# South Africa going the way of Zimbabwe? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 8, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071 "2017-11-08T19:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![WilyQuixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WilyQuixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilyQuixote)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/61 "2017-11-16T10:50:53Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Nothing in this article surprises me. Is this an admission that you uncritically accept racist propaganda? As someone who actually lives in South Africa, not just visited four decades ago, virtually every single sentence is nonsense and easily rebutted. You would know this if you had been paying attention to this thread. > [@](#): > > I’ve been to every continent in this decade, and traveled Africa and the Mid East since the 60s. Good for you. > [@](#): > > People are overwhelmingly of kind and generous spirit, but can also be taught to be unimaginably cruel. As trite as it is true. > [@](#): > > I spent three months in southern Africa, when Zimbbwe was Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, and my Soweto living room hosts never imagined Apartheid would be any different. Are you a white American man? And you stayed in Soweto, sometime between 1962 - 1980 for three months? I don’t think so. > [@](#): > > That doesn’ mean I know all the answers, it just mean’s I’ve heard a lot of the questions, that nobody ever asks anymore. You’re right, so maybe you should read the thread and the links provided to sane sources instead of dropping non-sequitur turds about “political correctness”. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/62 "2017-11-16T16:51:26Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Nothing in this article surprises me. Ive been to every continent in this decade, and traveled Africa and the Mid East since the 60s. People are overwhelmingly of kind and generous spirit, but can also be taught to be unimaginably cruel. > > I spent three months in southern Africa, when Zimbbwe was Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, and my Soweto living room hosts never imagined Apartheid would be any different. That doesn’ mean I know all the answers, it just mean’s I’ve heard a lot of the questions, that nobody ever asks anymore. Excellent non-answer. A model of evasion and trite irrelevancy. The OP presented the article in question, and the article presented itself, as evidence of systematic anti-white racism and violence in South Africa. The article’s author called the situation “a small Holocaust on entirely racial grounds.” People in this thread have pointed out that the article itself is written largely in unsubstantiated hyperbole, with almost no evidence and no rational analysis, and with quite a bit of outright misrepresentation. People with current knowledge of South Africa have also argued that the article is a total beat-up that completely misrepresents the current state of affairs in that country, and that largely reflects the prejudices of a minority of white racists. I’ll ask you again: who do you believe is applying “political correctness,” and what evidence do you have to support such a claim? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/63 "2017-11-17T00:30:31Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Excellent non-answer. A model of evasion and trite irrelevancy. > > The OP presented the article in question, and the article presented itself, as evidence of systematic anti-white racism and violence in South Africa. The article’s author called the situation “a small Holocaust on entirely racial grounds.” > > People in this thread have pointed out that the article itself is written largely in unsubstantiated hyperbole, with almost no evidence and no rational analysis, and with quite a bit of outright misrepresentation. People with current knowledge of South Africa have also argued that the article is a total beat-up that completely misrepresents the current state of affairs in that country, and that largely reflects the prejudices of a minority of white racists. > > I’ll ask you again: who do you believe is applying “political correctness,” and what evidence do you have to support such a claim? The fact that you keep asking the same question shows that you do not have a grasp on the absolute stranglehold the media-industrial complex has on the political correctness of the conveyance of information and opinion… ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/64 "2017-11-17T00:41:17Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > The fact that you keep asking the same question shows that you do not have a grasp on the absolute stranglehold the media-industrial complex has on the political correctness of the conveyance of information and opinion… Your answer tells us just about everything we need to know about your contributions here: all generic outrage and conspiracy theory; no substance. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/65 "2017-11-17T06:36:33Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Your answer tells us just about everything we need to know about your contributions here: all generic outrage and conspiracy theory; no substance. There is a huge amount of historical background. It is substance, and I merely direct your attention to its existence. Ignore it at your own peril, as the author did. Does the article even have anything to do with the thread title? