Okay, we’ve been
through this before. I don’t write
on this blog very much. Maybe we
can just call it a semi-annual thing.
Anyway, if you happen to be an unusually dedicated fan of blogs with
less than 5 posts, or if you accidentally found this because you Googled “The
Moose Outside” then you’re in luck!
I actually have something to say.
Now, I’m not a
very cynical or fatalistic person (which explains my lack of material for
blogging), but after reading the following news article, my faith in humanity has
been shaken to its very core.
While perusing through YahooNews, I came across this headline: “US Won’t
Stop Tweeting China Air Quality Readings.” How could I possibly not
read this? Sure enough, the story
was simply too hilarious to have actually happened.
As you may
expect, the whole thing reads like a couple of high schoolers fighting with
each other. Keep in mind that this
is between the United States and China.
They’re kind of a big deal.
The article doesn’t go into detail. All it says is that the US embassy in Beijing has been
sending daily tweets of the city’s air quality and that China isn’t happy about
it. I assume the whole thing went
down with some American diplomat tweeting, “OMG It smells like all 1 billion
people ordered the moo shu pork for dinner #chinasucks” China’s spokesman, Wu Xiaoqing, gave a
long response which basically said, “Mind your own business.” America gave their final retort by
saying that “Washington would have no problem if Chinese
embassies wanted to start monitoring air quality in the US capital and sending
out their own reports.” Witty, but
also a little bit catty. Basically
it’s the perfect argument for a 16-year-old girl.
And this leads me to the problem that I have with
this whole story. I am of the firm
opinion that nations should not be using Twitter. In a political system marred by controversy following the
advent of the sound bite, how could you possibly expect anything positive to be
said in 140 characters or less?
Eventually, diplomacy would completely break down. China would resort to calling us
“#capitalistpigs” and we’d respond by calling them a bunch of “commie f**s” and
then that would be it. We may
backtrack and delete the post. But
it’s too late. France saw it and
now he’s telling. Stupid
France. So there, WWIII begins
with a catfight and ends with a nuclear holocaust. And frankly, how does an entire country tweet anyway? Is there a guy who’s appointed to be
the blurbal embodiment of America?
Is it his job to assess American sentiments and condense them into 140
coherent characters? That would be
an interesting one. “Brushed my
teeth, kicked some terrorist’s @$$. Tonight i’m gonna pick on china for being
dirty @mericaftw”
If you want to read the article:
http://news.yahoo.com/us-wont-stop-tweeting-china-air-quality-readings-030537350.html
