Rant!
Hey all
I’m sorry but i am just so angry/annoyed that i have to rant about this.
I’m at uni and there is an exchange girl from the US (Pennsylvania) here (i’m in Australia). We get talking about politics — she’s a Democrat who is going to be voting Republican. I asked her (non-judgmentally) how come, why say she’s a Dem if shge’s voting as a Republican… Then she went on to say how Hillary Clinton can’t run a country b/c no one will take her seriously, she’s a woman. Then she went on abt how Obama isn’t really American — he’s African. I said well, technically he’s mum is from Kansas (i think…? at least she’s a white American) and his dad is from Kenya, but he was raised elsewhere as well as the US… so culturally he is more American than African as well as Indonesian(as he did not live in Africa as a child). [I don’t need to go into the details of TCKness here — everyone knows!].
THEN she began saying how in his books it was all about anti-white he was, how he hates whites, he’s a terrorist… I said that i had read ‘Dreams from my Father’ and that i had not found anything of the sort. As i said that she got this look on her face like ‘OMG this chick is so stupid!’. I said, no don’t look at me like that, i read the book to get an idea of his side of the story. You get information so that you can argue a point.
I mean honestly, she would not even consider the fact that Obama wasn’t some psycho-anti-white terrorist. She had not even read the books! Of course i know that it is human nature to write the best about yourself, but saying that he’s ‘African so he can’t run an American country’ without looking at the facts or thinking at several different perspectives really really gets to me.
And yes, even if this arguement had been going on about McCain (or another Republican candidate) i would have still be argueing my point because i beleive in not just lloooking at one point of view.
Question: Do you think that this was a cultural difference or what?
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19 Comments to “Rant!”
March 29th, 2008 at 9:20 am
*sigh*…. hahaha.. Theres always ONE isn’t there. One narrowminded imbecile. When it comes down to it i guess we can’t force people to see the world the way we do, we can try to convince of the way we see the world but ultimately everything is subjective. In a decade or so we might be the ones who were wrong and history would look back on those with our values and opinions as the enemies. You never know. Just be glad you’re enlightened!! I would say “It’s her country she can do what she wants” but ultimately the outcome of the US elections always affects the world as a whole.
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March 29th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Definetly not a cultural difference if you ask me!
She’s wearing more than societies blinders, that one is!!
Thats ignorant chauvinism (or what ever you say when the womans being the idiot for once, hehe!) and racism.
i probably would have lost my head and told her to yank the pole out of her butt and to open her eyes…
That’s generally my answer to everything
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March 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am
It’s more her stupidity than it is cultural difference that’s getting in the way of your having a good conversation.
ps ck out this out if you haven’t already, it’s pretty interesting but it is a bit long.
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March 29th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
“how Hillary Clinton can’t run a country b/c no one will take her seriously, she’s a woman.”
Women are just another inferior race in this world and we should be grateful men even let us out of the kitchen, right? We only exist to make life easier and more pleasurable for men. We’re not supposed to be in open competition with them or they’ll make sure we’re sorry with brute force.
I’m normally cool on women’s rights stuff and am not a militant feminist at all, but after seeing all these abused women in Europe and the things people are saying about Hillary Clinton, I might just become a militant feminist. lol
It’s definitely not a cultural thing because men of every nationality have been bashing Hillary for being female.
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March 29th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Definitely not cultural difference. Just pure ignorance. Especially for calling someone who’s African-American an “African”.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find that McCain wins votes from ignorant White America just because he is the “ideal white American president” to these people.
Hillary is a woman? So what? Obama is “not white” so what?
And I would think this girl went to Australia as an exchange student for a reason…
Sorry I sound so bitter but people like her really makes me wonder how this world survived. People like her do not deserve to vote for anybody’s president LOL
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March 30th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
It’s not cultural difference. I mean, sure she’s a little ignorant, a little rude and such. But she’s also human, and has the right to give out her opinion, no matter how rude or twisted it is. I mean, like Sim said, it’s not just her that’s ignorant.