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/66 "2017-11-17T07:03:20Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > There is a huge amount of historical background. It is substance, and I merely direct your attention to its existence. Ignore it at your own peril, as the author did. > > Does the article even have anything to do with the thread title? You’re a funny person. You have yet to make a substantive contribution to this thread, and yet you spend time warning other people not to ignore historical issues that you have shown no evidence of understanding. You’ll forgive me if i don’t look to you for guidance on my historical and analytical abilities. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/67 "2017-11-17T09:03:59Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > You’re a funny person. > > You have yet to make a substantive contribution to this thread, and yet you spend time warning other people not to ignore historical issues that you have shown no evidence of understanding. You’ll forgive me if i don’t look to you for guidance on my historical and analytical abilities. Somebody posted a totally specious article under a non-sequitur thread title, and you want me to explain it to you? ---
**Author:** ![WilyQuixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WilyQuixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilyQuixote)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/68 "2017-11-17T09:20:37Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Somebody posted a totally specious article under a non-sequitur thread title, and you want me to explain it to you? Let’s start with just one simple question posed earlier: How is calling a blatantly racist horseshit article “blatantly racist horseshit” politically correct? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/69 "2017-11-17T19:30:33Z")
??? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do with racist horseshit? Label it, condemn it, and try to refute it? That is political correctness! ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/70 "2017-11-17T19:39:18Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Somebody posted a totally specious article under a non-sequitur thread title, and you want me to explain it to you? I don’t need you to explain the article or the thread to me. I’ve already offered my own analysis of the article, and made clear my position on the thread. What i’ve been asking you to explain, from the beginning, is exactly who you think is being “politically correct” and historically inaccurate in this thread. You seem to have an inability to address this fundamental issue. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/71 "2017-11-20T06:14:27Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > ??? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do with racist horseshit? Label it, condemn it, and try to refute it? That is political correctness! _Political correctness_ would be calling it “Slightly erroneous information somewhat challenged in the ethnic relationship aspect”. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/72 "2017-11-20T06:15:42Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > The fact that you keep asking the same question shows that you do not have a grasp on the absolute stranglehold the media-industrial complex has on the political correctness of the conveyance of information and opinion… You think we get our information on what’s happening in South Africa from “the media-industrial complex”? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/73 "2017-11-20T07:03:49Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > ??? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do with racist horseshit? Label it, condemn it, and try to refute it? That is political correctness! “Political correctness” is a snarl term. It has been since the 1990s, when Those People decided they weren’t going to be Pansies, Dykes, Fags, Fairies, or Queers no more, before some of them pulled the even _meaner_ trick of appropriating those terms, self-applying them, and taking the sting out of them by making anyone who uses them as an insult look like an out-of-touch old so-and-so. Damned poor sports, ruining the game like that; Smear The Queer was never quite so much fun afterwards. Well, the Good, Upstanding Citizens of the world got some of their own back by taking Political Correctness as an insult, and, what’s more, making it something only the Left can do. When the Right does it, by claiming “clean coal” exists or screeching incoherently anytime someone mentions that humans are making the world warmer or that trans people actually qualify as human beings, why, that’s just Common Sense, which the world is short of right now, as you can see if you open your eyes and notice that some municipalities have made it illegal to beat trans people to death. Of course, the worst violation of Common Sense is the notion that both sides are _not_ equal, and that there might be an actual reason for someone to choose to _not_ be a Republican. Utter hogwash, of course, but what are you going to do? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071/74 "2017-11-21T12:01:41Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > “Political correctness” is a snarl term. It also has a connotation of saying that the person being PC is _actually thinking_ that [insert minority here] is sub-human, less intelligent more prone to drug abuse, more likely to be a criminal, because, _it stands to reason and just goes to show, you know - common sense_. The person being PC is therefore being disingenuous in order to curry favor with _mumble-mumble media-industrial complex, mumble-mumble liberal media something-anything_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-africa-going-the-way-of-zimbabwe/801071.md?page=3)