In a move hilariously devoid of tact, class, and apparent intellect, former Illinois congressman turned talk radio jockey William Joseph Walsh proved he can't resist an opportunity to criticize Islam and media, even when recent history (and the Fox News article he linked) proves him completely false.
Walsh tweeted "French rag Charlie Hebdo mocks Harvey victims as Neo Nazis[.] Charlie Hebdo makes fun of everyone but Muslims. Cowards" last Thursday, and since then, has spent a good deal of his time backpedaling. For some easy context on just how wrong he was, here's a very recent cover of Charlie Hebdo, dismissing Islam as anything but a religion of peace:
Does this look like the face of cowardice from Islam to you?
Charlie Hebdo, as many are aware, was the victim of a brutal series of terrorist attacks, leading to a global campaign of solidarity dubbed JeSuisCharlie, and a clear statement supporting freedom of speech in the face of violence. HuffPo had this to say after the attack, in an article titled "These Are The Charlie Hebdo Cartoons That Terrorists Thought Were Worth Killing Over":
Gunfire broke out Wednesday in an attack at the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, leaving 12 dead, including four prominent cartoonists.
Known for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as critical depictions of Catholics, Jews and French politicians, the magazine regularly stirred controversy.
Charlie Hebdo gained notoriety in 2006 for its portrayal of a sobbing Muhammad, under the headline “Mahomet débordé par les intégristes” (“Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists”). Within its pages, the magazine published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, bringing unprecedented condemnation from the Muslim world. The French Council for the Muslim Faith eventually sued the weekly for the cartoon. The issue has since been considered the one which positioned Charlie Hebdo as a target for terrorist attacks.
Any good Trump supporting, red-blooded American should remember that, and that sort of person would probably also be quick to point out that HuffPo didn't call-it-by-its-name by simply calling them "terrorists", and not "Islamic terrorists". Fortunately for internet hilarity, some are simply too easy to bait. Joe Walsh, like the hero Texas never needed, was quick to spring into judgement, as he saw this recent cover of the magazine:
Too soon?
Users burned him. Hard. Conservative aggregator Mediaite ran a piece titled: ‘Grand Canyon of Idiocy’: Twitter Reacts to Joe Walsh Claiming Charlie Hebdo Doesn’t Make Fun of Muslims. One user compared his statements about Hebdo to one another, and it was almost too good:
So clearly, there's plenty here to warrant a backflip of a retraction, but Walsh quadrupled down in spectacular fashion, saying soon after "Since the attack, Hebdo has pulled their punches. They're now afraid of Islam, but make fun of hurricane victims. The Muslim terrorists won", and "Only an idiot would think I wasn't aware of the attacks. My point is Hebdo has gone soft on Islam since the attack." But they clearly haven't. That Barcelona cover was last month, and another infamous cover in 2016 sent yet more death threats their way, as it depicted two naked muslims, running on a beach. The Independent reported:
The satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo has received death threats after it published another controversial front page which has been accused of mocking Muslims.
Commenting on the decision to ban burkas from beaches in Cannes, the latest issue depicts a man and woman with a traditional beard and hijab running naked on the beach with the caption “The reform of Islam: Muslims loosen up”.
Sure, Joe - they've stopped mocking Islam.
Now, most joking aside, the cover in question has a lot of baggage. I'm not going to disavow it, because I think this disavowal culture is hypocritical horseshit (I may do a piece on that), but it certainly didn't play nice. And why should it? With a media so bent on portraying the situation in America right now as a frenzied brawl between the most radical elements of the left and right, and a social media landscape forcing polarization on the issue so everyone must walk lockstep with one of these groups or risk being labeled a Nazi or a terrorist, what message does that send to citizens of foreign nations?
Hebdo may not know about Antifa, and how certain elements of that group are... unfriendly... but images of the horrors and devastation of Nazism are only a Google search away. So while it's highly unlikely there were many Neo Nazis harmed by the storm, a message like this is likely directed at the South in general, a region of the US, fairly or no, stereotyped as exceptionally racist against nonwhite people.
Maybe the real answer here is to stop with the hysteria, currently dividing the lower classes, and stop acting like the person in the white house has turned the entire country Nazi, so there's a battle on every streetcorner. Of course, that would require the SJW media and academia to stop perpetuating victim culture, and encouraging people to believe anyone politically to the right of them has a Swastika tattooed under their shirt. And the right would need to stop treating their neighbors as welfare leeches bent on destroying western culture. Both parties would have to recognize the value of the human conversation, and have it publicly, in a civil manner. If they don't, other people will continue to play on the narrative, and occasionally, hurt feelings.
Let's get to the tacks though. Charlie Hebdo is a satire publication. Since satire is about highlighting stereotypes and exaggerations, and using them to create a cartoonish image of ones' subject, it should be no surprise at all they would choose this route, any more than it would be to see them calling Muslims violent and repressive, ignoring all the examples of peaceful Muslims. Charlie Hebdo hasn't, and won't, soften. They do this all the time, with many different parties, and the only people who get upset are the people with a bias it scratches. Cognitive dissonance doesn't like satire, and is unwilling to see merit in it, even when it sparks a global conversation like this, as is its intent. And America's political right, for all the times it calls people "snowflakes", or in this case, "guppies", has some of the thinnest skin imaginable when it omes to humor. It's satire, but sadly, satire is lost on some people. People like Joe.
Don't be like Joe.
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