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Lebanon

Syria: Christian Patriarch Backs Off Support For Assad

MTV (Lebanon)

BEIRUT - After having earlier stood by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch has now declared that the fall of what he calls the "dictatorship" of the current regime would not affect Christians in Syria, reported Lebanon's MTV television (not affiliated with the American music broadcaster)

Still Patriarch Bishara al-Rai, whose followers extend across the region, said he continues to fear that Syria could descend into civil war or into the hands of a more stringent regime.

"The Syrian regime is a dictatorship and the Lebanese have suffered from it," al-Rai said. "But still, the departure of Assad will not affect Christians in Syria."

He explained his reasoning by stating that "Christians traditionally support whomever is in power because they are not usually involved in politics."

The Patriarch cited the example of Saddam Hussein protecting the apolitical Christian minority in Iraq. "As long as they do not involve themselves in politics in Arab countries that have one party rule, they have nothing to fear," al-Rai said.

"The departure of the Syrian regime does not worry us, but there are three things we are fearful of: first, that there could be a civil war, or else a division within the country, or that extremists will come to power."

He added that Muslims are generally moderate, but "unfortunately extremists could come into power if backed by other countries."

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Ideas

Yeah, Whatever: In Defense Of The Passive Aggressive

Passive aggression gets a bad rap. It was once even classified as a personality disorder. But in today's world, it can serve a distinct purpose.

Image of someone looking at an eye rolling emoji on an ipad.

A user on the platform Reddit said that he found it passive-aggressive when someone used a thumbs-up emoji in a text conversation.

Peter Praschl

BERLIN — Passive aggression is the disease of our times — even if it hasn't been listed as a personality disorder for quite some time. You can recognize passive aggressive behavior from patterns, ways of speaking, gestures and even emojis. But a mild case is no cause for concern. In fact, quite the opposite.

It’s one of those debates that seem to break out every so often on social media. A user on the platform Reddit said that he found it passive-aggressive when someone used a thumbs-up emoji in a text conversation. He received a flood of responses agreeing with him, saying it was a habit among older people who simply didn’t understand that, for millennials, a thumbs-up could be just as hurtful as a condescending “yeah whatever”.

Many media outlets immediately seized on this as proof of a lack of resilience among the younger generation. Journalists are always ready to comment on this kind of situation, especially when it allows them to write articles that pit the generations against each other while pretending to be objective.

Great — thumbs up.

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