this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
833 points (95.8% liked)
Microblog Memes
8514 readers
2569 users here now
A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.
Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.
Rules:
- Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
- Be nice.
- No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
- Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.
Related communities:
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Couldn't they frame this without the angry bearded Arab vs smiling white woman?
When I've let my mustache grow in I've been told I exuded porn star every.
I shaved it off immediately. I'm NOT my father!
Ex-wife hated my beard, said it made me look always angry. Still don't think the beard was the issue.
That's just resting beard face.
The other person also said they didn't look angry to them so that could be just me. His eyebrows are angled downward and I think that's what makes him look upset to me.
That is a good beard though
No because the left image is what people have been sold as the stereotype of a terrorist.
I mean, that guy is a real literal terrorist. Who was he doing terrorism on behalf of? Please don't probe that too deeply.
Just, you know... keep this in mind.
But the message is that we should be stereotyping the guy on the left because he's more dangerous, and not the lady on the right.
And that's wrong.
He is more dangerous, if you're a Christian, Alawite, Shia or Druze. Just not if you're an Israeli.
If you were aware this was stereotyping why did you post it here?
Because it shows that the stereotype were actually American plants.
I feel like we are having a conversation so I won't just ignore, but I don't understand at all what you mean by this.
ISIS and Al Qaeda are allies of America and Israel.
And that requires using stereotypes to communicate?
Stereotypes are hard to avoid.
This is a perfect example of how the empire disguises spies, commits terrorist acts with them, launches a racist propaganda campaign against a people using their spy as example, and then it turns out to be their own guy.
This is not a stereotype. It's literally the guy.
I see it now, although still I don't think gachaing the US with those in on it topic is worth putting this imagery on the internet
I agree. The text doesnt go much into him being a spy or an asset. It just sounds like its making a shitty point with a racist premise, like "look how absurd it is that this long bearded arab guy isnt considered a terrorist but this white blond lady is a terrorist, the usa must have lost touch with reality". I know theres a point there about silencing reporting on gaza, but its a bit too discrete, and the post sounds like reactionary ramblings. I think this probably wasnt intentional by whoever made this post.
It’s literally the guy
I know, I never said it was somebody else. As I've said elsewhere, they could've picked any other picture of him but they specifically picked this one because it conforms to what people already think what a terrorist looks like. That's what a stereotype is.
You put the imagery under the name to illustrate that they're a terrorist to people that already have the stereotype ingrained and it also ends up illustrating to other people that that's what a terrorist looks like. Worse, it normalizes the idea that stereotypes are a reliable source of information about people. This isn't bad because it's going to hurt his feelings, it's bad because it affects completely unrelated people.
Honestly it's insane to me that this has to be explained to a presumed anti-racist
It's great because it shatters a preconception that this was about looks or terrorism. The list is "enemies of America". Like how people are very confused when you show them this image of Reagan and the Taliban.
Honestly fuck off with that. Perpetuating stereotypes is not 'great' just because it helps your point.
This is debunking stereotypes not perpetuating them.
Should we have forced him to shave before photographing him, like the US military did in Iraq in 2006?
Or should we clean up his image, as the US is doing right now?
He doesn't really look angry to me. And he does have a beard and is Arab so those seem like things that will be in every picture of him.
I'm sure hos photo is from the wanted list and hers is from her bio somewhere, but the juxtaposition just serves to magnify the point.
This is not an image that just comes up if you search him. Oop chose to have this image instead of him in a suit with a kept beard.
Edit: also amplify which fucking point, that people with messy facial hair in headscarves are terrorists?
Edit 2: look at my bias with the messy part, sub in 'longer'
I think they were attempting to imply he was more dangerous than her and more deserving of being on the list. Its probably true, but tactically chosen pictures make the differences between them more extreme, less than a mug shot of her and a wedding photo of him would, as an example.
I am surprised they didn't find the classic terrorist photo (holding a weapon) they usually seek out for these headlines.
Compared to what I usually see, this is pretty mild.