4 ms·
How astonishingly racist. And how astonishingly uncurious. If you find this reaction shocking and you sincerely want to find more understanding of the Middle E
by eyelidlessness 5y ago
How astonishingly racist. And how astonishingly uncurious.
If you find this reaction shocking and you sincerely want to find more understanding of the Middle East, your ancestors or peers almost certainly have also been colonized, or have neighbors who have. This reaction to colonized people is so banal you should be able to find troves of understanding if you bother to look.
Edit: I expect this to continue to be downvoted, because I know the way things go here. But honestly every one of you downvoting me who think it’s a reasonable thing to say ‘they don't think like you do, their, I don't know how to put it, "value metric" is different from yours’… take a moment and think about that.
- aaomidi 5y agoSo, an alternative view point here. Fwiw I'm Iranian and I'm living in the US. I kinda agree with you that just dismissing it like that feels off-putting. However, I actually want people (mainly westerners) to admit that they don't know how shit works there, and how, for example, Iranians deal with conflicts and grief. What I don't want is that they assume that the way Americans do it is the right way, and everyone else is wrong. Or that they really could have any reasonable opinion that isn't going to make the shit worse without REALLY taking the time to try to learn and talk about what's going on and how to not fuck it up even more because America and Europe keep fucking it up.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoI agree with this completely, for what it’s worth. The thing I objected to in the comment above was the ‘we/they just think differently and it’s not knowable’ attitude, which is dehumanizing as fuck. I would hope people are interested in learning why other people act and react the way they do, and understand that there are cultural and historical influences on that. And to the point of not assuming American reactions are right: we’re so screwed up we don’t even realize we’re still reacting to our own colonization even after being colonizers for centuries.
- ars 5y agoI feel like you read a judgment in there that I did not write. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt%E2%80%93shame%E2%80%93fear_spectrum_of_cultures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilt%E2%80%93shame%E2%80%93fe... someone from one type would have a hard time understanding the actions of someone from the other type "why did you do that?". Even if you manage to intellectually understand the concept, internalizing it is a whole other level, which takes time and lots of contact. The Middle East culture is different from the Western culture, and knowing this helps understanding.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoMaybe it’s because I’m from both cultures and I don’t need Wikipedia pages theorizing kinds of cultures to interact with humans in both. Maybe it’s because I’ve had people literally tell me to my face that my people hate dogs and abuse them, or do all manner of other inhumane things, but they don’t know they’re telling me about me because I’m also white and they don’t think I also come from the culture they’re describing.
- selimthegrim 5y agoWhat is “the Middle East culture”?
- wolverine876 5y agoMaybe you are downvoted because of the inflammatory way you said it. If you could have said it otherwise, you'd have a great point IMHO.