During what was obviously meant to be a damage control segment on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau doubled down on his victim-blaming of Charlie Hebdo, the Paris-based satirical magazine massacred by Islamic terrorists earlier this year. “What I didn’t do,” Trudeau said Sunday, “was agree with the decisions they made that brought a world of pain to France.”
Trudeau made the comments to “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd in response to a question about whether or not “the victims were to blame for the tragedy.”
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The damage Trudeau is eager to control is the result of comments the left-wing cartoonist made while accepting an award earlier this month. He accused Charlie Hebdo of engaging in “hate speech,” and went on to say that “free speech… becomes its own kind of fanaticism.”
In defiance of political correctness and Islamic terror threats, Charlie Hebdo became famous for using cartoons on its covers to defiantly push back against Europe’s creeping fascism against free speech. The left-wing publication regularly, and oftentimes crudely, mocked Islam and Christianity.
As I wrote at the time:
As a devout Catholic, I take no pleasure in seeing my faith debased. Context matters, though, and while I may have winced at times, I understood and appreciated Charlie Hebdo’s intentions. That’s what makes Trudeau’s comments so sinister. To accuse Charlie Hebdo of Hate Speech is to attack their intentions. It is obvious this far-left outlet was furthering the righteous cause of free speech.
“Oh, not at all,” Trudeau replied to Todd’s question about blaming the victim. “Perhaps I should have made it a little clearer that I was as outraged as the rest of the world at the time.”
A few sentences later, however, Trudeau completely contradicted his assertion that he was not blaming the victim. “What I didn’t do was agree with the decisions they made that brought a world of pain to France,” Trudeau said.
It is objectively unconscionable for Trudeau to blame anyone other than Islamic barbarians for the “world of pain brought to France.”
In a civilized world, we should be able to satirize, even in the crudest way imaginable, everyone and everything without living in fear of being butchered. That was Charlie Hebdo’s point, and Trudeau is either too obtuse or too much of a coward to recognize that. Either way, he obviously doesn’t want to live in a civilized world. He’d prefer to appease murderous fascists under the cowardly belief the demands will end there.
No one deserves mockery more than those who demand we dare not mock them.
As far as Chuck Todd, the fact that Trudeau went from answering “Oh, not at all” to the question of victim-blaming, before going right back to victim-blaming just a few sentences later, apparently blew right past the “Meet the Press” moderator. Todd seemed concerned only with rehabilitating someone he obviously admires.
The rest of the lengthy interview, most of which was posted on the “Meet the Press” website, served as a near-tribute to Trudeau.
Democrats sure got it good.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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