What is the proper response to hate speech?

[MADem]

62. Well, obviously not wholesale slaughter.

However, "lumping" isn't appropriate either.

I'm seeing a lot of "those people" type posts, and I'm rather sickened by the broad brushing, too. I always thought "progressives" were better at NUANCE--after all, they are supposed to have a forward-looking point of view. Unfortunately, I'm finding out that a few self-styled progressives are in actual fact xenophobes, and I find that troubling.

If people want to see the images, they're out there--Google is everyone's friend. Perhaps people don't realize that a lot of the images aren't just hateful conceptually, it's not just about a "draw Mohamet" thing, but they're also pornographic (if a cartoon can be pornographic). I don't like looking at images of butt-nekkid bozos, no matter who is depicted, and even if they do have a gold star over their cartoon bunghole. A lot of the images just aren't "family friendly" and newspapers do have to appeal to a wide swathe within a "standards and practices" framework.

I will say this horrible event brought out the worst in a few people--and I'm not just talking about the shitheads who committed the heinous crime, either.