The issue, summed up:
Cruz is driving. Republican voters are the dog. He’s using U.S. Muslims to steer them in much the same way. And it should be no less frightening for Muslims.
I read the gif as:
The chicken are the politicians. The dog is the sucker portion of the public, endlessly chasing the illusion that politicians will ever offer anything worth following. The person in the cart is the people who would just like to get on with their lives without getting caught up in the bullshit, but get pulled along for the ride because the cart is covered with the superglue of government power, not allowing anyone to escape its grasp. Because it has a steering handle, the cart gives the illusion that there is the possibility of steering the direction of the cart, but in reality the whole thing just runs chaotically, stuck going in whichever random variation of direction the crazy dog gets distracted in.
True. Integrating muslims is something we have consistently failed at in Europe (Recently. With older Muslim populations such as in Albania and Bosnia, there are no problems that can not also be explained as ethnic conflicts).
Good example. Both vegans and strong believers have in common that they exhibit strange behaviours, demand that others accommodate them and attempt to proselytize but are often met with ridicule by the majority.
Vegans in both Europe and America, and highly religious people in America, are, however, accepted as a normal phenomenon. We know how much damage they can cause and have come to the conclusion that we can be happy together on a live and let live basis.
Most areas of “Christian” Europe are much more uniformly secularized than America. Around here, being a creationist doesn’t put you in the “stupid half” of the population, it puts you firmly in the 5% lunatic fringe. And only the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe would even think of saying that evolution should therefore not be taught in schools. It’s the same with many similar subjects. Believing in the existence of the devil or in a hell complete with fire and brimstone would likewise put you somewhere in the “extreme” category. An atheist who complains about a priest who implied that non-believers are less ethical people than Christians can earn approval and support from a group of moderately conservative Catholics in the 60+ age group (“No he really shouldn’t say things like that. You should write to him and tell him, he’s a nice guy, I can’t believe he really meant it that way”).
It’s generally considered OK for a priest to be in the “highly religious” category. But the Church used to have a lot of power; that power is mostly gone, but not gone enough for “highly religious” people to graduate to “harmless loons that need protecting” status.
The downside is that 90% of “moderate” Muslim immigrants are automatically lumped in with the real religious extremists. And while the political left tried and is still trying to accept them, that means that the average left-leaning European has to apply double standards here - oppose the traditional Christian Churches lest they take us back to the dark ages but be silent about the same views when held by Muslim immigrants. And while that might be a nice thing to do individually, it also keeps the religious immigrants from becoming truly part of mainstream society.
Uh… Midvale is the Middle East, the school represents science, the door is armageddon, the book is “To Serve Man”, and the boy is Klaatu… so yeah, I got nothin’.
Hmm. So he’s America’s gifted children… Trying to get into the converation about the middle east. He has a book to make it all better… Called to serve man. He’s attempting to bring it to them as a gift… But can’t push his way through the wall of bullshit that is interpreting the middle East as some biblical event landscape… The door named Armageddon.
Hoping we can all play out some redemptive Greek play, and if shit just gets bad enough and every problem is unsolvable, the Deus Ex Machina will kick in. The Messiah will enter the stage from one side or another. That’s Armageddon. It seems like a bad thing it isn’t. It’s a good thing! Plus it’s far away and in a desert.
But Klaatu there… He is so within himself and his own mind that be doesn’t realize… To pass through the wall of bullshit, one does not push. One pulls. Engages with the conversation… And here’s the hard part… Communicates in terms they understand. Religious arguments about values. Sigh…
Once inside… Little Klaatu would find that they would kill him. Because in Middle East Politics, everyone kills or will kill or talks about killing everyone else. And ‘to serve man’ in that context can only be a cookbook… That’s just where their head is at.
