Good one Author. Always astute, and thanks for making me laugh and educating me further on these points. Ammunition in debates is never a bad thing, I must say!
You know, I can remember when in order to use the word “racism” you had to actually be talking about, you know, people being treated badly because of their race. These days it’s used mainly as a way of asserting that honest discussion of certain groups has been marked off limits by your moral superiors, so don’t even think of going there.
This is no doubt known by many now but by far the best definition of an Islamophobe I’ve seen to date is: “A person who knows more about Islam than they’re supposed to” ………
Muslims are told that they are the best
The rest of humanity is an infidel pest
By watching their actions, it has come to pass
That islam requires a kick in the ass
Imam’s babbling prattle, do give it a rest.
If ‘phobic’ means fear, then why wouldn’t a lot of people not fear a groiup of people that invade cafes and kill people. GLBT peole certainly have a right to fear islam.
They should use the word hate. But that might get people to start thinking about why they may want to hate islam.
Nice one. I don’t think I’ve heard this excellent response before to the “well what do you expect” apologia. Obvious really, but it took Author to make me see it.
“Phobia” means an unreasonable fear. I think most people have quite reasonable grounds to be afraid of Islam.
Of course “Islamophobia” is a deliberate analogy to homophobia, which is used to mean anti-gay bigotry. I think homophobia is an ill-chosen term, though I understand its origins as I know how much anti-gay bigotry is rooted in the fear of being gay oneself. I used to be a junior-high (middle school in today’s terms) too.
Plaudits to the author for actually never having slipped into Islamophobia during the long history of this strip. The day it ever turned into [these people with their dangerous foreign beliefs and the horrible things they do] etc. would be the day I leave.
On behalf of the Blattodea, I must object to cockroaches being stigmatized as racists. Everyone* knows it’s the wasps (Apocrita, except for bees and ants) who are the real racists.
*That’s me and the cockroaches, as well as the beetles and spiders.
Michael, did you mean WASPs (in all caps) 😉 ? (That’s White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, in case you were wondering.) Some WASPs are racist (and some aren’t, of course), but WASPs don’t have a monopoly on racist attitudes.
That said, I have never heard any racist remarks from cockroaches, and I have never found heard of a case where they have chosen to infest (or avoid) a building based on the race(s) of the human inhabitants.
As for wasps (the insects), based on their stinging behavior, I’d say they’re not racist, but species-ist. Wasps seem to think, “If you’re not my species of wasp, and you bother me, it’s my duty to sting you.” (As far as I know, wasps don’t sting their own species, but I could be wrong.)
I wonder why Mo thinks of wasps as non-racist but thinks of cockroaches as racist. They seem to me to have the same level of mindlessness and non-agency. Maybe Mo doesn’t mind Muslims being compared to wasps because wasps sting and they’re not associated with filth the way cockroaches are.
I also used to think the phobia it homophobia it was like fear of heights. Learned a couple years ago, can’t remember where of course, it’s an analogy Robert + not + Bob,
I also used to think the phobia it homophobia it was like fear of heights. Learned a couple years ago, can’t remember where of course, it’s an analogy to Xenophobia.
Which if I’m not mistaken is a concept wherein prejudice like against Black people is explained as coming from “we fear what is different from us”. But we know prejudice against Black people, including all it’s crazy myths, was invented to justify slavery. And keep white people from making common cause with Black slaves. So in my opinion Xenophobia itself is a stupid bogus concept. That misleads us about the intentionality of certain bad things in our society. Pushing racism off as a sad side effect of human nature. When it’s actually a complex political institution. With quite a bit of ingenuity. And with homophobia all of us who were ever in junior high know that boys are taught to be terrified of being called gay on like a daily basis. Once more inventing a prejudice, and then making that prejudice a rule and enforcing it. So yeah all the ‘phobia’ terms kind of suck.
Great cartoon. A Reid Malenfant’s comment is perfect!
Conn, I’m sorry but I can’t figure out what you’re trying to say about phobias. As to the “natural or created for political gain” question on the origin of the various types of xenophobia, I suspect the answer is “both”. That is, an inborn tendency to fear the Different is used (sometimes consciously and sometimes not).
