October 20, 2008

fear mongering through hate.

last night, i was sifting through the mail i'd received over the weekend, and came across a dvd that had been mailed to me called "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West." it was housed in a cardboard mailing sleeve hailing the film as a "must-watch" and an "eye-opener." it was also not mailed to "resident," but actually addressed to me personally.

i immediately threw it on the discard pile, and wondered out loud how those people got my name and address, seeing as i wasn't remotely interested in viewing or sharing their hate-mongering trash. the incident sparked an ugly fight with the boy about all sorts of things, but one claim was that by assuming the dvd was hate propoganda - without actually watching it - i was being as ignorant as the people i write off, who make assumptions about people / ideas / etc without having good (or any) facts to base their assumptions on.

here's my thing. everyone - including (and especially) muslim people - agrees that radical islam is not something to hold up as a shining example. no one rationally promotes suicide bombings and attacks on innocent civilians as a good thing.* so if i receive a dvd begging me to watch the "real" story behind how radical islam is destroying the west? i'm going to go ahead and assume there's another agenda there, either insinuating that islam itself is dangerous, or that muslim people can't be trusted, or that the "real" american way of life needs to remain solidly rooted in christianity, because hey! that's what's right!

and i refuse to have any part of that sort of thinking. i will not watch it, i will not pass it on, and i will not even give them a chance to explain that that's not "really" what they're trying to say. the boy felt that i was being ridiculous by refusing to give him the dvd, if he wanted to watch it out of interest. i told him he had the name of the organization and that he could look the video up on youtube, from his iphone, while we were both standing there in the same room... but i would not play a part in distributing the dvd myself, not to anyone. period.

no one would take the time and money to produce a dvd and mail out 28 million copies with the message that terrorism is bad. we all KNOW terrorism is bad. the only reason someone would feel compelled to produce and desperately want me to watch a dvd about terrorism being a bad thing is if they have another message they're REALLY trying to promote, like maybe "terrorism is bad.... which is why we should kick all the muslims out of our country. make sure you don't vote for obama - his middle name is hussein!"

there's just not any dissent that radical islam is dangerous. so there is no need to send me a dvd to "convince" me of that fact.... unless there are other "facts" you ACTUALLY want to convince me of.

i looked up the organization today. it's pretty clear that it's a shady, pro-mccain organization that is doing its best to scare voters - only in swing states, you'll note - to vote based on suspicion, fear, and hate. i will not link to them, but you can obviously look them up on your own if you like.

i believe in personal freedoms, so i wouldn't stop anyone from looking up the movie and watching it if they wanted to. but i sure as fuck will not help spread that bile around.

*unless they're iraqis, of course. HAR HAR. it's ok when christian americans do it, obvs.**
**i can't believe i even feel the need to write this disclaimer, but obviously that was sarcastic.

19 comments:

  1. I fall firmly on your side of this argument. That is propaganda crap. The only thing that would be better than just trashing it would be if they had provided a no-postage-necessary envelope for you to mail a donation in--so you could fill it with something really heavy and cost them a ton in postage.

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  2. I would totally react the same way.

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  3. Well that explains why I never heard of them, being in a swingless state like Illinois. Sick, sick, sick.

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  4. I got that crap in the mail too and promptly chucked it.

    I can't even begin to explain how grossed out I am over this sort've crap.

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  5. I will back you up on this.

    My city's newspaper of record accepted payment to distribute this DVD with their Sunday paper a while ago, and then they were shocked at the backlash that followed. They're definitely a conservative bastion here in the holy grail of liberal America - bike riding, organic growing & eating, no deodorant wearing, Portland, OR. (Which, I really have to wonder: Why were they shocked? Up until this weekend, we had hosted the largest Pro-Obama rally in the nation, a 75,000 person event during a PRIMARY. Anyway, not the point.)

    So they allowed this to go out, nay, they were PAID to distribute this, and then people got upset and they hid behind the first amendment to justify it. I'd just like to know - would they have distributed something from a neo-Nazi group declaring that Judaism is bad? I sincerely doubt it. Does it take a holocaust to protect a religion from persecution???

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  6. We actually watched a couple of segments from that film in one of my politics classes. If you believe all the stuff the film says it's pretty scary stuff, but scarier than that was the way the film was presented by the film makers.

    I thought it was pretty clear there were some ulterior motives by the film makers and quite a bit of fear mongering going on, it was fairly one sided. (Of course I did only watch excerpts, and we were being asked to look at those few quite critically)

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  7. I'm proud of you.

    I wish the others in question are as sane and logical as your line of thought.

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  8. I wonder if my parents got that in the mail. If so, I'm sure they applauded it.

    I wouldn't have watched it either, but I guess I couldn't blame anyone who wanted to do so, just out of curiosity. Sometimes I listen to conservative talk radio for a few minutes for the same twisted masochistic reason. Sometimes it's good to keep abreast of the nonsense the other side is spewing.

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  9. My parents are people who actually think Obama is a Muslim. They haven't gone so far as to call him a terrorist to me, but I suspect they would if they didn't know what would be coming from me if they did. It enrages me that McCain doesn't denounce this stuff, or any of the other ridiculous shit his supporters spew. But will claim to be ultimate victim of the worst forms of vitriol. He sickens me.

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  10. Hear hear. And like toughtrigger said, my city's newspaper also distributed it (ironically) inside the Sunday paper. I heard about it, but of course had no interest in watching it. Because guess what? Radical islam is bad, but so is radical Christianity. And radical anything else, be it religion or otherwise. Good for you!

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  11. man, you swing states get all the fun.

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  12. Good for you for standing up against fear-mongering!

    The only reason I can think of for watching a video like that is to learn what their arguments are, so I could better argue against them. But I would probably spend so much time yelling at the TV and getting pissed that it wouldn't be helpful.

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  13. we threw our copy right in the trash.

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  14. Good for you. Fear-mongering through hate is the most reprehensible, irresponsible, and destructive activity. I wish people would call it out more often. THANK YOU.

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  15. Here I am in the swing state, in a swing COUNTY for cryin' out loud, and no one mailed me a dvd. Huh. Strange. Or maybe they did already and I chucked it with the rest of the junk mail? Could be, since that is what I would do with it.
    I've said many times, but I'll say it again: we need to find common ground, not yell and pick fights.

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  16. Well done. Far too many people would have watched the video and/or allowed someone else to do so. Every little bit helps in the fight against propaganda and ignorance.

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  17. I didn't get it in the mail!! Well, something less to chuck in the garbage I guess.

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  18. Agreed. But then again, my first instinct is to throw any mail away that doesn't look like a check or something I ordered from Amazon.com.

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  19. And again we must be uber diligent to keep an eye out for and radical group that espouses violence as a solution. Lets we forget the Nazis and their hatred for Jews. Please visit your local holocaust museum to see why we must always keep these things in check. So, yes, hate is bad, but we must be diligent in our efforts.

    Knot

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