Just Because You Can... Doesn't Mean You Should

The Mohammed cartoon controversy rages on. Tom Toles has a good cartoon on the embassy burners.

I like what August Pollak has to say-

First off, I'm not supporting Muslim extremists here. Outrage or not, there's no "justification" or whatever for what many are now calling for, such as killing Danish and French soldiers. That said, there's no excuse for people like Michelle Malkin's brand-new and latest bout of selective memory loss.

Are the cartoons freedom of speech? Well, yeah. Of course you have the right to print shitty, racist cartoons that serve no purpose but to inflame Arab sentiment and make racist right-wingers feel good about themselves. You have the right to show a black man hanging from a tree or a buck-toothed Asian, too. But in any of those cases you don't have the right to feign petty self-righteous faux-amazement that people got upset about it...

...This isn't South Park, where there's actually some concept of social mores being challenged or questioned. Agree or disagree with various South Park episodes (like I do), there's an intelligent justification for most of the racial humor in that show. There isn't any here. The cartoons were drawn for one single purpose: to attack Muslims and provoke their ire....

I agree with this. In the past few days, I've gotten more upset with the pleasure (instead of the principle) with which the cartoons have been reprinted. There's a point where you're defending a right to publish controversial material in the face of those who want it censored... and a point where you're just being an asshole. You don't scream "fire!" in a crowded theatre, do you? I believe that line is being crossed. I am tired of right-wingers hiding behind freedom of speech/press (something they've openly loathed for years) to hide their racist glee at seeing Muslims get all offended. If you want to see the epitome of this, check out the non-stop race-baiting of Michelle Malkin, a foul Coulter-wannabe who considers Japanese internment camps a great era of American history (hey, Michelle, why no posts about the Attorney General legally embarrasing himself in front of the Senate?). As I noted last week, the hypocrisy of the most vocal defenders of the cartoons is astounding. That they are right on the essential points (freedom of press, standing up to religious extremists) is somewhat of a coincidence here.

Pollack hits on this point:

[Malkin]'s doing this because it feels so good to her to be a racist. And because she doesn't given a damn about the lives of soldiers. Or, at the very least, she cares about tweaking liberals and angering Muslims a hell of a lot more. And the same goes to any right-winger finding the first amendment as a token of convenience, yet again.

So a few points-
1. Europeans, stop being so smug. Americans are supposed to be the assholes, not you.
2. Muslims, stop burning buildings. You're only proving the cartoons right.
3. Right-wingers, stop pretending you care about our democratic values and go back to accusing the NY Times of treason.

Thank you.