re: #144 Achilles Tang

You also have no idea what you are commenting on, do you?

I do, I was there. You didn’t present any arguments. CL’s page detailed the history / origins of the word Islamophobia, intended to refute the often asserted idea that it was invented by Muslims and/or liberals as a way of deflecting legitimate criticism of islamist terrorist groups and their attacks. Her findings showed that it predates 9/11:

Early in 1997 the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, under the chairmanship of Professor Gordon Conway, issued a consultative document. The final report, Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All, was launched in November 1997 by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw.

This was the first time that the subject of Islamophobia had been comprehensively tackled in relation to a British Muslim population estimated at between 1.2 and 1.4 million. Sixty recommendations were put forward in the report targeted at government departments, bodies and agencies, local and regional statutory bodies, and voluntary and private bodies. It attracted, and continues to attract, wide interest and media coverage in both the UK and abroad.

Your response boiled down to a largely insubstantial so what. Honestly it wasn’t deserving of any real debate. The rest of the thread focused largely the inadequacy of the term “fear” as a translation for phobia. I pointed out that the antonym for phobia is philia, and that this should be instructive. That in chemistry and materials science the terms largely related to rejection/repellence and attraction/absorption, and that this was a better framework for how they be used sociologically.

I just took a look back in the archives, and you’ve been doing this whiny shit for years, focusing for the most part on just a few female users, primarily CL and wrenchwench. It’s old dude, it’s so fucking old.