Secularism funneling the way to identity and materialist cultism is going to be a talking point amongst historians. I'm calling it.
People couldn't fathom many different historical events happening before until they did, in which case, we have to hope the next generation learns well to stop the loopholes.
oh, the good old religion. it is a good thing that it was never focused on brainwashing people so it could accumulate money in order to gain political power, so they could keep brainwashing people and keep accumulating money... oh, wait, that is exactly what it did!
yeah, your life is shitty now, but don't worry, it will all get better in the eternal afterlife!
I see a lot of conservative breitbart esque coverage of the rental properties but I'm not interested in hearing their perspective. I heard him say he's a capitalist, which was a little better in context but still not great.
I downvoted you because it seems like your actual issue is his progressive policies, and not the capitalism. Don't be an opp
I mean I'd bet good money it's a talking point right now somewhere. It's not particularly hard to notice if you're willing to interrogate secularism for flaws. Turns out taking away religious identity just replaces it with other identities that aren't necessarily more pleasant.
Nationalism is probably the big one. This is less obvious in the West where the transition is more or less complete (even religious people in the West tend to be nationalist first and religious second), but in (my corner of) the third world people pushing for secularism tend to basically simultaneously push for nationalism and vice versa.
There should be a (heavy) penalty for public figures just saying this kind of made up crap about other people.
I'm a huge advocate for being able to speak your mind pretty much without any caveats, however objectionable your opinion is, but slander has nothing to do with free speech. This is a hill i'll die on.
They make it a "free speach" thing like false accusations are covered under that law.
I can't go around lying to police about how "my neighbor tried to kill me." Ruining their life for fun or profit has consequences, and rightfully so.
But for some reason, public figures go around talking about how "all trans people are pedophiles" and "immigrants are eating our cats and dogs."
It does ruin many lives too through deportation, bullying, gossip, and even just small stuff like reducing likelyhood of fucking getting hired at a job.
But also same figures and journalists, in spite of the victim testimonies and released files, can NOT call a certain someone pedophile without losing their job because "they didn't say allagedly."
It's like the application of laws and even their morals themselves bend around to unprotect minorities.
I can’t go around lying to police about how “my neighbor tried to kill me.” Ruining their life for fun or profit has consequences, and rightfully so.
lemmy.blahaj.zone
I mean, you can do that though. And it would cost your neighbor a significant amount of money to fight it.
And if you're white (and wealthy, and a republican politician), then you get away with it every time.
Slander is spoken, libel is written. Might be a little blurred in the age of video and podcasts though. Anyway, slander and libel cases are famously hard to win, because you have to prove the statement was made, the person who made it knew it was false, and that it damaged your reputation. It's also harder to win for public figures, as the increase in general media around them tends to dilute damaging statements.
I ment it more in the sense that public figures should just straight up be held to a higher standard than Joe Schmoe when it comes to these things.
the person who made it knew it was false
Someone in this position should just be expected to know better and if otherswise be expected to prove these kinds of claims.
Just like I feel they are supposed to divest when they enter public office and be barred from investing in anything while holding any kind of position of power instead of becoming obscenely wealthy in this period of "public service".
But don't worry, i'm fully aware these things are all naive pipe dreams in this system.
Yeah. Dude is a certified bigoted ignorant jackass. The check on guys like him is supposed to be the voting public, but I've seen what makes maga cheer... Part of the reason why I think a democracy where voting rights are "equal' will never produce an effective government.
I'm pretty sure if there's a country that invented Islamophobia it's either the Papal States or somewhere in central Europe and did it before people were aware that there were two clusters of continents on different hemispheres.
America absolutely got really in on it, but at our founding we were generally ok with Islam. But yes we were built on genocide and slavery.
I read that dudes comment and thought the same thing. Pretty sure the Crusades got the good ole USA beat by hundreds of years in the realm of islamophobia.
But also yeah the islamophobia is the USA is obnoxious and loud. As a white dude, I hate and get annoyed by all of that bullshit and the fact that when I'm travelling down south everyone assumes I'm a racist white guy and says dumb shit to me.
Yeah I really don't want to discount our country's real problems, but I also don't want to lend credence to the idea that it was founded as a Christian nation or that it's always been wholly evil in every way.
Also I don't want Europeans to brush off the islamophobia that they have as well. We all need to do better in this area.
