[maceo]

Please, cut it out with the bullshit. This guy played a negligible role in the Arab Spring. The only reason he received the media attention he did was because he held a prominent position at an American company.

Calling him the Arab Spring's instigator is an insult to Egyptian activists and organizers, not to mention the revolutionaries in Tunisia.

[pbarnes_1]

Wait, I thought Twitter was the Arab Spring instigator!

No, it was Facebook... oh wait... random Q&A site ;)

[Pintok]

Take a fucking look around.

How many people in prominent positions in well known companies open their mouths when there is a obvious stink in the air?

I have massive respect for the guy.

[philtar]

The actual instigator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi

Fuck a prominent position. He doesn't have a prominent position, and every single large exec would open their mouth when their entire country is being destroyed.

Fuckin' hell HN. As an Arab, I'm severely disappointed that everyone forgot the reason the Arab Spring started was because a 26 year old burned himself alive because he couldn't afford to live. Not some social media savvy guy from google.

[Pintok]

So whats the lesson? To me it's pretty simple. You want change learn to do it the right way. Gandhi, MLK and Mandela didn't burn themselves and get change over night. And guess what, being media savvy is how you make change happen. There are to this day people who will call those three characters the most media savvy men of their time.

If marketing can sell Coke, Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian it can be used to sell other things too. Positive things. Constructive things. To pretend without media savvy your message will get out and have influence is highly misguided in this day and age.

[noobie]

What fucking media and marketing are you even talking about? I am a Tunisian citizen and I have never heard of this guy until these last couple of days.

[Pintok]

Well I have. And I deeply respect what he is trying to do. It's solution oriented unlike cheap talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwJ0hNl1Fw

[maceo]

Give it up. I left out an important part in my original post: this guy only got media attention in America. No media attention in the Arab world, because being a Google employee didn't make his sacrifice any more significant. The European media had enough sense to not focus on this guy either. Only the insufferable mainstream American media is self-centered enough to push the narrative that an employee of an American company was instrumental in the Arab Spring.

[noobie]

sigh

Again, he is NOT the Arab Spring instigator.

[noobie]

He wasn't trying to look down on the guy. He just pointed the obvious; calling this guy the Arab spring instigator is far-fetched.

[Pintok]

I don't think so at all. His posts and calls to rally where catalysts that were required.

[noobie]

Yes but he did not instigate the Arab spring. The success of the Tunisian revolution is what set the Egyptian uprise in motion.

He did his part yes but he did not initiate the Arab spring.

[noobie]

As a Tunisian, this.