I’ve always wondered, by the way, how much of homophobia is indirectly due to misogyny. So many “boy insults” are comparisons to girls, and being gay is like being a woman, right? (Lesbians, as often noted, do not fit this paradigm and therefore “don’t exist”.) *massive eyeroll*
how much of homophobia is indirectly due to misogyny
to an extent
but some at least is due to patriarchal male supremacy
[ there is a subtle distinction in that one is promotion of alpha male power status, the other denigration of the feminine
because homosexual rape is used by heterosexuals on other males to assert power over the victim, which may well have no connection with misogyny]
so any abdication of male status by female role gays and transwomen
threatens to undermine the patriarchal status quo
misogyny tends to be a side effect of this to keep females from ‘acting above their status’
anyone who transitions [in either direction] will notice a profound change in how they are socially treated
Neurobiologist Ben Barres has a unique perspective on former Harvard president Lawrence Summers’s assertion that innate differences between the sexes might explain why many fewer women than men reach the highest echelons of science.
white squirrel:
“…the problem is that all too often islamophobia [a positive rationality] is equated with muslimophobia [ a variety of cultural prejudice]”
The problem is exacerbated by the use of “Islamophobia” by so-called progressive liberals, as a stick with which to tar genuine critics of Islam, hoping to identify them as racist xenophobes. The response could lie with adoption of a new term for genuine (non-bigotted) critics, coined by themselves.
I’ve taken to describing myself as “Islamonauseous”, although this form was coined by Nicolai Sennels, someone who, it is claimed, shows signs of bigotry in his writing. Does anyone here have a good neologism to offer, to replace the seemingly-disgraced term “Islamophobe”?
Well I am definitely anti-islamist, and probably an islamosceptic, I might even be islamaphobic, I don’t really care. Islam is only an idea, and in my opinion a bad one.
I don’t think the military might of the western world has bothered to show up, beyond a few special ops missions and airstrikes, plus a poorly trained low morale proxy army in Iraq.
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November 27, 2019
Good one Author. Always astute, and thanks for making me laugh and educating me further on these points. Ammunition in debates is never a bad thing, I must say!
You know, I can remember when in order to use the word “racism” you had to actually be talking about, you know, people being treated badly because of their race. These days it’s used mainly as a way of asserting that honest discussion of certain groups has been marked off limits by your moral superiors, so don’t even think of going there.
I remember when people believed that ‘race’ was about biology.
Thanks again, Author. It’s really good to refine my understanding of racist metaphors, and you explain them brilliantly.
This is no doubt known by many now but by far the best definition of an Islamophobe I’ve seen to date is: “A person who knows more about Islam than they’re supposed to” ………
Reid Malenfant – not heard it before – very good! 🙂
When is Mo’s body double going to get a booster seat in the car for gawdsakes?
Muslims are told that they are the best
The rest of humanity is an infidel pest
By watching their actions, it has come to pass
That islam requires a kick in the ass
Imam’s babbling prattle, do give it a rest.
Reid+Malenfant, very good descrition.
If ‘phobic’ means fear, then why wouldn’t a lot of people not fear a groiup of people that invade cafes and kill people. GLBT peole certainly have a right to fear islam.
They should use the word hate. But that might get people to start thinking about why they may want to hate islam.
Nice one. I don’t think I’ve heard this excellent response before to the “well what do you expect” apologia. Obvious really, but it took Author to make me see it.
Hah! A laugh out louder.
@ Suffolk+Blue
Mo doesn’t need a booster seat, Allah is driving.
“Phobia” means an unreasonable fear. I think most people have quite reasonable grounds to be afraid of Islam.
Of course “Islamophobia” is a deliberate analogy to homophobia, which is used to mean anti-gay bigotry. I think homophobia is an ill-chosen term, though I understand its origins as I know how much anti-gay bigotry is rooted in the fear of being gay oneself. I used to be a junior-high (middle school in today’s terms) too.
Delicate subject.
Plaudits to the author for actually never having slipped into Islamophobia during the long history of this strip. The day it ever turned into [these people with their dangerous foreign beliefs and the horrible things they do] etc. would be the day I leave.
On behalf of the Blattodea, I must object to cockroaches being stigmatized as racists. Everyone* knows it’s the wasps (Apocrita, except for bees and ants) who are the real racists.
*That’s me and the cockroaches, as well as the beetles and spiders.
Michael, did you mean WASPs (in all caps) 😉 ? (That’s White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, in case you were wondering.) Some WASPs are racist (and some aren’t, of course), but WASPs don’t have a monopoly on racist attitudes.
That said, I have never heard any racist remarks from cockroaches, and I have never found heard of a case where they have chosen to infest (or avoid) a building based on the race(s) of the human inhabitants.
As for wasps (the insects), based on their stinging behavior, I’d say they’re not racist, but species-ist. Wasps seem to think, “If you’re not my species of wasp, and you bother me, it’s my duty to sting you.” (As far as I know, wasps don’t sting their own species, but I could be wrong.)
