Riots in Egypt

[Akala]

This whole thing is stoking my interest like nothing else in ages. I only really caught the Tunisian revolution after the fact. Flaming suicides, dictators fleeing, and progressive women protesting not to be put in burquas. But apparently it's emboldened the pissed-off youth around the region.

Egypt is rockin, the revolution was televised until the internet got cut off, it's just so fucking fascinating. I'm totally wrapped up in what the direction of the country will turn out to be. It feels important. Will the Egyptian youth in revolt succeed? Probably. And then what? Will the people resent the US backing that fuck Mubarek? My hope is that they reject being another boring Islamic state and become something like a progressive Dubai that um...actually produces something? I wish them nothing but the best.

Does anyone else care?

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I think it will end badly.  People like to romanticize revolution when in reality, the end result is something more oppressive than what preceded it.  Although I hope I'm wrong.

[Akala]

only when the military steps in. which it usually does. there are some great pictures I saw earlier that showed tanks chilling next to protesters. no idea about any of the key figures in their military.

that's kind of the dig in most revolutions/social upheavals...human nature. if you're some general in the military, and you are pretty much in complete control...it would take somewhat of a great man to turn it over to general elections.

[Stoney Mason]

Does anyone else care?

Sure. I hope they get their freedom. It's hard to not be pessimistic though and think this will end in a week or so and things will just go back to the status quo.


There is also the slightly uncomfortable thought that one bad situation will just replace the current bad situation ala Iran but honestly I don't know enough about Egyptian demographics to speak intelligently to that.

[Akala]

I think something like Iran is everyone's biggest fear. It just feels a little bit like grandstanding to disparage fundamentalism in other parts of the world when the US is of late as batshit fundie as the rest of em...but at the end of the day, I sincerely hope that the disconnect between the youth and the old guard in America is something that exists in all parts of the world. Maybe I'm just idealistic.

[Stoney Mason]

I think something like Iran is everyone's biggest fear. It just feels a little bit like grandstanding to disparage fundamentalism in other parts of the world when the US is of late as batshit fundie as the rest of em...but at the end of the day, I sincerely hope that the disconnect between the youth and the old guard in America is something that exists in all parts of the world. Maybe I'm just idealistic.

America definitely has a lot of issues. And I hate crazy old/or young social conservatives as much as anybody. But at least in our society and most western societies you can be gay, you can be a minority, we have multiple parties, and you can mostly express your viewpoints without fear of government reprisal. We have a "free" press even if most of it sucks and is beholden to corporate interests or pressure. That's the standards at minimum to have a free society. I hope that when "freedom" comes to a lot of these countries its actual freedom akin to that (and hopefully better) rather than just freedom for another group to oppress people or thoughts it doesn't agree with. Also how intertwined religion is in some of these societies is just plan upsetting because they use that to undermine actual freedom in a lot of cases.  But I guess it takes baby steps to get anywhere...

[Boogie]

http://www.straight.com/article-370642/vancouver/gwynne-dyer-egyptian-revolution

[Human Snorenado]

The current regime will be overthrown, and some even more repressive bunch of fucks will slither into power.  Rinse and repeat.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I watched some animated movie which documented the life of an iranian women who was a child during one of their revolutions.  The conclusions she drew is that overthrowing the regime did no good when the country was so uneducated that they thought it was a good idea to elect religious authorities to power who subsequently made the situation a lot worse.  Not sure what the situation would be like in Egypt. I imagine much more people are literate now and the youth has more exposure to the outside world through the internet and mass media. Well, HAD internet.

I have a bad feeling most people aren't going to care because hey its brown people's problems.

[Akala]

http://www.straight.com/article-370642/vancouver/gwynne-dyer-egyptian-revolution

It really sucks that no matter what happens, it is all going to tie back to Israel eventually.

Personally, I'd rather we were allied with a free Egypt than Israel. Not gonna fucking happen anytime soon tho.

I watched some animated movie which documented the life of an iranian women who was a child during one of their revolutions.  The conclusions she drew is that overthrowing the regime did no good when the country was so uneducated that they thought it was a good idea to elect religious authorities to power who subsequently made the situation a lot worse.  Not sure what the situation would be like in Egypt. I imagine much more people are literate now and the youth has more exposure to the outside world through the internet and mass media. Well, HAD internet.

