Linkage

Günter Grass has died.

Jacques Rancière on Charlie Hebdo. Some of his argument is odd:

The great universalist values – laïcité, common rules for everyone, equality among men and women – have become the instrument of a distinction between ‘us’ (we who adhere to these values) and ‘them’, who do not.  

The distinction between those who support these values and those who don't is real, not invented by wicked people, and pretending otherwise is silly. Of course there are many liberal Muslims (and many illiberal non-Muslims) but there are also substantial minorities who, for example, sympathize with the Charlie Hebdo attackers; the Muslim Council of Britain opposed the repeal of Section 28; et cetera. Still, worth reading for his thoughts on the FN. He seems to be a kind of postmodern populist, for whom  all knowledge claims are illusionary and the peuple can do no wrong.