Really, she does.
Take a look at the cover of the latest edition. Does it look racist to you?
Certainly not!
If anything, the drawing demeans genuine official Americans. It's sending the message that we aren't strong enough to defeat a black man by attacking his ears.
And then there's this one. Again, no racism against blacks, but it makes genuine official Americans look like god damned hippies!
Here's one that's even worse. It portrays the most terrible indignity a patriotic Teabag-American could undergo--being tried by black men.
Someone needs to call Andrew Breitbart.
General, Sir:
ReplyDeleteIn 2010? In The Year of Our Lord Two-Thousand and Ten there are people who can put brush to paper and come up with this? Lord God, Almighty they were right. The masses are too stupid to govern themselves.
Any kkkonservative can tell you that the only way you can be a racist is to yell "Ni**er! Ni**ger! Ni**er!" (Damn that Obama anti-racism filter on teh Internets tubez, anyway.) Exaggerated lips, big flat noses, hokey jive dialect from the 1880s -- that's just funnin'. Is the word "ni**er" used in those comix anywhere? If not, the 7th-graders who drew these panels during detention were just making a JOKE!
ReplyDeleteStupidity - it's a natural disaster.
ReplyDeleteI've got to admit that the commenters at Rachel's blog who are calling Poe's Law on this may have a point. I mean, it's no more racist on its face than Photoshopping the President into a bone-through-the-nose, stereotyped tribal witch doctor, so it's plausible enough in that sense. But...and I can't put a precise finger on why yet, I'll admit...it also just triggers my internal Poe detector. Maybe because some of it is *so* over the top in a way I haven't seen, honestly, since the American Nazi Party's "Boat Ticket to Africa" flyer, or--and here's my point of doubt on this--the deliberately transgressive satire of the likes of R Crumb with his "When the Goddamn Jews Take Over America" and "When the N***ers Take Over America." That these Comix were (to me) clearly done by someone with a fairly compendious knowledge of both traditional and underground comic books makes me wonder.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, even Lee Atwater admitted, you can't get away with just stirring up the base with "n***er, n***er, n***er" any more. The righty-whiteys don't always succeed in hiding their core racism, even after decades of practice, but they do try, because at some dim level they know that us Islamofascunists would unfairly use it against them, or some shit.
Oh, I get it--he's black.
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Thanks for the link to Tea Party Comics. I used to watch Rachel Maddow when she was quasi-anti-Bush (not having pounded her desk for impeachment earns her the "quasi"), but her obsequious fawning over Obama and his cosmetic glossing over of the same unpopular and ruinous policies as Bush's has made me an ardent detractor (could ya tell?). I suppose it goes without saying that I'm not an Obama fan either. That said, I even support some of the more garish caricatures of Obama (as I did of Bush), if that's what it takes to delegitimize his presidency. Cheers, Obama partisans.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Tea Parties are a whole lot of fun!
P.P.S. Our country is going to be a lot more fun than your country (way less crime and way more jobs and resources too).
So...if they can be used for the particular political ax you want to grind, you're down with George-Lincoln-Rockwell-style racist caricatures? They move from the "racist" column to the merely "garish"? You'd fit right in with Jeff Lord at American Spectator who will go to truly embarrassing and humiliating ends to downgrade an extrajudicial racist murder from the status of "lynching" if it fits his political narrative.
ReplyDeleteMan, am I glad you're *not* on our side.
That said, I even support some of the more garish caricatures of Obama (as I did of Bush), if that's what it takes to delegitimize his presidency.
ReplyDeleteOh, good, thank you--we were all wondering where you stood on that. It's so refreshing to be upbraided by someone who was a quasi-fan of a liberal such as Rachel Maddow--to go from that to supporting hyper-racist caricatures that do not speak to the actual issues is quite a lunge.
Be sure to send a post card from where your really fun country is located! We love getting mail!
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On a serious note, how fucking old was the buffoon who inked this shit? Every comic character I see referred to was from the 1950s or earlier. No Simpsons, Beavis, Family Guy or any animated TV series, no Mario Bros., Sonic, or more modern video game characters, no hip-hop or music video references... The people in these Teabagger 'toons haven't been hip since your grandpa's day. Which kinda fits the whole 'bagger zeitgeist, eh?
ReplyDeleteBukko, now living in the fun country of Canajia.
By the way, thank god for this “electricsoles” person, because he/she/it illustrates perfectly a point I was trying to make the other day about distinguishing between liberal critics of Obama who have credibility – like our General here, or Tom Tomorrow, one of my favorite cartoonists – and the crazies who are so driven to distraction by their irrational dislike of Obama that they completely lack credibility. The General, who’s not shy about taking on Obama policies he disagrees with, also defends Obama against these sorts of utterly disgusting, unhinged attacks from the right. This makes the General’s criticism of Obama credible and gives it more weight. Because, you know, he’s not insane.
ReplyDeleteSo, “electricsoles,” if the bat-shit insane thing doesn’t work out for you, you may want to try rational thinking. It works, and people might actually listen to what you have to say.
I wonder if DC Comics and the Estate of Bob Kane know that their copyright or trademark has been, if not infringed upon, then certainly impugned by such a malignant growth of (non)imagination.
ReplyDeleteDave Von Ebers...if someone uses the DC and Batman trademark for nefarious purposes, is there a legal issue?
Electricasshole:
ReplyDeleteIt's gonna be nicer when you're in charge? I think not. Please go fuck yourself with a flagpole.