That's a problem in a power vacuum. Imagine if something happened to both major parties here. The fucking libertarians would be the most organized fringe party (or maybe the tea party...lol hard to keep up). Not that they are representative, but a majority is a majority. Then everyone is fucked.

[Akala]

actually that's kind of a drunken argument.

apples to oranges...libertarians couldn't really tap into any pre-existing national sentiment.

[Phoenix Dark]

I've just been watching puzzled, wondering where the hell are the black people if that's really Egypt. I didn't take three classes on African studies not to know something about the motherland

[Boogie]

I've just been watching puzzled, wondering where the hell are the black people if that's really Egypt. I didn't take three classes on African studies not to know something about the motherland

I'm going to beat you with a stick.

[Madrun Badrun]

I've just been watching puzzled, wondering where the hell are the black people if that's really Egypt. I didn't take three classes on African studies not to know something about the motherland

I'm going to beat you with a stick.

PD didn't take 2 African studies classes to know that a white man threating a black man with a stick-beating has racist connotations, he took 3.

[Diunx]

PD is as American as hate crimes.

[Himu]

I've just been watching puzzled, wondering where the hell are the black people if that's really Egypt. I didn't take three classes on African studies not to know something about the motherland

You´re from Egypt?

The African Diaspora dude.

[drew]

black people are from everywhere and are responsible for everything

[Madrun Badrun]

black people are from everywhere and are responsible for everything and this is why I own a gun and two dozen knives

Drew is a scary guy.

[drew]

i own more than two dozen knives and am about to buy another gun!

[Bacchus7]

threating

.

[Madrun Badrun]

threating

.

I was trying to drop syllables to show my black side.

[Beardo]

Anyone else thinking that we should use this as encouragement to protest and overthrow our capitalist masters here in America. I'm talking of course of those evil Koch brothers.

Those guys really get my panties wad.

[Phoenix Dark]

Anyone else thinking that we should use this as encouragement to protest and overthrow our capitalist masters here in America. I'm talking of course of those evil Koch brothers.

Those guys really get my panties wad.

i wonder what would happen if I searched "beardo george soros"

[Beardo]

Come on guys, I have enough Guy Fawkes masks for at least 4 people. Think of the glorious revolution!

[T-Short]

Mike Huckabee happens to be travelling in the middle-east during the recent outbreak of unprecedented civil unrest in Egypt. Speaking to the Israeli Knesset, Huckabee said that the situation, if it continues to worsen and destabilizes the middle-east, could "threaten the world and all those who seek peace and security."

Huck'd

[Brehvolution]

I've never seen so many people walk like an Egyptian.

[Diunx]

I didn't even know the world still cared so much about Egypt.

[Phoenix Dark]

I hope whoever becomes the new Egyptian overlords swiftly acts to put the noses back on the Sphinxes

[cloudwalking]

call me an asshole, but i am mostly worried about the egyptian museum. more stuff better not get busted, that shit is priceless 

[Joe Molotov]

I hope whoever becomes the new Egyptian overlords swiftly acts to put the noses back on the Sphinxes

I hope they enslave the populace and put them to work building pyramids. Them bitches won't have time to revolt when they're hauling rocks 18 hours a day. 

[Mandark]

Oh, Fox News.

[Great Rumbler]

(Image removed from quote.)

Oh, Fox News.

[Diunx]

I heard the pyramids kinda suck.

No wonder why they mad.

What do you expect of Jew constructions?

[drew]

Anyone else thinking that we should use this as encouragement to protest and overthrow our capitalist masters here in America. I'm talking of course of those evil Koch brothers.

fine sure just as long as you dont try to steal my shit once you overthrow the police, because i will fucking shoot you in the fucking forehead with a fucking gun

[Boogie]

Read this by Christiane Amanpour, via HuffPo:

Up until today I've been struggling with whether this is going to go the way of the revolution in Iran in 1979, when millions of people came out on the street and overthrew the Shah -- or protests we all saw in Iran in 2009 when the so called "green revolution" was quickly put down.

But today something happened that I think was very significant.

The Egyptian army went on state television and read a statement in which they said they accepted people's right to peacefully express themselves and that the army would never use force against the Egyptian people.

So the one question that everyone has been asking since the beginning, "what will happen if the army is given the order to fire?" was answered. They will not fire on the people.

Good for the army to state that explicitly.  That has to embolden the protesters. 

[Akala]

smart of the army. tomorrow should be interesting.

