While reading Justin Webb's blog on the BBC website, I ran across a pungent comment.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/2009/02/evolution_vs_creationism.html
Quote:
3. At 3:59pm on 13 Feb 2009, Gary_A_Hill wrote:
Criticism of the US on this point is well founded, I think. The extent of ignorance among Americans on this subject, and many other scientific subjects, is appalling.
The irony is that there is no conflict between understanding the details of the world around us and pondering the more fundamental question of why such a complex world should exist at all. Science does not seek an answer to this, and in the US, officially at least, we tolerate all opinions on these questions of faith. This is not sufficient for creationists, who are always trying to force their opinions into the realm of science and public policy.
The opinion so bitingly expressed accords with overseas praeconceptiva about Americans, and could very well have been uttered by some ale-sodden yobbo in any pub or café all across Western Europe.
Where, I hasten to add, I have heard precisely such generalizations uttered by people who had never been to the US, and whose knowledge of the place was abysmally limited.
[Criticism of the British and other Europeans on this point is well founded, I think. The extent of ignorance among them about America, and many other subjects, is appalling!]
So of course I registered a complaint. Checking the button for "defamatory or libellous". Because it clearly 'defames and libels' Americans. It is a blanket condemnation, and hence a falsehood.
The BBC, in its wisdom, chose not to accept my complaint.
And sent me the following:
Dear BBC Reader,
Further to your complaint about some of the content on a BBC blog (cut), we have decided that it does not contravene the House Rules and are going to leave it on site.
[CUT]
Regards,
The BBC Blog Team
This e-mail, and any attachment, is confidential. If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system, do not use or disclose the information in any way, and notify us immediately. The contents of this message may contain personal views which are not the views of the BBC, unless specifically stated.
Please note the statement that the e-mail, and any attachment (there was none) are, by the BBC's meshune standards, confidential. I am utterly baffled why this is so. There was no personal opinion, merely standard dismissive Brit poofle.
Had a commenter written "the extent of ignorance among Blacks on this subject, and many other scientific subjects, is appalling", or proposed "the extent of ignorance among the English on this subject, and many other scientific subjects", or even "the extent of ignorance among Muslims on this subject", the BBC no doubt would consider the statement hate speech. Concerning which they have strict rules in Britain.
But Americans are not accorded such courtesy.
Not by the British. Not by the Europeans.
The attentive reader will note that many other comments underneath the post in question on the BBC's website attest to a remarkable ignorance and dislike of Americans, a hatred even, which, if it were expressed against certain other groups would lead to riots in Arab capitols. This is fairly standard.
One expects little else from the other side of the Atlantic.
And one is, consequently, once again disappointed in that lot; which is a depressingly frequent occurence.
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10 comments:
Within limits, I agree with you. But you also have to note that the US (as such) is a pretty robust target that can withstand a lot of attacks. It doesn't warrant the sort of heightened sensitivity we would want to accord to historically oppressed groups - which is why I think a reasoned response would be better than removing offensive comments.
As we say in Dutch, "hoge bomen vangen veel wind" (tall trees catch a lot of wind). The US is indeed the biggest target, so a certain level of criticism is indeed understandable.
On the other hand, having been beaten up by classmates in Holland for being an American, and having been out-yelled by allegedly rational people while still living over there, I remain a bit "miffed" at the rabid anti-Americanism of many Europeans.
No, it isn't a "we saved them in WWII" thing. It's more a question of 'why is some illiterate punk who wears blue-jeans, drinks rum and coke, smokes Marlboros, who listens to rock and roll, jazz, and blues, who has, furthermore, read much science-fiction, subscribes to Time magazine, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone, why is this person insisting that all Americans are illiterates who have contributed nothing but misery and suffering to the world?'
And, as much to the point, why are his companions uncritically and vehemently agreeing with him?
