What is responsible for “violent extremism” in the world, today? Is it:
A) George Bush
B) The legacy of George Bush
C) Guantanamo
D) CIA “torture”
E) Abu Ghraib
F) Operation Iraqi Freedom
G) All of the Above
E) Climate change Denial
F) Donald Trump
G) Islamism
WTH) Tom and Jerry
And the answer is…….*Drum roll*……………
………….WTH! No, seriously. The answer is WTH:
If a well-loved children’s cartoon were to ever epitomize the Islamic State’s boundless appetite for violence, it would be Tom and Jerry. In nearly every episode, the cat-and-mouse duo find new ways to butcher each other, using weapons ranging from guns and explosives to household objects like lawn mowers and waffle irons.
Actually, I think Tom and Jerry is more for Islamists. Itchy and Scratchy Show– now that one is right up ISIS’ and AQI’s alley.
This week, Salah Abdel Sadek, chairman of the Egyptian State Information Service, said the show, which was first shown in 1940, has desensitized youth to violent acts and is partially to blame for rising extremism in the Middle East.
The cartoon “portrays the violence in a funny manner and sends the message that, yes, I can hit him … and I can blow him up with explosives. It becomes set in mind that this is natural,” Sadek said at a conference on “Media and the Culture of Violence” at Cairo University.
Tom and Jerry is popular across the Middle East and is regularly broadcast via satellite channels into both active and smoldering crisis zones, including Iraq. One Egyptian doctor and self-described historian even claimed that Walt Disney stole the idea for it from the ancient Egyptians.
Following Sadek’s speech, Egypt’s privately owned Youm7 newspaper outlined why Tom and Jerry causes terrorism: allegedly, it acclimatizes children to bad habits, including smoking, drinking alcohol, and stealing; shows a lopsided concept of justice in which the mouse is always right; plants ideas for “sinister plans” into the impressionable minds of children; and spreads violence through its depictions of knife and ax attacks.
Of course, complaints about cartoon violence isn’t unique to Sadek’s opinion. Violent cartoons along with video games and Hollywood movies have been criticized for their negative influences.
But, I dunno….
Which is more inspirationally influential to the defective mind:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/JWHvysF9IBw[/youtube]
Or
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV9M3mmqOII[/youtube]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/6i8pJCqs6L4[/youtube]
And of course, if Tom and Jerry’s popularity in the Middle East is “partially” responsible for “violent extremism”, there is answer “Gee” worth considering for the whole of that factor:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/MtmUtfT3MF8[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvBlmqLTaKc[/youtube]
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Well of course in the last 30 years the center of the most violent extremism has been in subSaharan Africa
Christians killing other Christians have resulted in the deaths of about 5 million
Why was not that given as an option?
Chrustians have killed many more people in the last 30 years than Muslims
Go team go
Why don’t “moderate”!christians speak out about this?
How idiotic this is…
may i ask what caused all this violence for the thousand years leading up to tom and jerry? how about the 5000 plus years of history? ebyptians, hitites, goths, vandals, crusades, hundred years wars, the revolutionary war, WWI, and thats just a smattering of pre tom and jerry
ever think that the real reason for all this is the love of a good woman who wants a bigger better home and life? and the desire for your children to live in safety from others, so you remove them?
without the ladies, there is no reason to go slaughter your neigbors for property and children… from the harems of india, the wives of the kinds to even the wives of rome, they who send their men out to fight or return on their shields…
have always driven the thing they blame the men for…
Mel Brookes said it bes:
Its good to be the king…
@John:
that is not even remotely true… the vast majority of fights with christians attending were for reasons other than christianity, while the vast majority of fights with Islam from sept 11 in the 1600s to now have been for religious conquest of a theocracy.
I’m sure the Leftists count as Christian thugs like the ”Lord’s Resistance Army,” which has murdered over 100,000 Sub-Saharan Africans for reasons having nothing to do with any religion.
It is a personality cult following one man, a la David Koresh who also hung religious trappings on his own personality cult.
No the Lords Residtance Army is right wing they want small government
based in 10 commandments no abortion women in traditional roles anti gay those aren’t lefty themes
Even Rush once asked why were weren’t supporting them Oct 14, 2011
He wouldn’t want us supporting “lefties” would he?
@John: Probably because Atheists have killed more than Christians and Muslims combined…
…and because you’re cherry-picking things specific to your faith, rather than offering logical analysis.
Please quantify the good deeds, charity moneys, and overall positive effects of Christianity before foisting your religion of hate on everyone else.
@John: Unless you’re attacking an Zionist/Hasidic/Orthodox Jew, I’m not sure why you’re vomiting Hebrew Bible proof texting wrapped in babble.
Was this supposed to be against Christians? Perhaps a bit more study before trying to discuss things you (obviously) know nothing about, religion and theology being two of them.
Predictably, I sense a strong blood lust in you for the heads of anyone that you doesn’t share your faith. You sound like just another religious zealot.
For the record, Atheism is the oldest and least enlightened religion in the history of man. Nothing new, profound, or evolved there…
I’d even wager that New Atheism is merely a branch of Christianity, because I’ve seen you reference scripture more than Christians. You need the Good Book for your faith, so that makes you a bit suspect as “free thinker”…
They might have an argument…that is might, if they weren’t strapping bombs on their children and teaching them how to kill and behead infidels…
Wahhabism is the malignancy. Oil is the reason we ignored it and allied with the wrong Islamic nations. We haven’t even sorted things out after being repeatedly attacked by Wahhabist terrorists. You’d think the nationalities of the 9/11 attackers would have been an obvious enough clue.
Those last two videos should be required viewing.
@Greg:
Around 2/3rds of the original al Qaeda leadership was probably made up of Egyptians from EIJ. Is Egypt also our enemy? Egypt imprisoned and tortured the likes of Sayyid Qutb and Zawahiri. Anwar Sadat was assassinated by Islamists within his own army; there was the siege in Mecca by religious extremists back in 1979. The Saudi government has executed numerous al Qaeda fighters. They had confiscated OBL’s wealth and revoked his citizenship back in 1994. So those who like to spew “we attacked the wrong country” and “why didn’t we invade Saudi Arabia” are being simplistic and ignore that many of these jihadis are at war with secular Muslim governments- the near enemy vs. the far enemy. There are many Saudis and Pakistanis who embrace salafism/wahhabism/fundamentalism and occupy positions of power within their governments; but the governments themselves are just as much an enemy to religious zealots as much as they are a part of the problem of incubating them. Pakistan’s helped us capture KSM and Zubaydah, among other things; yet extremists are also being bred there and have sympathizers within the government. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by al Qaeda or an al Qaeda-linked group. The relationship between these governments and religious extremists is a complicated one of appeasement and collusion as well as opposition.
Did Reagan’s “freedom fighters” become our terrorists?
Was giving radical Iskam billions a mistake ?
I for one who was in Afghanustan when it was Rusia’s problem wish it still was
And in the 50s and 60s didn’t we also fund the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt because we thought Nasser was a lefty stooge? But hey !! Gotta be tough on the Commies because an economic system like that will never fail on its own
@Nathan Blue: John can never comprehend the meat of the post and actually discuss it. He must always make an ignorant statement he can not support and try to take the thread off in another direction>