Meet Jason Calacanis, Web Entrepreneur, Bigot

The most annoying bigots fall in two categories: (a) the ignorant bigots, and (b) the pretentious ones.

Jason Calacanis is both.

After telling us about the cool tech stuff he uses, like his iPhone, his 10 surveillance cameras and his favourite websites, the web entrepreneur decided he wanted to share his opinions about the Middle East with his unsuspecting readers who were subjected to this diatribe:

For over a year, I haven’t visited a gas station and have been able to give the finger to the bastards in the Middle East who believe that women and gays are about as valuable as dogs, and that the freedoms we enjoy in the United States are the root causes of all evil. If Obama had any leadership ability, as opposed to his consensus-building nonsense, he would have taken the billions we’re going to spend in Afghanistan and simply spent that money on electric car and solar subsidies in America. We have to stop wasting our money building schools and bridges for backwards societies that don’t appreciate them and start spending that money on energy independence. There is no reason we couldn’t put solar panels on every rooftop in America, and electric cars in every driveway, instead of spending money fighting enemies that don’t want the freedom we’re promoting. Sorry about the rant, but I’m really frustrated that Obama, who I voted for, is such a disappointment. He was supposed to bring some innovation to politics and his policies feel no different than the failed strategies of Cheney/Bush (in that order). If I was president, I would cut our losses in the Middle East and stop sending any money there, instead investing it in nuclear, solar, wind and EVs. This is such an obvious solution to everyone except the idiots we put in power. Shame on all of us.

The Middle East, according to Jason Calacanis.

I had to read it twice. Was he kidding? Unfortunately, he wasn't. It was an angry, uneducated rant which betrayed a deep ignorance of Middle East politics - and US foreign policy - as well as energy policy.

This was my response:

Dear Jason,

Greetings from the Middle East, this faceless and homogeneous uncultivated (in both senses of the term) oil-rich desert.

I just wanted to congratulate you on so gracefully “giving the finger” to the “bastards” around here. And well done, by the way, you don’t sound like a pretentious bigot at all.

I did need your astute and informed political commentary to realise that people around here are oil-peddling freedom-hating homophobic misogynists who control the US energy markets. (and, apparently, the gas stations too?).

See, us in those societies you so eloquently (and indiscriminately) qualify of ‘backward’ really “don’t appreciate” schools and bridges. What’s fun about going to school since every one of us is unemployed and super-rich thanks to oil anyway, and we can mull over our hatred to America - over a Starbucks coffee in Cairo or in Jeddah? And why would we care about bridges, since, as I’m sure only you know, we only train on piloting planes?

You are quite right; there is no reason you couldn’t put solar panels everywhere. (or have a universal health care plan? :). There are no oil fields in the US from Texas to Alaska, nor an energy lobby with interests and defenders in Congress. Naaaah, that shit is just for us backward societies.

And, clearly, you’re right. Of course, we believe “that the freedoms (you) enjoy in the United States are the root causes of all evil”. What else could it be? Especially when you put it in biblical terms, you must be right.

You caught us, Jason. We don’t want the freedom you’re promoting by waging war. (Gosh there is so much in that sentence to lampoon!)
Because, clearly, “promoting freedom” is the main and sole purpose of US presence in the region.

Obviously, we agree that war is a wonderful tool to spread freedom. It’s not that we disagree with Madeleine Albright who said on 60 Minutes that half-a-million dead children was “worth it”. Nooooo, we’re fine with the daily killings, really. Those hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq since and because of the invasion are a small price to pay for the freedom you attempt to bring us. We wouldn’t want to sound ungrateful or anything.

It’s just that - well, we love dictatorship too much. We hate freedom. And we’d surely never seek it on our own. Human rights, free speech, etc - all that’s overrated, man. Besides, everyone awaits the day they’re old enough to get the much coveted Al-Qaeda Club Membership Card, the AQCMC!

(speaking of which, did anyone notice that the accused bomber of the Detroit flight was NOT Middle Eastern, but Nigerian? and that Nigeria also exports oil to the US? Oh, no! I hope that doesn’t upset Calacanis’ prejudices and fragile mental equilibrium too much…)

Jesus! - sorry, I meant, Mohammad! :) -, Jason, you are such an enlightened political commentator, and you know international affairs and energy policy so well!
I would surely vote for you as president (if we Middle Easterners knew what elections were, of course).
No, really, I would vote for you: Jon Stewart seems to be running out of laughing material since GWB…

And, as a side note, you should have written “If I were president”, not “if I was president”, as it is more appropriate for the past subjunctive. Minor correction, I know, but I found it irresistible to correct your native speaker ass on grammar.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an oil well to tend to.

Oh yeah, and thanks for the recommendation for Posterous.com, I’ll check it out!

