Friday, April 17, 2015

Speech That We Hate

When Professor Gunaratna, from the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, asked US Under Secretary of State Richard Stengel why the US could not take a tough position on radical websites and social media messages, he was probably thinking of ISIS videos of beheadings. Furthest from his mind, and that of Teo Chee Hean who was also one of the panelists, must be the grassroots leader who made his plans quite clearly on Facebook about genital mutilation of a precocious child.

Like the ISIS monsters who carried out acts of violence while invoking praises of their higher entity, Jason Tan alias Cookie Tan saw no wrong in stringing the blemish of a religious leader and destructive phallic intent in one same sentence. How do these deviants come up with their sick ideas?

The Ku Klux Klan justified the killing of blacks with a story from the Old Testament (Book of Numbers, Chapter 25): While the Israelites are staying in Moab, some married lovely Moabite women. But when they started to worship their god, Baal, Moses is told that he needs to impale all the chiefs of Israel. Phinehas, son of Elezor, rushes into the tent of an Israelite who married a Midianite woman, and pierces husband and wife with one spear, right through the stomach. Apparently, this makes God happy again, so he stops the plague that he has been pouring down on the people. The New International Version (NIV) account reads like this:
So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”
Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
The Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites."

It's not fully established that the grassroots leader is a church going Christian, or what kind of bedtime stories his parents read to him. One thing is clear, religious extremists come in all shades and guises. Just try to avoid being tarred with the same feather.  Stengel's Parthian shot is worth repeating, "Social media is a powerful tool for them, but it should be an even more powerful tool for us."

28 comments:

  1. the versions of religions spreading around are indeed a far cry from their core; so while the pope is considering a gay french ambassador to the holy see, local sects clearly have different opinions of the rainbow flag bearers; of course if certain people from the same sects are in positions of influence and chooses to play favorites, then one shud not be surprise the intolerance spread. If only the scholars are tested on holocaust while they studied under the great mentor, then they would be more careful about being impartial regardless of their own faiths. They would have learnt that intolerance can easily be turned on its back, for that was how hitler tipped germany towards one of the darkest chapter of its history. Want to crack down on social media intolerance, first better learn to be impartial.

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    1. The basis of Abrahamic religions is scary, very scary.

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  2. And where is Crookie Tan now ?
    Still waiting for someone to lodge a police report lah

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  3. anyone who responds in the insane way that cutie Cookie did to amos' prodding, should not be a ''leader'', much more a grassroots one. wonder if that creature has kids and how
    he treats them when they misbehave. (seems its a good thing sporeans are not having kids these days!)

    he sounds like he was not properly disciplined as a child.

    whatever it is, he makes lee kuan yew look quite good. all
    he did was arrest and bankrupt those who annoyed him. he
    got pple by their balls, not lopped off their dicks. very close, but, errrr.... no banana.

    however, it would seem lky attracted all the wrong sort of people to his ''cause''. and for the last 15 or so years - at least - we're not just talking grassroots ''leaders''.

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  4. All on point.

    Gotta love the quote that says "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him"

    In the same Tao sayings "The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao". So kill it and move on too.

    Translating into Christian terms - If you meet God the Holy Spirit kill it. If you meet St Augustine, kill it. Have a Crush on Christ would be totally rejected. As the word says "Thou shall not make to thyself any graven image that is in heaven above...."

    Jnr Amos has just killed not one, but two Buddhas on his road, unwittingly.

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  5. //It's not fully established that the grassroots leader is a church going Christian, or what kind of bedtime stories his parents read to him.//

    But we do know that Amos was totally into "Where the Wild Things" are by Maruice. He even did a vlog on it. And last time I checked, this book was also read by President Obama and his family at the White House Easter Egg Roll.

    Hmmm....let's see what the late author said about his own works :-

    "Grown-ups desperately need to feel safe, and then they project onto the kids. But what none of us seem to realize is how smart kids are. They don't like what we write for them, what we dish up for them, because it's vapid, so they'll go for the hard words, they'll go for the hard concepts, they'll go for the stuff where they can learn something, not didactic things, but passionate things."

    “Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a point we can prevent premature exposure to such experiences. That is obvious. But what is just as obvious — and what is too often overlooked — is the fact that from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.” ― Maurice Sendak

    Poignant isn't it?

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  6. Sick, violent and immoral: these bronze aged fantasy stories known as religions are all the same. We shouldn't expect their followers to be any different.

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  7. From "The Name Of The Rose" by Umberto Eco:

    Adso of Melk: Dolcinites? Who were they, master?
    William of Baskerville: Those who believed in the poverty of Christ.
    Adso of Melk: So do we Franciscans.
    William of Baskerville: But they also declared that everyone must be poor, so they slaughtered the rich. Ha! You see, Adso, the step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy is all too brief.

