I absolutely HATE the war coverage news...
Anywhere I go, there it is.
So disgustingly ironic that people leave their houses "just to get away from it all for a little while," and yet, there it is: in the restaurants, in the offices, in the friends' homes...
I'm not opposed to knowing what's going on, but the problem is, the so-called "news," does not TELL me what's going on. It fractures everything into two or three angles, none of which happens to represent the viewpoint of ANYONE I know, and it reports all of those, apparently oblivious to the fact that ALL of them are conflicting...
Okay, so the last news report I heard was something about an American female soldier being taken prisoner. Awhile back, it as something about Iraqi soldiers taking thirteen guys prisoner, and then shooting seven of them. Something about some British helicopters that crashed into each other or some dumbassed shit like that... Something about some of our guys (American soldiers) getting ambushed while trying to surrender...
Somehow, all of the commentators are thrilled to motherfucken BITS about how we're fighting against an army that hasn't been fed in weeks, a "dying regime," a bunch of barefoot "little girly men." THEN HOW COME OUR GUYS ARE GETTING KILLED, SURRENDERING, AND BEING TAKEN PRISONER??? It doesn't exactly inspire much confidence, you know? The news reports tell us what a fantastic job our troops are doing, though... We're doing a great job. We bombed a lot of stuff. Of course, we-the-viewer don't know WHAT stuff. We don't know if we killed any important people that we're supposed to be killing. We DO know that we're killing some civilians. The headline of an article on this computer's homepage:
Bush Promises Victory; Iraqi Civilians Killed
Last I knew, the semi-colon was most often supposed to be used between two clauses that are related, taking the place of "and," "therefore," "and so," "and in related news," etc... I can't decide if this is shitty reporting, or if Bush declares we're on our way to victory BECAUSE of something having to do with killing civilians.
I sort of doubt the latter. Call me optimistic, but I don't think the dude is stupid enough to say shit like that. I think this is just shitty reporting.
The problem is, it's ALL shitty reporting.
So, it appears that the American soldiers are simultaneously kicking ass, and getting their asses kicked.
Iraqi guys are surrendering, our guys are surrendering.
Oh, and then there's the American guy who threw a grenade into the tent of his own boss.
What the fuck? I'm so confused. And NO, don't try to explain it to me, because if you claim to actually understand "the news," through ALL of the contradictions, you're probably insane and should be committed. Furthermore, I don't want to talk to you. FURTHERMORE, I detest this forcible use of the news in so many public places to intimidate and depress me.
My favorite report was this one...
A guy was talking about peace protesters on Fox News... This guy was a middle-aged or slightly-older-than-middle-aged Jewish man, whom I suspect was from New York City or related areas. He looked very Caucasian. The sort of guy you might call a "cracker," if you saw him walking through Rainier Beach. And this guy was talking about how much peace protesters "hate" America. He was going on about how modern peace protesters in the United States are communists, terrorists, terrorist supporters, members of hate groups, militia members, etc. etc., etc...
(It might be noted that NO peace protester has been on television in the past week or two, except the one ugly old dude on local news, who said he was there "doing my part." Or some shit like that.)
Anyway, the old Jewish white guy said: (and this is as close to verbatim as I can get) "The peace protesters even claim that we [American troops] are over there in order to kill people who don't look like us." [Helena pauses the quote here to mention that, yes, this is one claim that many protesters make; I have NO doubt that some amount of racism, and especially religious ethnocentricity -- there's gotta be a better word for that -- is playing a role here... How many times have YOU heard the words "sand nigger" out of somebody's mouth?] So this guy goes on: "But THAT NOT TRUE!" He was emphasizing every word... "...They look EXACTLY like us!"
Yes sir, Mister old white Jewish guy in your nice clean black suit... For a second there, I mistook you for one of the barefoot brown people in flowing black robes and veils, being blown about by sandstorms and helicopter propellers. For just a couple of minutes, I really could not tell the difference between you and footage of Iraqis on television... Actually, you look JUST like the Kurdish kids I went to high school with.
Fucken dumbass. Nothing is stupider than a guy pretending not to be racist, and simultaneously justifying his racism, by condemning protesters who are concerned about racism, and claiming he looks exactly like "those people," which he doesn't. Motherfucken DUH.
Now, I have been to exactly one peace protest in Olympia; not because I don't want to go to them, but because I haven't had an opportunity, and because I'd have to lie to Jake and his family about where I'd been. But I still consider myself a peace protester. I mean, I'm THAT more than I'm anything else. Unlike commentators on television, I'm flexible enough to call a spade a spade: I'm a little white girl (who does not look Middle Eastern at all) from a liberal school in Western Washington, and I'm in favor of bringin' the boys back home ASAP. I'm also in favor of winning power away from Saddam Hussein by FEEDING people, not by blowing them up. That makes me something pretty close to a peace protester, I think. HOWEVER, I am NOT a communist (though I do enjoy reading and discussing Marxist theory), I am NOT a terrorist, I am NOT violent, I am NOT a terrorist-sympathizer, and I am NOT an extremist. As far as I'm concerned, I think everybody should just get along, realistic or not. Does that sound like an extremist viewpoint? Cripes all fish-hooks!
Anyway... I guess the moral of the story is that there are no morals in popular journalism. Word warfare is detrimental to YOUR mental health. We're being trained by TVs to giggle at dead people, to "support our troops" in their tasks, rather than in their status as people. We're also being informed (erroneously, I'd guess) that if our viewpoints differ, we are alone in those viewpoints. This last, I think, is the most dangerous claim of the television broadcasts, and it IS untrue... For example... "Gallup polls now show that seventy-five percent of Americans support the war." Okay... Well, first of all, Gallup didn't call ME. I wonder whom they DID call... Second of all, even supposing these polls are accurate and equally representative, that STILL leaves twenty-five percent of Americans who either DO NOT support the war, or who are undecided. Twenty-five percent is NOT a "special interest group." Hell, you only need THREE percent of a vote to get funding for a presidential campaign. And ostensibly, it takes more than a "special interest group" to get a president elected.
(Everybody who doesn't know what "ostensibly" means, go look it up right now...)
Just duh...
The Australian band Frente has a line in one of their songs: "The telephone's a terrorist... I'm not even answering..." I daresay the television is also a terrorist, and I hope you have the sense not to watch the motherfucken news for "information."
~Helena*