Thursday 5 May 2011

Osama Bin Laden - consumerism junkie


This post over at my brother's place is all kinds of awesome. Money quote:

"A martyr must live a life consistent with at least his own beliefs. OBL wasn't consistent at all.

With one side of his mouth he damned the imperialist, capitalist devil infidels of the west; with the other he chugged Pepsi and Coke and chowed down on Chunky Kit-Kats ("truly a confection fit for Allah himself" he might have mumbled to himself, wiping the biscuit crumbs from his lap and washing it down with some Diet Coke: "Nothing like the real thing". He smiles to himself and leans back, before returning to his Playstation 2). "


I had even thought about it until this had been pointed out, but in its own way, this seems to reveal be the same kind of blazing hypocrisy as was seen in the 9/11 hijackers after it became known that they spent their few days on this Earth getting drunk and partying with strippers. Again and again, zealots turn out to be the very thing they attack.

[Picture: A can of Stars and Stripes Cola. Via Wikicommons]

9 comments:

justrecently said...

I agree that bin-Laden was a pretty ordinary criminal (with an unusual clout which probably becomes inevitable once you inherit millions of bucks). But the consumption of American products doesn't make him inconsistent. Nor does his informal alliance with America against the USSR, prior to turning against America. That's just politics. Either side deems the other a useful idiot, until the other idiot becomes useless.

Gilman Grundy said...

@JR - Apparently there's no evidence for OBL ever having worked with the US before turning on them. The best that can be said is that he didn't attack them.

justrecently said...

OK - let's say that American money and methodology worked for him, during the 1980s.

Anonymous said...

This is a world which would declare a fatwa on an Arab Playboy model, yet happily accepts Singing Boys and pedophilia.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/04/the-dancing-boys-of-afghanistan.html

Saw the doco and there are tons of other references to this sex trade. Don't tell about other instances: I'm trying to keep this post brief.

Forget about the consumption of Mars bars: this is a culture which exhibits deep sexual anzieties and many paraphilias incl those involving cross-species contact.

Even the women in Tahrir Square (home of the Arab Spring) were subjected to derision, putdowns and physical assault.

KT

Gilman Grundy said...

"many paraphilias incl those involving cross-species contact"

I'm not sure which culture you're talking about here KT, is it Wales or New Zealand?

justrecently said...

The link suggests that it would be Afghanistan, FOARP. That said, every religiously repressive environment (not only if islamic) seems to produce such kinds of abuse.

Anonymous said...

I deliberately excluded any Welsh sheep jokes FOARP, as I was hoping to be invited to you Welsh holiday cottage rather than have it torched by the locals.

And JR makes a point: Look at the Vatican. Perversions are a feature of all theoracies.

Anonymous said...

Bin Laden. Now the porn stash. If I recall Noriega had a porn supply, the fur lined handcuffs and a goodly supply of Peruvian marching dust.

Oh yeah, Saddam had hot and cold running virgins on tap after his daily swim and rub down. Okay, Uday was a proper little psychopath with Beria rapist proclivities....

KT

justrecently said...

I think it's time for Britons to attack the French embassy for those insulting pictdures.