    You see, Cookie, the step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy is all too brief. The same to be said of all religious extremists or fanatics. These people are the real menace, not Amos Yee.

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  8. Another police report was made against Amos by a ex-policeman. Smack of 赶紧杀绝, as if no mercy from these type of people.

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    1. Lionel de Souza the self-professed ‘Supercop’ was obviously trying to influence the court, so how come he wasn't taken to task by the police for sub judice?

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    2. Reminds me of the medieval Inquisitors, who fix those who don't subscribe to their faith as heretics.

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    3. We hear alot about Islamaphobia. But on this red dot, the new word should be PAPhobia.

      There is only the "silenced majority" and the "refused-to-be-silenced minority".

      LKY should have written an asian equivalent book to Micheavali, with his nuanced and subtle tools "for the good of the people". His minions would have gladly executed it according to his words.

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  9. If we take away the freedoms of others (no matter how much we disagree with them), we are also taking away our own freedom.

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  10. Why so scared?
    If what Amos says about LKY is rubbish, then why so scared?

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    1. It was not garbage. There is method even in the alleged madness. That is why they are going in for the kill, to literally do Amos Yee in via the current remand, with him "rotting" in a limbo state between bail back at home, versus the real court trial, right in this prison cell or detention center.

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    2. Just want to know where's the evidence of "direct harm" caused to those people who lodged reports by an innocent boy recording a thinking-out-loud vlog to work through his articulation process?

      Who would have thunk that one could actually harrass dead famous politicians like Thatcher & LKY. Are they hiring mediums to confirm the spirits were offended? Truly malicious minds are at work to police speeches.

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    3. Are our hate laws here to stop people disagreeing with government policies and trends in society. The danger is that law in itself is acting as a censor and the police then becomes the enforcers of the prevailing orthodoxy rather than keepers of the peace.

      It was reported because it is about words or language that "are likely" to stir up hatred. But hatred is an emotion, not an action. Why is the law preemptively involved in stuff that involved emotion? It's different if you are inciting people against another person's race or religion - the law must stop that - but should it be involved in something that at best may incite an emotion, not incite an action which is clearly the case here in Amos' youthful expressions.

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  11. This is how the supreme founding father stayed in power for 50-years. They are using his doctrine against a 16-year-old boy.

    “If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.” – Lee Kuan Yew, endorsing the Tiananmen Square massacre which took place on 4 June 1989.

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    1. “If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China from another 100 years of disorder, so be it.” – Lee Kuan Yew, endorsing the Tiananmen Square massacre which took place on 4 June 1989.

      Hmmmm.
      I wonder what else the old fart is capable of?

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    2. “Please do not assume that you can change governments. Young people don’t understand this” - Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, post-2006 General Elections

      "Army will intervene in freak elections: MM Lee" Reuters 15 Sep 06. See also Southeast Asian Affairs 2007 edited by Daljit Singh, Lorraine Carlos Salazar p. 302.

      The 2006 general election was held on 6 May 2006.

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    3. People - please go watch the brilliant play "Public Enemy"

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  12. Gee, let's compare those wonderfully thousands of love speeches when Thatcher the bitch is finally dead to the ONE lone boy here in SG who articulated it more civilized and better-behaved.

    Despite people cheering to no end, and "Ding Dong" made it to Billboard chart, do you see UK hunting these naysayers, bigoted, distasteful and disrespectful to her?!!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BmFEDMD_ko
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikhRGrJReJ8
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cuMiviBswc
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjx-pOsZYk0
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMFjFoq6T9M
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYGPY6AeegE

    That's the difference between real democratic governance vs dynastic-cult-governance.

    Many wonder if he should have picketed on site at the state funeral where millions of international media agencies were present. He would have had a much more elevated kind of international fame than he would have bargained for. I'm sure Amos must have considered that would have truly caused much more distress.

    In conclusion, the UK episode or universally only demonstrates that different people grieved differently, and that it is NOT a crime or shame. That is what this government does NOT understand. Apparently, there is only one RIGHT way to grieve too.

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  13. UN..UN..UN..UNBelievable4/19/2015 4:15 PM

    That feeling when those who said Amos deserves it is like saying the clothes of the rape victims were too provocative.

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    1. I guess that with this logic, the one who made the threat to dismember the little boy by cutting off his male organ, is exonerated from blame........

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  14. So cookie tan ask others publicly to cut a boy's dick rather than doing it himself....so wise and so mature...so brave huh...so pappyful like i now see...nuts.

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