:assad-must-stay:

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      hard-line Arab country: Syria, Lebanon, Libya when Gaddafi was alive

      soft, good, compliant Arab country: Actual monarchy terrorist sponsor Saudi Arabia

    • Barabas [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      They had to throw Arab in there to designate them as truly bad. It was following 9/11, so any Middle Eastern country was implicated (other than Saudi Arabia ironically).

      • sooper_dooper_roofer [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I love how neolib slurs just make the enemy look very slightly badass

        just like neolib calls to emergency just make the situation look like we spilled some milk or stepped in a puddle

    • TrashCompact [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      If it helps, the probably mean "hard-line, Arab country" but were treating "Arab country" as a noun phrase of its own, hence the lack of a comma separating adjectives. That is to say, I don't think they were trying to describe it as being "hard-line Arab", but it's a bit of a Freudian slip.

      Just my guess.

      • TankieTanuki [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Are commas commonly removed in headlines or did they just make a typo?

        • TrashCompact [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Just a typo or grammatical error. Commas are favored in headlines, especially as a substitute for conjunctions. For example: "Landlords, corporate reps to appeal repatriation at court" saves space by replacing "and" with just a comma. I made that up but you can see examples going through any newspaper, especially physical ones.

          • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
            hexagon
            ·
            2 years ago

            It really wouldn't make sense to throw commas out for headlines. The whole point of a headline is to communicate clearly and concisely!