Quote:
Originally Posted by S-2
"Some would argue the American people been brainwashed by the media to hate Afghans. And "muslims" for that matter actually regardless of what the official denials might be."
Would YOU argue these points, Maqsad? If you would not, why question Karzai's comment? How about your proofs, then, as it's reasonable to conclude that "Some" actually was "I".
We might as well cut right to it instead of the smarmy "Some would argue, etc...". I can't wait to hear how I've been brainwashed by my media to hate muslims and Afghans.
Proceed with your dissertation, sir.
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I would argue that the majority of Americans have a negative opinion of Afghans and Muslims, yes. I didn't really want to say it in my original post because it was just one of the many disagreements I had with Karzai's glossover of the whole US-Afghan relationship and I did not want to veer off on a tangent.
Americans, like most other societies around the world have been raised to believe that their way of life is the best on the planet and indeed many aspects of life are quantifiably better than in other countries such as income, rights to legal representation, civil liberties, intellectual freedom, access to free education and employment etc etc. The mainstream American has been weaned by the media to consider the average Afghan as a miserable wretch, a misogynist, fanatically religious and belligerent. It is quite a lot harder for an American to find anything positive about Afghanistan because quite simply, there isn't much effort made to produce such material, so it is quite natural to expect this attitude from an American towards an Afghan.
How prevalent is this negative attitude? I don't know if it's 50% or 75% or 90% but my own suspicion is that a significant majority of the American public has a negative attitude towards Afghans. 911 did not help much either. Karzai said that "the American people have a great great feeling towards Afghans". Well, there is probably a small minority of Americans who do feel sorry for Afghans and want to "civilize" the Afghans partly to ensure that radical Islam is snuffed out in that region. The remaining majority still wants to civilize Afghanistan but with an Iron fist and have little to no sympathy for Afghans and have an intense distaste for the Afghan mindset.
But my point was that hardly any American, much less a typical American regards Afghanistan's culture as one where any valuable lessons can be learned. And if you claim to be from the small portion that sidestepped brainwashing, well then that would be you but I was referring to the general CNN/FOX weaned everage Joe.