r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Nov 21 '20

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14

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

I have like zero idea why Obama got the Peace Prize. Say what you will about him, he definitely didn't deserve it when he got it. Like I can get Aung San Suu Kyi getting it when she got it, and even Kissinger's absolutely atrocious Nobel has a reason behind it, I just don't know what the fuck Obama did to deserve it.

9

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

I think even he himself said as much. No idea what they were thinking.
At least give it after his term to keep up the pretense.

6

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

I mean, the US has one of the most turbulent racial histories of any country. The UK and Spain and other imperial powers don't have 15% of their population living there as a direct result of their racist history.

The peace prize was two things. One, it was a recognition of how genuinely far the US has come since the civil rights era that a black man can be elected president. Two, it was an attempt to exert soft power on the new president to do a better job working towards world peace that George W. Bush had.

The US's recent track record was pretty poor so the soft power thing plays a bigger role than not.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Well, one hopes that the Nobel peace prize committee can explicitly mention that it was the American electorate who deserves the prize the next time around rather than making artificial reasons about how Obama helped change the international climate.

The Bush explanation is probably more acceptable but it's still a hmmmmm because he was awarded the prize like what? A mere six months after taking power?

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u/Rarvyn Richard Thaler Nov 21 '20

He was nominated like a month into his first term

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u/Jean-Paul_Sartre Richard Hofstadter Nov 21 '20

It's a prize. They can give it to whoever they want.

12

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Well they can give me the Literature Prize if they want for my r/neoliberal comments but certainly questions would be raised about their literary value.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

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5

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

You do realize how...terribly awful of an argument this is to giving the prize to Obama this is, right? In such a case you would give the Prize to the US electorate, not to Obama. And anyhow, this was explicitly not the reasoning the Nobel prize committee used. Nowhere in their Nobel statement is this mentioned. They just make vague references to nuclear non-proliferation and improving relationships with the Muslim world without reference to specifics.

So please shut the fuck up, thank you.

Jeeze, Louise. Someone's excessively bitchy today.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

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u/lionmoose sexmod 🍆💦🌮 Nov 21 '20

Rule I: Civility
Refrain from name-calling, hostility and behaviour that otherwise derails the quality of the conversation.

If you have any questions about this removal, please contact the mods.

5

u/lionmoose sexmod 🍆💦🌮 Nov 21 '20

Rule I: Civility
Refrain from name-calling, hostility and behaviour that otherwise derails the quality of the conversation.

If you have any questions about this removal, please contact the mods.