That was a good little read and mirrors my sentiments about media consumption exactly. People who have a specialized knowledge about a subject will often find themselves reading false information about serious topics from media about their subject of knowledge. Lowering the credibility of that media in their eyes and preparing themselves to be more skeptical of information output from that media. Then flip to another subject they are totally uninformed on and believe word for word everything that is said to them no matter how utterly ridiculous.
He is correct though. If you disagree, can you point me to information on what developments the Ottomans were responsible for in the Middle East and North Africa? For example, is there a reason the region of North Africa went from inhabiting several vibrant, busy trading centers. Small regional empires in their own right, to becoming a collection of fossilized fishing communities of a fraction of the population along the coast? Centuries of neglect? How is that Napoleon was able to invade and conquer Egypt, the heart of MENA and found it unimpressive and empty? Hardly the Egypt of yore.
Really, what advancements, cities, anything did the Ottomans contribute to the large landmass they governed over? All their effort was focused at Anatolia and Eastern Europe. If we're being honest, they were a colonial force to the rest of MENA for over 600 years while Europe was exponentially growing at every segment.
This is an extremely reductive and anti-Muslim revision of history. Spread by hate groups and anti-Muslim ideologue types. Explanation for the current state of affairs is a vastly complex subject. Ranging from the Mongols, Seljuks, destruction of learning centers, lack of coal, competition with colonialism. There are so many reasons that aren't simply some cartoon evil religious man had said "science bad".
That's because forensics has a sordid history of being overvalued in trial cases because of magic thinking like "it's science it must be the truth". When in reality a lot of it is quackery and science is the last thing that leads to a simple, quick and direct truth.
I used to be a free speech absolutist, but after seeing just how a massive number of people can be convinced of some seriously dangerous but factually incorrect political ideas off of nothing more than memes, it changed my view. It was time to admit that social media wasn't a simple town square. People engaged with millions of other people need to be treated with even more checks and balances than a journalist with a fraction of that engagement.
Help undermine security measures taken against seditionists in another country. You don't have to worry about any of the consequences of civil strife because you don't live there. You just get to pretend to be the good guy. Meanwhile a bunch of goofballs protest in D.C and American politicians and tech industry freak out that it's sedition and needs to be mercilessly stamped out. Seditionists wearing hollween costumes. They haven't even begun assassinating scientists and planting bombs in civil buildings yet.
That is really creepy. I really hate when you want to maintain privacy or discretion and vendors/people start asking questions like the FBI. Christ people, get a grip and respect privacy.
This is the best advice. Your description is also very good. An apology is you offering something (like dignity or a moment of weakness). But too often, people treat apologies as something you use to make a transaction where you're excused for your behavior by performing the ritual.
This is terrible advice. The advice presupposes that indignant people are reasonable, fair, forgiving (and frankly, gullible). If you bend over to a mob that is out to get you, then you will find out very quickly how cruel people can become. You will find out that human beings, within angry group dynamics, simply revert back to primitiveness in these situations. It's like dealing with a pack of wolves. Never show weakness. This doesn't get us to a better society but it is what it is.
I grew up in the middle east and I still live in the middle east and I never heard anyone say kill da Jews or da imperialists because those kinds of wacky statements can only be conjured up by a Westerner with preconceived notions about what middle easterners are and pretends to be one on the internet for argument points.