Game of Thrones: Joe and the Racist Echoes of the Old World
“Joe is on a mission to take revenge on a world he no longer recognizes.”
Well, here we are. The digital age. Ever since the advent of Twitter (I refuse to call it X), it's become a new playground for angry old white men. They migrated from Facebook, leaving behind those grandkid photos with their mirror selfies and their millennial peace signs. Twitter, though, has given them a stage to spew their vile thoughts, bully progressives, and naturally flaunt their dogs in their profile pictures.
Back in the day, their racism was confined to parties or diners. Now, thanks to social media, it's gone viral. "Old Man Joe" isn't just a relic of the past anymore. He's legion, spreading his influence far and wide, turning grandchildren into narcissistic bigots. With one foot in the grave, Joe is on a mission to take revenge on a world he no longer recognizes.
You see, Old Man Joe's anger comes from a lifetime of unresolved trauma. Beatings from his father, bullying in high school, losing Betsy to a Mexican named Juan—it's all added up. He’s angry at the young folks, always ranting about how "Youth is wasted on the young." Joe hates his reflection, hates his declining health, and despises how the youth are changing the world into something more understanding and tolerant. He's a sad echo of the past, unable to grasp the dynamics of the modern world. But do I feel sorry for him? Not in the slightest. Joe is a coward, refusing to leave this world gracefully and better than he found it.
Power, Control, and Othering
Joe and his ilk see the world in parts, where the white man reigns supreme. Any attack—economic or otherwise—is seen as a rebellion against their perceived superiority. They’ve mastered the art of othering, branding Middle Easterners as savages who deserve nothing but fire and blood. Yes, that was a Game of Thrones reference. They don’t care if some are Christians (like the 30% in Lebanon), or if they adopt Western values. To Joe, these people must know their place.
You'll find Joe and his friends in high political offices, the media, the army, and churches. They’ve spent years networking and building institutions to push their policies through lobbying and backroom deals. Joe isn’t some uneducated KKK Texan stereotype. He’s the guy who got away with groping and raping girls in college. He’s the one who made fun of black people his entire life and continues to do so.
Zionism and the Old World
It’s no surprise that many old white men like Joe are staunch Zionist supporters. When they envision a Zionist, they see a rich, white, Western person who believes in half his Bible and fights off those "Arab savages" in what they consider the last Western colonial bastion in the Middle East. Joe's arrogance knows no bounds when it comes to his colonial project, clinging to the last remnants of a world where apartheid, homogeneous societies, and colonial rule were facts of life, much like slavery. Just ask Joe about that; I’m sure he has an opinion.
