 |
| "How many Polaks does it take to screw in a light bulb?" is the beginning of a famous Polak joke. I googled the question and found the above image. These kinds of jokes are acceptable on taxpayer-funded National Public Radio. |
Bieganski the Blog exists to further explore the themes of the book Bieganski the Brute Polak Stereotype, Its Role in Polish-Jewish Relations and American Popular Culture.
These themes include the false and damaging stereotype of Poles as brutes who are uniquely hateful and responsible for atrocity, and this stereotype's use in distorting WW II history and all accounts of atrocity.
This blog welcomes comments from readers that address those themes. Off-topic and anti-Semitic posts are likely to be deleted.
Your comment is more likely to be posted if:
Your comment includes a real first and last name.
Your comment uses Standard English spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Your comment uses I-statements rather than You-statements.
Your comment states a position based on facts, rather than on ad hominem material.
Your comment includes readily verifiable factual material, rather than speculation that veers wildly away from established facts.
T'he full meaning of your comment is clear to the comment moderator the first time he or she glances over it.
You comment is less likely to be posted if:
You do not include a first and last name.
Your comment is not in Standard English, with enough errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar to make the comment's meaning difficult to discern.
Your comment includes ad hominem statements, or You-statements.
You have previously posted, or attempted to post, in an inappropriate manner.
You keep repeating the same things over and over and over again.
transcript:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/2012/12/08/166789812/lightning-fill-in-the-blank?ft=1&f=
Cartman (from Southpark) was right:
ReplyDeleteCartman: [while munching] No, that's not that funny. Let's try something else.
Jimmy: Ahb. A fireman and a p-p-Polack are eating marshmallows when-
Cartman: No, no. Polacks aren't that funny dude. Try somethin' else.
But if we are now to be spun into the evil masterminds behind the horrors of WW2, can we all also be as thick as two short planks?
ReplyDeleteWith "the world" you never know, I suppose.
Once again though, I am struck by this. This campaign to vilify Poles/Polonians, started in America in the 1960s - the Polish "joke" campaign. I know we had been vilified before, but so are most new immigrant groups - we weren't especially singled out - that was the rough and ready way in which the melting pot worked.
This was something different - insofar as I understand it - coming as it did at a time when Poles were no longer new immigrants and had become Americans. They seemed to have done as many immigrant groups did - gone in for self-help, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and assimilated, without asking for any special favours or anything.
Then suddenly this, via the American media. As for why, then those that did it can answer. And an apology would be nice, though, believe you me, I won't be holding my breath while waiting for it.
But, the point is this. Wouldn't America of the 1960s have called itself a Christian country? Weren't the churches very strong and powerful? And hadn't they been for some generations?
How was it then that this campaign succeeded when it was encouraging people to break God's law?
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ warned his followers: “I say to you that everyone who continues wrathful with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice; but whoever addresses his brother with an unspeakable word of contempt will be accountable to the Supreme Court; whereas whoever says, ‘You despicable fool!’ will be liable to the fiery Gehenna.”—Matthew 5:22.
isn't the punchline of every Polish "joke": What despicable fools you Poles are?
To show contempt for anyone is to despise God's creation (we may despise what they are doing, of course - I despise what I myself do and say sometimes, child of Adam that i am). We are all made in God's image. But isn't it most serious when we despise our Christian brothers and sisters? They are the ones we should love so much that we would give our lives to save them.
Here Jesus mentions "the fiery Gehenna" - which, Revelation tells us, is "the second death" - the death from which there is no resurrection, no awakening. In other words, everlasting destruction. So it doesn't get any more serious.
Why did people either not know those words - or not know the seriousness of them? Why have the churches not warned their people?
I have gotten a new appreciation for the word insufferable after hearing fragments of "Wait, Wait". I have an excuse: I have to pass time in traffic in bad Seoul, yes, Gangnam, traffic sometimes, but wow, it is insufferable, even that guy's voice! Smug isn't doing it justice. I must say too, the UK Daily Mail, who I believe broke that builder story, did not use anything about Polish workers in the headline. It was well into the first paragraph and not overwrought. Credit to them really. Not NPR for making it a tabloid joke. Imagine what NPR would say about the the UK DM too: as predictable as anything else on NPR.
ReplyDeleteMB
I should have mentioned this in the blog post itself. Overseas readers will not know that National Public Radio is the Vatican of Political Correctness. "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" is a comedy show, but they are sure to use a multiculti group of comedians, including Maz Jobrani, a Persian-American and perhaps a Muslim. He is so not funny it's painful, but having him on the show is required by PC casting requirements.
ReplyDeleteJuan Williams was famously fired for saying that he fears airline travel if there are people in "Muslim garb" on the plane. He was also demonized by NPR as possibly mentally ill.
And yet it's okay to repeatedly invoke Bieganski on NPR. This is a sign of how utterly culturally and politically inert Polonia is. Until we organize, this will continue. We need to take a good, long look at ourselves.
Oh---I think there is only one way- we have to wait until this PC friendly times go by. They can not continue forever-or can they?
ReplyDeleteHe was also demonized by NPR as possibly mentally ill.
ReplyDeleteAnd a rascist.And bigot.I mean, come on- in France, we have people who are,it seems, totally PC in advocating the stoning of homosexuals and openly discussing the advantages of sharia law over our pesky stupid Western ones-like f.e the cutting off of hands for stealing.
