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From what I've seen (I can read a French a bit, and most of the cartoon speak for themselves), Charlie Hebdo is indeed vulgar, juvenile trash, i.e. France's print equivalent of "South Park." Acknowledging this doesn't in the slightest defend the actions of Islamist terrorists, nor is there any moral equivalence between those who create vulgar trash and those who blow people up. I can ignore trashy entertainment nearby, I can't ignore a bomb going off near me or bullets zipping past me.

That being said, let's not fall into the trap of assuming that Islamic terrorists, Communists, or thuggish dictators hating something makes it good. There was a thread a while back (you were participating on it, I think) where some idiots called the sleazy vulgarian harpies of Russia's "Pussy Riot" modern-day martyrs like Solzhenitsyn. As far as I can tell, "Pussy Riot" is Russia's answer to Sarah Silverman - as low and vulgar trash as they come. Again, this doesn't mean that I support authoritarian governments throwing vulgarians into Gulags for years, but the fact that authoritarian thugs throws them into a Gulag doesn't in itself make them praiseworthy.

let's not fall into the trap of assuming that Islamic terrorists, Communists, or thuggish dictators hating something makes it good.

Yes. Yup, Pussy Riot was in the same category with the same left-wing knee-jerk responses all over the place.