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Obama is more like Apophis of Stargate SG-1. Obama could actually be a Goa'uld.

"He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."

1984 George Orwell

Judging by the depth and variety of the inaccuracies and outright hateful representations in 300, the answer to our question above—why nearly all the film’s fabrications are one-sidedly against the Persians—is rather simple: Persian-phobia. This is manifest in the stereotyping of the Persians as those with “eyes as dark as night, soulless”, who are out to “erase the memory of Sparta”, and who are referred to as “beasts”.

A voiceover “privatises” the Greeks’ experience (we learn only towards the end of the film that it belongs to one of the Greek protagonists). “A wolf approaches, a beast,” the voiceover says in reference to the Persian army. This characterisation of the Persians resonates with the opening scene showing young Leonidas’s heroic rite-of-passage slaughter of a ferocious wolf. The Persians are thus dehumanised, being depicted as something akin to dangerous brutes. The voiceover continuously frames the Greeks’ struggle as one waged on multiple fronts—against a decadent Persian enemy, “diseased old mystics, remnants of a worthless tradition,” but also against traitors: in Leonidas’s absence, a Spartan politician in league with the Persians forces the Spartan queen to have sex with him. She later kills him in the senate and the Persian coins drop from his pocket.

The film’s telling of the story through the brazenly racist voiceover of one of its Greek protagonists is also intended to mythologise white racial superiority, for in another violation of historical accuracy, 300 represents the Persians as being predominantly black. Moreover, its blatant Persian-phobia is explicitly revealing of the current and longstanding political demonisation of Iran in the United States, which has seeped into Hollywood. Among the pernicious consequences of this demonisation is that the rhetoric or image of “evil” Persians/Iranians perpetuates cultural and political misunderstanding and enmity. Worse, it legitimates militaristic modes of communication, wherein the use of brute force supplants discussion and dialogue, especially when the Persian “other” is depicted as irrational and incomprehensible.

http://www.payvand.com/news/07/sep/1188.html

Umm...actually it's "Xerxes".

Iran, the government at least, has done a pretty good job of demonizing itself (use of s instead of z in demonizing indicates everyone chill is likely European and already fully indoctrinated to accept their new Muslim rulers).

The President of Iran routinely leads rallies with cries of DEATH TO AMERICA, DEATH TO ISRAEL. I guess we are all supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy about that?

The younger people of Iran are its hope for the future - if there is one. They dont like the Mullahs at all. But if they get out of line they are imprisoned and/or executed. Once they get brave enough the Mullahs will be history.

'everyone chill' definitely has an *interesting* version of history.

"Persian-phobia" - LOL!

One cannot compare the Persia of thousands of years ago with the current geography known as Iran. The region is occupied by completely different people. The old Persia was a land of light-skinned, blue-eyed folks who were as advanced as any civilization on earth. The Persian soldiers were depicted as black because the Persians employed African mercenaries who, just as black athletes of today, were on average, of greater physical prowess. (Yes, it was even recognized back then.) Today’s Iran is a land of Middle East Muslims, ruled by fanatics who wish genocide on all Jews and Christians.

The story of the 300 is not a story of “racism”. (Why do silly little liberals HAVE to insert racism into EVERYTHING?) The story of the 300 is one of military genius and unbelievable heroism against what proved to be impossible odds.

Vonster, Thanks, fixed it. Xerces is how they spell the XML parser.

I don't see Obama as Xerxes. It doesn't fit in my mind's eye. For one thing, Xerxes was pretty capable and didn't seem to need teleprompters.

But, looking at this picture and thinking of somebody native to some far away desert, and considering the arrogance and the almost certain downfall, there was only one literary image that came to mind.

Shelly:

OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains: round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Spurwing Plover kneels to no one and that includes evil tyrants who think their a god SQUAWK SQUAWK, SIC SEMPTER TYRANUS EVIL KING OBAMA SQUAWK SQUAWK SQUAWK

SnowSnake,

I was thinking more of the Wizard of Oz.

Oh, and as far as the dreaded term racist; its over-usage will cause it to become watered down. Orwell once said that the term fascist was used so much it had become synonymous with bully, and there is no reason why racist won't suffer the same fate.

Hmm...I've used Orwell twice on this thread.

race is a great leverage tool. i've been watching a thread on a board i visit go to utter hell in the space of 3 days because someone used something someone said about muslims (didn't even have anything to do with race-- just religion) offsite to incite paranoia against a poster that a slim minority of members didn't like. in one fell swoop these race-baiters managed to all but ban the poster from the site. times they are a changin' indeed.

Good comparison! Both are egotistical, despotic leaders whose cultlike followers worship them as a god incarnate.
I was going to point out how much liberal losers have their panties in a twist over '300,' but everyone chill seems to have demonstrated that point perfectly. Oh, and I can think of at least one point he made which I can disprove:
"Worse, it legitimates militaristic modes of communication, wherein the use of brute force supplants discussion and dialogue..."
That argument would have made a lot more sense if the sides in the movie were reversed, and it was about the Spartans attacking the Persians, or even if the movie had the Persians offering to set up diplomatic relations with the Spartans (Which would have been a complete perversion of the graphic novel on which the film was based) rather than the way things actually panned out, with the Persian messenger basically telling Leonidas "Submit to Xerxes or die." However, since it was the Spartans defending their own homeland from invasion by the Persians, what you say basically falls flat.
Besides, that portrayal of the Spartans using brute force over diplomacy was I believe one of the few aspects of '300' that was historically accurate. Spartans were a warrior society, plain and simple. Their young men were raised for pretty much the sole purpose of becoming soldiers (They had well- kept slaves who helped handle a lot of the other necessary jobs around Sparta), so they could be the first line in protecting Greece.
Historical inaccuracies aside, '300' was an amazing movie. I'll have to watch my DVD of it again some time soon.