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March 2024
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Domestic Propaganda

Recently I was hanging out with somebody who is a World Wrestling Entertainment fan—at least I think it was WWE, since I really cannot tell the difference between the different versions of “Professional Wrestling.”

The only reason I was cognizant of the background noise on the television was because the WWE was coming from Afghanistan and it was hard to tell if they were having one of their wrestling “matches” or promoting US foreign policy to the legions of fans—in fact, I don’t really remember seeing any of the buff men slamming into each other, I only remember the constant discussion about how much better Afghanistan is after having been liberated from the Taliban.

Which of course, is probably pretty close to the truth: I have no doubt that Afghanistan is better off today than it was on 11 September 2001.

The United States’ invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent removal of the Taliban might be George W. Bush’s only genuine positive achievement, either domestic or foreign. The Taliban was consistently one of the worst governments in the world, constantly persecuting its own citizens and destroying significant cultural artifacts because they just happened to be monuments to what they considered false gods.

One cannot help but think that had W focused solely on removing the Taliban and capturing Usama Bin Laden (which, by the way, appears to have been forgotten in the persecution of the war against Saddam Hussein), the United States might still retain the global moral high ground.

Instead the United States has lost the respect of its global neighbors as we have “convincingly” asserted that we do not use chemical weapons, torture prisoners, and only spy on bad-people domestically.

Which brings me back to the WWE television show: why is it that the WWE and the government of the United States saw fit to engage in promotion of its success in Afghanistan to Americans? Is it because it’s the only successful policy perpetrated by George W. Bush, or because the fact that it’s successful has been lost in the shadow of the never ending blood being shed over in Iraq?

Had it been a higher profile sport, say American Football, I suspect that there would be howls of protest in the media, but because it’s a blue collar faux sport, it goes by unnoticed by the rest of us. Regardless, I don’t believe that the WWE, or any other false or legitimate sports enterprise, should be in the business of supporting foreign wars and propagandizing US citizens.

Bush needs to fight his own battles, not use proxies.

1 comment to Domestic Propaganda

  • ChrisC

    It plays well to the masses of Republicans that live in trailer parks and constantly vote against their own economic interests. Great so long as the fags are not getting married. *shrugs*