The smug squealing over the “stupid” Republican voters who confused Raqqa and Agrabah makes me want to vomit. Yes, confusing two unfamiliar names is such a massive faux pas but squealing like a stupid monkey about “a CIA-sponsored coup in Ukraine” – a pastime in which Democratic voters engaged for months and for which not a single one of them apologized – is perfectly fine.
Pathetic hypocrites.
“a CIA-sponsored coup in Ukraine”
I don’t consume enough Democratic aimed media because this the first time I’ve heard that phrase.
I’m not sure smugness should be the operative emotion when you realize people can’t tell a fictional place from a popular Disney movie from a real one. Further there’s no evidence that “Wait, isn’t that fictional?” is one of the choices.
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Disclosure: I have seen the words “Raqqa” and “Agrabah” for the first time in my life in this post. (Haven’t watched this Disney movie.) So what? Must one know all places in the world or be ashamed of being ignorant?
As if Democratic voters would have fared better. I am not for USA Republicans, but it’s such a pity nobody checked the latter. Now it’s too late to check since every Democratic voter has already heard of the story and learned the names.
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From the survey press release:
To put some of these findings about real modern day issues and Trump voters in context,
41% of his voters think Japanese internment was a good thing, to 37% who don’t. And
41% of his supporters would favor bombing Agrabah to only 9% who are opposed to
doing that. Agrabah is the country from Aladdin. Overall 30% of Republican primary
voters say they support bombing it to 13% who are opposed. We asked the same question
of Democrats, and 36% of them opposed bombing Agrabah to 19% in support.
Again, I’m sure the pollsters enjoyed this trolling.
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“Again, I’m sure the pollsters enjoyed this trolling.”
I’m not sure it is trolling. The question isn’t ‘Point Agrabah on a map’ or ‘What do you think about the President of Agrabah’s recent visit to the White House?’ Now that is harmless trolling, which you could see on the Late Night Show or whatever.
The question was whether you’d support killing people in this city, and the answer was yes. Like, if you asked me this question about a place I didn’t know anything about, my first reply would be ‘Why?’ or ‘Tell me more about this place’. It won’t be ‘YES! Next question please’.
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The point is that American people en masse are deeply indifferent to what happens in the world unless it can be used to signal tribal affiliations or to navel-gaze. And it’s OK, it’s their right to not care and not get informed. But nobody is better than anybody else here. Everybody is equally narcissistic and uninformed and pointing the finger at others is hypocritical.
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“OK, it’s their right to not care and not get informed.”
Yes, but wanting to bomb a city is the very definition of caring! They care enough to want to kill people!
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They are only saying this because it’s what marks their belonging to their group. People parrot what they heard on television or radio because that makes them feel like they are part of something. There is no party divide in these strategies.
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It’s trolling because there’s no answer for “this is a fictional place from Disney” and there’s no answer as to what they did with the answers that indicated the place was fictional. There were three answers you could give: “Yes”, “No”, and “I’m not sure.” The biggest groups are the “not sures”, 40% of Republicans, 45% of Democrats. Are these people “not sure” because they think it’s a real place and they want to do more research and are admitting ignorance or they “not sure” because they recognized it was fictional?
I hate to be super concrete, but given the amount of literal thinkers out there, it’s a design flaw within the question. And how many of the “Nos” are or “This place is fictional, so no I wouldn’t bomb Agrabah?”
I don’t think this question quite captures what it purports to capture.
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It isn’t just trolling. It’s apparently common to throw in a question like this to test whether the respondents are giving informed answers.
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“…Democratic voters engaged for months ”
Ok, I have to push back on this formulation of yours.
a) We’re talking about a poll where, what?, 30% of republican respondents said they supported bombing a muslim-sounding place, and you’re comparing it with some bloggers who said the Ukranian revolution was supported by the CIA. These two numbers aren’t comparable. 30% of the republican base vs a dozen bloggers?
b) We’re comparing people who wholeheartedly support killing others because they live in a muslim-sounding place vs people who are misinformed about something. The former group sounds scarier to me.
c) I think the bigger point is that even in the US you have millions of uninformed idiots who wish violence on entirely fictional entities because they sound vaguely muslim, which is ironic given that those same idiots have a new favorite hobby of posting messages and articles about the reflexive violent tendencies of moslems (which is why those scary moslems should be deported, surveilled, bombed, whatever).
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“a dozen bloggers”
“I think the bigger point is that even in the US you have millions of uninformed idiots who wish violence on entirely fictional entities because they sound vaguely muslim”
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\ “a dozen bloggers”
Welcome to Orwell’s 1984.
Clarissa, I don’t understand how Orwell is connected. Have you meant that saying it was only about “a dozen bloggers” is a misrepresentation since it seems to be a general Democratic trend?
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“When the same number of idiots ”
Where are you seeing the millions of democratic party voters (or even republican party voters) supporting the bombing of Donetsk? Ukraine, as you well know, is just not a big enough issue for democratic and republican party voters. It’s indifference that plagues them, not any hate towards Ukraine. They don’t care.
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“It’s indifference that plagues them, not any hate towards Ukraine. They don’t care.”
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“Everybody is equally narcissistic and uninformed..”
Haha no, and it’s surprising coming from a passionate defender of elitism like you. Of course not. Some people are more informed than others.
I don’t spend the majority of my waking life acquiring and advancing knowledge only to be lumped in with some dumb asshole calling for some random city to be nuked. That person is not my equal.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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