jan_andrea | Jingoism, part two

Oooohkay. Where are these people coming from? This week's contribution comes from "Rochelle", who once again mistakes her visit to my site as supporting it:

"I liked the site until I scrolled to the bottom and saw the counter for war dollars. It indicates to readers that you think the war is a waste. It's easy to criticize a war effort because that was the course of action the government took. What we forget to ponder is what COULD happen if we were not spending these dollars. It tells the world we are cowards and will not defend ourselves. That warrents future attacks. Then everyone would fuss because Bush did not attack. Like the site...I will not support it's political views. You may want to leave that part off."

My reply:

Remember this: Iraq had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. 19/20 of the terrorists on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia, and the other was from somewhere else (not Iraq). Bin Ladin personally criticized Saddam Hussein as being a bad Muslim -- they had nothing to do with each other. And while Hussein was a bad, bad man, that does not justify the US's preemtive strike on him. That action should have gone through the world body of the UN.

I felt that the actions against the Taliban in Afghanistan were justified -- the Taliban, in addition to being bad, bad men, were also involved in 9/11 in allowing Al Qaida to set up training camps. However, the same was never true of Iraq, whose country the US had been bombing since the end of the first gulf war anyway. "We" went in on false pretenses. That war is not justified, and it's not a war we're ever going to win, without the rest of the world behind us. So, you're right. I do think the war in Iraq is a tremendous waste -- of human lives (ours and theirs) and, of less importance, of resources that could be far, far better used elsewhere.

This is my website. It's where I share my views. I am happy to share ideas for crafts, but I am also free to express my personal beliefs. No, I will not leave that part off. It's an important part of my life, and if you choose not to visit because of it, that's your issue, not mine.

Clearly, I need to add some kind of mission statement to the front page. I know it's hard for people who have been brainwashed since 9/11 to remember that Afghanistan != Iraq, but dammit, it's my website! If I want to be political, I'll bloody well be political! I mean, I've visited babywearing sites that are overtly (and to me, obnoxiously) Christian, but never in a million years would I suggest to them that they should feel free to share their FREE STUFF, but leave their religion off because I didn't personally agree with it. I might bitch about it to myself, but it's *their site* and *their ideas*. I'm also really weirded out at the thought that people think that by visiting my webpage and getting free patterns, they're somehow supporting me. Like I get money somehow when they click, from my *no advertisements* and *no fees*. Puhleeze. If they want to use my ideas, great -- more power to them. But to suggest that I should keep my politics to myself on *my website* goes beyond the pale. Idiots.

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This really aggravates me. She feels entitled to request you leave off your views because hers, she feels, are the "default" - just as the many heavily xtian sites also feel their views are so natural and so default/the "norm" thaty of course it should be all in our faces. It is, as usual all about the status quo - the same people who support the 10 commandments in public courthouses, and who support sunday/xmas/easter as a day off etc. flip out at the idea that a muslim or jewish holiday should be observed. (The idea of atheist rights is pretty much foreign enough to not even be on the radar, I fear). Pretty much anyone who believes that the emperor is beautifully clothed is going to assume their beliefs are the natural default, and all others are offensive.

I think that's it in a nutshell. It's the same kind of thinking that I found so laughable several years back. We were walking around Market Square in Portsmouth during Market Square Day (sort of a pseudo-fair, if you haven't been), and I had picked up a "choice" sticker from the Planned Parenthood table, and stuck it on my sling (where Stephen, then a couple of months old, was sleeping). Some guy passed me and said "How come you have a baby if you're pro-choice?" As though, by being pro-choice, I were against children, period, and would always have an abortion myself instead of having a child (who was very much planned and wanted). I was dumbstruck -- how can someone be so stupid? -- but it illustrated for me the way these people think. If you're not with them 100%, you must be against them 100%, and since their views are right (because the One True God and One True President tell them so!), everyone else is simply wrong.

Even so, these comments strike a huge blow to my humanism. How can I believe that humans are fundamentally good, when so many are so very mistaken? :lol:

you're awesome, and keep their heads ringing. i have always admired your candid website (especially when it was the 'rev jan's happy atheist page'). a lot of people will give you points for honesty and not selling out.

:lol: I was sad to see "Reverend Jan's Happy Atheist Page" go, but I decided I'd rather expose more people to babywearing than drive them away before they'd had a chance to look around. It was a hard choice to make, though. Part of me would rather have kept the phrase, to show that yes, there are happy, healthy, child-loving atheists (and that's the norm for atheists rather than the stereotype so many seem to hold), but in the end, I decided babywearing was more important. If the visitor clicks around a litte, she'll find my beliefs pretty quickly anyway.

Perhaps you need to put more political stuff in your site!

I think you're right. I have a fair amount under "philosophy" but haven't been doing much in the way of politics lately, so it's all kind of old. Maybe I'll start copying stuff from LJ over to the page on a more regular basis.

Hmm, I posted a link to your free patterns in

breastfeeding today, I wonder if it's my fault! Eeek!

I doubt it; I have some links coming in from conservative/Christian sites (presumably they look at only the baby crafts, and not the "philosophy" part!) and it's likely they happened to click to the main page and got a bucket of cold water for their trouble. I think a lot of that sort of people assumes that if you have children, you must also recognize their One True God and One True President, because gee, why would a grumpy atheist/liberal want to have children instead of an abortion :lol:

I've missed you, btw -- I guess I'll have to figure out how to migrate to Greatest Journal or whatever it is people are using now :)

I've always thought the number of Saudis you mentioned was true, but I decided to look it up and found the following:

Saudis 15
UAE 2
Lebanon 1
Egypt 1

for a total of 19.

Zacarias Moussaoui was the so called 20th hijacker.

Thank you! I went looking for the numbers myself, but couldn't find them in 10 minutes so gave up :) In the piece that I actually wrote (which is here: http://jan.sleepingbaby.net/counter.html), I just said "the majority were from Saudi Arabia and none from Iraq", but will replace that with your numbers.

We had a lovely time yesterday -- thanks so much for coming up!

Aside from the Taliban being involved with 9/11, I agree with you :)

Someone once wrote that I should not write about my relationship compatibility preferences in my journal, because it might "scare off" potential partners who didn't share those preferences. I pointed out that since the issue was specifically related to compatibility, I didn't want to encourage people who didn't share those preferences. He got really angry and resorted to namecalling.

I think some people just want to have control of other people.

Jingoism, part two

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