#western exceptionalism

[icedsodapop]

White leftists, you know you can condemn the comedians for participating in the Riyadh Comedy Festival becos of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses without being weirdly western exceptionalist and islamophobic about it, right?

[whentheynameyoujoy]

Fuck Leftist Westsplaining

- Zosia Brom

[neo-somaliana]

It seems to me that feminists who have criticized various aspects of Islam or Islamic society based their positions upon a worldview radically alien to the Islamic worldview. Their critique typically takes a moral stance. They ask for reform, whether explicitly or implicitly. The reform they have in view is of the standard modern Western type. Among other things, this means that there is an abstract ideal, thought up by us or by our leader, which has to be imposed by overthrowing the old order. The reform is of the same lineage as the Western imperialism that originally appeared in the East as Christian missionary activity. The white man’s burden gradually expanded its horizons – or reduced them, depending on how you look at it.  Salvation was no longer touted as present in Christianity, but in science and progress.  The ‘orientalist’ perspective fits nicely, as many scholars have shown, into this blatantly triumphalistic approach to non-Western societies. Here we have the masculine impulse toward domination run wild, with catastrophic results for the world. Remember that unbridled technological expansion with its concordant ills – the rape of the earth – grew up directly out of this same impulse. Many other reformist currents in Western thought have been infused with the same will to do good for others, even if others do not realize that good is being done for them. Certain forms of feminism seem to fit in the same line of thinking. We see new variants on the old, domineering, and negatively masculine attitude known as proselytism. In the Islamic world…its appeal has been heard only by those who have lost touch with their own intellectual and spiritual universe. The spokespeople for the movement tell us that the rest will follow, as soon as their consciousness is raised. But here we certainly cannot be blamed for asking how we can tell the difference between up and down.

Sachiko Murata, The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought

[legendary-cucumberdragon]

Today a friend told me that in their country was a warning day, it is an alarm on every newer mobile device and it goes off at the same time.

But why are we warned if we are not even in danger? Why does Europe fear a potentially war in their territories so much and not caring if a genocide is happening in the middle east? We can see everything, nothing is hidden! There is so much proof, so many footages of murdered people!

The Western governments don't have to be scared about an expanding war if they stopped it in the first place. The genocide in Palestine could have been stopped 11 months ago and the apartheid could have been stopped years ago! There wouldn't be a genocide if there wasn't an apartheid regime!

We are not special, our lives are not more worth than of the Palestinians! Exceptionalism is just wrong, everyone deserves a safe home and not just the people who grew up in the "right countries".

[faircatch]

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[aquapunk]

[sandwiches-only-please]

MAN, it's so funny that a country that isn't like, westernized tried to be Westernized for a huge fucking event happening in it and then it failed at being Westernized because it's own culture's standards are not up to Western fucking standards. HAHAHAH hilarious tweets!

[doctapuella]

i'm at a cafe trying to get some writing done, but i can't focus. there are two old white guys sitting at the next table, talking about their expert knowledge of the Masai in/near Nairobi (based on some newspaper articles they read in Daily Nation)

"isn't that just the stupidest thing? can't they even figure it out, or does the government have to come in and tell them what to do?"

re: female circumcision: "the girl, she's as dry as sand" "they don't even know what ky jelly is, and thats what you have to use for that"

"oh yes, the article is very well-written"

and now they've moved on to discussing a terror attack in Nairobi, vividly describing violence and gore and dead bodies of civilians, including women and children, and oh dear lord now they're talking about Sandy Hook

it just reeks of USian exceptionalism, with their othering of Kenyans (and Somalians at some points). 

"JUST GO IN AND CARPET BOMB THE FUCKERS. WE HAVE PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY, JUST GET IN THERE WITH DRONES"

OH MY GOD