Well, I was paraphrasing. In an admittedly hackneyed quasi-mocking way.
The existence of this thread has surrendered your right to pretend you’re above hysteria over petty slights.
The lack of concern over why people hate America is what makes the right so toxic.
That’s exactly what I want you to reflect on. Presumably, Belafonte was not born with a Bush-hating gene, and nor have the billions of other people around the world who hate him. Do you really think that “anti-American” sentiment just occurs naturally, as a consequence of criticism, spreading like the flu among the simple minded, completely independent of actual things Bush does or the consequences of his presidency?
This I can largely agree with. (Apart from the distinction between “freedom” and “license.”)
Characterizing Bush as the “greatest terrorist in the world” is totally counter-productive, apart from being asinine. If anything, though, I’d think that Republicans would be overjoyed at such a statement. It couldn’t work better for them if they’d worked at planting an agent provocateur. Totally undermines the stated purpose of their trip. Now people whose depth of understanding of world affairs is only headline-deep will be more inclined to think that anyone critical of U.S. policy with regard to Venezuela is a drooling nutjob with a blind personal hatred of GWB.
Your quote is extremely apropos.
Belafonte clearly needs to get a grip and realize the truth of this assertion.
The thing is, the vast majority of public opinion in the United States with regard to Venezuela and the Chavez government is informed entirely by the “hullabaloo of sophistry, propaganda, special pleading, lobbying, and salesmanship” coming from the administration and the oil lobby – and the general thrust of it is no less outrageous than Belafonte’s gross mischaracterization of W.
The remedy for this not making offensive and inflammatory remarks that completely alienate people who might otherwise listen to what you have to say.
Actually, the vast majority of public opinion in the United States with regard to Venezuela and the Chavez government is informed by nothing and nobody, including its own existence.
HARRY BELAFONTE: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people . . . support your revolution.
JOHN STEWART: I don’t believe millions of Americans know where Venezuela is! “Venezuela? What is that? The coffee guy?”
I think Belafonte acted like Pat Robertson did. They both had a rational political viewpoint but expressed them in a ridiculously overblown manner. And both ended up deservedly looking like an idiot.
No one can ever can know for certain the full consequences of choosing to say something or to refrain from saying something. You have no way of knowing that he did not choose what he thought was for the best.
In the United States of America it is considered poor form to stifle dissent.
Of those people who have described Chavez as a dictator, and who have used Amnesty and other international organizations as the basis for that claim, i wonder if any of you are willing to answer this question, posed over 18 hours ago and still without a repsonse:
If Robertson had limited himself to saying “Ariel Sharon shouldn’t have forced Israeli settlers out of the Gaza strip” then people might not agree with him but nobody would think he was nuts.
We’re not upset because what Belafonte said has a strong element of truth to it. Bush started a war with a country that had no ability to wage war against us, or our allies, on false pretences. He is responsible for the death of tens of thousands of Iraqis, and over 2000 Americans, and counting. He may not be a terrorist, but his actions are those of a terrorist. His actions are those of a tyrant. He belongs in a jail cell in the Hague, awaiting a trial for crimes against humanity. So do some members of his Administration. The only real hyperbole is in calling him the worst tyrant. He’s probably not the worst tyrant out there. He just has more ability to abuse his power than others do.
I’m not sure Chavez is a dictator either. Wasn’t he legitimately elected? Unlike, say … Bush?
So those who dissent against the US and the rest of the Western world are bad/wicked /evil?? They are evil because WE disagree with them? or because they disagree with the US? or because they will hurt people they disagree with? (unlike the US govt :D)
No question to answer. Any cites suggesting any policy or aspect of the USA is anything other than perfection will come from, by definition, the evil, mirror-universe, BAD Amnesty International whose reports and statements are routinely decried be the same people who want to use them to prove Chavez is a dictator.
There is simply no limit to the hypocricy of the Apologistas.
I’d just like to chime in, as I’ve now chewed over the Chavez cites and I see nothing that means he’s a dictator. In many cases, Bush has done the exact same sort of things, and he’s not a dictator, just an asshole.
Indeed. Clearly there are many problems with how things are in V but compared to the murderous dictatorships the West has actively supported in South America and continues to support around the world today, this is chump change.
Neither Bush nor his Apologistas have any interest in democracy and human rights. With the failure of coup attempts for the time being, it is just a convenient stick to beat a regime that isn’t playing capitalist ball and embarasses the Bush regime.
And now, to conclusively close the debate, I invoke the right’s favourite last-ditch gambit. The ‘at least he isn’t as bad as Hitler/Saddam/Kim/Oprah’ defence.
Worse things by far routinely go on in Egypt, Columbia, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya, Pakistan, Iraq and places we ‘render’ suspects to for torturing. Or in our own black detention centres.
My biggest problem with Belafonte is that, as an Italian American, I’m offended by his frequent use of the epithet “dago” in that Banana Boat song. Jesus, doesn’t he know that’s a racial slur? How’d he like it if I sang a song that went “Nigger! Ni-i-i-gger! Daylight come and me wanna go home!” Suddenly it’s not so cute and innocent anymore, is it?
