Perspective: you cant haz it.
So there’s this woman I’m friends with on facebook, whom…I never actually met; I’m not quite sure how this happened. But be that as it may, there we were, and it was fine, she seemed pretty solid and smart with typically okay politics. And then, as you may have heard, the king of Saudi Arabia died, and she wrote THIS:
I taught ESL to students under the Saudi scholarship program for a few years, and it was indescribably enriching to my life. I ate kabsa, learned about Islam, saw tons of wedding photos, held an occasional newborn baby, and laughed--A LOT. Thanks, King Abdullah, for sharing these fantastic students with me!
Ha ha, yes, he may have sanctioned the beatings of pro-democracy advocates, his country may have continued to be one of the most viciously repressive and misogynistic places on Earth, he have have sanctioned and funded terrorism, BUT HEY, at least he gave some white girl from Ohio a chance to feel culturally enriched, so hey, SIX OF ONE HALF DOZEN OF THE OTHER, amirite? Yes, obviously, that comment isn't specifically endorsing the regime as a whole, but trumpeting only the positive you see in people who were world-class shitheads is just perverse, and that whole post just looks like something you'd see in The Onion making fun of comically self-centered, narcissistic college kids. And it isn’t even like Mussolini and the trains (JUST PRETEND THEY DID, OKAY?), because at least there the statement is “well, he may have been bad at least he made the trains run on time!,” conceding that maybe he did some stuff that wasn’t so great. This is more like saying, after his death, “he made the trains run on time!” as if that were his primary legacy. Good GOSH.
It’s obvious that she really just wanted to use the king’s death as an opportunity to brag about how awesome and culturally enriched she is, that this wasn’t any kind of political statement, but really, now. Pretty embarrassing all ‘round.
I taught ESL to students under the Saudi scholarship program for a few years, and it was indescribably enriching to my life. I ate kabsa, learned about Islam, saw tons of wedding photos, held an occasional newborn baby, and laughed--A LOT. Thanks, King Abdullah, for sharing these fantastic students with me!
Ha ha, yes, he may have sanctioned the beatings of pro-democracy advocates, his country may have continued to be one of the most viciously repressive and misogynistic places on Earth, he have have sanctioned and funded terrorism, BUT HEY, at least he gave some white girl from Ohio a chance to feel culturally enriched, so hey, SIX OF ONE HALF DOZEN OF THE OTHER, amirite? Yes, obviously, that comment isn't specifically endorsing the regime as a whole, but trumpeting only the positive you see in people who were world-class shitheads is just perverse, and that whole post just looks like something you'd see in The Onion making fun of comically self-centered, narcissistic college kids. And it isn’t even like Mussolini and the trains (JUST PRETEND THEY DID, OKAY?), because at least there the statement is “well, he may have been bad at least he made the trains run on time!,” conceding that maybe he did some stuff that wasn’t so great. This is more like saying, after his death, “he made the trains run on time!” as if that were his primary legacy. Good GOSH.
It’s obvious that she really just wanted to use the king’s death as an opportunity to brag about how awesome and culturally enriched she is, that this wasn’t any kind of political statement, but really, now. Pretty embarrassing all ‘round.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 10:15 AM
...and I'm aware that there are PLENTY of US politicians who are comparably awful; it seems to me that that's neither here nor there.
I might be wrong on this one but isn't the "at least he made trains run on time" statement is meant to mock Mussolini/be ironic rather then pointing out something positive about him?
Well, it's never directly SAID by anyone; it's attributed to a third party who misses the Mussolini regime and demonstrates a comical lack of perspective about it.