5 ms·

Why am I not surprised this direction was taken in this thread when the article has much more interesting things to discuss?

s5300 6y ago
I'm sorry - why is Butt Naked not interesting? Seriously. Knowing about this shit is really important for broadening your understanding of the world we're a part of.
- tomjakubowski 6y ago
  General Butt Naked is a contemporary figure. The featured article is about the founding of the Liberian state, which began almost 200 years ago. If your comment had connected the unusual General Butt Naked to that, it would have been interesting, but just linking to some crazy guy's Wikipedia article because he's from the same country isn't, really.
  - Apocryphon 6y ago
    It's like responding to an article about the Founding Fathers with a trailer for Tiger King.
    - edgyquant 6y ago
      No it’s like responding to an article about the founding fathers with an article discussing General Mattis. Not relevant but not that irrelevant plus an interesting piece of recent history.
      - Apocryphon 6y ago
        Let's compromise and say it's like an article about Eddie Gallagher. Blahyi is a particularly sensationalistic and appalling character who gained infamy in the West thanks to one of VICE News' earliest documentaries. An interesting story, yes, but also tabloidized by VICE's characteristic edginess, and not really a major leader in the Liberian Civil War. Most Americans don't know much about Africa, let alone Liberia. Our perceptions about it are often only informed by Nicolas Cage's Lord of War and the aforementioned VICE documentary, the latter which has led General Butt Naked to become somewhat of a meme. Yet Liberia is a country that the U.S. specifically was involved in its founding and development. It's rather unfair to the country to have one of its worst villains from one of its most traumatic eras be Americans' only impression of it. An unrepresentative association that dishonors a nation.
    - bilbo0s 6y ago
      In fairness, no one else' comments are connected to what happened 200 years ago. We're all discussing contemporary Liberia. Some of us are not even discussing Liberia, but Africa in general. And Africa as a whole, is not like Liberia at all, it's extremely diverse and different from itself. Eswatini, Libya, Ethiopia, and Liberia couldn't be more different from each other. They're nothing alike.

s5300 6y ago

I'm sorry - why is Butt Naked not interesting? Seriously. Knowing about this shit is really important for broadening your understanding of the world we're a part of.

tomjakubowski 6y ago
General Butt Naked is a contemporary figure. The featured article is about the founding of the Liberian state, which began almost 200 years ago. If your comment had connected the unusual General Butt Naked to that, it would have been interesting, but just linking to some crazy guy's Wikipedia article because he's from the same country isn't, really.
- Apocryphon 6y ago
  It's like responding to an article about the Founding Fathers with a trailer for Tiger King.
  - edgyquant 6y ago
    No it’s like responding to an article about the founding fathers with an article discussing General Mattis. Not relevant but not that irrelevant plus an interesting piece of recent history.
    - Apocryphon 6y ago
      Let's compromise and say it's like an article about Eddie Gallagher. Blahyi is a particularly sensationalistic and appalling character who gained infamy in the West thanks to one of VICE News' earliest documentaries. An interesting story, yes, but also tabloidized by VICE's characteristic edginess, and not really a major leader in the Liberian Civil War. Most Americans don't know much about Africa, let alone Liberia. Our perceptions about it are often only informed by Nicolas Cage's Lord of War and the aforementioned VICE documentary, the latter which has led General Butt Naked to become somewhat of a meme. Yet Liberia is a country that the U.S. specifically was involved in its founding and development. It's rather unfair to the country to have one of its worst villains from one of its most traumatic eras be Americans' only impression of it. An unrepresentative association that dishonors a nation.
  - bilbo0s 6y ago
    In fairness, no one else' comments are connected to what happened 200 years ago. We're all discussing contemporary Liberia. Some of us are not even discussing Liberia, but Africa in general. And Africa as a whole, is not like Liberia at all, it's extremely diverse and different from itself. Eswatini, Libya, Ethiopia, and Liberia couldn't be more different from each other. They're nothing alike.