Viswanathan K's Thoughts

I never thought I’d ever write a blog praising anything about Russia’s rulers, but I’d forgotten about Islamic fundamentalism. And no, you can’t dismiss what I am going to describe as an instance of comparing apples and oranges. It is exactly the same scenario; so it’s an apples and apples comparison. Remember Charlie Hebdo, the French publication that published cartoons mocking Mohammed and was rewarded with an Islamist who came into their office and killed some of them? If nothing else, Hebdo proved they are an equal opportunity offender recently. Following the downing/crash of the Russian airliner over Egypt, they published this cartoon: If you don’t understand French, let the Guardian translate it for you: “One shows debris and body parts falling on Islamic State fighters, with the caption: “IS: Russian aviation is intensifying bombardments” –, a reference to its airstrikes in Syria.” Russians were outraged. Putin’s spokesman condemned the cartoon. That’s it. No eq...

Garry Trudeau recently wrote an article about what he calls the “abuse of satire” . He starts with what satire was meant to be: “Traditionally, satire has comforted the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable. Satire punches up, against authority of all kinds, the little guy against the powerful. Great French satirists like Molière and Daumier always punched up, holding up the self-satisfied and hypocritical to ridicule.” He contrasts the above with Charlie Hebdo , the French publication that lampooned Mohammed and whose office got attacked in Paris in January: “By punching downward, by attacking a powerless, disenfranchised minority with crude, vulgar drawings closer to graffiti than cartoons, Charlie wandered into the realm of hate speech, which in France is only illegal if it directly incites violence.” And so he concludes: “It’s always worth asking this question: Is anyone, anyone at all, laughing? If not, maybe you crossed it.” All of the above would make sense,...