In 2002 and 2003 I took part in several internet forums. It was remarkable how many Americans supported biased and blinkered opinions about their own country, in contrast to the paucity of Europeans who disagreed with at times staggeringly ignorant statements about America proffered by one of their own. The European members almost overwhelmingly ganged up on any contributor who had anything enlightened or accurate to say about the US.
So I remain bilious about praeconceptions - especially when they express such a sweeping generalization as 'the extent of (blank) among Americans on this subject, and many other (blank), is appalling'.
mm. The problem is, it can't be libel if it's true. :)
mm. The problem is, it can't be libel if it's true. :)
Tzipporah, I would suggest that it isn't true. Not compared to Europeans.
Americans are quite as critical of America as the Europeans, and consequently will aver that there is much room for improvement. Europeans will happily agree with that opinion, why, they have long thought the same thing! But Europeans will usually not consider that their opinion on the matter may be informed by staggeringly ignorant praeconceptions, whereas clearly the American who agrees with them has, exceptionally for such an ignorant person, finally come around to their point of view. It was about time - why won't those primitives listen to common-sense!
Couple that with the general refusal from the European side to consider any American idea valid if it differs from a generally held European truth, and you have a recipe for ....... well, let's just call it 'mutual misunderstanding'.
Any American opinion about Europe, no matter the level of familiarity with things European, is of course ab initio Yanqui nonsense, not to be taken seriously, and staggeringly wrongheaded.
I shall stubbornly remain committed to 'misunderstanding'. It is a question of holding on to my own, and safeguarding a sense of identity. To quote a well known slogan "Je Maintiendrai".
To cite another well-known slogan, "ze kunnen de pot op, die Europeanen".
Yeah yeah that's it - piss on the Brits!
After all, what have the Angrezis EVER done for us? Well, other than giving us cricket, a rather decent language for expressing ourselves strongly in, tea, fine wooly kilts, blackthorn walking sticks, Balkan tobacco blends, pressed flake tobacco, rum, whiskey, scones and buns, and that sort of thing.
Oh, and marmalade, lemon curd, Dundee cake...
Yeah, besides all that, what have they ever given us?
---Grant Patel
Plus roads, hospitals, water systems, sewers... and the beatles. And Lord Ashburn.
But BESIDES all that!
---Grant Patel
The problem, also, is that an appalling large number of Americans actually are ignorant enough to think that the Universe was created in seven days, that Africa is a country, and that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11. This is problematic insofar as we are supposed to be a Democracy, and we're the biggest thing going.
It is a bit worrying.
And, yes, I am aware that the British are so backwards they still have a Queen; that doesn't mean that WE shouldn't be doing better.
The problem is, also, that an appallingly large number of Europeans actually are ignorant enough to think that European superiority is empirically provable, that China is a continent, that the Bush administration / the Jews / the Masons were behind 9/11, and further that all things good naturally originated in Europe, and that Europeans brought civilization and progress to their colonies, taking nothing in return.
This is problematic insofar as they are supposed to be examples of Democratic enlightened humanists, and allegedly the best thing going.
It is a bit worrying.
And, yes, I am aware that the Americans are so backwards they still allow gun possession, wage-slavery, and a free-press; that doesn't mean that that the Europeans needn't try to do any better.
They can start by acknowledging that their imperialism, both within their own blighted 'continent', and elsewhere, has been a curse rather than a blessing - a role and an effect which still continues. Introspection could benefit them. Time for them to at least give it a shot.
And let's lay off the Christian thing - many more Europeans are true believers than Americans. And far fewer are as skeptical about religion as you might think and they pretend. The European monarchs, by the way, are the defenders of the faith of their subjects - whether Catholic, Calvinist, or (for pretenders to thrones), Eastern Orthodox. Consider their various constitutions before claiming religious nut-ballness for this side of the Atlantic.
"...... that China is a continent....."
That's news to me. I always thought it was another planet.
Hee hee hee!
The Planet of the Wild Panties!!!!
---Great Panchimzee!
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