There was an absolutely fascinating article in Der Spiegel a couple of weeks ago about people who fall in love and want to have sex with objects. Computers, steam locomotives, the Berlin Wall, the World Trade Centre, you name it, there are people who want to sleep with it.
One man was described as seeing his Macintosh laptop as male, so he had to regard his relationship with it as a homosexual one.
The Swedish woman who was in love with the wall was devastated when the tide of history turned. The woman whose “lover” was “publicly executed” on September 11, 2001 has had a 1:1000 scale model built for both towers, complete with aluminum exterior so that she can take them with her to cuddle in the bathtub.
The 41-year-old man at left fell head-over-heels for a Hammond organ at the age of 12. He is now in a monogamous relationship with a model steam engine.
The article was in the Science section. It had quotes from the people depicted, from experts on why some people love things instead of other human beings, what they get out of it, and so on.
But that’s not what I want to focus on. What I do want to point out is that this article is being distorted in a blog beyond recognition, used as an example of how nasty the German media is. The blog post bears almost no relation to the thrust of the article. It merely uses it as fodder for the blog’s overall agenda, which is to illustrate the so-called biased and unfair treatment the Excited United States of America receives from German media across the board. It even provides a link to the Spiegel’s online edition for knee-jerk reactive types to email in their outrage.
Ignoring the other cases portrayed and conveniently snipping out the photo of the man with the choo-choo-train, all it says is, “It doesn’t matter that nearly 3000 people died in those buildings. Now it is apparently OK to exploit them for tasteless stories on people with sexual perversions.”
What he fails to mention is that the woman fell in love with the buildings when she was eight years old, long before the terrorist attacks. He also fails to mention that it is a sensitive piece without a shred of sensationalism or voyeurism, ending with the remark that these people are the way they are, they aren’t harming themselves or anyone else with their unusual desires, and who can say that of anyone?
I was going to ignore this post completely, because why draw attention to crap, but then again, if somebody is spewing right-wing bullshit about German media to an audience most of whom probably can’t even read the language of the media being attacked, someone has to set the record straight.
Quite frankly, I couldn’t care less if you’re a loony lefty from la-la-land, a foam-at-the-mouth right-winger with an arsenal of loaded guns in the basement or so undecided you straddle the fence keeping both ears to the ground waiting to see which way the wind blows, if you’ve got an axe to grind don’t lay out examples which have no basis in reality.
Unless of course you’re going for a Masters in Intellectual Dishonesty, in which case you’re headed for top of the class.
The banner photograph shows the town of Britannia Beach, BC, Canada, where I grew up. It's home. But I don't live there anymore.
Bravo! What a great way to make that point.
I always get pissed off when right wing nuts criticize something decidedly minor on the left, when there are screaming examples of much worse on the right, but which they say nothing about.
(I feel the same way with left and right reverse, only that hasn’t been seen much in the last 7 years).
wow! talk about a flame war. I clicked on the link and there were some really pissed off people commenting at length….
methinks they need a hobby
great post though
Dang, I’m an American and the idea that anything in this article was anti-American didn’t cross my mind at all…
*Sigh* It’s unfortunate the what influence the “power of suggestion” has on people and the damage it does.
CN,
You illustrate my point precisely.
nurse,
Yeah, there are more than 30 comments on it. I tried to comment but it’s closed to members. Still wondering whether to go through the hassle of signing up just to tell them this: for the real story on this – in English – click here.
indie,
that’s why I never watch Fox News unless I need a good excuse to get riled up about something.
Heza,
remember the craze about subliminal messages planted in advertisements? kind of the same thing. you see what you want to see, or what someone tells you to.
If you fell in love with an object what would it be?
Douglas,good question! I’ve done an edit of this piece and inserted a link to the article – which is actually available in English! yaahooo! couldn’t find it the other day.
In answer to your question, there is a name for it: objectophilia
I guess this puts the kibosh on my theory that nobody in that blog’s target audience can read the language of the media they’re criticising. Looks like I’m actually going to have to leave a link to the article in English. Do you sense a good ol-fashioned internet bun-fight coming on?
That is very interesting. I recently read an article from Edmonton, where a man was arrested for lewd behavior with a car. In this case, he had jumped on top of it at a car show, and did the deed on the roof.