Worm
Taste the diffidence
I think we are speaking on two different planes here. You are speaking of why it shouldn't have made the impact. I am giving reasons as to why it did.
Should it have made an impact? Hmmm, I don't know. It's a great line.
I'm saying that that quote, stuck in the middle of an interview, created a big fuss. It also created copy. And that's what people focus on. Most won't wade through an article by Simon Armitage (who?) but most people will read
"Morrissey reignites racism row by calling Chinese a 'subspecies'"
and
"For almost three decades, indie rock icon Morrissey has made almost as many enemies as devoted fans willing to hang on his every melancholy-drenched lyric. Described by one high court judge as "devious, truculent and unreliable", the former Smiths frontman is no stranger to controversy and criticism. But tomorrow he reignites a simmering row about his views on race in an interview in Guardian Weekend magazine, in which he describes Chinese people as a "subspecies" because of their treatment of animals.
Morrissey, a vegetarian and animal rights advocate who last year abandoned the stage at the Coachella festival in California because of the smell of cooking meat, described the treatment of animals in China as "absolutely horrific", referring to recent news stories about animals in Chinese circuses and zoos. He told interviewer Simon Armitage: "Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies.""
You can talk about why it shouldn't have mattered but all that is academic - it did. It did because of the way I have explained in the last few posts is the reason why it did and the 'let's make Shanghai rain like Hiroshima" line didn't.
Whoops see below. *snip*
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