The ability to tell stupid lies and not be stopped is a display of dominance. It's showing that you have no control over these people to make them tell the truth or do anything else that you want them to do, because they are in control and not you.
Whining about him doing it while letting him do it simply reinforces that point; he still gets to do what he wants, we still get to listen to him do it, and that's not changing any time soon.
Clearly in order for the Scientify Thinking in America to be proper and acceptable, the Trump Administration needs to go even further back than the discover of Climate Change and of Vaccines: all the way to 9th Century Europe before such "terrorist" numerals were adopted.
Then it is up to us pasty white folks who hate fascists and racists; to show that "hey, you might be the same shade of skin colour as me, but your personality and politics are if a shade of bullshit I detest. Tommy Tubervulle is a mongerel
Yep, I for one am glad that someone smart and with good politics won the senate primary and that it's even better to have him be Egyptian American, considering that's a group that faces discrimination and deserves representation.
John Adams told one of our earliest friendly nations (Morocco) that our country is just as much for Muslims as it is for Christians, and while I may have a lot of disagreements with the founding fathers I think they nailed that one on the head
Create an enemy out of a minority by blaming everything bad on them with emotional arguments to make the audience angry so they stop thinking rationally. One of the standard techniques. It worked great for them so not much reason to stop.
There hasn't been a time in my life, and I'm not young anymore, that American conservatism hasn't been a racist movement.
The most racist element of that movement are at the end of their lives and the racist GOP know that. Unless they can cheat their way into total control, this is their last big push. That's why they aren't hiding it anymore.
I forget the conversation that turned into an argument and the republican screaming at the democrat about trump derangement syndrome, while the democrat was talking real shit that mattered and was basically pointing out the flaws in which the republicans don't see with their handling of I think it was either Gaza or the current middle eastern conflict something though and it blew my mind. It made me go you gotta be fucking with me how there's real shit that needs to be talked about and discussed in a civil manner and because one side needs to have a perception of being correct it just turned into an absolute shit show.
I immediately said afterwards while shaking my head in a what the fuck did I just see manner and did a long deep sigh and said, "Thank goodness I stopped caring about politics."
Hypocrisy is lost on MAGA. They believe it's Trump versus Satan, that anyone not them is pure evil by fiat, and therefore any action of their own is justified, even when it is violent or heinous.
And because their peerless leader is pure good by fiat, his own behaviors that are immoral or incompetent are disregarded as beyond the need for explanation.
This is common in cults of personality. It's also super fragile if the leader dies without major effort to define an heir in advance.
If Tuberville sounds stupid. It’s because there’s a potatoe shoved up his ass. It’s been there long enough it’s sprouted and is now doing all his thinking for him.
When Trump started his political career, it invited everyone to express their racism openly. Prior to that, they were adhering to the Reagan rules, which was instead to use racist dog whistles. (welfare state, street gangs, urban crime, and so on).
As the MAGA movement formed, open racism became a means of costly signaling. It tells your fellow MAGAs that you are one of them. It also tells the rest of us that you are racist.
Other signaling includes talking about liberals in the same manner one uses a racial slur, not only regarding them as a monolithic bloc¹ but also accusing them of outrageous wrongs, specifically acts of treason or betrayal of the country. This is much like blood libel, in which the accusations are not meant to be plausible, rather that fellow MAGAs are to pretend they are true. See also They're eating the dogs.
Anyway, Tuberville had shown time and again in his career that he doesn't care if he looks stupid, especially to anyone outside of MAGA, but that he is a staunch MAGA loyalist who will lick any boot and even sacrifice himself to stay adjacent to power.
Of course, when Trump or some higher up actually requires that he sacrifice himself his opinion may change. But he's signaling that he's a good, obedient dog to the end.
I also anticipate that when Trump dies or otherwise MAGA falls out of fashion (it's certainly losing popularity already), Tuberville will try to pretend he was never really into all that MAGA nonsense, and none of his statements and behavior ever happened. And it will be up to the public to make sure neither he, nor any other opportunists like him, ever live it down.
¹ Liberals are not a monolithic bloc even if most of them share some common values. The same is true for conservatives, feminists, Methodists or any other significantly large demographic. -- This is why the face-eating leopards always eventually come for your face no matter how true and loyal you are; in Fascism, the set of acceptable identity markers closes like a Fortnite perimeter and shuts you out.
