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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022

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People being outraged that teams were prevented from wearing the OneLove armbands (to show solidarity with LBGTQ rights amid the backdrop of Qatari views on homosexuality) are ignorant, arrogant, and dogmatic. This is part of what other regions of the world mean when they say the west forces our values onto other people. You don't get to go into another region of the world for a sport as global as soccer and then shit on them for not sharing the same views as you. Not everything needs to be about activism. I don't have the stats, but I have to imagine most people are not in favor of gay marriage in the middle east and, as much as i am in favor of gay marriage, you have to respect that. I mean it wasn't even codified legally in the US until fairly recently. If you want to interact with other countries, you have to accept that they see things differently than you and have different values. This strikes me as being a strong instance of 'i am so open minded that i am close minded'.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-21/european-teams-won-t-wear-pro-lgbt-armbands-at-world-cup?cmpid=BBD112122_MKT

People being outraged at people being outraged that teams were prevented from doing whatever may or may not be ignorant, but are certainly arrogant and dogmatic.

Going to a foreign country and making impolite statements is rude. It still shouldn’t be suppressed by third parties.

Qatari Muslims ought to be tough enough to handle a dissenting view without their society crumbling. Understanding that they disagree doesn’t be preclude arguing against them—especially not with a token gesture. The fact that FIFA has bent over backwards at the last minute to stifle their speech suggests that this bit of cultural sensitivity is purely financial.

I'm not a Qatari Muslim, but I think I can take a stab at how they'd reply -

"And here it is - the Americans start with shaming as always, implying it is a lack of fortitude which drives us to enforce our beliefs, when it is in fact our fortitude which compels us to do so. You call it a token gesture now because you want to make it look minor, but you know as well as I that it would chink our armour, provide a small gap in the defence of our culture and society through which your CIA can push American cultural values on our youth - and slowly shape us into another den of sin and degradation the way you have done everywhere that doesn't resist. Those currently scoffing at our suspicion of this 'token gesture' would then sing a different tune, one celebrating how they destroyed our culture in the name of 'love' (read perversity). Fifa caved because we will not be moved on this issue, and we will not be moved on this issue because we will not let our culture disappear into the melange of US cultural imperialism. What happened to the Americans who understood this? I'm sure there used to be some, I think they were called democrats?"

You call it a token gesture now because you want to make it look minor, but you know as well as I that it would chink our armour, provide a small gap in the defence of our culture and society through which your CIA can push American cultural values on our youth - and slowly shape us into another den of sin and degradation

There's literally already a conservative meme about this in America:

[Dreher's] Law of Merited Impossibility, which states: “It will never happen, and when it does, you bigots will deserve it.”

Qataris get internet too.

Are you refuting my point or supporting it with an alternative but complimentary point? Because it reads like the former, but I don't know what you are refuting.

Oh, I was agreeing.