[Borat : Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan]
I'm an airy fairy new age psychic Christian from Washington, DC married to a Jewish man from the Northeast. However, I do have Christian relatives from the midwest and South. My point is that it's alright for a black to make a joke about a white, but not vice versa. It's alright for a Jews to parody Christians, but not the reverse.
This movie was very selective in picking people from the South to show as ignorant and socially/politically incorrect. Why didn't he pick any NY or CA people to portray this way? We know there's an abudance of idiots in every region. This movie was narrow-minded, and manipulative in its depiction of Americans and Southerners, and relied heavily on disgusting hairy body parts for its humor. Frankly, I was bored and grossed out by the film.
It was also an obvious political statement by a liberal foreigner as we approach the elections. And guess what...I'm not a Republican. But I'm still offended when foreigners constantly malign Americans, yet there are still 20m+ immigrants flooding into our country.
Can we say "double standard" on all counts? I wish I could get a refund back from this movie.
30 comments
Someone later in the thread said,
Ah yes, the classic white Christian whining that they're not "allowed" to use racial or religious slurs. Instead of thinking, "Wow, it sucks that other people are bashing my race and religion because my ancestors made with the oppression, but I'm going to be the bigger person," they go with, "They bash me! I should be allowed to be an asshole in return!"
Contrary to what he says, the black kids and the southern diner party guests were some of the nicest, and most tolerent people in the movie. The NYers, by contrast threatened to kill him at every turn.
NON CONTRADICTION AWARD, BABY. Let´s talk about double standards, why can Jewish parody Christians and not vice-versa? and why are thus Southerners being ill-treated, according to you?
"I'm sorry, but if you think Borat makes Black people, women, and gay people look bad, you didn't understand the movie and probably sympathized far too much with the bigots."
I took a completely different viewpoint away from "Borat." The people who are revolted at the character when he encounters them are the normal ones. If someone tells you that they chain up women and the mentally retarded, and your reaction is "How quaint," and just accept it because you think you're the one who needs to be more tolerant, you're the weirdo.
Don't worry. I pay out your country [in regards to politics] on a daily basis and I am not going anywhere near it. So now you don't have to lose any more sleep.
I think the Kazakhs have some right to be offended by this (frankly unfunny) movie, but I think you're a little paranoid. personally apologized to Bush and officially denounced the film as being a negative stereotype of Kazakhs.
"I'm still offended when foreigners constantly malign Americans".Yeah, because clearly Americans never say anything the least bit offensive about other people and countries... Right.
"Can we say "double standard" on all counts?"
You're a perfect example of it, take a bow!
You bitch about a double standard yet you say that some groups can be racist/racial with other groups, but not vice versa?
Sheesh, somebody's had their sense of humour removed. She could make fun of Jewish people if she really wanted, they still have freedom of speech, but sh probably wouldn't be able to do it on an amusing level as Sacha Baron Cohen can.
@Sierra
@Mad DogShe didn't say that at all, quite the reverse.
I took a look at your earlier quote, and came to a different conclusion than I originally did.
@Sierra
Someone later in the thread said,
"What bugs me the most was that Sacha C goes crawling all over the US to make Christians look bad, women, blacks, gays, etc etc but the only jewish people in the movie are the sweet, married B&B owners. "
I'm sorry, but if you think Borat makes Black people, women, and gay people look bad, you didn't understand the movie and probably sympathized far too much with the bigots.
Sorry, I didn't notice that you were talking about a later quote in that thread. However, that sentence which you are talking about sounds like it is SYMPATHIZING with the Christians, women, blacks, gays, etc. That poster basically said all those groups were slandered exept for jews.
Probably the only time in that movie the jews were depicted negatively were when the Kazakhs had the 'running of the Jews', which anyone could clearly see was a nonsensical depiction. Another time jews could have been seen as being negatively depicted was when Borat thought that the cockroaches in his hotel were Jews. Anyone could clearly see that this was nonsensical as well. One could also see that these depictions were reflective of the bigotry of the Kazakh people, rather than the jews.
The only possible other time that Jews MIGHT have been depicted negatively was when Borat was in New York, among rude New Yorkers. Many New Yorkers are stereotypically known for being Jewish. This is kind of a stretch, however. Overall, the jews were treated far better in that movie than the other groups. How is pointing this out bigotry?
Nobody calls themselves...."airy fairy new age psychic" ....
this person would smear their own face with black shoe pollish, walk into a black justice meeting, and declare "I'm just a low-down, no-account, thievin', nigger like you" , And expect to be respected
But I'm still offended when foreigners constantly malign Americans, yet there are still 20m+ immigrants flooding into our country.
No, we cannot say that unless they are the same people. Are these maligning foreigners and flooding immigrants even from the same country?
Sacha Baron Cohen is from the UK. I wonder if there are a lot of immigrants "flooding" from the UK. I'm not saying people aren't moving from the UK to the US (and the other way), but I don't think these immigrants are the desperate kind as you are pretty much implying.
But I guess putting all the foreigners in the same basket makes sense. After all there are so few of them...
Listen, America is like a plant. If we don't water, feed, prune and all that good stuff it starts to die off. Think of the foreigners as our neighbors that really like our plant but noticed that we are not taking care of it. They are just reminding us. Or something like that.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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