Unpopular opinions

c_man wrote: »

*yawn* Do you call Canadians "American" since you know, they are from America? Or do realise how stupid how that would sound?

Try telling a Brazilian they aren't American and let me know how you get on good man!

The Sun King wrote: »

Oftentimes I'll read the plot section of the Wikipedia page of a movie I'm watching, while watching it and spoil the ending. So I can concentrate more on what's happening now, rather than waiting to see what's coming.

That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen

Why bother even watching it if you know what's going to happen ?

Say Your Number wrote: »

One thing that has annoyed me about David Bowie's death is radio stations playing his music non-stop, when Lemmy died a few weeks ago I didn't hear any Motorhead on the radio at all, Lemmy was an equally iconic and influential figure, I think most radio stations thought 'We've played Ace of Spades once, thank God we don't have to listen to that noisy sh1te for a while' and when Bowie died 'Bowie's dead, well then we must play as much of his music as possible'

I don't have anything against Bowie or them playing his music, it's the double standard I find annoying.

Was he though? I'm sure Lemmy meant a lot to plenty of people, but I wouldn't quite place him in the same bracket as Bowie in terms of cultural impact or iconic status. Bowie crossed generations and genres, it's almost impossible to quantify his influence on the musical landscape. It's difficult to think of many artists in any art form who are quite as iconic as Bowie.

Say Your Number wrote: »

OK then, not only is it an unpopular opinion it's wrong too

Too late. Apologies are no good now. You must be destroyed for your sins.

Azalea wrote: »

"Irish cuisine" to me is just standard meat and veg stuff that's pretty universal throughout the western world, no?

Not really. It's more of a northern European thing, and places where northern Europeans colonised.

You're not going to get meat, veg and spuds as staples of European Mediterranean cuisine.

Elemonator wrote: »

As a professional pianist/drummer, I gig on Friday nights after work. It drives me spare when people go on about drums being easy (hardest imho) and Travis Barker/Dave Grohl being the best drummer in the world. I could blow both away. Maybe its because of the nature of my workplace (I work in finance). There is no best drummer. There may be prominent drummers that in my opinion maybe the best in their genres such as:

Jazz: Max Roach/Elvin Jones
Rock: John Bonham
Best in history: Buddy Rich
Current world leader: Dave Weckl

technically perhaps....but not really

I don't quite understand what's supposed to be so 'meaningful' about those Facebook posts Roddy Doyle puts up any time a famous person dies or a significant event comes to pass.

The legacy of Cecil John Rhodes has been in the news recently, with some folks getting offended at statues of him on the university campuses in Cape Town and Oxford. He was, along with Rudyard Kipling, the public face of Colonialism in all its glory. There's a thread about Rhodes in AH today.

Colonialism is on my mind for other reasons, too. Despite attempts to bury it under the weight of history, I don't think we've seen the last of it. When I look at the mess we call the Middle East today, I can't help imagining a scenario in which Colonialism makes a return to the world stage. Let me start with a thought experiment:

January 2017: Donald Trump is sworn in as President of the United States of America. (What, you think it could never happen?)
January 2018: in his first State of the Union address, after thanking the Secret Service for thwarting four separate assasination attempts, the President lays out the Trump Doctrine. In it he describes the Middle East conflicts as "war between puppies and kittens", and says "we're going over there to show you how it's done".
2018-19: the Sixth Fleet sails up the Persian Gulf, accompanied by dire warnings to Iran against interfering in any way. An expeditionary force takes over the deep water port of Umm Qasr, under US Air Force air superiority cover, and dozens of cargo ships offload four brigades from the Third Army, with all their inventory, while support units muster across the border in Kuwait. The Army rolls on Basrah, and takes it with little resistance.
The Americans and their allies announce that they are in Basrah Province to stay: there are no plans to hand it back. It is to become a U.S. unincorporated territory, on a par with Puerto Rico.
Over the next few years, the US colonial authorities practically rebuild the city of Basrah from the ground up, starting with basic infrastructure such as sewers, water, and roads. Religious freedom is not restricted in any way: people of all faiths and none are accepted. Curfews and travel restrictions are gradually lifted.
The territory under US control expands to include the massive Rumallah oil fields, which are exploited as soon as Exxon and Chevron can land their people and gear.
A free trade zone in Umm Qasr fosters regional trade, attracting investors from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The US Colonial zone gradually expands.
President Trump dies in mysterious circumstances, which frees his company to build a Trump Tower in Basrah, on the riverside, though permission to build a Casino is denied.
The economic success of Basrah attracts people from Iran and Saudi Arabia as well from all across as Iraq itself. Areas of Iran near the border join the colony, after inviting American troops in to protect against any efforts by the Iranian government to stop them.

I could go on, but you get the idea. One of the reasons Colonialism is so reviled today has to do with its paternalistic attitude towards the "natives", and I'm imagining a scenario in which an American President comes straight out with a statement of that sort: "yes, we do know better, and we're going to prove it". Along with that would come a rejection of cultural relativism, of any notion that other cultures are "different but equal", to be replaced with "our Enlightenment values are better, and we're no longer ashamed to say so". Just as World War II brought the USA together in a common cause, a future President could propose "fixing the world, our way" as a new unifying aim. American Exceptionalism, on the world stage again.

I'm not entirely convinced that this would be a bad thing. Yes, the USA has cocked up their involvement in the Middle East so far, but I'm talking about a war footing: political will, cross-party support and long-term investment on an entirely different scale. I'm going to ignore any counter-arguments that don't take this in to account. Just as the Apollo Program long outlived President Kennedy, a New Colonialism project of this scale could survive the vicissitudes of US domestic politics and gain cross-party support - as long as they have the strength of their convictions.

tl:dr; Colonialism may by set for a comeback in the Middle East, and it might just work if the Colonisers stick to their guns.