You’re welcome, General. I know you don’t carry water for anybody and I respect that.
ReplyDeleteJcricket: I suspect there is a very serious legal issue there.
Well Dave, how would one go about informing DC and The Estate of Bob Kane of this atrocity? Hypothetically, of course.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Dave. I may not agree with all of the Gen's criticisms of Obama--hell, there's pretty much nobody I agree with 100% of the time--but it never pisses me off, and not just because he's my friend. It's because he has well-thought-out reasons--based in actual reality and facts--for his positions. Even when I don't agree, I totally respect, and I listen.
ReplyDeletePaultards, on the other hand, live in a fantasy universe devoid of facts or morality.
C'mon guys and gals, you opposed Bush for many years and did so irreverently, as did I after I figured out he was lying to the country. Maybe you'll turn on Obama once you figure out that he's lying to you, like I did with regard to Bush. Also, political satire and caricature are still entirely acceptable, whether it's comparing someone to a chimpanzee (as was done to Bush by some on the left like SmirkingChimp.com and Steve Bell of the Guardian) or exaggerating Obama's features. At least the caricatures of Obama are still in human form. Furthermore, Jesus' General is largely based on mocking a religious figure (Jesus Christ), and comparing him to a zombie and what not. Many in this country would consider that much more offensive than mockery of a public official. My stance is that caricatures of Bush, Obama, Jesus, and Mohammed should all be allowed and taken in stride. I hope you can see the legitimacy of that argument. Much more importantly, I hope you can keep an open mind to observing how Obama is governing vis-a-vis the economy, militarism, and personal freedom and recognize the continuation of many odious aspects of the Bush administration. Don't get fooled again!
ReplyDeleteThis article might help explain the Tea Party movement to those haven't heard about it from anyone but its detractors:
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the
Man, oh man, electricsoles, are you barking up the wrong tree. The General and the people who post here regularly have probably read more Tea Party/Paultard/"Patriot Movement" garbage than you will in a lifetime, precisely so we can demonstrate in y'all's own words what a factually-challenged bunch you are.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, your willing endorsement of vile racist imagery tells us all we need to know about you, but one more question, just to make the point crystal clear: what, to your understanding, does gold fringe on a US flag in a courtroom mean?
OK, Progressive Witness I'll follow your suggestion and not visit this site. Not out of a sense of fear, intimidation or defeat, mind you, but out of the futility of reason as applied here. I would like to point out however that it was the commenters on this site who engaged in ad hominem, slurs, and vulgarity against me. I was attempting to be intellectually honest and consistent about the lampooning of past Presidents, but you didn't respond to the substance of my last comment, so I likely am wasting my time anyway. This could have been an opportunity for us to debate topics on their merits, but this site, ironically, is your church and not a public square. Enjoy your echo chamber. :)
ReplyDeleteElectricasshole:
ReplyDelete"C'mon guys and gals, you opposed Bush for many years and did so irreverently, as did I after I figured out he was lying to the country."
Wow, was that before or after his stint as Governator of TX? I knew the fucker was a liar, before he got into serious politics--and so did most rational folks.
You are not intellectually honest in any way, electricsoles. I *never* suggested or even implied that you shouldn't visit or be allowed to visit this site.
ReplyDeleteYou are, simply put, a liar. But that's to be expected.
As with the film "Life of Brian" the satire does not come from "mocking Jesus" but from commenting on those who would use this messianic figure to further aims that are often cruel, incoherent, atavistic and self-aggrandizing. As for Jesus as a zombie I humbly suggest that you read that bit again and perhaps you will find what is being painted is the life cycle of a poor brown person in the southwest: to be tarnished, exploited as cheap labor and violated at will. Perhaps electricsoles has achieved his (I'm guessing his) objective: to examine fully a subject is to cause it to lose its transcendent power, and parody becomes just another bland product.
ReplyDeleteHas Christianity eaten the brains of its adherents, to the point where they cannot reconcile their bloodthirsty desires with their deities admonishments to turn the other cheek? Stay tuned!
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Irony and satire are not easy concepts for many people to wrap their heads around. (Satire is different to sarcasm, the latter being something that even 8-year-olds are good at.) To be ironic, one must comprehend a concept in all ways, in order to turn it inside out. For people with facile minds, that's not difficult. But not everybody's brain works that way.
ReplyDeleteIn the course of my medical career, I've been exposed to many ways of how people think, especially when I worked as a psych nurse. You might be surprised at how many people have "concrete thinking," for example. When a patient is being screened after they're sent to a psych centre, we ask "proverb interpretation" questions like "What does the saying 'People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones' mean?" Lots of people -- at least amongst the demographic that's so crazy they need to be locked up -- can't grasp that this is an analogy. They'll answer "If you throw a rock inside your glass house, you'll break your window."
Similarly, people cannot grasp the underlying principles behind subtle mocking. I find this particularly true of strong religious adherents. They are SO convinced of the tenets of their "truth" that they cannot comprehend anything that bends or reverses them. Which is a good thing for professional religulousitters, because a lot of them would be picking up cans on the side of the road if their flocks could conceive how foolish the faithfables are.
The downside of a supple mind is that you can come to not believe that anyone is serious; it's all in jest. F'rinstance, I didn't mean anything I just wrote. JINX! Just seeing if I could get you to buy it. As the Devil -- or was it the Firesign Theatre? -- said: "Everything I say is a lie."
Don't see what your problem is, looks about right.
ReplyDelete