A Wonderfully Witty Response To Putin's Nyt Op Ed

Alicia karr

Alicia karr

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http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/140856/the-us-people%E2%80%99s-reply-to-president-putin
 
In summary:

Russians speak funny, we don't like Snowden, we don't believe in American Exceptionalism but here are some reasons why we are .........exceptional (one of those reasons is immigration, the melting pot story..not unique friends...not unique!)

From an outsider's perspective I found it a little precious and flustered.
 
Can any of the computer geeks help me? Every time I click on a link from a post titled something like 'Another brilliant article...' 'Fantastic editorial' or, yes, 'A Wonderfully Witty Response To Putin's Nyt Op Ed' my browser gets redirected to another steaming pile of mediocrity on the BA Herald site. I bet the hacker responsible for this thinks its all so very funny.

Oh well, at least it wasn't another edition of James Neilson sings the greatest hits of Joaquin Morales Sola...
 
Dublin2BuenosAires said:
In summary:

Russians speak funny, we don't like Snowden, we don't believe in American Exceptionalism but here are some reasons why we are .........exceptional (one of those reasons is immigration, the melting pot story..not unique friends...not unique!)

From an outsider's perspective I found it a little precious and flustered.
Click to expand...

The humor is really in the subtle pieces of "Americana" thrown in and after being away so many years there were parts that I almost didn't get! But it's tongue in cheek! Also the thing abut "exceptional" is actually that we Americans are exceptional as in "different", not "best", and claims Putin had a bad translator regarding his use of this word (haha) ...please don't take this seriously! It is meant as a satire! It was NOT saying anything about Russians! I feel a little sad that something I was sharing to add some humor to our day may have offended someone.
 
I suspect might be on us pauper, we haven't twigged that this is a much subtler version of the Onion for the savvy expat crowd.

In the Onion they would have called the article "American doesn't like Russian criticising America"

Hold the front page.
 
lacoqueta said:
The humor is really in the subtle pieces of "Americana" thrown in and after being away so many years there were parts that I almost didn't get! But it's tongue in cheek! Also the thing abut "exceptional" is actually that we Americans are exceptional as in "different", not "best", and claims Putin had a bad translator regarding his use of this word (haha) ...please don't take this seriously! It is meant as a satire! It was NOT saying anything about Russians! I feel a little sad that something I was sharing to add some humor to our day may have offended someone.
Click to expand...

Don't feel sad, it certainly isn't offensive,it's, just sort of quite poor journalism, satire, or whatever it is masquerading as. I couldn't agree with your interpretation but I guess we'll both make it through the day all the same, no harm done!
 
"When we say we are exceptional, what we really are saying is we are different."

Not really. You are saying you are better. And you act like it (I still love you America, BTW). But you do think you are better than everyone else. But hey, don't take my word for it.


http://youtu.be/i7mUaKUp8Ho
 
Being American, I don't want to rain on LaCoqueta's comments. But being a Libertarian, I can't help but feel like the concept of "American Exceptionalism" has been taken too far, almost like a religion, and I don't like it, personally. People here know my penchant for long writing (even though I haven't been around for awhile), but I think I'll give you all a break on a huge commentary of my own why it wasn't a great topic to use in satirizing Putin's "letter".

I can certainly understand how people outside of the US can despise the whole concept. Perhaps it was not a good choice to base a commentary on, given that it was written in an expat paper, but it was just that, a commentary, not journalism.
 
Was that written by THE Dana Millbank? What in the world is that nincompoop doing writing oped for the herald? Did Bezos give him the ax?
 
As an American, I agree that we have been arrogant, greedy and insensitive many times. But its hard to measure if we have been more or less guilty of these vices than other countries.

I have three thoughts:

People vote with their feet and in this regard I'd call our record exceptional.
If Obama had cajones he'd pick a historic spot and ask Putin: How many people died trying to climb over the Berlin Wall to get INTO the Soviet Union?? Any American dancers, musicians, authors, athletes or average Joes, defect TO Putins side in the last few decades (except for Snowden)?

On the other hand, Putin is a smart, tough, dedicated, very effective and ruthless s.o.b. Maybe we should hire him as secretary of state, pay him whatever he wants and let him straighten out Americas foreign affairs.

If we dont want Putin (and Snowden and others) humiliating our president, in 2016 we need to elect someone who has actually been a leader, a statesman, an achiever. We've had 2 lightweight presidents in a row and look what it got us: Iraq, the financial crisis and now Putin's op ed.

Ok, all you flame throwers, ready, set, go!!!
 
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