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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 8:44 pm Post subject: The Wright idea about HIV in Africa |
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So, the idea that HIV/Aids is a Western plot to kill blacks has spread deep into Africa.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/c9710dd8a6f4c566e373aff70c661776.htm
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KENYA: Muslim clerics declare war on condoms
GARISSA, 12 May 2008 (IRIN) - Muslim leaders in Kenya's North Eastern Province have resolved to campaign against the promotion of condoms as a means of preventing HIV.
The decision was made after a recent meeting on the theme of "Islam and Health", attended by more than 60 Muslim scholars and teachers in the provincial capital of Garissa.
The clerics further demanded the closure of bars in the northeast and asked the government to suspend the licensing of any new bars. According to the clerics, local bars and "video dens" screened pornographic movies that were contributing to sexually transmitted infections. The widespread abuse of drugs was another factor: a locally grown mild stimulant, "khat", is popular in the region.
Abdi Welli, a taxi driver in Garissa, told IRIN/PlusNews he agreed with the clerics that condoms should be banned. He believed the widespread myth that condoms and contraceptives were laced with the HI virus. "We know the condoms are not safe ... if you want to contract the virus that causes AIDS, then use [a condom]," he said. "After all, we have heard in the past that the Western world is using the condom to eliminate Africans, and Muslims in particular." |
"muslims in particular". The victim complex knows no end.
My question is this: To what extent should those who spread these conspiracy theories responsible for their outcomes? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 9:56 pm Post subject: Re: The Wright idea about HIV in Africa |
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| mises wrote: |
My question is this: To what extent should those who spread these conspiracy theories responsible for their outcomes? |
You're going to have causation problems right away. How do you show that a conspiracy theory caused a murder, riot, or rape? You cannot make ideas criminal. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't mean criminal responsibility. I'm thinking more along the lines of using the stigma of increased HIV transmission due to irresponsible ideas to discredit those individuals and institutions that pushed them. |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 11:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Inciting Ignorance becomes a crime, why not? Put all the clerics and bishops in jail. They'll soon find one way how HIV spreads. |
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Stacy
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 1:59 am Post subject: |
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| AIDS is curing Africa, *beep* 'em. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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Arab man not to sit and drink with Lady.
We respect your belief in Islam. |
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Sincinnatislink
Joined: 30 Jan 2007
Location: Top secret.
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| Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 8:38 pm Post subject: |
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I'm glad to see the level of discussion so high here.
Bravo. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 10:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Why is the title of this thread "Wright"? Is that a person's name in the article, or was that a misspelling? |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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| A reference to Rev.Wright sermon on AIDS where he claimed it is"a genocidal conspiracy administered by Anglo-American population controllers primarily targeting non-whites." |
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endo
Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home
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| Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 10:59 pm Post subject: Re: The Wright idea about HIV in Africa |
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/c9710dd8a6f4c566e373aff70c661776.htm
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The widespread abuse of drugs was another factor: a locally grown mild stimulant, "khat", is popular in the region.
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This doesn't make any sense. You either chew on khat or mix it with hot water into a tea.
I guess you can also smoke it, but no needles involved what so ever. |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 11:25 pm Post subject: Re: The Wright idea about HIV in Africa |
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Maybe it gives you a raging horn! |
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endo
Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home
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| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 1:07 am Post subject: Re: The Wright idea about HIV in Africa |
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| ED209 wrote: |
Maybe it gives you a raging horn! |
Not in my experience. |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 5:06 am Post subject: Re: The Wright idea about HIV in Africa |
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| endo wrote: |
| ED209 wrote: |
Maybe it gives you a raging horn! |
Not in my experience. |
Leaves you susceptible to others' raging horns? |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:45 am Post subject: |
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| I assume it lowers ones inhibitions and perhaps lowers the use of condoms for those who are high on it. I don't know exactly.. I've never tried it. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:52 am Post subject: |
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| Sincinnatislink wrote: |
I'm glad to see the level of discussion so high here.
Bravo. |
Christ man, that place that graduated you seems to produce the most smug form of elitism that I have yet encountered.
Kuros: in my experience, quite a lot of people involved in knowledge-production (historians, journalists, filmmakers, other writers) consciously include or exclude this or that evidence so that the narrative stories and/or analyses they produce in print or film will bring about "the right message" to their audiences. Then they deny responsibility, as William Blum did when bin Laden cited his antiAmerican foreign-relations history as something that had shaped his worldview, or Noam Chomsky did when Hugo Chavez cited him, citing "free speech" as their pretext.
Turn it around, and you will see these same people lambasting, for example, the anthropologists who unintentionally produced the peasant studies the Guatemalan govt cited when it claimed its Indian peoples and cultures were "antimodern" and therefore had to be killed if Guatemala was to advance in world affairs.
When I cite the former examples, people here and on university campuses tend to look at me as if I were speaking another language that they could not understand. They squint their eyes in incomprehension and tilt their heads. When I cite the latter example, they tend to get excited and fully agree -- so, in any case, at least I know my English still functions.
However this may be, free speech exists and should continue to exist, of course. But what about taking responsibility for what we write and how others may interpret and then act on it, especially where wild, sensational conspiracy theories are at play, conspiracy theories that allege the worst about the American govt? |
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