Old and Busted: When Confronted with Genocide, We Must Choose Compassion; We Must Fight Cruelty
New Hotness: We Respond to Genocide on a "Case by Case" Basis

Well!

That was a shift.

But we're learning to have more "flexibility" on a great many matters of late, aren't we?

Oh, and: What?

Playing off of his title as House Minority Whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer made a joke about "whip[ping] people" to a group of African leaders visiting the U.S. for a major diplomatic summit.

"First of all, let me tell my friends from Africa, I do not whip people," the Maryland Democrat told a crowd at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Wednesday.

Some in the audience laughed, albeit lightly.

Probably not the right venue for a whipping joke, Steny.

Tough crowd.

Apart from the inappropriateness of the whipping joke, how f***ing condescending is this whole joke premise?

These are presidents of countries. (Corrupt, in the main, but presidents nonetheless.)

They are not 8-year-old schoolchildren who might imagine a "Whip" actually whips people.

All of them speak English, most as a first language. You do not have to break out your child-level Knock, Knock jokes for native English speakers.

What the hell?

This idiot is up there jokingly telling them "American Politics is not really like House of Cards" (he really says that).

Two problems with this joke:

1. They are politicians. They understand politics. You do not have to tell them, once again, child-level things, even if you present them as "jokes."

2. Several of these men came to power through violent, bloody coups. In other words-- their politics are actually a bit like House of Cards -- or even Game of Thrones.

What the hell is this Joker Moron doing? Does he even know?

Would he tell condescendingly child-level jokes to representatives from France and Belgium?

Or would he assume that those folks could understand humor above a child's level?

How does this strutting jackass summon the electricity in his deformed brain to operate his feet?

posted by Ace at 03:42 PM

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