A slightly unrelated follow-up to the Iran post:
I work at a decidedly liberal-oriented radio station in one of the most liberal areas of the country–Bethesda, Maryland–and we regularly have bored housewives of retired rich lawyers around doing volunteer work. They generally work in the cubicle next to mine so I get to listen in on their conversations with the volunteer coordinator, and although they’re nice people they occasionally come out with something completely outrageous.
This morning they were talking about Bush’s press conference where he basically told Iran to admit it was still making nukes, which, let’s admit it, looked pretty silly considering the NIE which came out a few days ago. The exchange went something like this:
Retiree Volunteer: “Why does Bush keep doing these things that are going to embarrass him? I’d like to know which advisor thought that would be a good idea.”
Volunteer Coordinator: “Yeah, it was probably not the smartest move.”
RV: “And who does he think that’s going to impress? It’s these people who live in these places like–I mean–I’ve got some in-laws who live in Ohio, and they just don’t have the same understanding of the world as people on the coasts and, you know, Chicago do. They just don’t have access to the same things we do–they don’t get the papers and they don’t have, you know, network news and stuff like that.”
Ok, retiree volunteer, lets think about this for a minute:
In the same sentence you claim that coasters (yourself included) have a broader world-view than people from the “heartland”, and you then proceed to make an outrageously ignorant comment about a part of your own country that you obviously have no understanding of. Gee, and I wonder why people from places like Ohio are suspicious when you try to tell them that you have the best solutions?
Hypocrisy knows no bounds.
4 Comments
December 6, 2007 at 4:16 pm
From the South Coast, which I guess is even worse than the Heartland, what does she mean by “network news”? I thought that NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, etc., were the networks. Or maybe she meant the internet news, which we obviously have access to or you wouldn’t be reading my astute comments here. We are so beyond being offended, most of the time…… Things do look different from another planet.
December 6, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Pardon me while I wipe my eyes from laughing too hard…
I honestly didn’t think anyone actually said things like that. And I’m sure she would call Republicans elitist.
So often I just despair of politics. Many, many people in the government (of both parties) seem to have this same attitude towards “the people.” You know, the “we special people in government are just doing what’s best for you, and you’ll realize it eventually” crowd. Sigh…
December 6, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Yeah, that one definitely ranks up there with the mother of one of my French students who thought Alabama was in the souther hemisphere, or my students in California who asked me if I knew what this amazing thing called “organic food” was….
I have no idea which network news she was talking about. I wanted to get up and go ask her, but being pretty much the lowest employee on the totem pole I thought I’d forgo any confrontation. Besides, it’s better to laugh about it, anyways.
December 9, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Those of us in the actual Ohio wonder what is in the drinking water in them parts, even if we do miss the Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Peruvian and Jamaican restaurants from our years there, which did leave us a bit tetched…
Meanwhile, let us be grateful for the intelligence report, which has left Bush looking even stupider than usual. The neocons can huff and puff all they want, but their plan to attack Iran is effectively derailed. Deo Gratias