May 13, 2014
Well, “undeniably” is pushing it. Some professional Muslims are doing their familiar “nothing to do with Islam” dance while these girls are being tortured (assuming they”re still alive). Because insisting that a religion invented by an illiterate child-molesting warlord is absolutely positively not currently riddled with illiterate child-molesting warlords is Job One.
Of course, when non-liberal non-Muslims have previously raised the matter of Boko Haram’s many other bloody adventures, or dared to point out the passages in the Koran that encourage sex slavery, they are denounced, blahbitty blah blah blah zzzzzzzzz …
No, what really matters is holding up a sign with the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, as Michelle Obama did earlier this week, her face assuming a look of what I think is supposed to be outrage but looks more like #IThoughtIToldYouToCleanUpYourRoom.
Then “it was only a matter of time before their ordeal was made into a fashion accessory,” noted Canadian journalist Michael Petrou. “Proceeds from T-shirt sales will supposedly go to families of abducted girls. How they will be identified and paid isn”t something the T-shirt makers explain.”
Petitions? They”ve got those too, of course, although “progressive” MoveOn.org had also been hosting a pro-Boko Haram petition for two years until some mean right-wingers wondered why last week.
Ah, details, schmetails. Within living memory, Westerners at least paid lip service to the ideal that “justice must be seen to be done.” Today, ain”t nobody got time for that. What “must be seen to be done” instead is trendy, risk-free, bumper sticker level moral preening that burns as few calories as possible.
In a society that valorizes conspicuous exertion”by the steroid-powered professional athlete, the 80-hour-a-week attorney, the Christmas morning jogger”it’s revealing that this is what passes for compassionate, socially aware “activism.”
For people obsessed with “raising awareness,” it sure takes leftists a long time to get outraged about stuff that actually matters. At this rate, expect to see the hashtag #RememberBenghazi turning up in leftists” Twitter feeds sometime around, oh, 2026.
