“Give us a kiss”: Cultural misreading and its uses and abuses in social media outrage and political attack
His Holiness the Dalai Lama wearing a traditional Himachali cap and shawl offered to him by the Chairman of M3M at the start of their meeting in the courtyard of the Main Tibetan Temple in Dharamsala, HP, India on February 28, 2023. Photo by Tenzin Choejor Oh, dear lord, not again. How many more of these old folks are gonna slobber on me? Here she comes…one of Grandaddy’s sisters-in-law? Some ancient cousin? What did mom say? Oh, crap, here goes… “C’mon, give us a kiss! Oh, my! Look how little Nicky’s grown!” <plants sloppy kiss; pats me on the head….ugh….> I can’t remember whose funeral this was, but I was still in the single digits. Old enough, though, to take umbrage at the old folks and their patting me on the head and bestowing dribble pecks (on the mouth! Ew!) I mostly took umbrage at being mistaken for my older brother (by 12 frikkin’ years!) who some of these oldsters hadn’t seen since he was my age (obviously). Of course, I did put up with this sort of thing because...