… the problem is how cultures “read” things and people can be completely different/opposite. Part of our issue with Islamic culture is just that: cultural. They’d never get in the pissing contest they are pushing, if they could read us accurately. And arguably our liberals would never be pushing for peace and appeasement if they could read THEM accurately.
It’s one of those cultural traps which I have read about and which are tragic.
I think I’ve spoken before of the tragic encounter between Zulu and Boers in South Africa. Zulus were doing what they did that had won them Africa (they came from central Africa shortly before the whites arrived): Commit incredibly scary atrocities so the enemy runs/avoids combat/submits. The whites were in their head just another tribe. They could not understand the idea of a “tribe” that was starting to span the globe and which would self-identify as “tribe” in the face of a savage. So their savagery made the Europeans MORE determined to wipe them out.
We’re seeing something like that, again. Islamic CULTURES are big on bragging, exaggeration of force and intimidation of the enemy. This is functional in a desert where there’s always a lot of low-level “war.” Some atrocities, scare “the enemy” and you keep your patch, and you go on. They have a fine tuned ear for this. When the other tribe isn’t committing atrocities against YOU and particularly when they’re being appeasing/accommodating, you have them over a barrel. If you strike with showy force you can take their stuff and enslave them. NOTE most of the attacks are designed to be showy.
TWO things they don’t get: Our elites are appeasing because the elites think they’re SO powerful they can’t be touched and are oikophobes who hate their own people. AND our PEOPLE is pissed, really pissed.
You know the old joke? There are no Muslims in Star Trek because it’s set in the future.
This is unfortunately the likely outcome of the cultures meeting. At some point (already happening) the elites will have to fight or be replaced. And when we go to war, our power is incalculable compared to them. They think we exaggerate our strength, while, culturally, we underplay it. They don’t understand we’re holding back.
The result will be a horrific destruction of guilty and innocent alike and even people like me who look Arab/Mediterranean in a bad light will be at risk.
And they will be the victims of genocide.
Sarah Hoyt, “Cross-Culture”, According to Hoyt, 2017-03-23.
May 3, 2020
QotD: Tragic cultural misunderstandings
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