I mean, Islam is intrinsically bad for me, just as any religion is, basically (I'm an agnostic atheist [I don't know if a god exists but I reasonaly believe that no, and even if it existed, I still wouldn't adore him], that's why)... But damn, that's wild. He doesn't even know him yet he is calling him "radical islamic" out of nowhere, what a fucking asshole. If I have to guess, he's surely an Incel too.
Stupid is Tommy Potatohead’s brand. It’s what his voters voted for: to have a dingus who thinks like them represent them, only louder and amplified by PAC money.
And in two years or however long it is people will not think back to how out of control crazy this post was. Nobody will remember. All they'll know is that they felt fear and anger and the name associated was Abdul El-Sayed.
The sad thing is that he's probably a racist flanderization of his true self, crafted specifically to appeal to a dull constituency who fear everything.
None of these old fucking politicians stand for anything and will do and say anything to maintain their power.
Does anyone have a link to that nuclear threat notification thing? I have been trying to keep up with current events as if I can be a good person and influence the course. I will continue to be a good person and try to influence a humane course. But “ability to hide behind readily available blocks of concrete” is seemingly likely going to be the next transferable skill on my résumé.
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What are they afraid he’ll do?
Oh, wait that’s MAGA-GOP project 25 shit
Secularism funneling the way to identity and materialist cultism is going to be a talking point amongst historians. I'm calling it.
People couldn't fathom many different historical events happening before until they did, in which case, we have to hope the next generation learns well to stop the loopholes.
I'm not sure you know what those words mean
oh, the good old religion. it is a good thing that it was never focused on brainwashing people so it could accumulate money in order to gain political power, so they could keep brainwashing people and keep accumulating money... oh, wait, that is exactly what it did!
yeah, your life is shitty now, but don't worry, it will all get better in the eternal afterlife!
Troll who is going after whoever he considers "commies". Not worth anyone's time.
So you’re not gonna confront my claims?
Why would anyone bother? You already admitted to being a troll elsewhere! It's a waste of time to argue with someone who is arguing in bad faith.
I see a lot of conservative breitbart esque coverage of the rental properties but I'm not interested in hearing their perspective. I heard him say he's a capitalist, which was a little better in context but still not great.
I downvoted you because it seems like your actual issue is his progressive policies, and not the capitalism. Don't be an opp
I mean I'd bet good money it's a talking point right now somewhere. It's not particularly hard to notice if you're willing to interrogate secularism for flaws. Turns out taking away religious identity just replaces it with other identities that aren't necessarily more pleasant.
Like what
Nationalism is probably the big one. This is less obvious in the West where the transition is more or less complete (even religious people in the West tend to be nationalist first and religious second), but in (my corner of) the third world people pushing for secularism tend to basically simultaneously push for nationalism and vice versa.
Nationalism is a flaw of secularism? Absurd.
Not quite, more that even without religion people need something to identify with and in the modern day that tends to almost always be nationalism.
There should be a (heavy) penalty for public figures just saying this kind of made up crap about other people.
I'm a huge advocate for being able to speak your mind pretty much without any caveats, however objectionable your opinion is, but slander has nothing to do with free speech. This is a hill i'll die on.
They make it a "free speach" thing like false accusations are covered under that law.
I can't go around lying to police about how "my neighbor tried to kill me." Ruining their life for fun or profit has consequences, and rightfully so.
But for some reason, public figures go around talking about how "all trans people are pedophiles" and "immigrants are eating our cats and dogs."
It does ruin many lives too through deportation, bullying, gossip, and even just small stuff like reducing likelyhood of fucking getting hired at a job.
But also same figures and journalists, in spite of the victim testimonies and released files, can NOT call a certain someone pedophile without losing their job because "they didn't say allagedly."
It's like the application of laws and even their morals themselves bend around to unprotect minorities.
And if you're white (and wealthy, and a republican politician), then you get away with it every time.
I believe it falls under libel, but that's up to the person being defamed to pursue.
Slander is spoken, libel is written. Might be a little blurred in the age of video and podcasts though. Anyway, slander and libel cases are famously hard to win, because you have to prove the statement was made, the person who made it knew it was false, and that it damaged your reputation. It's also harder to win for public figures, as the increase in general media around them tends to dilute damaging statements.