We had several thwarted (thank G-d) terrorist plots.
We have jobless,undereducated,angry hordes of young man rioting in Western European cities.
We have hordes of women who are wearing "garbs" that cover them entirely making everyone feel unconfortable. They all come from a peculiar religious group.
What is really funny is that liberals dont dare to criticize it-because they are afraid.Instead,they seem to direct their hatred against humans towards people whom they do not fear because they are peaceful. What a bunch of loosers.
Danusha, I love NPR being "the Vatican of Political Correctness". Well, I don't love the fact that it is - I love your phrase describing it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - no these times cannot continue forever - that is what we are trying to tell you as we go door to door with our Bibles. Which makes me feel guilty, as I can't do so at the moment - due to severe arthritis, plus my poor old car dying. And I am still learning to drive my new NHS walking stick. But much much better times are coming, for obedient mankind, for those who are meek towards their Creator, Jehovah, the God of Abraham. He is going to remove all the wicked and the violent from the earth, and Paradise will be restored. And our Creator "is not partial". There will be no Political Correctness - no "uber" and "unter" - in Paradise.
And, Hanna, how I wish Poland had stayed out of these new Crusades in the Middle East. There is something really odd about the politics of all this.
Slow news day. Oh, my, you went on the internet searching for
ReplyDelete"How many Polaks does it take to screw in a light bulb" and found that? How horrible..... Have you googled "How many ____" - you should as you may see all kinds of things that don't support your theory of Poles being the only victims.
@ SueKnight - "Jehovah, the God of Abraham" - huh? can we stick to the topic - I'm sure there is a blog for middle eastern superstitions - where you can celebrate jacko, baal, minerva, abraham or whatever is to your liking. None of it has anything to do with Bieganski, I think.
Hello Anonymous - the last time I looked there were about a trillion Polish "joke" sites on the net. I am sure there are nasty "jokes" about others, insofar as PC permits, but the point (for me) about the Polish kind is that they are deliberately promoted by the most powerful media in the world.
ReplyDeleteWould NPR make similar jokes about minorities who have PC-protection? Clearly, they would not. And that is presumably why Dr G brought this to our attention. Rightly so, in my opinion.
I'm a Jehovah's Witness - which, sorry, I thought you knew. I don't keep it a secret, obviously. The relevance I believe the Inspired Scriptures have to Polish media issues, is, first and foremost, the way Poland is being held accountable for the crimes of the Axis, as aren't we are seeing truth being turned on its head within living memory of the events? (Obviously, I could not object to Poland having to take some accountability for the Allied crimes.)
Therefore, I hope that a silver lining to this might be that we would think seriously about the Bible's warning that "the father of the lie" is in charge of the present system of things on the earth.
And, secondly, this campaign to vilify and denigrate Poles, to "unter" them, might also, I hope, draw us to the superior wisdom of our Creator. He is not partial. He has warned us that it is a very serious thing to incite contempt or hatred for our fellow human beings. And He has also taught us that love "does NOT keep account of the injury", and taught us how to deal in the right way with the injuries being done to us. Please please do read Psalm 37, and think seriously about what it says.
Isn't it wise advice? And so it should be, as the writers of both Hebrew and Christian Greek Scriptures, all Jewish, all claim they are being inspired by the Creator. And He is the very source of wisdom.
This blog receives a fair amount of hate mail, most of which I do not post.
ReplyDeleteI posted the above message by an anonymous poster just to give a sample of the mindset.
Sue Knight has spoken openly of being a retiree and of being crippled by arthritis.
So, a man (perhaps a woman; I have no way of knowing) decided to say something ugly to an older woman who is also crippled. And not to sign his real name.
Despicable.
Yes, I know this subject attracts a lot of haters - so thanks for carrying on in the face of it. Re Anon's remarks about the Creator, I feel sad for him/her. You only have to look at a flower - the way a tiny shoot becomes a perfect lupin - or at a dragonfly - a miracle of artistry and engineering - to see that behind it all there has to be a Grand Creator.
ReplyDeleteHuh? "Hate mail"? What is that? Like "hate" speech? And what are your "hate" groups.
ReplyDeleteThe comment was obviously meant to point out the irrelevance of the constant jehovah's witness reference in her posts - all of which are irrelevant to Poland, Poles, Polish-Americans, "Polonians" (what is that btw?), etc.
But perhaps this is a jehovah's witness site, in which case not sure why talk about Poles. Poles do not need jehova, yahwe or other imported godlings to feel better.
The fact that she may or may not be crippled doesn't mean that she can't write nonsense - or are the views of arthritis sufferers more valuable somehow? Same goes for the fact that she may be older. If you don't want people to post-anonymously then don't offer that option on your blog - otherwise don't complain.
Who on NPR was telling these anti-Polish hate jokes and what NPR show was it?
ReplyDeletePeople should google "NPR Quiz show apologizes for Polish jokes"
ReplyDeleteYes it looks like once again NPR made ANOTHER of many of its HATEFUL anti-Polish jokes.....but maybe this was one time too many.
What a bunch of HATEFUL ANTI-POLISH SICK BAST@RDS these people at NPR are. Since the origin of "Polish jokes" is Nazi German propaganda.....no wonder some Polish Americans joke that NPR is "NAZI PROPAGANDA RADIO"
People should google "subhuman intelligence jokes" to get an idea where these subhuman intelligence jokes came from. Which is Nazi German propaganda.