Later on, in response to a tepid defense of Jason from his business partner @Lons, I added this comment:

(...) A TechCrunch comment thread is neither the place for an exposé on democratic reform in the Middle East, nor would I know where to begin to answer Jason’s sweepingly simplistic statements such as “building schools and bridges for backwards societies that don’t appreciate them”.
Seriously! What do I address in this sentence:

- the distribution and spending patterns of US aid?
- refute the accusation that we are ‘backward’?
- that poor countries that receive aid do not ‘appreciate it’ somehow? (“Oh, sorry, keep your money, I don’t need development assistance?”)

But you’re right. Perhaps I could tell you about the first four women who got elected to the Kuwaiti parliament. The anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt, than often turn ugly but do not stop. The 1-million person demonstrations in Lebanon. The micro-reforms (reforms nevertheless) in the Saudi consultative assembly.

I could point you to the often critical UNDP Arab Human Development Report, to statistics on education (which are improving), access to water and sanitation (also improving), on infant mortality (overall decreasing).

And I could point you to the work of hundreds, thousands of people, of activists, journalists, lawyers, legislators, economists, teachers, all across the Middle East and Central Asia whom are reporting human rights abuses, working and lobbying to improve the lives of the local populations, on giving a voice to those who have been silenced. On helping the poorest and the most dispossessed. And their job, sometimes, is fucking hard. (hmm, I’m starting to sound like an Amnesty International report now. :))

And they deserve better, so much better, than someone sitting in their office in California or wherever and pontificating and call them “backward”. They deserve respect.

There’s so much amazing stuff going on every day in the ill-defined region that is the Middle East, in terms of democracy, human rights, economic development, education, women empowerment, freedom of speech. And yes, it’s imperfect, and yes, some countries may have a longer way to go than others but by god, it’s happening. You’d be amazed. Come visit.

I did hastily put a couple of links in my original reply - perhaps as a quick preview of what I just described. I invite you to look up such things for yourself, or perhaps we can further discuss them in another forum.

Later, Jason added this in the comment threads, in response to another comment:

It fairly well established that our presence in the region is not welcome. We really shouldn’t be there trying to force democracy on people who believe in lashing women, gays and people who think differently than the religious zealots who run the place.

The more time we spend there the more terrorists we inspire. We should leave and make strategic strikes on terrorist outposts when we need to. We can’t win the heart and minds of people who don’t believe in the most basic human rights (let alone who let religious leader run their societies).

Are their intelligent people in the middle east? Sure, they are just not in charge, in jail or they’ve been murdered already.

He goes on the same tone on his Twitter stream, where he decided that Bahrain and Jordan were actually okay.

Because, well, Wikipedia apparently told him so.

Borat, and the "weekly rape festival" the main character describes in the film may have also been the primary source of Jason's information on the Middle East.

Now Calacanis is convinced that he is engaged in an "epic'" debate.
Gotta love the guy.


I hate to break it to you, Jason, but you're not. There's nothing "epic" about it. Actually, there's barely a debate.

You're just lining up a succession of half-truths, general statements and ill-thought declarations that you probably heard on Fox News, or in a bar.

But when you posit that "The *majority* of the middle east region is hundreds of years behind the rest of modern civilization when it comes to basic human rights", you also betray an terrible lack of knowledge of your own history - do you know what basic human rights were like in Europe and North America a hundred years ago? Not that great either, I tell you - but you prove that your opinions are fueled by an unexplained bigotry, a sense of supremacy that you fail to - and indeed do not attempt - to hide.

Add to this the outright lies you spew - "the middle east... practices rape (...) as part of their justice system"? Even Fox News knows better. "the good people in the region are rooting for us"? I can assure you, we don't. And how do you define "good people", anyway? The people who agree with you? Get your head out of your bottom, Jason.

Then on top of this, the utter pretentiousness you address people with - "I’m happy to hear the free people of the region engage this discussion."
SOD OFF, mate!! The "free people"? what the fuck is that, Braveheart?


You refer to the "freedom fighters in Iran". Actually that reminded me of this article, actually, on why the US right is rooting so much for the demonstrations in Iran. The details of which, I trust, you know nothing about.

The complexity of the region is beyond the little knowledge you have; even if I try to explain, it's unlikely you'll be willing to reconsider to stereotypes you so strongly believe in.

You wouldn't let complexity interfere with your version of reality.

You know next to nothing about what the Middle East looks like. Indeed, as you admit, you've never even set foot there. I am quite sure you'd be hard pressed to place Iraq or Morocco on a map.

Ever heard of gay rights organisation Helem? Of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights? Of the Saudi Businesswomen association?

Of course you haven't. To you, the Middle East is split between people who look like the 40 thieves of Ali Baba, and a few who look like Alexander Siddig in Syriana.
But like your country's involvement in the MidEast a very complex web of balanced interests, so is the region itself. There's more grey than white and black combined.

Jason, do everyone a favour - keep playing with your iPhone.

I strongly recommend Syriana. It's still fiction and it's an oversimplification, but it's many levels of complexity above Mr. Calacanis' image of reality in the Middle East..