I was arguing with some idiot who thought the sole reason there are a lot more men than women in China is because parents are fucking murdering their female babies en masse because of the one child policy so that they can try again for sons. Some other moron chimes in to defend them, and I bring up as an example Cyprus and Armenia which have a similar divide, and I’m like, do you think they’re also murdering their female children because of a one child policy? AND MOTHERFUCKER IS LIKE “Well, judging from the stats, I’m guessing yes”. Like, Cyprus is in many regards extremely similar to Greece, practically the same country in some regards, and there are lots of Cypriots as well as Armenians here. It’s so fucking weird to see some idiot have such a braindead and offensive take about something so close to you. I can only imagine how it is for the people who actually live in “evil” countries the “west” actually hates.
I basically told him that and how stupid his take is, so he said some shit about how “uh well I don’t know about these countries specifically and I said I’m GUESSING which means I didn’t know for sure” and then some shit trying to gaslight me that I was actually the one talking about Cypriots murdering their babies.
That and/or they just knew they could ratchet it up to 11 to make for good dehumanizing propaganda. During the war in the early 2000s I remember people telling me that “muslims” dont use toilet paper and just wipe with their hands and a whole bunch of other dumb (obviously made up) shit meant to otherize them that people around me just accepted and regurgitated. Probably could have come from the floor toilet things but idk they like to make shit up about “the enemy.”
Christ I’m pretty sure I heard this too. But I think it’s probably rooted in general slander and contempt for the global south.
I think the classic formulation of Orientalism is that it is structurally built around racist polarities that horseshoe 🧲 around to connect back on themselves in self-contradiction.
So on one hand you have the myth of the “dirty Arab” who, I don’t even know, is uneducated and dirty from riding around in the desert all day? But on the other side you have the “sneaky Arab” who is untrustworthy precisely because he is too cleanly from washing five times a day, which is clearly a tell that he has a guilty conscious and is up to no good. I’d bet dollars to donuts that American Sniper has both racist stereotypes in it along with several other ones for extra flavor.
In conclusion, fuck the west.
