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HOW SARAH PALIN IS LIKE 50 CENT.
Last night, Kathryn Jean Lopez posted an e-mail mocking Barack Obama's insistence on pronouncing Pakistan ... the way it's supposed to be pronounced.When Obama says Pock-i-stahn I have an uncontrollable urge to read The New Yorker and find some Chardonnay.Whether Obama is pronouncing Pakistan correctly is not important; what is important is that the way people speak conform to the norms of "flyover country" as dictated by letters to a magazine founded by a wealthy Yale alumnus. Mark Steyn jumps in a bit later, declaring Obama's pronounciation of Pakistan "ostentatiously exotic."Fortunately I have an old copy of NR and a Coors Light to snap me back to reality.
Seriously though -- no one in flyover country says Pock-i-stahn. It's annoying.
Re Senator Obama's ostentatiously exotic pronunciation of Pakistan, one thing I like about Sarah Palin is the way she says "Eye-raq".To pronounce something correctly is to be "ostentatiously exotic," while pronouncing something incorrectly is raised to the level of something like a presidential qualification. Meanwhile, there are thousands of Americans of Pakistani descent who are themselves "ostentatiously exotic" by virtue of their names (and it would be elitist of them to expect anyone to pronounce them correctly) and ancestry.
Keep in mind that these are the same people who insist that a culture of ignorance holds black people back while lauding Sarah Palin's vast ignorance of public policy as some kind of tremendous virtue. They demand merit from others and only mediocrity from themselves, because said mediocrity is touted as proof of authenticity.
The conservative movement at this point basically reminds me of people who thought 50 Cent was going to be the greatest rapper ever because he had been shot nine times, not because he could actually flow. Let's face it, 50 is wack. He's wack like Sarah Palin is wack. But like Sarah Palin, he had a story that reflected the cultural values of realness and authenticity that hip-hop fans had come to place above actual rhyming ability. Most of these fans are not from the hood in the same sense that the folks at The Corner are not Real Americans(tm) from "flyover country," and they can't yet understand what the obsession with authenticity is doing to a movement they supposedly love.
--A. Serwer
COMMENTS (22)
Best comparison ever. I'll never again be able to think of 50 Cent and Sarah Palin as separate entities.
Posted by: Harvey Lobster | October 8, 2008 12:52 PM
These people never heard WF Buckley speak?
Posted by: mrgumby2u | October 8, 2008 1:03 PM
This sort of nonsense makes me go nukular.
Posted by: cervantes | October 8, 2008 2:03 PM
As I recall one of Obama's roommates at Columbia was a Pakistani and perhaps the source of his knowledge of the correct pronunciation.
It might even make diplomacy easier if we had a president who could correctly pronounce the names of key countries we deal with.
Posted by: Bruce Johnson | October 8, 2008 2:34 PM
General Petraeus pronounces it the same way as Obama. I'd like to see the conservatives call him "elitist," and "annoying."
Posted by: Noticed | October 8, 2008 2:38 PM
You say Sarah Palin is like 50 Cent because they have a credible history. Let's get facts straight. People never thought 50 Cent was going to be great because he was shot 9 times. People thought 50 Cent was going to be great because of the good reception and success of his debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (Which actually was a good album). Years later, he had highly anticipated albums (because of the success of his debut) which were ended up to be proven as "wack".
Posted by: Mike p | October 8, 2008 3:27 PM
GRODT was wack, and like Sarah Palin, everyone made excuses for it because they wanted to believe it wasn't.
Posted by: Adam | October 8, 2008 3:41 PM
True fact: "Kathryn Jean Lopez" is pronounced "Hennifer Hlopez" in Cuban Spanish.
Posted by: Marti Perez | October 8, 2008 4:06 PM
I see your pock-i-stahn and raise you one nukular.
I'm sorry but mispronouncing words is a hell of a lot worse than using the correct pronunciation.
Posted by: raincntry | October 8, 2008 4:14 PM
I thought that 50 Cent was going to be great because Eminem (who is great) told me he was.
Posted by: Dilan Esper | October 8, 2008 6:16 PM
LMAO!!! this VP debate footage reedit of Palin bites illustrates this perfectly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPE6_jGBlDc
The word TAPPED will forever have a new meaning. If only all blogs had their own theme video.
Posted by: MisPalinthtropy | October 8, 2008 6:28 PM
Ummmm... Great article..
however, 50 CAN flow... Its just his subject matter got tired (ie.. wack)..
Posted by: On_A_Tangent | October 8, 2008 6:41 PM
"GRODT was wack, and like Sarah Palin, everyone made excuses for it because they wanted to believe it wasn't."
It was wack huh? Funny, considering it was one of the fastest, best selling albums of the decade.
Posted by: Mike p | October 8, 2008 6:46 PM
If you really want to get the pronunciation right, then it's not just "Pock"-(ryhmes with "rock")-i-stahn; it's "pock-i-sTHan" -- generally "t" sounds have a soft "th" sound in South and Central Asia.
Posted by: ASI | October 8, 2008 7:05 PM
@Mike P: you certainly aren't using the tired old argument of 'sales equals quality,' are you? If so, I have a stack of Britney Spears/Hinder/Snow Patrol CDs to unload...
Posted by: Jordan Catalano | October 8, 2008 7:52 PM
"@Mike P: you certainly aren't using the tired old argument of 'sales equals quality,' are you? If so, I have a stack of Britney Spears/Hinder/Snow Patrol CDs to unload..."
The article is about how Sarah Palin and 50 Cent are alike, not hinder etc. When the facts unfold, this blog post is one of the stupidest opinions I've ever heard. It's obvious liberals don't like to go by facts, but by opinions.
Posted by: Mike P | October 8, 2008 8:07 PM
The way Sarah Palin says "Eye-rack" and "Eye-ran" really drives me up the wall.
In Barack Obama's phrase, "it's as if these people take pride in being ignorant"
Posted by: jasperjava | October 9, 2008 12:23 AM
You might want to reconsider making fun of a person for using the regional accent. Take the Dem stronghold of Mass. A place where the r is removed from normal words so it can be used extra with any word containing ar. As in Marrrk, Parrrk the Carrr in Harrrvarrd Yarrd. If you piss on people for having an accent your going to lose more than you gain.
Posted by: james | October 9, 2008 4:52 PM
I agree with the pronunciation part of the rant... but you totally lost me at the rapper analogy.
Posted by: CRYSTAL | October 9, 2008 8:26 PM
james: This isn't about regional accents, but about the danger of willful, "Joe Six-Pack" cultural ignorance.
Posted by: E | October 10, 2008 2:12 AM
It drives me crazy when I hear the mispronunciation of the words "Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and nuclear". It isn't cute. It isn't cool. It is simply ignorant.
Is this what we want to teach our kids? Is this what we want to present to the rest of the world?
I'm a republican. I find the mispronunciation of rather simple words such as the aforementioned extremely irritating.
Posted by: N. | October 11, 2008 5:59 PM
A ha ,I agree with you.It's just going to be awful, terrible, and absolutely dreadful to possibly have a Supreme Court justice who isn't going to decide in favor of the powerful all the time.Nobody ever mentions this when they use this case as a parable of liberal excesses, but when the city threw out the results of that test and didn't promote anyone, what did they do next? The case was in litigation for years, they could hardly abolish their whole org chart while it was pending. Did they have a new test, and if so, who passed it?
Posted by: Links of London | September 8, 2009 5:19 AM