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Old 12-01-2009, 01:26 PM   #19 (permalink)
The_Dunedan
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Quote:
Casting an eye up and down this thread, I begin to wonder why people get so defensive when it's pointed out that they value white lives more than brown lives? Hmmm. A little close to home, maybe?
Because your prejudicial assumption that they're racists is offensive condescending holier-than-thou bullshit, that's why.

Look, it's simple. People worry more about American dead than Iraqi dead for the simple reason that they (Americans) know other Americans. Very few Americans know even one Iraqi. Therefore, the death of an American (someone from their own culture, who most likely speaks their own language and who they feel a sense of national connection to) impacts them on a personal "death in the family" level that the death of an Iraqi does not*. If this were a white-vs-nonwhite issue, dead American servicemen/women who were black/native/asian/etc would be treated differently in the media or not treated at all. This is hardly the case. Both regimes (Bush & Obama) have done their level best to sell Iraq and Afghanistan as "Our Wars" being fought by "Our People," and have even gone far out of their way (Jessica Lynch BS anyone?) to create "enough diversity" among the dead and the heroes.


*Not that I'm a fan of this way of thinking, mind you. Humans are humans, and the 20th Century's murderous Democide toll in individual human lives is one of my greatest objections to Government in all forms. We are dealing, however, with the way in which Joe Sixpack or Mohammad al-Teacup sees the world, which is not a view conducive to perceiving all of Humanity in equal lights.
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