(Topic: USA politics.) The “eating dogs and cats” story is actually just plain xenophobia. This is why I deleted the pet joke meme off my FB timeline the other day.
It’s not funny, and I should’ve known that right away because I grew up around so many kids & families who were refugees from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other countries, and people said the same nasty things way back then. This is very dangerous and very un-American.
People have always said nasty things about new people from “foreign” lands. Starting with the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Portuguese, my own Eastern European ancestors, the people from numerous African nations who my English ancestors kidnapped and enslaved, and many others. All the various peoples who have made our country what it is. The whole mix.
Scapegoating immigrants makes an easy target for our economic woes and anything else we think is wrong in our country. But we absolutely must not fall into the trap. Because a trap it is.
Speaking on a general note, beyond just the “eating cats” meme.
We can continue to allow the media and various politicians to cheaply manipulate our emotions, or we can get real. With each other. It starts with something small like just talking with a neighbor.
Instead of falling into the cheap trap of becoming, ourselves, performers in a macabre circus, we need to roll up our sleeves and get down to the work of troubleshooting whatever policies are not serving us. And CREATING BETTER! This will take all of us, together. The human mind channeled constructively is a wondrous instrument.
Plurality of viewpoints is a great asset, not a detriment.
Government is supposed to be by the people. We all need to participate, however we are able to. Even if you don’t feel you have time or money to run for office, or serve on a citizens board, or some other deep involvement. It might just be writing a letter, or making a phone call, sharing the QR code for registering to vote, making sure a neighbor has a ride to the polls, posting a thoughtful post on social media that is genuinely crafted to invite honest discourse. And so on.
Speaking of money, we need to get money out of politics. Many countries do! Many countries purely finance their elections from public monies. It helps dilute the disproportional influence of lobbyists, bad actors, big corporations.
Whichever candidates you plan to vote for, you are a fellow American, and our work is in front of us no matter what.
Here’s a article that goes into the story about the putative pet-eating. “Whom Jupiter Destroys, He First Makes Mad: How 4-chan gave us the cat-eating Haitian Fright.” (Justin Ling; Bug-Eyed and Shameless blog.)
Terra Vance – Marked Melungeon shared this very informative article today on their Facebook page.