Travelogue Belgrade: Don't Argue About Politics

 Tonight, I did the thing I was told not to do in Belgrade. The thing I said I would not do: I got into an argument about politics.

It didn't start off as an argument. Two Serbian friends stopped by our table for dinner. I kept the conversation light, talked about travel, sports. He mentioned the 'jerk' Serbian president and I just politely nodded because 'nope, I'm not going to talk about politics.' Then he said the one thing that triggered me. It was so unexpected that it caught me sideways.

SERBIAN: I have friend in NYC who knows a lot about the world.

ME: Oh ok. 

SERBIAN:  She heard something about...Hunter Biden's laptop. 

ME ...*holding breath* 😬 ok. 

SERBIAN: she said the real scandal was Hunter Biden's laptop.

ME *gritting teeth* 😬 yeah um...

SERBIAN: I don't know if you know this but... pictures on it or...

ME: *gritting teeth and trying to smile* Um...I'm sorry but, like, what?

SERBIAN: He was also on the board of some Ukrainian company.

ME: You can't be serious? Are you...*breathing*...

SERBIAN: this is just what I heard. That Biden's corruption with the Ukraine...

Hunter. Biden's. Laptop. Then it was off to the races. The reason why you don't want to get into a deep discussion about politics in Belgrade is because -as an American- they WILL bring up the NATO bombings in the 1990s. It will be brought up and there is nothing -as an American- you can say. You just have to STFU. It's a trap. So he drew me in with Hunter Biden's laptop and it was a polite discussion. It was animated. Then it moved onto the Ukraine and how Putin was pushed into invading Ukraine and how the West was instigating the war by giving arms to the Ukrainians. And then it goes right back to the the NATO bombings of Belgrade. At that point I'm like "damn. How did I fall for this trap?!? He really wanted to talk about the NATO bombings this whole time. He doesn't give a fuck about Hunter Biden. That was bait."

And I fell for it. I fell for it b/c I remember 'but her emails' and I remember 'where's Obama's long form birth certificate' and I remember 'Kerry isn't a war hero' and I remember 'Whitewater is the real scandal.' And I remember "George Soros is controlling your money" and "they used crisis actors at Sandy Hook" and 'transgender ppl are waiting in your bathroom" and "Mexican hordes invading the border" and etc. 30-yrs of outright right-wing propaganda flashed before my eyes and Hunter Biden's laptop...broke my damn of silence. On a day when the Supreme Court rolls back more safety from mass terrorism and prepares to strike down abortion, I just couldn't hold it in. I just couldn't allow someone to say that the greatest threat in the world at this time and the greatest scandal was Biden's sloppy son and his Macbook Pro. Kids are being gunned down in school, elderly Black people are getting gunned down while shopping for food, there's a rise of authoritarianism, the earth is melting, millions of people have been displaced in the largest war in Europe since World War II. But certain people will still beg for the distraction of a freaking laptop being the real scandal. Then I ended up in an argument about the NATO Belgrade bombings.

My American friend walked away from the table. Just got up and was like 'ok byeee.'  We continued arguing until they closed the restaurant. The owner was literally putting tarps over the tables and telling us to leave. 

Time passed. We stood on the sidewalk and continued arguing as I backpedaled out of NATO bombings. We managed to come back around to some sort of understanding by comparing our shoe sizes. We all agreed that war sucks for the poor people like the Ukrainian villagers and poor Russian soldiers recruited from small villages being sent to war by oligarchs who will continue to get rich. We concluded that the rich ppl suck. And that was how we left things. And that my shoes were larger than his.