Fuck Tibet

[Miller]

Not that I have anything against Tibet, or the people who live there, or their culture, or religion, etc. Nor am I not properly indignant about Chinese military yadda yadda. Really, my heart bleeds for these people, as is required for membership in the Democartic Party (article 5, sub-section G, “Liberal Guilt Requirements”) But there is one thing about Tibet that just pisses me off: the bumper stickers.

I really, really hate those Free Tibet bumper stickers. They seem, to me, more about being trendy, not about actually being concerned about injustice. For starters, what’s the big deal about Tibet? Where’re all the Free East Timor, or Free Afghanistan bumper stickers, or any of the other endless tally of places where people are regularly beaten, tortured, and murdered? Oh, wait, the Beastie Boys don’t do benefit concerts for East Timor. Richard Gere doesn’t make movies about how oogy the Taliban is. Remember: unless a celebrity cares about it, it isn’t really important.

The other thing that bugs me about them is that it is such an empty gesture. What good is that bumper sticker doing for the poor, oppressed masses in Tibet? I’m sure it does plenty to assauge obscure feelings of middle-class guilt. You know, so the person who owns that car can look themselves in the mirror and say, “I bought a bumper sticker. I’ve done my part to make the world a better place. Well, time to hop in my car and drive a quarter-block to the supermarket!” Yeah, sure, part of the money spent goes to help the Tibetans. Although I’m unsure, exactly, how money is going to prevent some poor yak herder from being ground underneath a tank tread. Are they planning on eventually buying Tibet back from China, after they’ve sold enough noxious yellow stickers? And given what we know of human nature, what are the odds any of this money is going to help anyone besides the people printing up the stickers?

I suppose you could argue that the idea here is to raise awareness, to make people think about the situation in Tibet. Which is an admirable, if rather intangible, goal. But whenever I see one of those ugly yellow tags riding the back of a shiny new SUV, all I can think is, “How much of that car do you suppose was made in China?”

[Miller]

*Originally posted by Me *
the Democartic Party

Of course, the Democartic party has much stricter membership requirements than the more mainstream Democratic party.

[Ringo]

Reunite Gondwanaland!!!

[Michael_Ellis]

Forget Tibet, what about Tuva? Hmm?

[headshok]

Reunite Gondwanaland!!!

How dare you support the oppressive regime in Gondwanaland! Free Laurasia and the Jurassic Twelve!

[RoboDude]

Yeah, sure, part of the money spent goes to help the Tibetans. Although I’m unsure, exactly, how money is going to prevent some poor yak herder from being ground underneath a tank tread. Are they planning on eventually buying Tibet back from China, after they’ve sold enough noxious yellow stickers?

I don’t know what they’re doing, but if they really give a rat’s ass about actually freeing Tibet, their best hope would be to donate the money to nanotech research so that someday my Universal Freedom Plan can be implemented, which would go something like this:

1. Obtain a sample of self-replicating assembly nanites and a controller.

2. Pretending to have a legitimate reason to enter, smuggle the hardware into the oppressed region. WARNING: If you must hide the nanites in one of your bodily orifices, put them in a reasonably durable container.

3. Find a spot where all neccesary elements are available, such as a junkyard.

4. Command the nanites to replicate until there are enough to start assembling war machinery.

5. Assemble whatever would be needed to get rid of the oppressors - Tanks, planes, guns, ammo, kill-bots, etc.

6. [the Thing]It’s clobberin’ time![/the Thing]

If all goes well, China should pull out fairly quickly, since there’s nothing Tibet has that China really needs, at least AFAIK.

It may take a while for nanotech to advance that far, but it’s probably faster than waiting for the Communists to magically develop consciences.

[Dragonblink]

One more outrage – you think they actually bought the bumpersticker? I have one of those stickers, and it was sent to me in the mail for free. I didn’t even ask for it.

I’m gonna put a “Free Mars” bumpersticker on my car, though, soon’s I get one.
Dragonblink the Dissident

[MEBuckner]

Asunción, Paraguay, is farther from New York than Moscow. Not that it matters how far away a thing is if you don’t know where it’s at. My friends couldn’t quite place Paraguay. Most of them thought Paraguay was where Uruguay is. Others thought it was between Colombia and Peru. And one young lady–a college graduate–had it confused with Papua New Guinea. Paraguay is the difference between a B and a B- on a geography exam, or would be if people took geography anymore, which they don’t. United States diplomats privately refer to Paraguay as “the Tibet of South America.” (Though the mystical religion of Paraguay has never caught on with New Age types because there’s no such thing as Tantric Catholicism.) – P.J. O’Rourke, “Democracy in Its Diapers: Paraguay, April 1989”, Give War a Chance

[red_dragon60]

I want one that says “Free Tibet, Fuck China”

[MandaJo]

I want one that says “Free Tibet, get one while they’re in stock!”

[matt_mcl]

I personally prefer buttons. You don’t need to have a hideous, expensive, polluting, wasteful car in order to wear them.

