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[ToxicAdam]

I'd probably stand in the middle, a little to the right, poking both extremes.

 

[Rayo]

I got 9/14. Skipped 2 questions that I didn't know the reference.

 

[Mandark]

Just read the quiz part of this. Jeez. It's the same old argument Hitchens has been making for years now, and basically goes like this:

"If you vote to support liberal values domestically, you should bomb to support liberal values internationally."

Heard round here recently as "If u dont liek religun, y u liek iran so much???"

 

[GSG Flash]

That quiz was the stupidest thing I've seen :lol

 

[FieryBalrog]

double post.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Bingo. I don't know why so many conservatives seem to think liberals are somehow sympathetic to reactionary Islam. I guess just more typical right-wing smears.

It has everything to do with the actions of some liberals, not their words. Basically, take a look at those on the left Hitchens is criticizing (a great many of them, when it comes to the intelligensia). It has to do with defending such things as the bloody riots over the cartoons (making excuses for it, and casting their rhetoric towards the newspapers themselves of all things), and many, many actions in a similar vein.

The article improves once she lets others do the talking, who make a far better case than she does. She paints liberal philosophy in black and white terms, that they accept Fundamental Islam while vilifying less intolerant forces at home, such as Christian Evangelism. There are more than two sides to this situation. I don't think that viewpoint is accurate or is adhered to by many liberals at all.

Fundamental Islam is offensive to a western liberal to the point of it not needing mention. It's been like that for years and it's become a given. What has changed and is worth mentioning is there are similar beliefs popping up here in the West with a fundamentalist movement all their own. It's the same with Israel, while we certainly have more in common with them there is no denying that they have become terribly aggressive and belegerent as of late, what with partioning Palestine and dropping cluster bombs on Lebannon, to name a couple examples.

For a secular liberal to point out that old allies are changing their ways for the worse in no way supports the age-old cultures that we didn't and still don't endorse. It's called cleaning up your own backyard first.

This is the typical navel-gazing approach that I have to vehemently disagree with.

Its a very convenient way to greet every external danger or development with more platitudes for self-policing.

 

[FieryBalrog]

Not to start a flame war but conservatives always find this layered approach too subtle to appreciate. For them it's always one side or the other, a zero/one equation. You have to attack Iraq or you else you think they're bloody heroes defying the U.S.

It's more than merely stupid, it's downright unintelligent.

I am quite conservative and I find this insulting, mostly because my personal views are probably twice as complex and nuanced as yours, if you're the type to be making these sort of statements.

 

[Freshmaker]

It has everything to do with the actions of some liberals, not their words. Basically, take a look at those on the left Hitchens is criticizing (a great many of them, when it comes to the intelligensia). It has to do with defending such things as the bloody riots over the cartoons (making excuses for it, and casting their rhetoric towards the newspapers themselves of all things), and many, many actions in a similar vein.

Usually the idea is to examine a problem so that problems like that one don't pop up again in the future. (Learning from mistakes/history)

Then there's the faction that presumes everything they do and say is right. They run along happy and free right up until they encounter another group of like minded individuals. Then they spend years trying to punish each other into submission. Don't want to understand the strange people who don't think exactly like they do. They just want them out of the way or sifficently marginalized so they don't have to worry about the possibility that their chosen path wasn't really the best one.

 

[WrathOfOtaibah]

I stand in favor of human rights.

 

[Freshmaker]

I stand in favor of human rights.

Oh noes! The terrorists win!