Morning Maddow: Who Is This Charlie Hebdo Guy Anyway? (Video)
Wednesday's Rachel Maddow Show was, understandably, all about the Paris massacre. This segment is a brief look back at the history of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and its penchant for tweaking the powerful and the self-important, which is apparently something people get killed for now. Maddow interviews American cartoonist Jeff Danziger, who will forever have a place in Wonkette's heart for his unpublished cartoon of Dick Cheney flushing a condom with George Bush's face on it. Danziger puts it nicely: If these guys sought to terrorize anyone, they failed, since Charlie Hebdo kept publishing even after being firebombed in 2011. Murderers, definitely, but they're only terrorists if we let them terrorize us.
I guess I'm stating the obvious here, but the extremists' villainy is only exceeded by their stupidity. In an effort to stop the flow of satire they deemed offensive, these violent morons have managed to spread this material throughout the world.
Like many of you, I'm sure, I had no idea that this magazine existed two days ago, much less what it contained. Now the whole world is seeing this stuff and with the exception of a few dogmatic fools like Bill Donahue, most people are supportive of Charlie Hebdo and what they were doing. As with all senseless violence, the final result almost always ends up being the opposite of that which you intended.
<i>they&rsquo;re only terrorists if we let them terrorize us.</i>
Terrorism? A word Fox News and wingnuts have rendered useless.