Who’s a Taliban Again?
Who really knows about the Taliban, y’all — for realz?
If I’m getting it right, on about August 15 of 2021, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. I ain’t giving a rundown (one, because I don’t know shit more than that). I think I’m supposed to be concerned. It’s like the worst thing that could have happened, right? This is some doomsday shit, right? I keep awaiting instructions how to react. Short of that, I’m left to pose and answer the question, “How does the Taliban running a country make me feel?”
I am not a fan of the Taliban. I really don’t know enough—sure as hell not from sources I can trust. Pretty much all I’ve heard about them is they’re horrible (except in the 1980s when the US was arming them against Russia). Now, though, they horrible. According to all sources, the Taliban hate women, queerness, all kinds of folks. There’s the shit with Al Queda. What’s painted by media and folk knowledge is that they’re a evil ass group of people.
Some of y’all are like “What’s a Taliban?” Bless your hearts.
I can’t judge people not knowing. I gotta consider my own ignorance, right? I mean, I haven’t studied the Taliban. I cracked open the Qur'an all of one time. Sharia who? I can’t verify Jack. I never even met a Taliban (not who admitted it). That don’t quit me from being anxious about the group. Much of my anxiety is based in “facts” (people lie) compiled in the West, and fed to me via media outlets. Info I swallowed wholesale.
The US and Europe throwing shade at anyone is the pot calling the kettle metal. My opinion of the USA is mixed at best. Get in my DMs if you know of a single country that don’t got problematic contradictions. Still, In half a century, I’ve seen a buttload of folks painted enemies of peace and justice—AKA democracy. The IRA, the Russians, the Chinese, the Black Panthers, immigrants. Black Lives Matter, Black people as a whole, trans people (the bathroom thing), Fidel Castro, and on, got mandated as threats to US citizen. It was presented as a given, and I never questioned it.
People be like “But, Pink, they are evil!” Fine, if that is how you and the rest of the world see things by y’all moral compasses. Evil is a great shorthand for a lot of shit. Questioning the projected image of the Taliban doesn’t mean I’m not deeply troubled by the very thought of it. I am. I am also deeply troubled that I don’t know anything about the Taliban (a group that seems to present a greater threat than global warming) other than what I have learned from a barrage of 3-minute segments on cable news shows (and YouTube).
Everybody gotta do what they gotta do. All I know is I gotta pay more attention to this and do some homework than a casual internet search. Any tips on some reliable books out there?
