OK, I know we're dealing with all sorts of other stuff today, but, give me some yardage here.
OK, so I'm on USENET in one of my hangouts, rec sport pro-wrestling. (A more wretched hive of scum and villany you will not find...) So anyway, I linked to this Washington Post story that just screamed "this can NOT be real"
In China, Delicately Testing the Taboo on Talking About Sex
Popularity of Radio Advice Program Highlights Youths' Hunger for Guidance
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 11, 2006; A01
BEIJING -- In the studios of Capital Life Radio's No. 1 rated show, "Tonight's Whisperings," the co-host leaned in close to the microphone. "Tonight we're going to talk about love and sex," Sun Yan said in a deep voice, launching into a text message sent in by a student.
The young listener said that he and his girlfriend had experimented sexually the month before, but "both of us wore underwear." He wanted to know what to do. "What if she's pregnant?" he asked. "Will her life be in danger if we have an abortion? Which hospital can guarantee a successful abortion?"
The exchange kicked off an hour and a half of discussion on a subject that is still taboo in much of China, even as magazines, music videos and the Internet increasingly promote sex to the country's trend-conscious youth. Adults, many of whom came of age during the ideologically driven Cultural Revolution, have struggled to keep up. The result is a growing gap between how teens behave and what older generations are doing to educate them.
"Tonight's Whisperings" targets college students but enlightens thousands of younger teenagers who are hard-pressed to find answers to their questions elsewhere. It also worries anxious, tradition-bound parents who believe too much information about sex will corrupt their children.
And this is what I said:
OK, let me get this straight....
Here's a country with almost one and a half BILLION people...
And they need GUIDANCE on how to have SEX?!?!?!?!??
Whats next??
University courses to teach Germans how to make beer??
Saudi Arabian video lectures on oil drilling?
Talk shows in Greece on boating??
Call center lines for making tea in England?
I realize this is not very funny as presented here, but RSPW that's generally what you do all day - just bring up stupid sh** out of the blue.
And then some pissant - a Repub who's had his ass handed to him on subjects like Iraq so many times its not even funny gets on me:
The punch-line of your 'joke' is: "the Chinese breed like rabbits," a
dehumanising, tired bit of liberal-style racism pulled right out of 1950.
Your 'funny' postscript about Germans and beer, English and tea etc. only
underscores the ignorant prejudice you have put on parade.
It's really astonishing how many so-called enlightened White liberals are
really, under the skin, worse racists than any conservative could ever be
honestly accused of being. Yes, that's including Ann Coulter.
Now about this guy in specific, I could care less really.
But at the heart of what he said, made me wonder. Was the joke that bad? If you didn't find it funny, you didn't find it funny, fine. Yes, I indulged in a bit of stereotyping, as I am one who, admittedly finds stereotypes funny. I also find people who perpetuate stereotypes funny too, in a pathetic sort of way. I find people who love to label an entire race with stupid shit laughable and in need of a good smackdown.
So now I'm confronted with the accusation of being one of those people and worse, a hypocrite because a good liberal is supposed to be above such things.
(Of course Repubs are always accusing us of too much "political correctness" so it's kind of the ike the old GOP Catch-22, their favorite game.)
So I put it out to you, Kos reader: do I need to check myself in the future, or was this joke no worse than anything Jay Leno might say?