Posted: Sep 18, 2011 11:58 am
advaitya wrote:I am not in the "characterization" business.
No; you're in the protectionism and overreaction business. The news report said that many American hindus are upset about secular yoga. I really doubt that it's that many, but anyway, nobody has come even close to saying that it represents Hindu attitudes as a whole.
Still, this anger exists in at least one person, and that person is a Hindu speaking qua a Hindu, so according to the rules of English, the title is correct. You have interpreted it much more broadly, presumably to have something to get angry about.
And yes, this does happen quite a lot with Islam and Christianity and atheism and a hell of a lot of other groups. Seems to be especially Islam around here, where people go out of their way to interpret any negative statement about any Muslim at all or about Islam as hideous Islamophobia against every single Muslim on the planet. All it really proves is that they are anti-rational and anti-skeptic.
Frank Zappa wrote:The basic function of any ethnic protective PR organization is to do what Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-California) suggested on the Larry King show -- "maintain the fiction." (He used it in the context of protecting the Reagan administration during the Iran-contra scandal, suggesting it was our duty as Americans to support The President by looking the other way.)
Italians have an organization which seeks to 'maintain the fiction' that no Italians are in the Mafia, nor do they sell drugs while engaging in murder for hire. If you want to believe that, fine -- welcome to Fantasy Land.