met with punishment, this fact seems informative to me regardless of whether the punishment was democratically sanctioned by the majority.