The Bigotry of Liberal Sympathy
If there is anything I hate more than right-wing Conservative nut jobs with tunnel vision, it’s fruit cake Liberals and their “compassionate” racism. That’s what I would call it anyway.
Generally it’s the conservative members of society that attract and harbor the most intolerant and bigoted elements of society. The Jerry Falwell’s of the world, the Al Qaeda’s. (Yes I’m referencing Jerry Falwell parallel to Al Qaeda). The ignorance and bigotry that streams from the pulpit or the politician, the one that stirs fear over immigration or minority religions is one that’s loud, in your face and more often than not, inciting by design.
The most ignorant of bigotry is one that flies under our radar, that appeals to our sensitivities and one we so often invite and encourage to further our agenda’s. The Liberal voice that sits comfortably at home and looks down on the world through text books and national geographic.
I’ve encountered it so many times in my life but it first blindsided me when I was approached by an American friend eager to share what they recently learned in class about Egyptian society. That day I was shocked to hear, 90% of Egyptian children have fly eggs laying in their eye lids, you know like those African kids you see in documentaries and charity drives with big, parasite infested bellies and dying of starvation.
A complete shock to me. Maybe I was ignorant myself, maybe I was too blind to ever see that in Egypt before or maybe some Liberal fruit cake college professors, looking down on the poor, poverty stricken masses of the world decided that all children living outside of the wealthy and prosperous Western world have flies hatching in their eyes. I hear garbage like this all the time and I’ve probably been conned into believing it a few times too. Like the “statistic” that 95% of Egyptian women are circumcised, wow really?! 95%?! Seriously?!
The Irony of information like this is that the people providing it mean no harm. They genuinely believe that every country without a Starbucks suffers from some various array of strange cultural backwardness and always at astronomically high percentages. Sometimes I wonder if the 3rd world was put there simply to garner their sympathies, something to talk about over espresso with friends or a cause to put on fliers and post in University hallways.
It’s kind of like when I meet someone new and they ask me where I’m from and as soon as they hear Egypt I get a line of questions that sadly…I’ve heard a million times.
“Do they have running water in your country?” or “Do people speak English there?” and my favorite implication question, “It’s not safe for Americans to go there, right?”
I really hate to break their hearts and ruin their dream of Egypt , it’s better to go with the flow. “Yes, Americans are killed on site by rebel death squads that roam the streets searching for infidels“, “Water is scarce, sometimes you must drink your own urine to survive“. What can I do?
Today I stumbled into a photo caption stuffed with more ignorant and racist Liberal garbage than I could stomach.
The caption reads.
What has happened to humanity when we can watch children begging to Americans in a tour bus for food and money. Where have our souls gone as we watched in curiosity yet doing nothing to help them. I wonder now if these children still live in Egypt after all the turmoil of 9/11 for this picture was taken in 1993. Are they in a militia now? Are they fighting for Iraqi’s freedom? Here I wonder yet sit in my cushioned bed, watch my 52″ television and sleep in peace every night. So who am I to wonder?
God help me, where do I begin? Ok lets do this line by line…
…begging to Americans in a tour bus for food and money.
First of all, the whole thing is inundated with self gratification, a list of material possession’s and privileges. Being American, as if not to be is less fortunate, being in a tour bus etc. and continues throughout the paragraph all the way down to the 52 inch television.
Second, considering the general ignorance of the whole paragraph I doubt the “artist” understands Arabic at all let alone enough to recognize begging for food and money. Any person with two eyes and a functioning brain can see those kids are holding stacks of paper, probably post cards (in Egypt kids and adults alike selling post cards or anything with ancient Egyptian pictures, go where they know tourists are.) They’re not begging, they’re working!
…we watched in curiosity yet doing nothing to help them.
Watched in curiosity?! Where do you think you are, the zoo?! There’s nothing to be curious about, hasn’t anyone ever tried to sell you something on the street before? These kids aren’t looking for charity, they’re looking for customers!
I wonder now if these children still live in Egypt after all the turmoil of 9/11 for this picture was taken in 1993.
I wasn’t aware that 9/11 caused the massive exodus of Egyptians or anyone else out of their countries, where would they go? Why would they leave? What the *$#@&! does 9/11 have to do with it?
Are they in a militia now? Are they fighting for Iraqi’s freedom?
Why, why and WHY!!!??? It gets more offensive and outrageous as you read. I didn’t even know we had militias! I love the assertion that Egyptians have been collectively fanaticized by 9/11 and are all armed and marching towards Iraq to fight and kill American soldiers. It’s impossible for the “artist” to imagine they’ve graduated from college and work to support a family. No, they must be in Iraq with bombs strapped to their chests because thats just what Arabs do.
Here I wonder yet sit in my cushioned bed, watch my 52″ television and sleep in peace every night.