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March 30th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I’m a US citizen, and so far, I like Obama in the upcoming election. With that out of the way, here’s my $0.02 USD.
I’ll start off with a fun quote from software engineering:
“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build better and bigger idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”
Are there idiot voters in the US? Clearly. As there are no doubt in any other election held around the world. I am sure, in this pending election, you can find supporters of each and every candidate who vote for them purely on the basis of what they are that the other candidates aren’t. There are women who’ll be voting for Hillary who don’t know much more about her than that she is, for all intents and purposes, a woman. There are people who’ll vote for Barack simply because he is black. Surely there are veterans who’ll vote for McCain. Each of these candidates could put on a pink tutu, tatoo “A-1 Moron” on their head, and start delivering speeches in their own made up language, and they’d STILL get votes.
Is this “right”? “No” you say…well then, what IS right? Oh, you know about all the candidates’ foreign policy plans, so you’re voting for X. Is that “right”? Maybe not according to me, who knows that X has crap for domestic policy…clearly Z is better. But Z doesn’t care about the environment…(repeat ad nauseum)
Let’s review some basic rights under the US system of government. Free speech, and the right to vote. Other people say this stuff better than I, so how about another quote:
“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend with my life your RIGHT to say it.”
Free speech has taken some knocks over the years. People throwing out statements like “I’m all for free speech, just don’t do it in public.” Kinda misses the spirit of things I think.
Civil debate is certainly encouraged in a free society, but that in no way means you can force someone to engage in it. If someone has a set preconceived notion about something, your level of anger, however good you think your argument is, is unlikely to persuade them. The best bet would be to save your energy for more productive purposes.
I think preconceptions and uninformed decision making are just as big a part of the average TCK’s lifestyle as anyone else. Is a born-raised-died on the family farm farmer more ignorant that a world-traveled multi-lingual TCK? Well, if it’s a foreign language competition, surely, but frankly, I won’t come to this site for advice if my tractor breaks down or my cow gets sick.
TCKs are not “the future.” Non-TCKs are not “the future.” People, however, ARE the future, so we’d be well advised to all get along.
Everybody is ignorant about something to somebody else.
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March 30th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
well said jerry, well said.
Especially this part:
“TCKs are not “the future.” Non-TCKs are not “the future.” People, however, ARE the future, so we’d be well advised to all get along.”
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March 30th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I love you Jer Jer, you rock my socks
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March 30th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
HAHAH i love jerry too
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March 30th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
I take my hat off to you Jez.
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March 30th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Jerry, are you in Software Engineering? I’m currently studying that at the University of Waterloo.
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March 30th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
not currently I guess…studied it as part of the CS program, and did a 1-year stint as a software guy, but more systems manager now.
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March 30th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
funny though, we’re friends with some Canadian folks here (NZ) that went to Waterloo!
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March 30th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
In the words of our dear silly friend Winston Churchill, “The strongest argument against Democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter.”
And honestly, anyone is capable of stupidity and ignorance. Including TCKs. I met a lot of them in Switzerland, and they can be just as bad as anyone else. They often just have the *opportunity* to get better, and that can go either way. We just have to recognize the opportunity when we have it, and take it.
Anyway, that situation would’ve driven me up the wall too.
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March 31st, 2008 at 3:09 am
The problem is women do too, some are so conditioned by society, that I have found many with shovanist attitudes, which to me is most frustrating.
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March 31st, 2008 at 5:03 am
Such women are often the worst enemies of other women.
Yes I’ve run into such types too and it is maddening!
(I’ve seen this among both non-TCKs and TCKs)
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March 31st, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Maybe if one is in Isa’s situation one will probably understand the situation better.
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April 5th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Hi,
He is actually African and American. Not African-American. Though because he has “African” in him, people EXPECT him to identify as an African-American.
And he actually is White too, that’s just not his skin color… he’s bi-racial. But he grew up in a White family.
I totally agree with you though. Good points.
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