Recently I viewed a variety of Germany/Nazi videos offered on Netflix to understand more how the German people could ever have allowed such an atrocity to occur. As I read this account of...
Recently I viewed a variety of Germany/Nazi videos offered on Netflix to understand more how the German people could ever have allowed such an atrocity to occur. As I read this account of journalistic fabrication, I recalled how part of the propaganda Hitler's movement used was to point to the United States and say look what they did to the Indians -- this seemed to be the justification for their holocaust.
I can only wonder if the fraudulent description outlined in this story was not so much as decision to make America look bad, but as part of a message to the German people with the same agenda: look what America does. It seems the authors Anderson and Krohn believe the article to be a sort of ridicule. But the fabrications are so outlandish that I wonder if ridicule was really the agenda; perhaps there is a more sinister reason for publishing such falsehoods that would affect their German readership.
Reminds me a lot about the TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie about the dangers of a single story (https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en). I really...
It also further reminds me of a part in one of my favorite TED talks of all times about the how we can understand different world views and opinions by using empathy (https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_richards_a_radical_experiment_in_empathy?language=en). Richards at one point in his talk says something along the lines of "We [Americans] look at these Jesus Boot camps and go, 'That's crazy, they're on the fringe, that's not who we are' but middle easterners look at this and see something very different and make generalizations about why the US military is there."
Like /u/jlpoole mentioned, I think fictional pieces like these function to pat people on the back and say 'ok, so I know what Americans are like now' by making unfair generalizations about fictitious events and people. These things are complex and the story to be told isn't as black and white as pundits, journalists, authors, and media overall want to make it out to be.
Recently I viewed a variety of Germany/Nazi videos offered on Netflix to understand more how the German people could ever have allowed such an atrocity to occur. As I read this account of journalistic fabrication, I recalled how part of the propaganda Hitler's movement used was to point to the United States and say look what they did to the Indians -- this seemed to be the justification for their holocaust.
I can only wonder if the fraudulent description outlined in this story was not so much as decision to make America look bad, but as part of a message to the German people with the same agenda: look what America does. It seems the authors Anderson and Krohn believe the article to be a sort of ridicule. But the fabrications are so outlandish that I wonder if ridicule was really the agenda; perhaps there is a more sinister reason for publishing such falsehoods that would affect their German readership.
Reminds me a lot about the TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie about the dangers of a single story (https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en). I really appreciate the honesty from this piece.
It also further reminds me of a part in one of my favorite TED talks of all times about the how we can understand different world views and opinions by using empathy (https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_richards_a_radical_experiment_in_empathy?language=en). Richards at one point in his talk says something along the lines of "We [Americans] look at these Jesus Boot camps and go, 'That's crazy, they're on the fringe, that's not who we are' but middle easterners look at this and see something very different and make generalizations about why the US military is there."
Like /u/jlpoole mentioned, I think fictional pieces like these function to pat people on the back and say 'ok, so I know what Americans are like now' by making unfair generalizations about fictitious events and people. These things are complex and the story to be told isn't as black and white as pundits, journalists, authors, and media overall want to make it out to be.