[chezlaw]

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Perhaps you're unintentionally making a case for the good mocking does. It seems to have worked over there. You guys are more secular than we are here in the states. (although don't you have an increasingly huge Muslim population?).

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The best anti-extreme-islam humour comes from the muslim community.

Mocking works. Let us not forget how Monty Python died for us, frequently.

chez

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But the forum matters. It's one thing to mock religious beliefs and people in a comedy act, another to mock them in what's supposed to be serious civil discourse (or to their face in day-to-day life). The former is oblique enough to be occasionally convincing and passably polite; the latter just tends to alienate people who don't already agree with you. The former stokes our sense of humor, while the latter stokes our sense of outrage -- and you don't have to be Yoda to know that making people angry with each other is a bad thing, all else being equal.

Enmity begets enmity. If you want to convince someone of anything, it helps if he doesn't think you're a raging [censored].

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The mocking only works if it amuses. If someone laughs then its probably working.

LeStat is dead on, intolerance is vital. We must be totally intolerant to the idea that we have to tolerate the ridiculous.

DS is very dead on.

chez