Everything you need to know about the American right-wing in a single joke

[womzilla]

Thanks to Making Light, I've discovered My RIGHT-WING DAD, which is a blog collecting the e-mails which circulate among the right-wing and those to whom right-wingers mistakenly believe they are of interest. The latest post is an amazing distillation of why I think of the current group of people who think of themselves as "conservatives" are actually dangerous, eliminationist radicals.

Subject: The Future

The Iranian Ambassador to the UN had just finished giving a speech, and walked out into the lobby where he met President Bush.

They shook hands, and as they walked the Iranian said, "You know, I have just one question about what I have seen in America.

President Bush said, "Well, anything I can do to help you, I will."

The Iranian whispered "My son watches this show 'Star Trek' and in it there is Chekhov who is Russian, Scotty who is Scottish, and Sulu who is Chinese, but no Arabs. My son is very upset and doesn't understand why there aren't any Iranians on Star Trek."

President Bush laughed, leaned toward the Iranian ambassador, and whispered back, "It's because it takes place in the future."

Note that Iranians aren't Arabs and would never refer to themselves that way. Also note that Sulu is either Japanese or "generic East Asian" rather than Chinese. But, you know, there's nothing about brown and yellow people that's worth taking ten seconds to understand, as long as they know their place.

Comments

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Thanks to Making Light, I've discovered My RIGHT-WING DAD, which is a blog collecting the e-mails which circulate among the right-wing and those to whom right-wingers mistakenly believe they are of interest.

Holy shit, my (NeoCon) dad TOTALLY pulls that crap. I've basically stopped opening his emails.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should just forward them to these people.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Clearly I should!

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

There are many jokes which are crude, or racist. This one is not adequately described by those words. It isn't often that I see a joke best described as "evil".

[del-c.livejournal.com]

The Right Wing Dad who likes this joke is probably the same one who goes ballistic about rumours that Ahmedinejad said "wipe Israel off the map".

[avram]

I wouldn't call that a rumor. The Iranian state-controlled English-language news agency really did headline their story about the speech "Ahmadinejad: Israel must be wiped off the map". It was a dubious translation, but that doesn't make it a rumor.

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

I think I remember reading in an interview with George Takei that Sulu is established as Japanese, but "Sulu" isn't a Japanese name, so they changed the character's name when they showed Star Trek in Japan.

That joke, by the way, is vile. But you knew that already.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

The Star Trek wiki "Memory Alpha" agrees with this, in their entry on Sulu (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Hikaru_Sulu). According to it, the name "Sulu" is taken from a province in the Philippines, and in Japan was changed to "Kato". (It speculates that he is of mixed Filipino-Japanese parentage.)

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I've now got a picture in my head of Takei leaping out and attacking Shatner at inappropriate moments....

[laurel]

Vile joke. All the right-wing folks I know would find it vile, for what it's worth, and be ashamed that people who supposedly share some of their views would find that funny.

[richardthe23rd.livejournal.com]

Alex Pelosi's documentary Journeys with George has one scene where a bunch of GOP fatcats are enjoying a BBQ on the White House lawn.

"It's all over but the counting," one says of the next race. "And we'll take care of the counting."

He probably thinks it's funny instead of chilling.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I second the endorsement of that web page. It's a real eye-opener, though after a few posts, you'll want to close them again. And maybe start drinking.