Besides the poor grammar this is nothing more than a self-aggrandizing rant to establish wealth, privilege and success. Liberals do this all the time, they make bold statements about their own material possession while simultaneously casting the subject of inquiry into a lower class. As if these kids are laying awake somewhere in their hard, un-cushioned beds, fantasizing about 52 inch TV’s and desperately wondering what rich Americans do in their spare time. It reminds me of a professor I once had who used to sit back in his desk, kick his feet up and say, “Sometimes on Sunday mornings I sit in my gazebo, overlooking my 2 acre pond and I think to myself…I wonder what poor people do for fun.” The writer is having a similar moment of reflection here.
So who am I to wonder?
An ignorant Liberal bigot named Kimberly DeMoss who’s trying to push her garbage for 39.99, poor grammar and all.
Join the Conversation
Good job! And you find these kind of liberals everywhere. In China towards the ignorant Tibetans and in the past among the urban Arabs towards the nomadic ‘backward’ Kurds/Arabs. Or in the Ottoman empire who thought Turks were backward. (Ottoman empire wasn’t Turkish nationalistic). Or in South-America the urbanized idiotic latinized morons towards tribes living in the forest.
As you said, these kids look like they are far from beggars. You can tell by their clothes and facial expression as well as the paper stack that they are trying to either sell or advertise for something, and plenty of kids do that everywhere. Even if they were beggars, what does she imply by “begging to Americans in a tour bus”? Beggars don’t differentiate between nationalities or whether you’re a tourist or not. If they’d beg, they’d beg to anyone.
Secondly, there are beggar children in every single country of the world. There are probably millions in the USA, too. I don’t see her taking pictures and bringing 9/11 and other weird stuff into the problem.
I understand that she is well intentioned and, like everyone else, is just trying to “save the world” or whatever. But sometimes this kind of ignorance is harmful. If she wanted to talk about poverty in Egypt, she would’ve done her research and visited the insanely poor areas of the country instead of roaming around in a tour bus making false claims about some kids trying to do their job.
Liberals get a masochistic pleasure out of finding something to feel guilty about, then wallowing in it.
Great post. This attitude drives me right up the wall, even more so because I live in the countryside where people are so much more “poor”. I take tourists out for horseback rides in the Nile Valley and, sure, every so often some kid will trot along next to me yelling “Baksheesh”…my response is usually (in Arabic of course) “Listen, if you find anyone with some, send them my way because I haven’t gotten any money in ages!” This usually sends them off laughing hilariously…silly foreign woman. They know me well here and know that I don’t live that much differently from them, but it’s fun to try sometimes.
I’m fond of telling people that the folk in the countryside aren’t necessarily poor; they just don’t have a ton of STUFF in their houses. They have a great diet, lots of fresh air, plenty of time with their families, and the water in the wells is generally quite good. Hell, I use well water too. Since when is wealth measured in 52″ TV’s, PSP’s, and designer clothes?
I’ve been visiting my kids in the US for the past couple of weeks. They’re here studying and working on the east coast, and while I’m so happy to see them for a while, I find myself feeling like a deep-fried double-stuffed Oreo in my country of birth. I can’t wait to go home to the simplicity of a life where food is edible and real and you aren’t beaten over the head constantly to buy, buy, buy things that you don’t really need, need, need.
It’s hard to complain about people who basically mean well, but really it is a form of racism. Maybe it’s also a way of persuading oneself that a rather empty life has meaning? Time to turn off the 52″ TV and go visit some friends and family like people do in Egypt.
Well, a good analysis of the weak points of ‘liberal sympathy’: lack of a deep/proper understanding, flawed generalization, looking down upon others, etc.
I, however, think that compared to ‘liberal ignorance’, this kind of ‘liberal sympathy’ is a better choice and probably a step forward towards proper, balanced analysis. And, I feel that the main idea of the caption, though probably not supported by the above pic, is still valid: “don’t pay attention to the less fortunate, and they will turn into grave threats.”
Here in the US we are constantly inundated with either the far right view or the lefty, liberal, PC pap. There seems to be no one who presents a moderate view. Maryanne’s comment, to me at least, seems the most logical and closest to the truth than any I’ve seen in most blogs or in the news media. I’ve seen that so seldom that I have been lulled into actually believing the extreme view, one way or another. The old maxim that says that truth is always somewhere between the extremes is sometimes forgotten. Thank you D.B. for bringing it up and thank you Maryanne for the lovely word picture. I think you’ve really nailed it this time D.B., and I found it amusing at the same time. Thanks.
I’d like to believe that this sort of wallowing in a sympathy that verges on self-pity (poor me! I have to sit here and watch my 52″ TV!) is atypical.
Although it’s probably not.
M.M. states above that ignorance is the key here. Ignorance is definitely a large piece of it, but I think the self-pitying sympathy is also a part. No doubt, sympathy can be a strong, positive human emotion when it means a real connection with someone outside oneself. I have sympathy when my son falls down and knocks his head…nothing wrong with that.
But sympathy can grow in a bad direction if it becomes routinized. I have sympathy for those poor, poor (fill-in-blanks), which makes me feel good-bad about myself, which causes catharsis, which means I don’t have to think about poor, poor (fill-in-blanks) any more. If I ever thought much about them in the first place.