Here are the ones I’ve got:
a rainbow triangle;
“The New Right Preaches The Old Wrongs”;
“Heterosexuality is not normal, just common”;
“Living Proof of Chaos Theory”;
“Our World Is Not For Sale - Quebec 2001”;
“Any Book Worth Banning Is A Book Worth Reading”;
“Focus on your own damned family!”;
“Because (insert 35 lines of tiny print) and for lots and lots of other reasons… I Am Part of the Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Movement”;
“Let’s Stop Racism”;
“My Karma Ran Over My Dogma”;
“Accès 2000: L’éducation est un droit!”;
“Doing my part to piss off the religious right”;
and “The worst part of censorship is ********”

Some of these I’ve had since I came out; they’re fricking heirlooms at this point. I wear them, naturally, on my union-made, unbleached, reusable, politically-correct NDP tote bag, or I would do if I hadn’t recently taken them off in order to give the bag a good laundering.

I like my tote bags.

[City_Gent]

*Originally posted by Michael Ellis *
**Forget Tibet, what about Tuva? Hmm? **

Ekii!!

Silerning kadyyngar deesh ob dashkany kodurein!

Re the OP: What exactly is your gripe? Would you be happier if there weren’t any Free Tibet stickers? I don’t see how that would make things any better.

[Chas.E]

It could always be worse, you could be back in the 80s when people had bumper stickers like “Prosperity is Your Divine Right!” Anyone besides me remember Terry Cole Whittaker?

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

*Originally posted by Chas.E *
**It could always be worse, you could be back in the 80s when people had bumper stickers like “Prosperity is Your Divine Right!” Anyone besides me remember Terry Cole Whittaker? **

:eek:

[inhales sharply]

Yaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhh!!!

Um, yes, I remember her.

Links for those of you who don’t.

http://www.strictlyspeakers.com/speakers/colewhittaker.html

http://www.occ.cccd.edu/people/hall/people/cole-whittaker.html

Her website http://www.terrycolewhittaker.com/ for today, at least, is “Cannot Find server”. There is a God.

And an excellent representative sample. Keep a barf bucket handy.

http://members.aol.com/RPeyser/whittaker.htm

TERRY: I don’t know about you, but sometimes I don’t want to be here, and other times I’m thrilled to be here. And other times I go, “Why me?”

[*cackling hysterically for a while before subsiding into the corner]

[wubba wubba]
[wubba wubba*]

[RoboDude]

Re the OP: What exactly is your gripe? Would you be happier if there weren’t any Free Tibet stickers? I don’t see how that would make things any better.

They’re not doing any harm per se, but acting as though you’re trying to make a difference without having any coherent plan of action is, IMO, highly annoying.

Some time ago, I noticed ads for a “Free Tibet” benefit concert. I did not, however, notice any explanation as to how the proceeds would actually benefit Tibet. For all I know, they could have just set it up to profit from people’s desire to help. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the manufacturers of all the “Free Tibet” paraphenelia were also in it for the money.

[elmwood]

*Originally posted by Miller *
**I suppose you could argue that the idea here is to raise awareness, to make people think about the situation in Tibet. Which is an admirable, if rather intangible, goal. But whenever I see one of those ugly yellow tags riding the back of a shiny new SUV, all I can think is, “How much of that car do you suppose was made in China?” **

Aside from the Tibetiania, are you otherwise enjoying life in Boulder?

[tsarina]

Here at MSU, and probably thousands of other American college campuses, the words “FREE TIBET” are constantly appearing in chalk on the sides of buildings, where the rain won’t wash them off for months. Aaarrggh.
Our campus chapter of Students for a Free Tibet also sends around petitions to send to the Chinese government, demanding that Tibet be restored its sovereignty. Once China acknowledges the demands of a bunch of whiny, rich, spoiled American college students as a light in the darkness, and won’t just use the petitions to wipe their asses with, I’ll get around to signing one.

[MEBuckner]

They’re not doing any harm per se, but acting as though you’re trying to make a difference without having any coherent plan of action is, IMO, highly annoying.

Yeah, but “Free Tibet” is a model of a coherent plan of action compared to “Visualize World Peace”. (“Visualize Whirled Peas” has also ceased to strike me as funny anymore.)

[Miller]

City Gent:

Re the OP: What exactly is your gripe?

If my OP wasn’t clear enough, RoboDude sums it up pretty well.

Would you be happier if there weren’t any Free Tibet stickers?

Yes.

I don’t see how that would make things any better.

The crucial point is, it wouldn’t make things any worse, either.

elmwood: Boulder? Never been. I live in the California Bay Area. (Although my aunt teaches archaeology at UC Boulder.)

matt_mcl: My friend does that with his baseball cap. At least, I assume there is still a cap under there somewhere.

Duck Duck Goose: From your last link: “Being alone in isolation is helping me to discover what my path is.”

Words of wisdom indeed.

[ThisYearsGirl]

*Originally posted by matt_mcl *
**I personally prefer buttons. You don’t need to have a hideous, expensive, polluting, wasteful car in order to wear them.
**

I have this one pin (along with several others, on my purse that I sewed myself, because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m a stupid hippie at heart) that says, “Against Abortion? Don’t have one.” and God as my witness, I have to explain it to everyone. EVERYONE! Even pro-choice people don’t get it. And the pro-lifers always ask, "Wait, so are you for abortion or against it. . . " Is it really that complicated? Show of hands–how many people here got it?