More state power, not free speech, the likeliest we-are-Charlie result – World – CBC News.
By Neil Macdonald
Jan 13, 2015
A renewed war on terror seems to be what’s on most Western governments’ minds
By Neil Macdonald, CBC News Posted: Jan 13, 2015 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Jan 13, 2015 12:30 PM ET
Hundreds of thousands of French citizens took part in a solidarity march in the streets of Paris on Sunday, in the wake of the massacre at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Hundreds of thousands of French citizens took part in a solidarity march in the streets of Paris on Sunday, in the wake of the massacre at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. (Charles Platiau/Reuters)
Well, everyone must at least feel better now, having chanted and declared for days that we’re all Charlie.
It was, or it seemed, a cry for freedom of speech, ringing outward from one of the world’s first secular democracies.
In reality, though, with all due respect to the sentiment behind it, Sunday’s great march through the centre of Paris, and others like it around the world, must qualify as one of the greatest collective acts of slacktivism so far this century.
And the consequences of all this outrage may be far from what the protesters intended.
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Think about it: just whom were these marchers addressing? The executioners who showed up at Charlie Hebdo last week?
If those characters were still alive, they would probably answer no, you’re not Charlie, because we killed Charlie.
Perhaps the slogan was directed at the bearded ISIS fighters who’ve been slaughtering and raping and oppressing their way through modern-day Mesopotamia and the Levant.
If so, the message was probably received with some bemusement. Perhaps even a bit of triumphalism. Score another one for their version of Islam.
Or were the I-Am-Charlie crowds addressing their own governments?
Full story:
Charlie result – World – CBC News.
