Very long, probably inept, political rant
May. 11th, 2004 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistI turned on the radio just before I started in on the chocolate chip cookies Mom asked me to make today. I might have preferred my CDs, but the devices for playing such modern media are nowhere near the kitchen, and anyway there is one AM station I almost like (what? don't look at me like that!), either because it's nominally about sports (which I sometimes like), because it's often about everything but sports (which I also like), or because my dad likes it a lot and I learned to tolerate it as a survival mechanism for coping with him listening to it so often. Besides, it was the right time of day for me to listen to my favorite DJ--well, he's not a DJ if it's talk radio; what do you call them? "radio personality," maybe, or something equally cheesy...it serves them right.
Anyway, I turned on the radio but did not hear the crazy randomness I expected. Instead, some unfamiliar lady was talking about...something. Oh well; it was noise and company for my adventures in baking, and I was fairly sure there was nothing better to be found. Even when the lady started saying words like "Iraq" and "prisoners" often enough that I noticed them despite my concentration on measuring flour and butter. She didn't say anything new or interesting...at least until she spoke of what it was like to read the news in the mornings for another station owned by Clear Channel. She said that for a jazz station, one does not need hard-boiled news, but just some account of what's gone on during the day, with some attempt to be accurate and representational, but recently all the news has been so terrible that it's depressing. Stories about child prostitution that would be generally considered quite bad are now below half a dozen other stories about things like someone's head getting cut off.
I was only slightly listening to the caller she put on the air next, as I was stirring cookie dough by that point, but I still noticed that he seemed to be using Iraqis, terrorists, and "Islamics" as interchangable names for the same group of people, and I figured that could not be a good sign. But I sort of chuckled, because sometimes you almost have to laugh so you don't strangle people. But then he started in on things like "all those people hate 'Mericans," that all they understand is violence, that they're probably laughing at us for worrying about how we treat their prisoners, that they should all be taken out back and shot and that's what he'd do if he were there. I shuddered as I spooned dough onto the cookie sheet. The talk show host did the best she could to be respectful while rejecting practically everything he'd said, and the guy in the studio with her actually said somethng I'd been thinking for at least five minutes: "People actually think like this?" I'm not even trying to sound insulting there so much as genuinely amazed. But, even more than amazed, I was saddened: this may not be the dominant opinion in my country, but it might be. And it also quite possibly may be the dominant opinion others have of us.
Those reactions, shock and disgust, did not surprise me. What did surprise me is that more than either of them, I was scared. I don't want to even be around people who thinks such things and says them out loud. I wouldn't like to accidentally cut in front of this guy on 494, or spend time at his family gatherings. And I thought my own family were bad enough...they are bad enough; they're xenophobic, homophobic, entirely sure they're right about everything, almost entirely impervious to logic...but they're still pretty good people and I love them. They don't advocate senseless violence, no matter who's doing it My mom even said today that she feels bad for anyone who has to serve in Iraq (and this is someone who, last year, was telling me I shouldn't even want to go to an anti-war demonstration because I should be "supporting our troops." I wonder if now she'd see my point: I support them so much I want them to come home, or better yet not have to deal with the awful situation our moronic adminstration has stuck them with in the first place. They've accomplished many good things, and already too many have died in the service of their country, and for that I am grateful, but think of the better ways their time, energy, talent, effort, and military budget could be spent...but, that's another rant, really).
But that's a more-or-less intellectual debate--though the caliber of intellect may not always be the highest, at least my family do not say they want to shoot pretty much anyone who has the misfortune to be an Iraqi, and thus also an Islamic and a terrorist. Such blind hatred still gets to me now, just thinking about him hours later. And he doesn't think he's a bad guy, I'm sure. He probably does not get random people out of their beds at night under the pretense of finding out if they know anything about the former regmie of their country, throw them into prisons, torture them, or take them out back and shoot them down. But if the idea appeals to him--and others; I know this is not a minority of one; if it was it wouldn't bother me so much--that's bad enough.
Anyway, I turned on the radio but did not hear the crazy randomness I expected. Instead, some unfamiliar lady was talking about...something. Oh well; it was noise and company for my adventures in baking, and I was fairly sure there was nothing better to be found. Even when the lady started saying words like "Iraq" and "prisoners" often enough that I noticed them despite my concentration on measuring flour and butter. She didn't say anything new or interesting...at least until she spoke of what it was like to read the news in the mornings for another station owned by Clear Channel. She said that for a jazz station, one does not need hard-boiled news, but just some account of what's gone on during the day, with some attempt to be accurate and representational, but recently all the news has been so terrible that it's depressing. Stories about child prostitution that would be generally considered quite bad are now below half a dozen other stories about things like someone's head getting cut off.
