trump

Bullies Deserve To Be Treated As Such

When you look at it, it’s fairly unnerving just how much our culture – especially popular culture – is dominated by America: from fast food restraints on our high streets, to crappy sit coms on TV, to the websites we use daily on the web, American culture is everywhere. Of course, no cinephile can possibly ignore the fact that the vast majority of the films we go to watch are American. Here in the UK I suppose we tend to think of Americans as our jovial friends across the Atlantic, and there’s no denying that we now have a long history together. Yet there’s also no denying that, this week, America launched an entirely unprovoked attack on Iran. I’m obviously no fan of autocratic theocracies, but surely there is no justification for what the US is currently doing or for what is now happening in the Middle East.

The actions of America this week have made the situation there far worse. In attacking Iran out of the blue, America has set a very nasty, dangerous precedent. There is no denying that these are the actions of a bully, and frankly bullies deserve to be treated as such. To be honest over the last couple of days I’ve began to notice just how ubiquitous American culture is, and whereas that may previously have been met with jocular acceptance, it is now tinged with revulsion. Naturally I know that not all Americans will approve of what their government is doing, but I’m afraid what has unfolded this week has given the facets of their culture I encounter so regularly a jarring taint which I can no longer ignore. Due to their President, Americans no longer seem like amicable burger eaters, but arrogant loud mouths who think their opinions outweigh all others, and who think they have a right to do whatever they like simply because they are American. Their entire culture has now been tinged with an unnerving, unsettling darkness. Even Star Trek, a television program which I’ve always loved, now seems like a brash, arrogant vision of an Americanised future: a future not of a united humanity exploring space, but one where the yanks simply got to dominate and bully over everyone else.

I really, really hope this doesn’t last. Americans should be our friends, and their culture should be as welcome and as entertaining as any other.After all, where would we be without The Simpsons or the occasional Cheeseburger? Yet because of what Donald Trump embarked upon this week, the US no longer seems like the friendly, outward looking place it once did. A nation which recently seemed like a benign fraternal superpower welcome to sit at the world’s head, now looks more like an arrogant upstart too used to getting it’s own way and imposing it’s will, economy and culture onto everyone else’s. What the United States is now doing is totally unacceptable, and a dark blight on their nation’s history. I suppose we can only hope that they soon come to their senses; but I’m afraid for now their entire culture has been tinged with an unnerving darkness I cannot ignore. It has lost my respect, and I can’t see it being restored any time soon.

The Disgusting Words of a Coward

I think it’s fair to say that I’m not a military kind of person. I believe, quite firmly, that armed conflict is folly and must be avoided whenever at all possible. What on earth is the point of sending young men to brutally kill one another, when a conflict can more efficiently be resolved if people just get around a table and talk to one another? Yet I also know that there are times when physical conflict is unavoidable, and necessary to protect one’s community or friends. In the room behind me right now there are three Polish guys; they might not be here if Britain had not gone to war in 1939. Thus, as much as I detest conflict, I know the military deserves my respect.

War is famously hell: it is brutal, bloody and barbarous. Frankly, I can barely imagine what it must be like when you’re about to go into a conflict zone, knowing there is a good chance that you or your comrades will shortly be ripped apart by a bullet or shell. I know this comparison might be a bit stretched, but to be honest the closest I’ve come to it is looking into the eyes of my classmates. They knew they didn’t have long to live; they knew their Muscular Dystrophy would sap away their strength and rob them of their lives far sooner than they deserved, yet they carried on nonetheless. I see my friends as soldiers, on a par with those who fight to defend their communities.

Thus like many others I was disgusted by what Donald Trump said yesterday. I may not like war, and can certainly see that there were huge problems with the fact that British soldiers were in Afghanistan in the first place. But that is no reason to allow him to degrade or belittle their contribution or sacrifice. 457 British personnel died in Afghanistan, alongside many others from a diverse array of countries. Pacifist though I may be, to hear that draft-dodging piece of shit state yesterday that they somehow held back from the front line, so that only Americans did the fighting, was beyond the pale. To hear Trump utter such bile as though he were some kind of great military historian or commander, when he was famously too cowardly, arrogant and self-important to defend his country himself, made me want to rip his head off. Thus, as much as I don’t want to get caught up in any kind of patriotic furore, but Trump now owes them and this country a grovelling apology.