Firstly, and in reply to mjames' original question in this thread: (by the way, this might be a bit lengthy, so bear with me)
I'd say it really depends on just how far and how insistent those offensive speech instances are. And of course, we're not always in the best of moods to put up with such crap. Some of us are just a little more hot-headed than others, and well, a long etc.
But indeed, as someone already pointed out, there's also a little thing called handling your emotions; so really, to exert violence against someone because they're telling you something offensive and you're just too hot-headed for that, is rather lame and I don't think it justifies the use of that violence.
And yet the particular case of Charlie Hebdo is, I think, a complex subject that should be analyzed more carefully. Yes, people
were killed, and yes, that
was a tragedy. Did they deserve it? I don't think so, but given the tons of flak with which Muslims all over the world are being currently bombarded, just exactly how surprising can it be to see them reacting like that to the umpteenth time to the fact that their religious beliefs are insulted and made fun of?
And yet,
no, that still doesn't justify blowing people to pieces.
However, I think there is much more here than meets the eye. It's likely the attackers were indeed Muslims, but it's just as likely, even if most of the Western world doesn't really want to believe it, that they might not even have been Muslims, but killers instructed by the ones at the very top, you know, the master puppeteers, in order to keep the attitude of the West (and not only of the West, of course) along that path of increasing disapproval of and hatred against Muslims.
lostinidlewonder mentioned false flag ops and the fact is, whether we like it or not, they
have been used, no doubts there. 9/11? Of course it was a false flag incident. All that crap of 'Baby' Bush complaining about Iraq's mass destruction weapons? He sends his trained murderers (armed forces) over there, beats the s*** out of countless innocent people, among other sorts of..."collateral damage", they call it, right? And "big" surprise: no mass destruction weapons there! And as for the WTC towers crumbling to pieces: yes, they did, and yes, it was a tragedy, too, because many innocent people had to pay with their lives, because those sweet guys running the world couldn't give less of a crap about that, 'any means is good enough to achieve your ends', that's their motto. And what better way (or so they thought back then, the poor idiots) to sway public opinion in the West against Muslims and convincing that same West that they should have the hell beaten out of them by the US and its allies than by staging that little play?
But of course, they learn from their mistakes, as well. And now they are proud to present you: ISIS. A much better attempt, it's true, at swaying Western public opinion against Muslims and anything related to them. And it seems like ISIS is no crappy terrorist organization, that here it's not a homemade-rockets-against-Iron-Dome situation. Nor is it AK-47s-against M1-Abrams. No, these guys "mean business". Well, of course, they do! CIA, Mossad and MI6 funding can work miracles. We know that. Latin America, Africa, Europe and a few others know it already, thank you.
And it sure never hurts to recruit guys who not only look like the image of Muslims that they want us to have, they also act just like them, they have all the whistles and bells you know and despise: they have beards, turbans, they look “Arabic”, they speak Arabic, they carry explosive-resistant Korans everywhere they go, and yes, they also know how to pronounce “Allahu akbar!”
really nice whenever the need arises. And they already have a killing record of their own. Oh yes, they also love to target innocent people all over Europe and elsewhere, and they also claim all that crap about “fighting against the infidels with sword and fire! Not one of them shall be left alive. They will all drown in their own blood, and burn for not following the precepts of Allah the only one, blah, blah, blah…”
Hmmm, so familiar…
I'm not saying Islamic terrorist organizations don't exist, hell, if such a huge and well-funded and -organized terrorist organization like Israel's IDF forces exist, who am I to say that something like those Boko Haram imbeciles don't?
I'm also
not saying that all those attacks, all those deaths, all that suffering provoked by all those horrific events, like the attack in that theater in France, are just 'illusions'. Actually, that's one of the things that suck the most here: all that is only too real. All those innocent people have paid a huge price, because, like most of us, they remain mere cannon fodder, pieces on the board to be moved about by those who run this world.
But those who run it are so deeply and utterly fu**** up, that they use all of that to stir even more hatred and intolerance, to provoke even more pain, more deaths, more destruction, and they use it by distorting it, by making the people believe what they want them to believe, and if there are some poor saps that refuse to believe that and try to find out what is really going on, then let them: that's what terms like 'conspiracy theories' and the like have been made. Why get mad, why fight back with violence, with threats, etc, when you can just ridicule the findings and explanations of your enemies? And just for a bit more fun, you can even make use of some handy controlled opposition. (Alex Jones, anyone??)
Why let a few raise their voices against you, why not just silence them at the first sign of danger? Because deceiving appearances are always welcome; because you've already convinced the majority of people that your truth is
the truth; because if real rebels arise here and there, if some people are so
damn stubborn that they just prefer to use their head and analyze what you're telling them instead of swallowing it right away, why should give a crap about it?, you've already got your own "rebels" ready to act, instructed on what to say and what to do, so as to spread a little bit of healthy confusion everywhere (as if more was needed...) . Because you know that your own "rebels" will spew such a bunch of truths mixed up with the most absurd and idiotic lies, that if there's anyone willing to listen to them, they will be laughing at them in the end, not desirous of more information. And if people happen to meet real whistle-blowers, then they'll just say something like: "oh, another one of those idiots who think the US devised the whole 9/11 attack and that ISIS is funded by the US, Israel and the UK; I bet he/she also believes that Obama is a reptilian, right?
...let's just keep moving."
Nothing like fear, hatred and misinformation to successfully stage a play like the one they've been staging for quite some time now...
Topic: Do you think violence is a justified response to offensive speech?