Geography has become something of a niche subject these days and when you inhabit a big nation it’s easy to get confused about those areas where there are a bunch of tiny nations all jumbled up together like, say, the Middle East, or Europe.
However, you’d think an ostensible news source might be a teeny-tiny bit more assiduous about knowing that sort of stuff.
With the news that Trump has decided that foreign aid is just money wasted on losers and demanded that the US stop sending any help to Hondurus, El Salvador and Guatemala, US network Fox News described them as “3 Mexican Countries“.
“3 Mexican Countries.”
Just a reminder that these are the same folks who assert their superiority by belittling the intelligence and good faith of others.https://t.co/7JA1kCdIoS pic.twitter.com/CwINMXAarO
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 31, 2019
Supposedly they meant to say “Central American”, and they apologised a few hours later. But… look, Mexican countries? Have they somehow built an empire without anyone noticing?
Now, it’s hard to be entirely sure that this was a mistake and not just explicit dog-whistling by a network never above using divisive race-based reporting as its bread and butter, especially since “Mexico” has become Fox shorthand for “everything foreign and scary’.
Still: wait, Trump’s cancelling foreign aid to Central American nations? What the actual hell does he think that’s going to achieve? Jaysus, what a dolt.
Mind you, before you get too smug about how the US doesn’t even know basic stuff about its closest neighbours, want to pick out Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Vanuatu and New Caledonia on an unmarked map of Australia’s neck of the woods?
Excuse us while we go spend some time on Google Maps.