Iraqis: "All they know how to do is kill"

[LoganW]

WTF do you say to this?

I was in class (college) today when this ignorant shit was said. MULTIPLE people made comments along the lines of 'we can't fix iraq because...' "all they know to do is kill" "they've always been violent" and the most ignorant "saddam was a fundmantalist muslim so they all got it from him and his religion"

I wonder if people realize that gee, maybe, just maybe, MOST iraqis wake up every day wanting NOTHING more to do than go about their lives in a peaceful manner. It seems ignorant right wing americans are the only ones pre-occupied with violence, planning who to attack next, and paranoid every other nation thinks of nothing else but attacking them.

But anyway - I don't know what to say to comments such as these. The ignorance is just so much it makes me feel like it would be a waste of time.

[seabeyond]

1. this is college. saddam was secular

he was the one that didnt allow the shiite, islamic religion to rule. all had to get education. women had rights. lordy, this is a friggin college class

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Saddam was a fundamentalist Muslim?

That's news to me. I really didn't know that. Did you?

A lot of other people didn't know it, either; especially not Iraqis. Perhaps you should have asked them to tell you more about Saddam's strict observation of Islam.

[LoganW]

3. No kidding

It makes me wonder... if people were actually educated instead of grossly ignorant, what kind of government would we have today?

[FreedomAngel82]

23. Really

I remember reading also that he let Christians have their belief system be practiced. When all the war started they right away fled the country.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. We ( they) get no real news of the world, so really,

what can one expect?

Ya gotta start somewhere; I say it starts with the media. Progressive people have to figure out ways to offset the power of the monopoly corporate news media.

Til that happens... people will remain as dull as dishwater and nothing will change.

[madeline_con]

9. news

If all of us can look up the info, why can't the ignorami in this class do it, too?

Do you reckon they just believe what Fox News says and leave it at that?

[jimshoes]

13. Ignorami...

I love that. I am going to start using it at every opportunity. And welcome to DU.

[madeline_con]

17. Thanks 4 the welcome and...

isn't it the official plural for ignoramus? :hi:

[Smarmie Doofus]

14. Trying to remember the principal of physics ....

one of my worst subjects... but it applies here... "an object in motion", ahhh can't get it and cant find it.

Anyway, the answer is that they are couch potato pancakes. The consumer culture encourages groupthink and above all, PASSIVITY.

If Fox says it's true, and Fox entertains...... well, why bother questioning this benevolent presence in my living room? Even to the point of clicking on a computer. Also, coming accross other POV's on the net, or wherever, creates an uncomfy cognitive dissonance which the infantile among us ( and there is an infant in all of us) would prefer to avoid.

Indeed, that is what I reckon.

[madeline_con]

18. uncomfy

IMO, it's the discomfort with the information we're receiving that causes some of us to act.

The 'couch potato pancakes' may feel it's easier to dismiss any info that's contrary to 'Fox&Friends' as some crazy liberal crap, or they just don't have the thrust to overcome their inertia.

[FreedomAngel82]

24. Probably

But remember the neocons own all the media so unless these college kids look up stuff on the internet and do their own thinking I believe they probably do watch faux.

[w4rma]

5. Saddam was secular. He was a dictator, but he was a secular one. (nt)

[OneBlueSky]

6. oh . . . I thought he was talking about US forces in Iraq . . . n/t

.

[seg4527]

7. it makes me glad I go to college in a pretty liberal area

although there are some extremely ignorant people around here too.

[Carolab]

8. I'd ask them their source(s), how they know what they think they know.

Start there, maybe. They are in college to learn, right? So what are they learning? How are they learning it?

[LynnTheDem]

10. Willful ignorance combined with congenital stupidity. Aka rightwingnut.

Best way to fight their total ignorance; Mock & laugh at them for being so totally ignorant of such easily accessible facts.

Sounds mean; I call it Tough Love.

The only way they'll get off their fat lazy ignorant arses to learn the facts is to be shamed into doing so by mocking them for their ignorance.

[FreedomAngel82]

25. Yep

I agree. If someone claims I don't know what I'm talking about and they come back with something I know is b.s. I just laugh at them and point out how stupid it is etc and tell them the facts and to look it up themselves. If I know for sure I'm right they'll eventually say "she was right."

[dbt]

11. Well, if that IS "all they know how to do,"

MAYBE WE SHOULD LEAVE THEM ALONE.

[KG]

12. funny, since no country is more ready, willing and able to kill than US

[FreedomAngel82]

26. Yep

It's us going around threatning everybody. We also helped Iraq before with war. So go figure.

[Deja Q]

15. Like the bankruptcy lawyer said:

"That's all I do and I do it well."

:wow:

[Smarmie Doofus]

16. Tell them they need to read more and watch TV less.

And I mean BOOKS. Most libraries, even bad ones, have serious histories of the middle east. etc. Good luck.

[Ms. Clio]

19. Funny, when I first saw this thread title, I thought it was a comment by

Iraqis about Americans.

That would certainly be much more accurate.

[western mass]

20. Tell them: YES, you're right...

and blacks, all they know is how to dance and play basketball, right? And Jews, all they know is how to be bankers, right?

Teach them about their ridiculous stereotypes...not with hostility, but some irony and humor.

[oldcoot]

21. If we can't fix Iraq, then why are we still there?

Ask these idiots whether or not they thinks Bush made a mistake invading Iraq and whether he should withdraw the troops immediately. Since I suspect that they are Bush lovers, their heads will probably explode when you force them to question their beloved leader.

[Tsiyu]

22. This is White People Code

If you can demonize the non-Caucasian you are murdering, you have no guilt.

"Native Americans are savages."

"African Americans are savages."

"The Viet Cong are savages."

"Iraqis are savages...."

Now, with this excuse, even the most devout "Christian" can sleep well at night, knowing he or she is only supporting the murder of savages, not the murder of "real people."

[FreedomAngel82]

27. It is sad

They should watch the Disney film "Pocohontas."

[Selatius]

28. I think I got something that matches yours

OK, I was in my business law class. The good doctor was lecturing about certain changes in the law that have come about recently and remarking about the civil liberties issues he had with the changes. I raised my hand and said, "You must not like the Patriot Act, do you?"

He nodded to the question, and then someone in the class, business law for crying out loud, said, "What's the Patriot Act?"