I Hate So I Am
November 19th, 2006
The recent event in UCLA brought about new insight into the hidden layers of our e-society.The story began from blogs. Personally, I first heard of the story in Iranian Truth. I was so shocked that I copied the post (which is now modified) in my blog and also in here. Then, I tried to inform more people using Balatarin (an Iranian link dump) and also email. These actions took less than half an hour, after which I was only an observer for over three days, reading people’s comments in YouTube and elsewhere. Amazingly, we all seem to be full of hatred. We just really need a reason to bombard each other.
As any other event, people have been struggling to “prove” they know who should be blamed for the event.
I don’t think it was a case of police brutality, … police would probably have two way to deal with that guy.
1) they would have to drag him to the station, he would have fought them and they would have been accused of excessive brutality
2) use a taser………same result.
don’t forget that UCLA has a reputation as very anti-police, anti-establishment university so often things are not as they seem. (see)
YouTube makes it easy to see a visceral scene without demanding that you know what happened before or after the ’show.’ (see).
Are you people just plain stupid or just pretending to be stupid? He was at the bloody exit when the cop confronted him. (see).
Why didn’t he just leave when requested to? I think this was planned. So do others. CAIR jumped on it pretty quick. The “victim†is probably on their payroll. Iranian indeed.
Taqiyya? (see).
There is no point in changing their so-called training programmes and policy. These cops needs to be sentenced several years in prison for assault with intent to kill. (see).
Then, slowly, people began to accuse each other,
How sad for you. Your level of paranoia is frightning. (see).
And awkward connections were found,
Saying this is staged is like saying the Jews/Zionists/Neo-Cons staged 9/11… it’s disturbing how some people think. (see).
They want to change the middle east to something like this. (see).
Then, some people lost their temper,
“I’ll kill any F*** american police or soldier I can…american people are also responsible..more than 75% of Iranian citizens in america have MA..I ve read a comment sb said he deserved that..You deserve another 9/11 (see).
Still, these are only a few of the comments I have read in my blog and also in here.
Try to imagine what would happen if three people were beaten. What if one of them was killed and there were two contradicting videos from the scene, one showing those three pointing guns at the police, while the other one showed them chatting and laughing with them before the incident. If our reaction to the UCLA incident is so harsh and f-word oriented why on earth do we think there might ever be any peaceful resolution to the Arab-Iranian-Israeli conflict? I am sorry folks, but I am getting to the conclusion that the Internet is only the best source for two types of material, porn and hatred. don’t you think we have inherited both of them from our monkey grand fathers?
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[...] Comments I Hate So I Am « Kamangir (Archer) – کمانگیر on Iranian American Student Abused By UCLA UCPD With Tazer GunMideast Youth – Thinking ahead» I Hate So I Am on Update: Petition to Condemn UCPDMideast Youth – Thinking ahead » I Hate So I Am on Iranian American Student Abused By UCLA UCPD With Tazer Gunkamangir on Update: Petition to Condemn UCPDkamangir on Update: Petition to Condemn UCPD [...]
This is such an excellent post, Arash, because you can apply it to anything, especially the Israel/Hezbollah war which was all over the blogosphere.
The problem is that when you delete such comments or moderate them, people accuse you of being an enemy to “freedom of speech.”
It’s making me very sad. We claim to fight for civility, but one little event changes our minds and we all start yelling at each other because we can’t agree. There is no room for respect anymore. No room for friendly yet heated debates. No room for questioning without resorting to insults, and we always, always insist on knowing everything. “I speak through experience! I speak through knowledge! I speak because I see the obvious!”
There will be no knowledge if this is how we react. There will be no friendly discussions. There will be no hope. And thus, we are hardly taking advantage of this powerful new medium.
Mideast Youth should change that. People are too used to writing insulting comments that they bring their attitudes to this place as well. We should clean this environment, and really prove that this place is hopeful.
Esra’a
I am really positive that we can do something really good here. And thanks for your continuous supervision and response to the comments.
By the way, congratulations for the opening of the shop.
Arash, that’s a great post you have here.
Well done, it needed to be said.
Drima and Brando,
As we say in Persian, Chakerim (an informal and friendly way of saying thanks).
Khod Hafiz
I think it’s “Khoda Hafiz.”
Shab be kheyr.
Man bayaad farsi ro bishtar tamrin konam.
Drima,
That is great! I am sorry I have been taught Arabic for over five years and now I can not even say one word.
Esra’a
That’s too close. It is actually “Khoda Hafez”. Any way, the Persian one is great and I do not think you need to practice more.
Arash, I know a lot of bad words too
Esra’a you’re very talkative. Khafisho. LOL
Excessive force, abuse of authority, and general thugishness, or so it looks from my (limited) point of view. That said…
Does anyone ever win an arguement with a cop?
No?
Then why start one?
Especially considering that although only a small percentage of cops are thugs, 100% of them will insist on following procedure. You cooperate, let them work thru their checklist and you’re on your way. Getting impatient, frustrated, offended and yelling at them is, well… couter-productive.
NO, the kid did not deserve what happened to him. YES, the kid is a frakin’ moron.
Wish we could get the guy to write a short essay.Arash I think your point was well made, the analogy to almost any confrontation happening offline is the same. We don’t change our attitudes just because we are online. Only religion can do that. And even so we have to want to change ourselves for the better. And it takes daily effort. How easy is it to say, “I believe in this, or I believe in that,” It is what happens afterward that really counts. ONe day to the next,
for the rest of our lives
Shhhh and go study!
Drima,
I hope that’s the worst Persian swear that you know.
Grumpy,
It seems that there is no hope for a more collaborative discussion anytime soon…
EdoRiver
I really wish you were right.
Arash,
“It seems that there is no hope for a more collaborative discussion anytime soon…”
If you mean with me, which of my points do you disagree with, that the cops were thugs or that the student was stupid?
Grumpy,
Or the fact that you seem to have “labels” for both sides of the story. (revised!)
I’m sorry, Arash, but I didn’t understand that. I am interested in constructive debate and do try to keep an open mind. I found out a long time ago that I don’t know everything, and a bit later I discovered that an unknown percentage of what I did “know” wasn’t allways the whole story.