punkyaaaa

And we all love Wrongo

But there was another. A secret third one.

Saludos desde paraguay

(Ps i do think eventually we'll be able to get along. We'll get there <3)

Many people have talked about similar topics these last few days, here are some very good posts about it: @ninoacca's, which talks more in depth about the hypocrisy in display by these people, @marywshelleys' post about Argentina being fundamentally a racist country, and @sudaca-swag's point about no country in Latam having ever had any colonies (perdón por el arroba, pero sus posts son 100% reales y relevantes, me parece).

Here's my take, though: dehumanisation. In their minds, the world is the west. Real, actual people are from the United States and western Europe and that's it. The rest of the world is an idea. A concept.

There are two groups of people guilty of this xenophobia: 1. the right wing, and 2. the "progressive" "liberal" "left". Both of them get it from the same source: propaganda.

I won't get into the first group. We all know they choose to be the way they are, and they don't play at goodness. Their hatred is transparent.

The second group is who I find more interesting: their dehumanisation comes from the exact same place. However, they believe-genuinely believe-that they are doing good by regurgitating the propaganda they grew up hearing, but changing the language to make it sound progressive.

This is, I believe (and this is 100% my own opinion), a form of cognitive dissonance. They hate latinos because they grew up hearing that latinos are lazy, ignorant thugs, who steal their jobs and rob their homes. That we're ignorant and the wrong color, whether we're white or black or brown. However, as they become politically involved, they learn that xenophobia and racism are wrong, but they don't learn to let go of their hatred.

They might mask it, or block it out, but they don't learn to see this mysterious "other" as a people.

And there comes the scapegoat.

Nazis are bad -> I saw a movie that says that nazis escaped to Argentina -> therefore, Argentinians are bad.

It doesn't matter that their countries were the source of nazism and fascism. It doesn't matter that their countries received and pardoned thousands of nazi officials. They can rationalise that part because that's their world: they see the individual USAmerican, or the individual German, or the individual Frenchman, as a human being, not a monolith. We're still an other. Still ignorant. We have no depth. We're not individuals, just ideas.

They are superior, they know best. They might not think in those terms, but that's their idiosincratic truth. And as superior, better people, they have the rights of judge, jury, and executioner. They call us nazis, they judge us guilty, and they call on us to be punished: murdered, impoverished, sanctioned, intervened. Whichever they see fit.

After the France-Paraguay match, something similar happened: the french had to SWEAT in order to maintain control of the match. They couldn't win easily. Paraguay made them work for it, and their style of play is completely different to what the French are used to. And since the French are superior and better, their style is the correct, proper style. Paraguay's defense was wrong, and against the rule, and how dare they not lie down and take it!? They were a smaller team holding its own against two-time world champins. They had eliminated four-time winners Germany. They won because of a penalty. To them, this was humilliating.

And so, instead of saying "I'm angry I lost at football", they do the exact same thing that they did with Argentina, because it turns out that, just like every other country in the world, there's good people in Paraguay and there's bad people in Paraguay, and they've got the same type of history the rest of the continent has, and so this history can be weaponised and used against them, because it's easier to spew hate towards someone you consider a white supremacist than against someone you don't deem worthy of winning against you in the world cup.

But hey--who gives a fuck about France's direct responsiiblity for the current pain and despair of millions of Haitians? Why does it matter that they forcefully impose their language in the African countries they enslaved and then exploited for centuries? Human zoos? Pft, they are a thing of the past--of 30 years past. None of that matters--what matters is that a Paraguayan player kicked a french player on the shin.