I wonder why Mo thinks of wasps as non-racist but thinks of cockroaches as racist. They seem to me to have the same level of mindlessness and non-agency. Maybe Mo doesn’t mind Muslims being compared to wasps because wasps sting and they’re not associated with filth the way cockroaches are.
If the edit feature were still available, I’d go back and strike “found” from my posting above. Sorry for the sloppy proofreading!
To Robert + not + Bob,
I also used to think the phobia it homophobia it was like fear of heights. Learned a couple years ago, can’t remember where of course, it’s an analogy Robert + not + Bob,
I also used to think the phobia it homophobia it was like fear of heights. Learned a couple years ago, can’t remember where of course, it’s an analogy to Xenophobia.
Which if I’m not mistaken is a concept wherein prejudice like against Black people is explained as coming from “we fear what is different from us”. But we know prejudice against Black people, including all it’s crazy myths, was invented to justify slavery. And keep white people from making common cause with Black slaves. So in my opinion Xenophobia itself is a stupid bogus concept. That misleads us about the intentionality of certain bad things in our society. Pushing racism off as a sad side effect of human nature. When it’s actually a complex political institution. With quite a bit of ingenuity. And with homophobia all of us who were ever in junior high know that boys are taught to be terrified of being called gay on like a daily basis. Once more inventing a prejudice, and then making that prejudice a rule and enforcing it. So yeah all the ‘phobia’ terms kind of suck.
Great cartoon. A Reid Malenfant’s comment is perfect!
Conn, I’m sorry but I can’t figure out what you’re trying to say about phobias. As to the “natural or created for political gain” question on the origin of the various types of xenophobia, I suspect the answer is “both”. That is, an inborn tendency to fear the Different is used (sometimes consciously and sometimes not).
I’ve always wondered, by the way, how much of homophobia is indirectly due to misogyny. So many “boy insults” are comparisons to girls, and being gay is like being a woman, right? (Lesbians, as often noted, do not fit this paradigm and therefore “don’t exist”.) *massive eyeroll*
the problem is that all too often islamophobia [a positive rationality] is equated with muslimophobia [ a variety of cultural prejudice]
how much of homophobia is indirectly due to misogyny
to an extent
but some at least is due to patriarchal male supremacy
[ there is a subtle distinction in that one is promotion of alpha male power status, the other denigration of the feminine
because homosexual rape is used by heterosexuals on other males to assert power over the victim, which may well have no connection with misogyny]
so any abdication of male status by female role gays and transwomen
threatens to undermine the patriarchal status quo
misogyny tends to be a side effect of this to keep females from ‘acting above their status’
anyone who transitions [in either direction] will notice a profound change in how they are socially treated
When is Mo’s body double going to get a booster seat in the car
he has
what we can see is Mo using a childs ‘play steering wheel’ and its actually Jesus driving the right wing drive car
white+squirrel, your comment about how women are treated reminded me of an article I read recently at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201883.html . It begins:
Neurobiologist Ben Barres has a unique perspective on former Harvard president Lawrence Summers’s assertion that innate differences between the sexes might explain why many fewer women than men reach the highest echelons of science.
That’s because Barres used to be a woman himself.
white squirrel:
“…the problem is that all too often islamophobia [a positive rationality] is equated with muslimophobia [ a variety of cultural prejudice]”
The problem is exacerbated by the use of “Islamophobia” by so-called progressive liberals, as a stick with which to tar genuine critics of Islam, hoping to identify them as racist xenophobes. The response could lie with adoption of a new term for genuine (non-bigotted) critics, coined by themselves.
I’ve taken to describing myself as “Islamonauseous”, although this form was coined by Nicolai Sennels, someone who, it is claimed, shows signs of bigotry in his writing. Does anyone here have a good neologism to offer, to replace the seemingly-disgraced term “Islamophobe”?
Well I am definitely anti-islamist, and probably an islamosceptic, I might even be islamaphobic, I don’t really care. Islam is only an idea, and in my opinion a bad one.
Isis has taken more territory in Iraq and Syria. It seems the military might of the western world is not stopping them. What is going on?
I don’t think the military might of the western world has bothered to show up, beyond a few special ops missions and airstrikes, plus a poorly trained low morale proxy army in Iraq.
Deebles, I’m usually against the military might of the western world showing up, but in the case of ISIS I’d be willing to make an exception.
@Darwin Harmless:
Because it worked out so well the last time we “showed up” in that neighborhood?
Sorry… “neighbourhood”
(Almost forgot where I was for a moment…)