Nude Blogger Riles Egyptians of All Stripes

[Antonio the Sixth]

Pissing off idiots is always a good thing.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Pissing off idiots is always a good thing.

Erm...that's not necessarily true.

^

The stakes are high enough here that the less these particular idiots' specific idiocies are stoked the better.

People need to stand up against the rise of islamism. If the obscurantists don't realize some people who won't abide to their laws, they can only be more dangerous.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Pissing off idiots is always a good thing.

Erm...that's not necessarily true.

^

The stakes are high enough here that the less these particular idiots' specific idiocies are stoked the better.

People need to stand up against the rise of islamism. If the obscurantists don't realize some people who won't abide to their laws, they can only be more dangerous.

See, I'm really not sure this is one of those things that one needs to make a battle of, though, particularly considering how delicate everything is right now.

This kind of logic ("well, let's not talk about this now because, you know, it's a troubled period, everybody needs to chill out, etc...") always leads to radicalization. We need to stick to principles as firmly as possible.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Pissing off idiots is always a good thing.

Erm...that's not necessarily true.

^

The stakes are high enough here that the less these particular idiots' specific idiocies are stoked the better.

People need to stand up against the rise of islamism. If the obscurantists don't realize some people who won't abide to their laws, they can only be more dangerous.

See, I'm really not sure this is one of those things that one needs to make a battle of, though, particularly considering how delicate everything is right now.

This kind of logic ("well, let's not talk about this now because, you know, it's a troubled period, everybody needs to chill out, etc...") always leads to radicalization. We need to stick to principles as firmly as possible.

I don't think that's necessarily true. The more radical option A is the more likely people are to go for option B. For example, part of the reason the Nazis could whip up so much support in the 30s was that people were (rightly) worried about Communism.

If an average Egyptian thinks the choice is between theocracy and decadent Western values they are more likely to go for theocracy. So, while there is definitely a time for this battle to be fought I'm not convinced it should be first in line. Then again, I'm not Egyptian so it isn't really my place.

That's not this kind of situation. I honestly doubt the average egyptian gives a sh*t about a random blogger posting nude pics. This is the issue of a minority vs a minority : the islamist activists on the one hand, the pro-freedom activists on the other, while 80% of people are focused on totally different issues (corruption, authoritarism and, above all, poverty).

The point is that, if people keep reasoning in terms of "well, let's give this to the islamists so that maybe the won't be too angry at us", it will spur them to go further and further on the way to theocracy. The right parallel would be, rather, the 1938 Munich conference.