The first EVER anti-domestic violence ad in Saudi Arabia

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No, of course not. I'm not saying that people can't ever criticise other cultures. I'm saying that you shouldn't fool yourself into thinking that criticising other cultures is a useful activity. It isn't any specific post of Tequila that bothers me; it's the fact that 95% of them are about the same stuff, as if he thinks of it as a "mission". If it is a mission, then what is the goal?



I think you've revealed the problem by your own choice of words. We can "sort out" our own stuff, but we can only "call out" other people's stuff. One of these two activities actually achieves something; the other does not.

You don't read my threads properly. Most of them are not about Islam. Perhaps a third or something like that are. Most of the rest are about politics, or matters relating to the Christian world.

I haven't posted any Islam-related threads today, but there are three or four other threads about Christianity I think, and one or two on UK politics. If you look at previous days, you might find 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 that are Islam related.

If it really was 95% of stuff, you'd never see me post about anything else.

The most serious (and interesting) topics usually concern Islam - although not always, and these are often the topics that generate debate. The case of the gay Catholic teacher is an exception to the rule.

From the first page:

"The first EVER anti-domestic violence ad in Saudi Arabia"
"When faith clashes with medical care"
"'Up to one in 10' English Democrat members were in BNP"
"Ken Clarke brands UKIP 'a collection of clowns'"
"Bishop of Truro says CofE 'takes Lords role seriously"
"U.S. high school forces students to take religious assembly"
"Republicanism becoming increasingly popular in Europe"
"Australian Catholic orders deny protecting paedophiles"
"Vicious 'anti-Zionist' (ha ha) expelled from UKIP"
"Former Christian 'ex-gay' leader repudiates and apologises"
"Catholic midwives win right to not help with abortion plans"
"Richard Dawkins voted #1 thinker in world"
"Russia's Kremlin to pass brand new gay-hating law"
"Ohio Catholic schoolteacher fired for being gay"
"A man too sexy for the Saudi muttaween"
"Tunisia court review of jail terms for cartoons suspended"
"Swiss assisted suicide groups attack Gov-funded study"
"First atheist church congregation evicted by Christians"
"UKIP throws UK politics "into a marvellous chaos""
"4 detained over attack on French gay bar amid tensions..."
"BBC Panorama documentary on British Sharia courts"

Now, do you have anything to back up your fatuous and baseless '95%' assertion?

The 95% was just rhetorical, not meant to be an accusation. But you're right, I shouldn't have mentioned a specific number. It's more of an anecdotal thing. Very often, when I click "View posts since last visit", there will be a new thread started by Tequila. And it will very often be a link to an article which casts "the other" in a negative light (might be Islam, might be something else). And every time that happens, it bothers me for some reason.

But I guess I'm not being very charitable today. A theory just occurred to me. This is an AS forum, after all - could it be that this stuff is your "special interest"? If that's the case, then I feel like a jerk for calling you out on it. But if you really do believe that you are helping the world by "raising awareness" about how bad other cultures are, then I do want to call you out for it.

That's usually because those are the threads that generate debate. The other threads fall by the wayside. Is that therefore my fault that they do or are people not interested in those other threads?

Out of that first page, what, 4 threads in 21 are to do with Islam? 19%?
There are 8 or 9 threads out of that 21 to do with Christianity. 38%-42%.

I could post about the Church of England all day, but few people are interested in the inner political machinations of the Church of England. Watch those news stories fall by the wayside.

And, to tell you the truth, the remaining religious issues with the Church of England will be worked out in time. They are largely an irrelevance in this country to most people.

Tequila,

I think that you are incorrect in your reference to tu quoque.

Tu quoque is a fallacy when it attempts to use the speaker's hypocrisy as a means to undermine the speaker's substantive argument. But that does not appear to me to be what has taken place here.

You rightly criticize the KSA's appalling record not only on the treatment of Saudi women, but also on the treatment of foreign workers, especially domestic workers. All of this is correct, and no one claims otherwise.

The references to the West's failures with respect to women's equal participation in society don't seem to me to be intended to contradict or undermine your claim, but rather to raise the question of whether we should be taking the plank out of our own eye, first.