re: #368 laZardo

Elsewhere in Iran…

snip

Speaking of “Death to xxxx”…on NPR this morning, they interviewed the travel guy (Rick Steves?)…and he was talking about his travels in Iran. He said he was in a taxi and when they got stuck in traffic, his driver shouted “Death to traffic!”. He said he asked if that wasn’t a phrase usually reserved for the United States and/or Israel. The driver explained that when Iranians are frustrated with something, their phrase is “Death to” whatever it is that’s bothering them…Traffic, long division, souffls that don’t rise, whatever. It isn’t actually a call to war or a call for the destruction of that thing, person, entity.

But it does play well on TV. And to the more ignorant and xenophobic, it gets taken to mean that Iranians want to come and kill their children.