4d ago

Terrorism is when you say America bad

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And that requires using stereotypes to communicate?
- This is a perfect example of how the empire disguises spies, commits terrorist acts with them, launches a racist propaganda campaign against a people using their spy as example, and then it turns out to be their own guy.
  This is not a stereotype. It's literally the guy.
  
  I see it now, although still I don't think gachaing the US with those in on it topic is worth putting this imagery on the internet
  
  I agree. The text doesnt go much into him being a spy or an asset. It just sounds like its making a shitty point with a racist premise, like "look how absurd it is that this long bearded arab guy isnt considered a terrorist but this white blond lady is a terrorist, the usa must have lost touch with reality". I know theres a point there about silencing reporting on gaza, but its a bit too discrete, and the post sounds like reactionary ramblings. I think this probably wasnt intentional by whoever made this post.
  
  It’s literally the guy
  
  I know, I never said it was somebody else. As I've said elsewhere, they could've picked any other picture of him but they specifically picked this one because it conforms to what people already think what a terrorist looks like. That's what a stereotype is.
  You put the imagery under the name to illustrate that they're a terrorist to people that already have the stereotype ingrained and it also ends up illustrating to other people that that's what a terrorist looks like. Worse, it normalizes the idea that stereotypes are a reliable source of information about people. This isn't bad because it's going to hurt his feelings, it's bad because it affects completely unrelated people.
  Honestly it's insane to me that this has to be explained to a presumed anti-racist
  
  Should we have forced him to shave before photographing him, like the US military did in Iraq in 2006?
  
  Or should we clean up his image, as the US is doing right now?
  
  It's great because it shatters a preconception that this was about looks or terrorism. The list is "enemies of America". Like how people are very confused when you show them this image of Reagan and the Taliban.
  
  Honestly fuck off with that. Perpetuating stereotypes is not 'great' just because it helps your point.
  
  This is debunking stereotypes not perpetuating them.
- Stereotypes are hard to avoid.

129 comments