I ment it more in the sense that public figures should just straight up be held to a higher standard than Joe Schmoe when it comes to these things.
Someone in this position should just be expected to know better and if otherswise be expected to prove these kinds of claims.
Just like I feel they are supposed to divest when they enter public office and be barred from investing in anything while holding any kind of position of power instead of becoming obscenely wealthy in this period of "public service".
But don't worry, i'm fully aware these things are all naive pipe dreams in this system.
Usually it isn't really legally separate anymore and is just defamation regardless of how you do it
Proving that Tommy Tuberville knew, or knows, anything would be pretty much impossible.
Yeah. Dude is a certified bigoted ignorant jackass. The check on guys like him is supposed to be the voting public, but I've seen what makes maga cheer... Part of the reason why I think a democracy where voting rights are "equal' will never produce an effective government.
I'm pretty sure if there's a country that invented Islamophobia it's either the Papal States or somewhere in central Europe and did it before people were aware that there were two clusters of continents on different hemispheres.
America absolutely got really in on it, but at our founding we were generally ok with Islam. But yes we were built on genocide and slavery.
I read that dudes comment and thought the same thing. Pretty sure the Crusades got the good ole USA beat by hundreds of years in the realm of islamophobia.
But also yeah the islamophobia is the USA is obnoxious and loud. As a white dude, I hate and get annoyed by all of that bullshit and the fact that when I'm travelling down south everyone assumes I'm a racist white guy and says dumb shit to me.
Yeah I really don't want to discount our country's real problems, but I also don't want to lend credence to the idea that it was founded as a Christian nation or that it's always been wholly evil in every way.
Also I don't want Europeans to brush off the islamophobia that they have as well. We all need to do better in this area.
I'd say the first Islamophobes were Meccan polytheists. I hear those guys had one hell of a redemption arc though.
Defamation laws exist
TBF, Tommy Tuberville is Olympic-level caliber at saying things that make him look stupid.
And unfortunately he’s the likely next governor of Alabama…
The ability to tell stupid lies and not be stopped is a display of dominance. It's showing that you have no control over these people to make them tell the truth or do anything else that you want them to do, because they are in control and not you.
Whining about him doing it while letting him do it simply reinforces that point; he still gets to do what he wants, we still get to listen to him do it, and that's not changing any time soon.
You jest, but within 5 days after he gets into senate, our government will be using public schools to teach children arabic numerals! /s
At this rate, I'm unsure if numbers will be too woke for school...
The wokest number of all...1488!!!
Clearly in order for the Scientify Thinking in America to be proper and acceptable, the Trump Administration needs to go even further back than the discover of Climate Change and of Vaccines: all the way to 9th Century Europe before such "terrorist" numerals were adopted.
Wait til they learn that algebra is an Arabic invention.
Those old american politicians. Their last recourse for anything is "They're not white and they don't think like me!".
Then it is up to us pasty white folks who hate fascists and racists; to show that "hey, you might be the same shade of skin colour as me, but your personality and politics are if a shade of bullshit I detest. Tommy Tubervulle is a mongerel
Yep, I for one am glad that someone smart and with good politics won the senate primary and that it's even better to have him be Egyptian American, considering that's a group that faces discrimination and deserves representation.
John Adams told one of our earliest friendly nations (Morocco) that our country is just as much for Muslims as it is for Christians, and while I may have a lot of disagreements with the founding fathers I think they nailed that one on the head
in my country if a politician posted something like that, would be sued for defamation and will 100% lose in court.
And they'd pretty much be forced to step down.
Yes, state control is completely arbitrary.
Tommy Tuberville is such a made up sounding name.
tuber is a thing you find from the ground, like a potato.
Timmy Potato-Town
If only we were so lucky.
Sounds like the Keen Dreams version of Mortimer McMire.
Are Senators exempt from laws in the US? Given how easily this can be disproved why hasn't he been sued to the point of bankruptcy?
to be fair, this had been working for several decades, they're not gonna learn new tricks now
Create an enemy out of a minority by blaming everything bad on them with emotional arguments to make the audience angry so they stop thinking rationally. One of the standard techniques. It worked great for them so not much reason to stop.
yeah, though i was specifically talking about muslims
There hasn't been a time in my life, and I'm not young anymore, that American conservatism hasn't been a racist movement.