Hm…well, first off, yeah empty liberal sympathy is irritating, and thinly veiled bigotry at that. But keep in mind that vast systems of health care, food aid, emergency relief, etc. have their foundation in this philosophy; for all intents and purposes, conservative sympathy usually comes equipped with tanks and planes. For every bubble-headed debutant who flutters on about “the plight of the poor” there are a dozen hard working professionals giving their time and labour freely, with pretty much the same motivation, only they’re doing something about it.
The kind of aggressive street vending shown here is pretty foreign to Canada, (not too sure about the US), handing out free leaflets is the limit. Most kids around here are too damn lazy to run around like that (not Dave who shovels my snow, yer a champ guy!)and no there aren’t children begging on the streets either. I do find the occaisional sullen teenager downtown with his hand out, and of course the older drug and booze bums. The last teen I ran into asked me for 5 bucks, while wearing $300 Doc Martens. I offered to buy his shoes for 20, but he didn’t take that well…
The thing to remember about these pampered fools is that they are regularly rounded up into a giant fundraising guiltfest by the folks who do something about problems in less well off parts of the world. Just think of ‘em as money cows. They make noise, they kind of stink but it’s pretty easy to milk ‘em regularly.
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Dear eric,
I worked volunteered in shelters before and trust me, they are not “drug and booze bums”, you just proved DB’s post.
Just something for you.
http://www.toronto.ca/homelessness/2000/appendixa.htm
If you are interested in this further, I can give you even more info.
Jina, no offense, but:
I have worked for the last 2 decades either delivering or selling alchohol (yeh, I know I’m going to hell)in the downtown of Toronto and most recently Ottawa. You can trot out any and all sympathetic articles to the homeless you want to. I’m the guy they try to steal from, threaten, and sometimes get into fights with, not because of their “misfortunes”, but because they choose, time and time again, to act this way. I don’t buy any of this crap about being economically disadvantaged, or mentally troubled. For every BUM! on the street there are a hundred folks who have exactly the same challenges in life who carry on and make lives for themselves and don’t become a pain in the ass burdensome hazard on all the strangers around them.
Quite frankly, I’d take some kid aggressively trying to sell me a postcard any day of the week over some drunk or stoner who had every opportunity, chose to give up and let everyone else take care of him, and still gets free health care, dental work, money every month, bus tickets, and free food. I’d trade that bum for 10 of those kids and their whole families to come live here, because I know that that kid, given the same opportunities, is going to not only succeed, but probably create jobs and opportunities for others along the way. I respect that you work in a shelter, and I’m sure that the residents treat you very nicely. But I find your attitude more in line with DB’s post, not mine.
I am an egyptian who has been living in New York for 25 years. I am a professional (University Professor of Telecommunications Engineering) who came here to get a Ph.D. degree and find a good job that would advance my career. I would love to go back to Egypt but here is the main problem:the only jobs I could find in Egypt are with the so called new private universites (e.g., German and British Universities). They offered me good salary (by Egyptian standards of course), however, I learnt that they also pay Americans or Canadians or British or any other nationalities almost 3 times as much as they offered to pay me. The reason is that I am egyptian (although I am a US citizen) the adminstrators in those universities are not convinced that an egyptian born like me could be taken seriously as a real expert !!. They much prefer those with names like John Smith (i.e., people who were born in US or Canda or Europe)over me. They find that foreigners are true experts and they consider it doing me a favor offering me a job at one third the salary of my colleagues who happen to be born in USA!!. This is also all over the government agencies and private sectors companies in Egypt. This is the discrimination that egyptians like myself get in their own country and this is why serious folks like myself are not going back to Egypt.
Ofcourse there are others like me (egyptians born who were educated in USA) who go back to Egypt and get excellent paid jobs (but there is a catch: they are the nephews or cousins or sons or daughters of powerful egyptian government ministers and executives)!. If you do not have connections with the rich and powerful of Egypt, you will not go anywhere and will not be anybody.
In the USA, I have lived my life and career learning one basic lesson: how far you go ahead in life, is entirely up to your own skills, hardwork, and above education. It does not matter if you are born into money or not. But in Egypt the lesson is very simple: it does not matter how hard you work or how well your education is or how much expertise you have, what is most crucial is this: Are you related to (or friend with) Gamal Mubark or any of the ruling elite or not?
eric,
You only had dealing with ONE kind of homeless people.
In a shelter, the single mothers who stay nights with their kids because they can’t afford to rent even though she’s working is what I see. I see kids running away from homes because of abuse and sometimes what you said. I also see your kind but that are not the majority. And vast majority of these homeless people aren’t jobless. BTW they only get free health care, just a visit to the doctor. Prescription drugs to visiting dentist cost money. Learn the facts before you talk.
BTW for a single person the welfare is $500 a month roughly, rent in the shittiest part of Toronto go for $650 for bachelor apartment. If you are making $400 a month from a job, you will only get $100 from the government. If you are making $501 from a job, u won’t get any money from the government. Now do you get how our welfare system works?