November 1, 2014

"As the 10th anniversary drew near, some actors, writers and prominent cultural figures shied away from discussing it."

"One said he worried that his remarks would contribute to the divisions he is trying to transcend. Another declined to comment for fear that he would be exploited by right-wing populists who came to prominence after the murder but are no longer in government. Some were concerned that even the slightest criticism of Mr. van Gogh, who was famous for insulting everyone, would be seen as an apology for his killer and invite attacks from 'friends of Theo,' as his staunchest defenders are known.... Theodor Holman, a journalist and one of Mr. van Gogh’s best friends... argu[es] that fear of causing offense had stifled free speech here. 'Tolerance,' he said, 'has been transformed into cowardice.'"

From "Provocateur’s Death Haunts the Dutch," in the NYT.

37 comments:

David said...

Fear of giving offense? And perhaps of being killed?

We have both going on.

CWJ said...

Notably absent from the post, fear of offending Muslims.

Muslim kills notable "provocateur" in particularly grisly fashion in order to stifle speech. Mission accomplished!

Indeed, even after 10 years the inoculation doesn't seem to even need a booster shot.

tim in vermont said...

"Transcend" is a great word. It means something happens that I really want to happen but I don't know how to make it happen but just by wanting it bad enough and then pretending its going to happen will make it happen.

It is nothing more than magical thinking.

The Koran is not big on getting transcended.

Dr Weevil said...

Calling a savage premeditated murder a 'death' and using negative language ('provocateur') only about the victim? Language that suggests that he may have deserved it? What do 'provocateurs' do? They provoke, and calling Van Gogh that makes the reaction sound at least partially justified. Leaving out any hint of the extraordinary viciousness of the reaction just reinforces the effect.

The title is so slanted as to be beneath contempt: whoever wrote it ought to be fired and shunned by all decent people. As for the article itself, who cares? I'm not going to read it. Who opens a package if the label says "Genuine 100% Garbage!"?

Gusty Winds said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gusty Winds said...

Mr. Van Gogh's murder didn't validate, but perhaps hauntingly illustrated what he was saying about the culture of which his murderer was a member.

Maybe that's why the actors and writers don't want to talk about it. Or, if they show a new found sympathy for Mr. Van Gogh, they could end up on the fatwa lam as well.

If Bill Mahar ends up being killed by a guy named Mohammed, I'm sure Ben Affleck will also be at a loss for words.

Rob said...

The Times article refers to "the Prophet Muhammad." It's consistent with the usual treatment in the Times, which of course would never refer to the Savior Jesus.

Bob Ellison said...

The Netherlands has beautiful flowers every spring.

It's a country with a population a little smaller than the state of Florida.

Gusty Winds said...

If modern day immigrant cultures are no longer interested in assimilation, Disney is going to have to do a complete remodel of the “It’s a Small World” boat ride in to some sort of open room Pangea.

Lyle said...

The murder/assassination of Pim Fortuyn is another event the Dutch don't really like to talk about.

Fortuyn was murdered by a left-wing pro-immigration radical.

virgil xenophon said...

To acknowledge the fatal problem that Islam presents for Western Civilization would intuitively imply that something must be done to oppose the spreading reach/cancer that is Islam in the Western world. And that sort of acknowledgement is to think the unthinkable, as our present-day Western Civilization (such as it is) lacks the confidence in its own ideals and accomplishments (thanks to 24/7/365 unremitting agiprop in Hollywood, academia and the MSM) to manage to gird its loins for the coming struggle. Far, far better and/or easier to whistle past the graveyard..

Paco Wové said...

Stupid inconsiderate provocateur, going off and dying like that.

traditionalguy said...

The murder of blasphemers ( i.e., truth tellers)is the attack plan of sharia that Muslim Jihadists start with.

Their goal is to stop bold free speech. Stopping bold speech is surrender that turns targeted men into coward mode ready for conquest.

A free people will engage in free yells and chants defying the Muslims loud enough to wake up CAIR. The silly claim that Muslims deserve mutual respect from its targets is a smoke screen.Even Bill Maher is not so dumb as to fall for that grade B mind trick.

Drago said...

Well, since once again we are discussing islamist violence it is no doubt time for our resident lefties to once again courageously stand up to christians in the West!

Anonymous said...

"Transcend" is a great word. It means something happens that I really want to happen but I don't know how to make it happen but just by wanting it bad enough and then pretending its going to happen will make it happen.

It is nothing more than magical thinking.


Nicely put, tim in vermont. Dead on.

chickelit said...

Rob said...
The Times article refers to "the Prophet Muhammad." It's consistent with the usual treatment in the Times,..

A subtle yet profound observation.

n.n said...

The left-wing populists are struggling to reconcile the consequences of courting left-wing competitors. As is typical of their ideology, they are seeking scapegoats to project or displace their culpability.

traditionalguy said...