The most racist element of that movement are at the end of their lives and the racist GOP know that. Unless they can cheat their way into total control, this is their last big push. That's why they aren't hiding it anymore.
I feel this in my entire body: I sincerely, deeply hope you are right.
They call him a radical Islamist because of his ethnicity alone?
Or did he do something incriminating?
Yes, he exists.
Well, in Tommy Tuberville's case, it's probably because he doesn't know the applicable slur.
The perks of not having a large diaspora somewhere: You don't get slurs tailor-made for you.
He isn't in the Epstein Files. That's how you know he is the enemy.
They seem mostly focused on his name which tells me that it's not anything he did.
Oh thats funny I heard Tuberville was in the Klan.
... we can just play exactly the same game here.
We in fact should be.
Fuck decorum, antagonize these idiots untill they fuck up even harder.
They aren't constrained by facts. We can leave facts to policy, tell everybody Tumortown fucked his sister, why not?
Just do it via a PAC that implies those things without literally directly saying them.
Or, 'just asking questions'.
The rhetorical trick of the paranoid delusional, why not, they love it.
He's even dumber than Trump and that's saying something
They've spent decades conditioning the dumbest among us to respond like dogs to Arabic sounding names.
Sadly, it's worked.
Comparing Tuberville to almost anyone with a pulse makes Tuberville look stupid. Even John Kennedy seems smart compared to him.
Can you sue this motherfucker for defamation?
Yes but it will be dismissed with prejudice unless you have a tort. Probably, the politician will.
I can see America being destroyed under republican rule
No, no. Haven't you heard? They are Making America Great Again.
/s in case that wasn't obvious.
They’re working on it.
It'd be the one good thing they ever did.
The fact that you need to research that information about him to prove it, but don't need to research the allegations against him says a lot
Football coach turned politician, what do you expect?
Southern college football coach.
I was considering adding SEC, it's good context
Concussion related brain damage?
As opposed to the radical christians in the senate and office right now?
honey our president is a terrorist. .... most our government is ran by terrorists.
Republicans don’t know they’re the terrorists.
Ummm...
I forget the conversation that turned into an argument and the republican screaming at the democrat about trump derangement syndrome, while the democrat was talking real shit that mattered and was basically pointing out the flaws in which the republicans don't see with their handling of I think it was either Gaza or the current middle eastern conflict something though and it blew my mind. It made me go you gotta be fucking with me how there's real shit that needs to be talked about and discussed in a civil manner and because one side needs to have a perception of being correct it just turned into an absolute shit show.
I immediately said afterwards while shaking my head in a what the fuck did I just see manner and did a long deep sigh and said, "Thank goodness I stopped caring about politics."
And a rapist. And a felon. And likely a pedophile.
Hypocrisy is lost on MAGA. They believe it's Trump versus Satan, that anyone not them is pure evil by fiat, and therefore any action of their own is justified, even when it is violent or heinous.
And because their peerless leader is pure good by fiat, his own behaviors that are immoral or incompetent are disregarded as beyond the need for explanation.
This is common in cults of personality. It's also super fragile if the leader dies without major effort to define an heir in advance.
also super common in narcissism.
stupid ignorant assholes representing his state of stupid ignorant assholes......
these politicians don't appear out of nowhere, this is the best alabama can do!
and also, what kind of stupid fucking name is tommy tuberville? that is a fucking cartoon character name not someone a fucking adult would vote for!
Hey, put some respek on senator potatotown's name.
Extreme Racist: "People from ethnicities I don't like are all 'terrorists'"
Hey, Tommy has been accused of a lot of things. "Smart" was never one of those.
If Tuberville sounds stupid. It’s because there’s a potatoe shoved up his ass. It’s been there long enough it’s sprouted and is now doing all his thinking for him.
I don't know, I really like potatoes. And I find it impressive how they have such will to live.
I mean, yeah.
Potatoes are amazing and resilient.
But they’re not particularly smart, and it’s less smart to leave one up yer ass.
Haven't tried yet myself.
neither have I. I maybe just watch too much badge 502.
If all they got is racism they don't got much.
Unfortunately we live in a nation where they actually got total control of our federal government utilizing racism.
It may not be much, but it's often enough.
lol, Abdul El-sayed for president! Abdul El-sayed 2028!
