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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEl Guapo. El Chapo. Jihaddi John. El Burritto. Americans are stupid.
Americans are stupid media morons. We have to give every evil bad guy a fun "Bad Guy" name.
El Chapo has a real name. It's Joaquin Guzman, but Americans can't pronounce it.
Jihaddi John has a real name, but Americans can't pronounce it.
All our evil bad guys actually have names, but not in American media. We have to give them cartoon names, because American audiences are too stupid to understand reality. Give us a comic book name, something we can understand. It makes it much easier to hate people that way.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,013 posts)Oneironaut
(5,491 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Nicknames, nom-de-plumes, sobriquets and even the benign appellations we create for ourselves on DU seem a rather irrational basis for determining intelligence or the ability to enunciate foreign names.
I'm confident we'll be supplied with objective evidence supporting your allegation as something more than philippic prattle.
Atman
(31,464 posts)Your oh-so-enlightened response does nothing to refute what I originally posted.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)JI7
(89,244 posts)Because of the British accent.
I think el chapo actually does go by that name.
So these are not American creations.
Human101948
(3,457 posts)I don't think so. These nicknames are also a way of ridiculing and diminishing these people.
Like calling Hitler the Austrian paperhanger.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,500 posts)DVRacer
(707 posts)Atman
(31,464 posts)We can't just call out a bad guy in America. He has to have a comic book bad-guy name. It makes it easier for the cable news telepromter reader to pronounce their names and keep us sufficiently afraid.
Nay
(12,051 posts)Hispanic newspaper here in Richmond (yes, all in Spanish, for Spanish-speaking folks) calls Guzman "El Chapo." He's been called that forever. Nicknames like that are common in Central and South America (el flaco, el gordo, el guapo, el feo, etc.), so THOSE are the Americans (not North Americans) who have given him that name.
B2G
(9,766 posts)I doubt Americans have a problem pronouncing either name.
Wah-keen. As in Wah-keen Phoenix.
Guzman. As in Guzman.
I worked on Joaquin Castro's campaign. I can pronounce it, and occasionally I make a typo on DU. It doesn't change one thing about my original post.
B2G
(9,766 posts)Don't call Americans stupid because the media insist on pushing something you disagree with.
Thanks for setting me straight.
B2G
(9,766 posts)Of course you are entitled to your opinion.
I just get sick of the stupid American posts sometimes.
Stupid media posts I am totally onboard with.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)He was a fan favorite in Boston.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)It means "Handsome". Ironically, he was not very handsome. I'm not sure who came up w/ the nickname, but it kind of stuck.