Th NYT story's basic theme is that the innocent Dutch Muslims are the victims of the old Dutch who are guilty of telling the truth about 1% of Muslims committing strategic murders of truth tellers ...because the Muslims nervously fear exposure before the time comes when they have taken over by Sharia Law and can publicly celebrate beheading murders of heads that think truthful thoughts and don't shut up.

Of course that logic is nonsense. If the USMC, which is only a half of 1% of Americans, started hunting down and killing blasphemers of the Corps. that would be a big deal and not swept under the rug.

Biff said...

I heard a news story on the radio a few days ago about a fellow from my area in CT who admitted that he poured a pot of boiling oil on his sleeping wife's head. While the story talked about the testimony and the injuries, there was no other information given at all about the perp or the family, which struck me as very odd.

Obviously, it would have been racist and inflammatory to reveal that the guy's name was Mohammed and that he was from Pakistan.

mikee said...

You get what you create incentives for.


David said...

"If the USMC, which is only a half of 1% of Americans, started hunting down and killing blasphemers of the Corps. that would be a big deal and not swept under the rug."

So we now have over 1.5 million Marines? Those budget cuts do not seem to have taken hold yet.

jr565 said...

Salman Rushdie
The Van Gogh
Cartoons critical of Islam
You Tube videos
There is a long history of those critical of Islam being met with violence. And those are just the instances I can thin of off the top of my head from the past few years.

Alex said...

David, they mean it when they say "the few, the proud, the Marines".

Alex said...

jr... not to mention the acid attacks on women in the Muslim world by men who were spurned sexually.

pst314 said...

"Was this a salvo in a larger war between radical Islam and the West? Or the act of one angry young man from a generation of young Dutch Muslims who feel shut out of the mainstream?"

No mention in the article of aggressive Dutch Muslims harassing and assaulting gays and unveiled women. Bruce Bawer left the Netherlands because of this violence.

Michael K said...

So, I guess Van Gogh was like a woman wearing a short skirt and asking for it ?

Nice going Times.

richard mcenroe said...

You can tell which side is winning by which side is afraid to speak...

Quaestor said...

Disney is going to have to do a complete remodel of the “It’s a Small World”...

With the little animatronic Muslim figures rhythmically sawing through the necks of other animatronic figures, with the heads popping off one the downbeat.

Jupiter said...

David said...
"Fear of giving offense? And perhaps of being killed?

We have both going on."

Yes, and the Dutch government brings charges against people who tell the truth about Muslims and Islam. We haven't quite gotten to that point yet. They just aren't allowed to speak at universities.

kcom said...

"With the little animatronic Muslim figures rhythmically sawing through the necks of other animatronic figures"

Brilliant.

William said...

In the next five years how many movies will be made about the sex abuses within the Catholic Church? Not a lot, but a few, mostly small independent films. I have no problem with that. Perhaps the publicity will make everyone more aware of the problem and thus decrease the likelihood its recurrence. But how many movies will be made about the Rotherham scandal? I can predict the exact number--zero. And there will be future Rotherhams.......So it goes. I would like to see Meryl Streep play Beatrice Webb in a movie. Beatrice was one of the founders of the Labor Party and a winner of the Nobel Prize. She was easily as influential as Margaret Thatcher. I'd like to see Meryl play Mrs. Webb's trip to the Soviet Union. Her trip to the White Sea Canal was especially dramatic. Some 100,000 Soviet citizens were sent out in street clothes to dig that canal with garden tools. They died in the thousands. Mrs. Webb was a first hand witness and marveled at the spirit and vigor of those pioneers. I'm sure Meryl could play the role with just the right touch of humanity and gravitas......If the movie is successful perhaps they could sign up Miley Cyrus to play a Rotherham girl done in by her love of a bad boy cab driver, played by Russell Brand. I'm thinking rom com with a few dark touches.

Ambrose said...

The Dutch have successfully navigated Scylla and Charybdis of world politics for at least 400 years. Best of luck on this one. Some day the West is going to wake up and come down on our friends from the East
like a ton of bricks. I hope the Dutch will be there selling us really good bricks.

MD Greene said...

See, if every prominent person in every country stood up and called this despicable, cowardly murder for what it was, it wouldn't happen again.

But no. Prominent people in every country chose not to speak up against terrorist threats against publishing CARTOONS.

People like to talk a good game, but we don't even allow free speech here. Try making a Palestinian joke on an American campus -- I dare you.

We're all a bunch of pussies.

kcom said...

We haven't reached our Churchill moment. We're still in our Chamberlain phase.

Of course, the trick is avoiding being utterly destroyed by the Chamberlain phase before the Churchill phase has time to kick in. Last time it was a close call.

chillblaine said...

Rick Santorum is somewhat clear-eyed on the subject of Islamism. Should he run again, liberal heads will surely explode, but at least there will be a clear choice.

richard mcenroe said...

The Churchill phase involved hanging on until America came to tip the balance.

Who's coming to help us?

Anonymous said...

" We're still in our Chamberlain phase"

Chamberlain declared war on Germany, the afterwar super-Chamberlains let Stalin keep the loot he got out of the Hitler-Stalin pact (among other things).