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I'm trying to read a bit about Charlie Hebdo, their views, and what the French particularly think of them and their satire. I'm getting the impression that calling them all "a bunch of racist, xenophobic, homophobic frenchmen" seems to be a surface level generalisation. They were certainly agitators. Anyone who depicts a picture of Muhammed is trying to give the middle finger to extremism, and perhaps (inadvertently or not) will be offending a lot of normal, law abiding, practicing Muslims, too.
But, even if I'm wrong, I think it's important to have a conversation on this type of satire. Particularly if one person thinks it's incredibly racist, homophobic, and xenophobic and another thinks it isn't - and not as a result of their own inane racism.
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I'll note right here that upon further research, the Homophobia label is ungrounded and incorrect. I'll fix my posts indicating such, but it was the impression I got from several of their cartoons.
I just can't look at it as good satire. I think I'm pretty intelligent when it comes to being satirical, its the one form of Comedy I've really stuck with and educated myself about, and Mohammed with his dick and balls hanging out with his butthole in the shape of a star and 'A star is born' captioned is a really inexplicably offensive image to me. And on its own its funny because of the ridiculousness of it--it's just that the everyday operations of Charlie Hebdo seemed to foster that image as an appropriate method of addressing and satirizing Muslims.
Not all, but definitely enough to get it published, of the staff at Charlie Hebdo must have harbored some pretty Xenophobic views that seem very extreme and inappropriate, in my opinion.
Here's an example of how the crew old white dudes at Charlie Hebdo let some anti semitism slip through the cracks a few years back.
Two things are important to note here:
A) They fired this guy, only after he refused to publish a retraction.
B) He had a history of making hateful statements about Judaism long before this. (From a 1982 Interview)
" 'Yes, I am anti-Semitic and I am not scared to admit it... I want all Jews to live in fear, unless they are pro-Palestinian. Let them die.' "
Charlie Hebdo seemed to act as a hugbox for confused men to espouse views like this. I don't think it was good satire, I think it was a lot of hate getting a free pass.