Truth To Power wrote:
It is fact.
Greedy, evil people from the West have certainly misused its superior technological power from time to time, but the West's core ideal is the Enlightenment: liberty, justice, truth, science, and equal individual rights for all. That is not barbaric.
You could have been more forthright / upfront with where you're coming from, politically / philosophically.
Socialism, too, is based on the Enlightenment, so there's no friction on that aspect.
Truth To Power wrote:
Of course there are wicked people, and of course they sometimes are able to gain political power in Western democracies.
This is back to your typical facile idealism, though - - it's the 'Great Man' theory of history, thinking that elites somehow exist outside of larger society and all of its historical dynamics like that of class, technology, etc.
Truth To Power wrote:
The Enlightenment was only a few hundred years ago, and there is lots of backsliding. No one says people in the West are perfect. But you need to find a willingness to know the fact that what any given person does is not a reflection on their country or the civilization they grew up in. It is a reflection of their own ideas, their own philosophy, their own morality. When a dictator in a Western country goes to war against the wishes of his people, that is not an expression of or reflection on "the West" or Western civilization. It is an aberration, because that is not what the Enlightenment ideals of the West prescribe.
Nationalist leaders don't rise to power through the idealism of the Enlightenment - - they're there for particular *historical* reasons, often due to a power *vacuum* preceding it.
Truth To Power wrote:
But when a Muslim murders a gay man or an apostate, that IS an expression of and a reflection on Islam, because that IS what the ideals of Islam prescribe.
You're continuing to stereotype and overgeneralize - - not all branches of Islam are the same, yet you want to paint it all with a broad brush.
Monotheism was a historical development, for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, among others. People interpret religious scriptures variously / variably, and you won't find agreement on lifestyles / how people live, in *any* religion. Some treatments are more severe than others.
Truth To Power wrote:
GET IT???
Islam is not a race, sunshine. It is an ideology.
You don't have to be condescending, and it doesn't matter if bigotry from you is expressed by race or by religion - - you're still
Admin Edit: Rule 2, and you'd rather slur outgroups and people according to your biases and prejudices.