I was only slightly listening to the caller she put on the air next, as I was stirring cookie dough by that point, but I still noticed that he seemed to be using Iraqis, terrorists, and "Islamics" as interchangable names for the same group of people, and I figured that could not be a good sign. But I sort of chuckled, because sometimes you almost have to laugh so you don't strangle people. But then he started in on things like "all those people hate 'Mericans," that all they understand is violence, that they're probably laughing at us for worrying about how we treat their prisoners, that they should all be taken out back and shot and that's what he'd do if he were there. I shuddered as I spooned dough onto the cookie sheet. The talk show host did the best she could to be respectful while rejecting practically everything he'd said, and the guy in the studio with her actually said somethng I'd been thinking for at least five minutes: "People actually think like this?" I'm not even trying to sound insulting there so much as genuinely amazed. But, even more than amazed, I was saddened: this may not be the dominant opinion in my country, but it might be. And it also quite possibly may be the dominant opinion others have of us.
Those reactions, shock and disgust, did not surprise me. What did surprise me is that more than either of them, I was scared. I don't want to even be around people who thinks such things and says them out loud. I wouldn't like to accidentally cut in front of this guy on 494, or spend time at his family gatherings. And I thought my own family were bad enough...they are bad enough; they're xenophobic, homophobic, entirely sure they're right about everything, almost entirely impervious to logic...but they're still pretty good people and I love them. They don't advocate senseless violence, no matter who's doing it My mom even said today that she feels bad for anyone who has to serve in Iraq (and this is someone who, last year, was telling me I shouldn't even want to go to an anti-war demonstration because I should be "supporting our troops." I wonder if now she'd see my point: I support them so much I want them to come home, or better yet not have to deal with the awful situation our moronic adminstration has stuck them with in the first place. They've accomplished many good things, and already too many have died in the service of their country, and for that I am grateful, but think of the better ways their time, energy, talent, effort, and military budget could be spent...but, that's another rant, really).
But that's a more-or-less intellectual debate--though the caliber of intellect may not always be the highest, at least my family do not say they want to shoot pretty much anyone who has the misfortune to be an Iraqi, and thus also an Islamic and a terrorist. Such blind hatred still gets to me now, just thinking about him hours later. And he doesn't think he's a bad guy, I'm sure. He probably does not get random people out of their beds at night under the pretense of finding out if they know anything about the former regmie of their country, throw them into prisons, torture them, or take them out back and shoot them down. But if the idea appeals to him--and others; I know this is not a minority of one; if it was it wouldn't bother me so much--that's bad enough.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-11 07:42 pm (UTC)And if I don't stop now, not only am I going to set your screen on fire, but the pork chops I have cooking are going to get overdone :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-11 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-11 10:41 pm (UTC)And both doggies enjoyed the pork bones. The clerks at the store I shop at most that know me get a laugh because they know I purposely select packages of chops based on which ones have the nicest bones for the dogs. My dogs live such a rough life...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 08:18 am (UTC)It's a good one, though. I'm not a big fan of pork chops or barbecue (see, I'm not really 'Merican after all, it seems) but I appreciate good ones. And I see nothing unusual about using a paintbrush to slather on the barbecue sauce.
I also know what it's like to choose meat with the leftovers in mind.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-11 11:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 08:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 02:41 am (UTC)JohnMichaelFuchs (2:19:13 PM): yo today
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:19:16 PM): the guy we killed
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:19:19 PM): his family
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:19:23 PM): came to us with his bones
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:19:27 PM): his funeral or something
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:19:32 PM): and asked if they could have his car
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:19:35 PM): heres his car haa
Wormwood 7777777 (2:19:37 PM): WHAT!?$!%
JohnMichaelFuchs wants to directly connect (2:19:38 PM).
JohnMichaelFuchs is now directly connected (2:19:48 PM).
Wormwood 7777777 (2:19:54 PM): wow.
Wormwood 7777777 (2:20:07 PM): this is simply astonishing
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:21:19 PM):
Wormwood 7777777 (2:21:39 PM): just when i thought you couldn't get anymore wow
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:22:22 PM):
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:22:26 PM): thats what the sand niggers were shooting at us
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:24:00 PM): this is me shitting in a box
Wormwood 7777777 (2:24:11 PM): gfhjgjkg
Wormwood 7777777 (2:26:19 PM): you look like you're having a grand ole time
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:26:24 PM): i gotta go
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:26:26 PM): i am!
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:26:27 PM): its fun man
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:26:34 PM): better than being home
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:26:39 PM): well except for not getting sex
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:26:41 PM): im out though
JohnMichaelFuchs (2:26:42 PM): later
Wormwood 7777777 (2:26:44 PM): hahaha awesome. see ya
JohnMichaelFuchs direct connection is closed (2:26:46 PM).
