1) The basic philosophy informing Charlie Hebdo (having deep roots in French culture) is misanthropy. Those who produce it are misanthropes: they hate all members of our species.
2) A subset of our species are those belonging to marginalized and oppressed races, religions and ethnicities.
3) It logically follows from 1) that Charlie Hebdo hates those denoted in 2).
4) It follows from 3) that Charlie Hebdo is racist and those looking for it will be able to find plenty of evidence to that effect. But
5) According to another definition, given that Charlie Hebdo’s hatred is indiscriminate, i.e. not directed to any particular segment but all segments of humanity, it is not racist.
6) It follows from 1) that Charlie Hebdo is fundamentally suspicious of the capacity of humans to act decently towards each other, to accept responsibility for their own actions or to be trusted with state power.
7) It follows from 6) that whether or not it is racist, Charlie Hebdo is objectively reactionary.
8) All misanthropes-and a lot of self-identified leftists are misanthropes-are reactionary and they should be viewed by the left as such.
John Halle blogs at Outrages and Interludes.