[Great Rumbler]

So what exactly started all this? Was it just a slow building of tension that has finally overflowed or was there some event in particularly?

[Stoney Mason]

So what exactly started all this? Was it just a slow building of tension that has finally overflowed or was there some event in particularly?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Tunisia-to-Egypt-an-Arab-upheaval/articleshow/7382198.cms

[Great Rumbler]

So what exactly started all this? Was it just a slow building of tension that has finally overflowed or was there some event in particularly?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Tunisia-to-Egypt-an-Arab-upheaval/articleshow/7382198.cms

Thanks, that spells it out pretty well.

[Mr. Gundam]

Just heard on NPR that Mubarak will leave office at the next election.

[Cormacaroni]

Not sure how he expects anyone to believe that him staying in 'til then will somehow assist in a 'peaceful transition'. What a fucking joke.

[Shaka Khan]

Just heard on NPR that Mubarak will leave office at the next election.

Egyptians are now demanding that, when he finally leaves office, the seat of power should be replaced with one made out of Teflon.

[Stoney Mason]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[T-Short]

hehe

[ManaByte]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

Muslims attacking a gay guy? That's impossible!

[Beardo]

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/01/portland_woman_lands_in_midst.html

“They were all out on the streets with weapons,” she said. “They had clubs and swords and pipes. We didn’t know what was going on. We ended up at Tahrir Square because they took a wrong turn.”

They bailed out of the taxi and fled across the river to their hotel. They decided to leave on Sunday.

So apparently two code pink protesters went to egypt to fight the "good fight." And wound up just realizing how real revolution is. When they got to the airport to leave it was a "smash of humanity…trying to get out of Egypt."  BUT, the huge irony of the case is that two Shell Oil workers actually saved them. Only months early these ass clowns were protesting big oil only to be saved by them.

They found a group of other Westerners and stayed with them. Turned out they were a group of Shell Oil employees who had chartered a flight out of Egypt.

In the end, the two women left Cairo on that flight to Amsterdam.

“We were treated like royalty,” Boyd said.

Shell put the two women up in a hotel in the Netherlands, where they plan to stay until Wednesday when they have a flight home.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Picture of Tighe Barry and Medea Benjamin at a BP oil protest.

[close]

 

[Stoney Mason]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[Shaka Khan]

The people trying to shield him went from yelling "stop it, bros, duders, not cool" at others to "MOTHERFUCKERS GET OUTTA THE FUCKING WAY."

[Yeti]

[Eel O'Brian]

[Brehvolution]

 

[MyNameIsMethodis]

so what are they actually rioting about, like is it something that actually matters like gay marriage?

[AdmiralViscen]

They all want you banned from the Internet, but their dipshit despot didn't know how to do that so he turned off the whole Internet instead and they are hopping mad

[MyNameIsMethodis]

So this is just because brown people can't get on the internet?

[Madrun Badrun]

so what are they actually rioting about, like is it something that actually matters like gay marriage?

oops, I read you quote totally wrong, sorry methodis.

I read "so what are they actually rioting like..." and then stopped reading the rest because it was a methodis post.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

jokeing about that last bit.

[close]

[Diunx]

Just heard on NPR that Mubarak will leave office at the next election.

[Human Snorenado]

Just heard on NPR that Mubarak will leave office at the next election.

For what it's worth, it makes ass backwards kind of sense- if he resigns now, apparently some cretinous Assembly Speaker becomes President.  If he waits (debatable) then whoever the Egyptians elect is the new President.  Does seem sketchy tho.

[Mandark]

The idea of handing over power in the middle of a massive, angry protest movement is a bit scary to me, though regime change is the whole point of the protests.

Seems like the most important things are that the military doesn't start cracking heads, and that free and fair elections are held as scheduled or before.  Then again, I really don't know shit about Egypt, so I oughta STFU before I say something dumb.

[Madrun Badrun]

Well if they don't get him out now, what is there to keep him to his promise?  If he had 7 months to prepare for the next protests then they probably won't work as well again.

[Mandark]

Nothing solid, but I'm pretty sure he'd be forced out.

If he's perceived as weak and on the way out, his allies inside and out of the country will abandon him and he wouldn't be able to hang on even if he tried.  Saying he'll leave has probably made it a self-fulfilling prophecy, not because of his honesty but because of the expectations he's created.

But let me reiterate, I don't know shit about Egypt.