CSotD: The Least Wonderful People in the World
Skip to comments
First, let's sweep up the WCHA business with this Matt Wuerker cartoon that even includes actual pearl-clutching and beautifully captures the faux outrage, or the hypocrisy, however you want to frame it.
I'm not sure the weeping snowflakes are sufficiently self-aware to be hypocrites.
Their outrage, however misplaced and misconstrued, seems perfectly sincere, in the same way that the various inquisitions and religious wars 500 years ago were sincere attempts to protect God's Holy Word from heretics who would defile it.
Which sounds like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not.
One of the fundamental differences between (extreme) conservatives and liberals is that rightwingers have a belief system similar to that which existed before the Scientific Revolution and liberals have what I guess you could call a post-Copernican view of things.
In the Old Style, you used math and logic to explain the things you already believed, which, since you started with an unshakeable belief in a geocentric universe, is how you ended up with bizarre formulae to show how the Sun and planets revolve around the Earth.
By contrast, in the New Style, you apply math and logic to find the simplest explanation, which turns out to be that, if you put the Sun in the center, the math becomes far less strained and belabored.
On a related note, I'm currently reading a biography of Quanah Parker, and it occurs to me that, while it seems quaint and charming that so many pre-industrial groups called themselves "The People" in their own language, defining yourself as "people" means that others are not people and so justifies some of the astonishingly horrific things you are allowed to do to them.
Which, as noted here before, Europeans did to each other during the religious wars of the 16th century.
And which also explains why people who think they are the default definition of "people" continue to treat outsiders in such ways, albeit mostly metaphorically, today.
And not always so metaphorically, as Iranian cartoonist Ali Devandari notes at Cartoon Movement, citing the 245 Turkish journalists currently jailed for failing to report the reality that the Turkish government has declared.
So things here could be worse, and yet the Trump government is pushing the concept that they are The People and those who disagree are not simply dissidents but heretics and, specifically, the enemies of The People.
Fortunately, at this stage, it's nothing they can enforce.
And, as noted before, while X-percent of Republicans may believe this fascistic claptrap, Republicans are not a majority, and, as Edmund Burke observed and this Quinnipiac College poll confirms, we should not mistake the chirping of grasshoppers for the opinions of the great silent cattle.
Nor, however, should we sit back and chew our cud in the peaceful assumption that it will work itself out.
And while we're contrasting the viewpoint of True Believers with charts demonstrating Actual Facts, Michael de Adder chimes in on Dear Leader's fatuous claim that he has brought the two Koreas together and his loyal followers' fatuous notion that he therefore deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
Which is admittedly as valid a claim as could be staked when Barack Obama was awarded the prize on the basis of a speech he made on the topic of Islam and the West which promptly went nowhere.
And let's remember how the rightwing responded to that.
What I find more distressing than that bit of "Is it faux outrage or true hypocrisy" is the mainstream media's failure to point out that these guys have shaken hands plenty of times before, though it is a point that has been made by Forbes and a few other of those terribly serious news organizations that nobody pays attention to.
It's not irresponsible enough that the more fluff-driven, ratings-seeking, pop-culture news organizations are failing to point out all these previous meetings: They are actively treating this elaborately staged photo op as an astonishing breakthrough.
It's not.
It may be a good break in things, it may even be "promising."
But we've been here before and it's a damned lie to pretend we haven't.
Which I say because, when my friend Mike was sent to Korea instead of Vietnam in 1968, we laughed and called him lucky. And then he was ambushed while patrolling the DMZ and my furious response was that, dammit, Korea was our fathers' war, not ours.
And yet another generation later, my son stood off the coast of Korea, prepared to catch the first volley if a particularly delicate standoff turned hot.
So, yes, I'm ready to wrap this all up.
But I'm not foolish enough to call it even the end of the beginning, much less the beginning of the end.
Nor am I handing out medals to Cadet Heel Spurs.
Now how about some good news?
The Daily Cartoonist, the Internet's top spot for news of comic strips, went silent two years ago and left a considerable gap behind.
It has now been brought back by Andrews McMeel and deserves a bookmark and your regular attention.
As it ramps up, original blogger Alan Gardner will mentor things, but Friend of This Blog D.D. Degg will take the reins once it hits stride, and the comments already at the site indicate how pleased cartoonists are both with the resuscitation of the site and the choice of D.D. to head things.
I've known D.D. since Usenet days. In the announcement, John Glynn refers to him as a "prolific comics news junkie," and I think he understates it a bit.
I'm truly delighted. Since the site went silent, I've sought news from sources more oriented towards comic books and graphic novels, and, while those all involve sequential art, comic strips are a different thing. I'm going to need a hat with a wider brim because I know I'll be tipping it often.
Final word on this, from the Final Authority
(Though Wolf herself will have the last final word today on Fresh Air)
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
Comments 1