An antidote to the fashionable hooey
Let’s see. 10,380 violent attacks since 9/11 by Islamic jihadists who justify their actions on the basis of Islamic texts and teachings.
How many violent attacks since 9/11 by Christian zealots who justify their actions on the basis of Christian texts and teachings? Uh, none.
Major attacks: 9/11. 7/7 in London. March 11, 2004 in Spain. The Bali bombings. Several major attacks in India. Scores of thwarted plots. By Islamic jihadists.
Major attacks and thwarted plots by Christian supremacists? Zip.
As I explain in the book, this kind of talk by Gregory Green is not just stupid, although it is certainly that. It is dangerous, because it diverts our attention from the reality of the situation we’re in, and interferes with sober analysis of what we can and must do to defend ourselves.
“Alumni artists prove anything but atrocious,” by Robin Roup in the University of South Florida Oracle (thanks to James):
At first glance, Everyday Atrocities looks like a terrorist organization with a taxidermy hobby. However, it is actually a faculty focus exhibition in the Contemporary Art Museum.
From the look of Gregory Green’s pieces there is confusion as to whether he promotes or opposes violence. This is because all his pieces models of explosives. Green grew up in Europe in the height of the Cold War. His work, he said, is influenced by this time in his life where he and everyone around him lived in constant fear.
Most of his pieces are not displayed like traditional art pieces. A model pipe bomb lies on the floor in the corner with barely any lighting. A Bible with an explosive inside sits prominently in the center of the room. Green explained that we typically think of terrorism groups strictly as Islamic and Muslim, but Christian extremist groups actually commit just as many acts. Green said his intention was for the pieces to be provocative and somewhat scary. As long as no one is truly frightened by them, he said, his pieces are still legal under the Patriot Act.
For this self-important twit to suggest that the Patriot Act has anything to do with his insufferable little “artworks” is just more self-aggrandizing paranoia.