AMERICAblog: “Chris Wallace is an idiot.”
Newsweek: “Bush in the Bubble”
Frank Rich: “It Takes a Potemkin Village”
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
AMERICAblog: “Chris Wallace is an idiot.”
Newsweek: “Bush in the Bubble”
Frank Rich: “It Takes a Potemkin Village”
I’m an Aussie living in Thailand and the crimes of the US Government are as clear as day to me, as they are to almost every Thai. However, reading Mahablog, I really feel I understand better how indoctrinating the mainstream press in the US is. It’s great therefore to see that sites like yours, and Red State Son, and TomDispatch, and so many others try to hold these crazies to account. My only wish is that we had blogs like these in Australia – after all, the Australian Government backed the US to the hilt against massive public opposition and yet most of my compatriots now seem to think that Iraq is now a non-issue. It’s heartening to see that so many Americans still care about what is done in their names.
How are Americans perceived abroad? With trepidation. In my experience, there’s a good chance that the seemingly normal American you’re speaking to will turn out to be some lunatic God botherer who believes they’re gonna get raptured off the face of the planet, or else they’ll do things like wear backpacks festooned with US flags into rural Laos. Generally speaking, most Americans that I run across in Asia are completely ignorant not only about their own history, but also of anything that happens outside US popular culture. It’s so damn depressing. I’ve travelled through the States and loved it – like most young kids living in other parts of the world, I dreamed when I was child of living in the US – and I often wonder why most American tourists so often have to emanate from the most religiously paranoid, yappiest and thoughtlessly racist section of society. Worse still, how the hell do they ever get elected? And roundly cheered by the liberal press when they sing “God Bless America” as a precursor to sending farmboys off to to invade, loot and rape? And … ah, forget it.
Anyway, I’m meandering. Just wanted to say “keep up the good work”. Let’s hope the US is out of Iraq soon, and that people stop reading the New York Times so much and hop over to Mahablog instead. Judging by Frank Rich’s latest effort, he’d make a decent contributor.