I wonder if I stand alone in not being Charlie. I'm most definitely and quite absolutely NOT Charlie
Charlie has been hijacked. Charlie is rude. Charlie deliberately tries to wind people up. Therefore I exercise my so-called right to Freedom of Speech and say it like I see it. Charlie ain't actually very nice. I wouldn't want some idiot drawing outrageous pictures of me just to raise cash. That's why Charlie was going bankrupt before us gullible idiots ever heard of him a couple of weeks ago. Charlie's doing OK financially now we've all gone and bought the latest issue with Charlie having another pop at Mohammed.
Mohammed has been long gone from this earthly plane, whatever way you look at it. He never bombed anyone but thousands have gone and killed in Mohammed's name. It is these folk Charlie should be highlighting....not Mohammed.
However, Charlie has been hijacked.
The western governments and media have turned this into an issue of freedom of speech and told us all that Charlie has been punished for this. This is untrue. Charlie was attacked, not for any issue of freedom of speech, but because it kept upsetting people. The horrendous killers involved weren't attacking freedom of speech but the people who were, in their eyes, insulting a greatly respected Prophet who they hold sacred. This in no way condones nor excuses any form of harm to others and the extremists who murdered in cold blood in Paris died by the sword.
There is no such thing as freedom of speech - anywhere on this planet. I cannot walk into anyone's home, for example, and insult them deeply without expecting some form of retribution therefore I impose censorship myself. None of us openly tells it as we think it. We wouldn't last five minutes in society if we did therefore to convince ourselves that we do have freedom of speech can be considered wrong - none of us are truly free to speak what we really think. In one way or another we would violate some sort of law or other. For example using the N word is culturally out of bounds for some but not others. The word Faggot can be used by some yet not others. Freedom of speech does not in reality exist. It cannot for the sake of civilised society.
But the governments and media would love to convince you that it does. How else are they ever gonna get millions onto the street with the idea that freedom of speech is being attacked when it isn't. Islamic extremists won't take over the west - we got really big guns and stuff and we know how to use them, don't we? We've shown that our governments aren't afraid to use them and annihilate any civilians who get in the way. Whilst my online activity is at the mercy of my freedom loving government i remember that my right to the freedom of speech means their right to investigate me if I so much as type in the wrong words - ie misspelling pop corn as cop porn. Certain keywords get scrutinised - and certain people who, in the west, try to exercise the so-called freedom of speech we have end up stuck in foreign embassies after revealing the truth and being declared traitors. Whistle-blowers beware.
And in conclusion I ain't Charlie 'coz he's rude to people and I have more intelligence than to go around deliberately winding up the mad people with guns just to sell a few copies of a magazine no-one has ever heard of - the mad people who have a history of extreme nastiness. I exercise my right to not do this and be a coward.
Thus basically I'm not very Charlie at all - and very probably standing alone - again.