Friday, November 30, 2012

You think you know somebody

Today’s good news is that I managed to avoid feces of all kind, fiend and fowl (or is it fish or fowl, or beast or fowl, or something like that?). Considering last Friday, that made for a good day.

Mister “Jewish Conspiracy Theory” kept a lid on it. Considering our last conversation, that made for a good day. (He probably just thinks I’m part of the spisek.)

This week I learned that just because someone seems to be like you, doesn’t mean that they actually are like you. I mean, the lady with the dog on the bus, let’s assume that she was somewhat like me. I mean we were both on the bus at the same time…ok, the similarities end there but I know that if my (imaginary) dog were to poo on the bus, I would be responsible for picking it up. I thought that everyone knew that. I guess not. Pan Spisek isn’t so different from me. I mean we like a lot of the same books and have a similar sense of humor. I mean, I know the Jews are not out to get me and I thought that he did too. That’s what you get for making assumptions.

Take my  “American” neighbor. Do you remember him? I have an American car. He has an American car. He wears a “Vote Obama” hat. He picks up after his dog. We live on the same street. You’d think we’d have similar world views, but as I’ve recently learned we couldn’t be more different.

I ran into my American neighbor (40 years in America, retired to Poland) while he was out walking his dog. He greeted me with a “Good Morning” and started a conversation about the recent elections in the US. The conversation quickly turned from English to Polish as we both realized that the last 6 years in Poland has not done wonders for his English. The conversation got real weird real fast after that. My neighbor informed me that you just can’t get good, reliable news anywhere. All the TV channels and radio stations spew lies. Lies, I tell you! They just try to entertain you to distract you from the real issues. If you want to find out what is really going on you can get the truth in only 2 places. Radio Maryja and Telewizja Trwam. And he just heard on Radio Maryja (of all places) that America has 0% inflation because they just keep on printing all that money. Dollars everywhere. But in Poland we don’t do that. We know that we have to suffer inflation with a strong back.

He wears Uggs for gawd’s sake!

And OK, increasing the money supply (which can be done by manipulating the interest rate, money printing nonessential) during an economic downturn usually does not increase inflation, but I’m not sure that’s exactly how the “economists” at RM explained the situation.

What was I doing during this (one-sided) conversation? Standing with my mouth very elegantly hanging open. You can call it my Jewish-conspiracy face. I was speechless. Literally, speechless. All I could manage to say was the super intelligent, “Ja nie przepadam za Radio Maryja.” I also said that I would be late picking up my kids from school and I high-tailed it out of there.

You think you know a person.

6 comments:

Marek Cyzio said...

Media cannot outright lie (except Fox News that just has its own vision of reality and MSBNBC that is even worse), but they tend to deemphasize or just don't mention some important events and emphasize other events. I personally distrust all media, but it seems that the only way to see what is going on is to watch MSNBC, CNN and FOX NEWS so that you can see all aspects of each issue.

fiona_apple said...

Buahahaha, where of all places do you get those people? ;)

Kasia said...

I am shocked that he was wearing a "vote Obama" hat. He can't possibly like Obama, the skin color and all:) You are right - one gets speechless and you can only drop your jaw when you hear stuff like this. But then, the world is coming to an and and 3 weeks or so:):)

Anonymous said...

Oh, come on. He is just a regular Polish nut. You never know, such nuts can spring anywhere, even in one's family - and I am talking about my family here, all with university degrees. You will no longer be allergic to nuts if you inoculate yourself by perusing from time to time Psychiatryk24.

On the other hand, where is the Tea Party coming from? Full of people like him.

Mind you, I may be biased, I take my American news mostly from The Slate and Jon Stewart The Daily Show.

Peter

Anonymous said...

Let me add here, before I forget, a Polish guy from New York told me that at 9/11 4000 Jewish employees did not show up at work at WTC, forewarned. This he knew as a fact, his parish priest told him so. Your neighbour, as parishioners from that parish, are fully aware that the mainstream media are lying. He has to stick to Radio Maryja, just to keep his sanity.

Peter

Chris said...

Marek - I follow the philosophy of my former OB/GYN. He said, "I trust no one, not even myself".

Fiona - I think my street collects the crazies. I mean there's me and him and...

Kasia - I was thinking the same thing about the Obama hat. The world is coming to an end on my 13th wedding anniversary. Coincidence? I think not.

Peter - Basically, we can never be safe from the crazies, homegrown or imported.

This weekend I successfully avoided all poos and crazies. We were planning to have our new door put in at our house but it turns out that the lady ordered the wrong door. I even did a Joey from "Friends" and we "went into the map" together, but still the wrong door.

I am hoping for an uneventful week...except for lottery winnings or some other unexpected windfall ;)