*Those* are the troops you're meant to be supporting :-/
. What shocked me most about that actually was that the 'person' posting them has a Pet Sounds-themed LJ. I wonder if he's ever actually listened to that album...
I had a terrible time last year trying to explain to even relatively intelligent American friends that I went on 'anti-war' marches, not 'anti-American' marches - and also that there would not in fact be anything intrinsically wrong if I *had* been on an 'anti-American' march, what with me not being American...
Continued in second comment as this rant got too long.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 08:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 11:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 01:43 pm (UTC)Also, I really like your new icon.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 02:45 am (UTC)The problem is that the culture over there is so geared to the lowest common denominator, to profit over all else, to patriotism, to violence, that almost everyone over there seems tainted with that mentality. Not that the UK is much better in that respect, but it *is* a *little* better - and in things like this that matters a lot.
Of course, this sort of thing just makes me more amazed that there are still quite a few people like you out there, who have a basic sense of human decency, and the intelligence to be motivated by something other than hate. And it makes me value your friendship all the more.
And it's a shame, because there's a lot about the US that is utterly admirable - I'm probably far more of a US-phile than anyone else I know. But after Sept 11, 2001, I saw normally intelligent people actually claiming the US should carpet-bomb the entire Middle East with nuclear weapons and kill every single Arab in the world. And as your country seems to be edging closer and closer to having that as your explicit foreign policy, I know more and more people who actually think it would be a good idea to do that to *America*. The US is the single most malevolent, dangerous entity in world affairs at the moment, and it angers me because *that's not how it should be*. The US *SHOULD* be 'the land of the free and the home of the brave', not the land of the Homeland Security department and the home of people who like killing defenceless 'sand-niggers'... but what saddens me most is that the US is making otherwise decent people start feeling the same hatred towards it as the average American feels towards Iraq. Hate is a virus, and as soon as one country is infected with it, it starts to infect everywhere.
But *please* take this the right way - I am saddened because the ideals on which America was supposedly founded, hypocritical as they were, were good ones, and because there are many good people over there, and there are many good things about the place. And I don't want my perception of the country where most of my friends live to be that it's the country of TV evangelists, warmongers, liars, hypocrites and killers.
=hugs= I can only imagine how bad it must be for you, and other decent, sweet, kind, intelligent people *like* you over there, having to live in the same country as such vicious cretins, and in a country where their opinions are actually given weight. You don't deserve to be hated because those 'people' are the image the rest of the world has of your country. But they are, and it's a crying shame.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 03:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-13 09:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-13 09:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-13 09:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 08:55 am (UTC)And I was just thinking as I was reading your comments here that, even though we've talked about a lot of this in some capacity before, konwing that you think about things relatively sanely only makes me like you more. :-)
...the US is making otherwise decent people start feeling the same hatred towards it as the average American feels towards Iraq. Exactly. I see it too, and it worries me. It'll take years to fix that, if we can do it at all, and that is a shame because the United States could be doing so much better. We have the resources, and we have--at least had--the mentality to accomplish great things. There are people who think this is exactly what we're doing in Iraq, but it's not. This is not a great thing, and while things are certainly better for some people than they were under Saddam, that's not a very high standard to beat. But besides the actual atrocities this administration is commiting in Iraq without really accomplishing much, there's the way (I was going to say 'the more subtle way,' but it's not subtle at all, yet still manages to go unnoticed) they're making Americans more likely to hate everybody, and everybody else more likely to hate Americans.
And don't worry about me misconstruing what you said--we've talked about that a lot too and we seem to agree that while the US has great potential, they seem to be abusing their power quite a bit these days and we don't like that. The fact that I am American and you are British doesn't really enter into it, for me. Except inasmuch as it means I can get outta here and come live with you. :-)
Thanks for the hugs. They're amazingkly useful, as this topic seems to be evoking almost visceral reactions in me lately. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 10:26 am (UTC)And the hugs are useful to me, too :)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 10:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 03:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-12 03:17 am (UTC)Fortunately, unlike so many issues in which we have a 50.1/49.9 divide, most people are outraged by this ridiculous behavior, these ridiculous times.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bush was complimenting his secretary of defense.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-13 12:22 pm (UTC)It'll be the first time I've voted for a Republican for president in November (although I have voted for Republicans in local races).
Who am I? I'm an American independent voter who usually votes Democratic. Am I indicative of a national trend? Possibly, but not necessarily. The weakness of the Kerry campaign (and Kerry himself) has to be very troubling to Democrats, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-13 03:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-13 04:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-14 06:08 pm (UTC)