Some of you may have seen recently an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher in which Sam Harris, Ben Affleck and two others appear as guests.
In the episode Maher brings on Sam Harris, a well known author who writes extensively about religion among other things.
Harris and Maher try to raise what i thought was a very interesting point that liberals today are trying so hard to be politically correct that they are turning a blind eye to many of the abuses of liberal principals, such as the oppression of gays, women and other religious minorities that are happening in Muslim countries, because in the west, Muslims are seen as a protected minority and any any attempt to have a serious discussion about criticism of Islamic doctrine and beliefs is immediately drowned out by cries of racism and bigotry against Muslims as people.
The great irony is that Harris barely gets 30 seconds into making his point when Ben Affleck starts shouting over him with a nonsensical rant and at one point literally says "That's racist, that's disgusting!"
I have included the video below:
After watching the video i was left thinking: "Wow, Ben Affleck really behaved like a petulant child in that video. He must surely be incredibly embarrassed with how he acted. No doubt the media will crucify him for this".
The thing is, regardless of how you feel about Sam Harris' original point, I'm sure that everyone can agree when you are in a debate, as a grown man, you should follow some very basic rules and courtesies, such as:
- Give your opponent at least a chance to make their point before you rudely interrupt them.
- Argue the position, not the person, and do so with facts not emotion.
Ben Affleck fails massively in both of these counts. I was sure most people watching would agree there is no way any one could say he won the argument.
As such i was quite shocked when i googled news on the event only to find that many left wing news sources were lauding Ben Affleck as some sort of hero for having "stood up" to "Islamophobia" and "racist" comments from Maher and Harris.
I have included links to some of these stories below for those interested:
http://www.huffingto..._b_5938270.html
http://www.theatlant...affleck/381266/
http://www.abc.net.a...t-islam/5793664
The Guardian actually wrote 2 articles praising Affleck:
http://www.theguardi...is-islam-racist
http://www.theguardi...efence-of-islam
Obviously i was aware that certain papers/websites have a left wing bias but was quite shocked that any respectable journalist would try to spin this as a "victory for Affleck".. and these are all major newspapers.
This incident, as a case example, has really opened my eyes to how much blatant bias there is in the main stream media and that is why i thought it worth sharing here.
Sam Harris makes a very well articulated response and explanation of his position on his blog. it is well worth a read for those interested:
http://www.samharris...ved-from-itself
