It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how western media would cover minneapolis from the perspective of another country... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52865206...
It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how western media would cover minneapolis from the perspective of another country...
Some of this article is a bit of a reach, such as the fictional quotes from fictional people, but some of it is biting. It feels like the writer had a clever idea, but the idea only filled a...
Some of this article is a bit of a reach, such as the fictional quotes from fictional people, but some of it is biting. It feels like the writer had a clever idea, but the idea only filled a couple of paragraphs, so she padded it out.
The problem is that it relies way too much on hyperbole. Like this one quote: It's clever that she's paralleling the pretentiousness that some Europeans treat Africans with onto the US, but she's...
The problem is that it relies way too much on hyperbole. Like this one quote:
“These are ancient, inexplicable hatreds fueling these ethnic conflicts and inequality," said Andreja Dulic, a foreign correspondent whose knowledge of American English consists of a semester course in college and the occasional session on the Duolingo app. When told the United States is only several hundred years old, he shrugged and said, “In my country, we have structures still from the Roman empire. In their culture, Americans think that a 150-year-old building is ancient history.”
It's clever that she's paralleling the pretentiousness that some Europeans treat Africans with onto the US, but she's doing it in such an overt manner that it's hard to take seriously. It also doesn't really work because the fundamental premise, that you can just swap the names and completely ignore the context behind them, doesn't either. Tense border situations and divisions of ethnic communities are common in Africa, but it makes no sense to apply them to the US - we only have two and neither are contentious. And the suspension of disbelief is further weakened by the fact that she mixes fake, made up quotes and backstory with real quotes and real topics, like Trump's bleach and UV light comments.
I feel like this kind of article would work a lot better as some kind of Dr. Suess-esque parody, where she gradually works in her message.
That was one of the sections I didn't like. In a real news situation, noone would say anything like that, and, if they did, the journalist wouldn't bother including it in their article. Good...
That was one of the sections I didn't like. In a real news situation, noone would say anything like that, and, if they did, the journalist wouldn't bother including it in their article.
Good satire needs to be subtler. Truer. Like this section:
The country has been rocked by several viral videos depicting extrajudicial executions of black ethnic minorities by state security forces. Uprisings erupted in the northern city of Minneapolis after a video circulated online of the killing of a black man, George Floyd, after being attacked by a security force agent. Trump took to Twitter, calling black protesters “THUGS”’ and threatening to send in military force. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts!” he declared.
That could have been written about Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, Jair Bolsonaro... the list goes on. [EDIT: And it's true.] That's good satire.
She should have stayed with a few paragraphs like that.
It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how western media would cover minneapolis from the perspective of another country...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52865206
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/cop-cars-burned-in-absolute-chaos-in-los-angeles/news-story/fb47e1454ea835a34d2fb1e417f65f1d
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/417968/george-floyd-death-us-cities-order-curfews-amid-widespread-clashes
Some of this article is a bit of a reach, such as the fictional quotes from fictional people, but some of it is biting. It feels like the writer had a clever idea, but the idea only filled a couple of paragraphs, so she padded it out.
The problem is that it relies way too much on hyperbole. Like this one quote:
It's clever that she's paralleling the pretentiousness that some Europeans treat Africans with onto the US, but she's doing it in such an overt manner that it's hard to take seriously. It also doesn't really work because the fundamental premise, that you can just swap the names and completely ignore the context behind them, doesn't either. Tense border situations and divisions of ethnic communities are common in Africa, but it makes no sense to apply them to the US - we only have two and neither are contentious. And the suspension of disbelief is further weakened by the fact that she mixes fake, made up quotes and backstory with real quotes and real topics, like Trump's bleach and UV light comments.
I feel like this kind of article would work a lot better as some kind of Dr. Suess-esque parody, where she gradually works in her message.
That was one of the sections I didn't like. In a real news situation, noone would say anything like that, and, if they did, the journalist wouldn't bother including it in their article.
Good satire needs to be subtler. Truer. Like this section:
That could have been written about Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, Jair Bolsonaro... the list goes on. [EDIT: And it's true.] That's good satire.
She should have stayed with a few paragraphs like that.
Spicy and not wrong. I like it.