When Trump started his political career, it invited everyone to express their racism openly. Prior to that, they were adhering to the Reagan rules, which was instead to use racist dog whistles. (welfare state, street gangs, urban crime, and so on).
As the MAGA movement formed, open racism became a means of costly signaling. It tells your fellow MAGAs that you are one of them. It also tells the rest of us that you are racist.
Other signaling includes talking about liberals in the same manner one uses a racial slur, not only regarding them as a monolithic bloc¹ but also accusing them of outrageous wrongs, specifically acts of treason or betrayal of the country. This is much like blood libel, in which the accusations are not meant to be plausible, rather that fellow MAGAs are to pretend they are true. See also They're eating the dogs.
Anyway, Tuberville had shown time and again in his career that he doesn't care if he looks stupid, especially to anyone outside of MAGA, but that he is a staunch MAGA loyalist who will lick any boot and even sacrifice himself to stay adjacent to power.
Of course, when Trump or some higher up actually requires that he sacrifice himself his opinion may change. But he's signaling that he's a good, obedient dog to the end.
I also anticipate that when Trump dies or otherwise MAGA falls out of fashion (it's certainly losing popularity already), Tuberville will try to pretend he was never really into all that MAGA nonsense, and none of his statements and behavior ever happened. And it will be up to the public to make sure neither he, nor any other opportunists like him, ever live it down.
¹ Liberals are not a monolithic bloc even if most of them share some common values. The same is true for conservatives, feminists, Methodists or any other significantly large demographic. -- This is why the face-eating leopards always eventually come for your face no matter how true and loyal you are; in Fascism, the set of acceptable identity markers closes like a Fortnite perimeter and shuts you out.
It's so tiresome.
Well to be fair, the MAGA and GOP have been doing everything they can to destroy America. Not like a "radical islamist" could do much worse...
I mean, Islam is intrinsically bad for me, just as any religion is, basically (I'm an agnostic atheist [I don't know if a god exists but I reasonaly believe that no, and even if it existed, I still wouldn't adore him], that's why)... But damn, that's wild. He doesn't even know him yet he is calling him "radical islamic" out of nowhere, what a fucking asshole. If I have to guess, he's surely an Incel too.
Yeah, our politicians should have backgrounds that are more related to politics. Like fucking college football coach.
Stupid is Tommy Potatohead’s brand. It’s what his voters voted for: to have a dingus who thinks like them represent them, only louder and amplified by PAC money.
Why would they try to hide their racism? Serious question.
Serious answer: the people who are racist very rarely are able to see that quality in themselves.
They sincerely don't think that they are being racist.
I grew up around a lot of kinds of racism. The oblivious people who don't think they are don't hide it.
Yeah, and they get extremely defensive when you point it out
If we want to vote a radical terrorist to the Senate, we should be allowed. We voted one into the presidency.
And in two years or however long it is people will not think back to how out of control crazy this post was. Nobody will remember. All they'll know is that they felt fear and anger and the name associated was Abdul El-Sayed.
They haven't been hiding it since 2008.
I'm legit surprised Bill O'Reily never called Obama a [N-Word]
Radical islamist
Lel
I wish he would.
This is USA where stupid IS smart.
Someone needs to sue for defamation.
The sad thing is that he's probably a racist flanderization of his true self, crafted specifically to appeal to a dull constituency who fear everything.
None of these old fucking politicians stand for anything and will do and say anything to maintain their power.
Dear Senator Tumorville,
Please describe, in excruciating detail, the things of America that you are afraid will be destroyed. Extreme detail... be specific.
His tweet reads like a madlibs where every CAPITAL WORD is where someone inputs a random word to try and make a story
Does anyone have a link to that nuclear threat notification thing? I have been trying to keep up with current events as if I can be a good person and influence the course. I will continue to be a good person and try to influence a humane course. But “ability to hide behind readily available blocks of concrete” is seemingly likely going to be the next transferable skill on my résumé.
tommy shoulda stuck to pinball. his blindness is not the asset here
Depends on how he handles his faith and reacts to the extremists within it.
Also, "terrorist". Like, WTF!? Please don't give the racist old man a pass on that...
You're a tiresome racist
Don't be obtuse
You know exactly what they mean, and you're not impressing anyone
To be the devil's advocate, Pol Pot was also highly educated.