anger…rising…
I’ll repeat this, because I like to: I’m not really into politics. I’m not really into religion. But when someone abuses logic to defend their views on either, it really pisses me off.
Ann Coulter led me to Ted Rall which lead me to some Tom Toles political cartoon controversy which led me to some guy’s opinion on a Toles cartoon:
Mr. Toles and the editors at the Washington Post, while observing their right to freedom of the press, have without remorse or apology defended the cartoon and their right to print it, but they have clearly misjudged the tolerance the American people may show the press, especially when it so disrespects American servicemen and servicewomen. Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor was quoted as saying, “I can understand the strong feelings, but I took it (the cartoon) to be about the state of the Army, and not one mean to demean wounded soldiers.”
Are you kidding me? If Tom Toles, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist can draw a cartoon like that and editors can proof it and say, “Yeah, that’s about the state of the Army…” then the quality assurance and “reasonable man” process at the Washington Post is so beyond repair that all involved should be sacked. To me, this cartoon is really about courage, or the lack thereof; Tom Toles and Fred Hiatt knew what they were drawing and publishing and knew how it would be interpreted, but now they hide behind the Bill of Rights to mask their true intentions, defend their poor judgment, and show a clear lack of respect for those who have sacrificed in the service of our Nation. While such a lack of moral courage is nothing new in Washington, this time, it goes beyond the pale.
whubbudawuggudaWhat the hell are you drivelling about? This guy actually thinks that Toles is trying to say that, because a soldier loses all his limbs, he’s a coward? Or something? How do you look at that comic and say “Toles is calling our servicemen cowards”?
I guess if you start with the assumption that Rumsfeld is Ozymandias, you figure the comic can’t possibly be about him. So then the chart means that the quality of servicemen is going down. Or something Jesus. But that assumption totally disregards Dr. Rumsfeld’s statement; if it was about the declining quality of servicemen, he’d say something more like “they just don’t make ‘em like they used to” or similar. But when he lets his political logic cloud the more obvious point being made in the comic…ugh nevermind why do I bother trying to explain simple humor concepts to these people.
August 31st, 2006 15:54
Wow. I feel strangely gratified that I’m (apparently) influencing Spinn’s web surfing. All that time reading political blogs pays off!
The line at the bottom makes it even more transparent what Toles meant. I think Toles may be on to something there - maintain some subtlety in the main panel, clue in the rubes at the margin.
When something perfectly skewers an inconvenient truth (here, that the army is slowly disintegrating under this administration), the only recourse defenders of the skewered have is obfuscation and/or incomprehension. Since there’s no way you can objectively say “No, the armed forces aren’t stretched out at all” we’re left with people misinterpreting the cartoon or pretending it’s saying something else. The modern GOP is built on cognitive dissonance and not connecting the dots - why would we expect their proponents to suddenly recover in time to make sense of a cartoon?
August 31st, 2006 17:22
Yeah, influencing…and finding more stuff to piss me off. Thanks a whole lot.
I know of mediamatters and crooksandliars, but I try to avoid them. For one, they make me angry. For two, if I read them too often, I feel like I’d fall into the same sort of slanted worldview trap into which I accuse others of falling.
September 1st, 2006 00:35
The guy signed his article…
Chris Taylor
VP of Strategic Initiatives
Blackwater
Blackwater, eh? This Blackwater? The hired mercenaries we have in Iraq? Jeez, I wonder what possible reason he could have for distorting the point of the cartoon and pushing for the war to continue.
What a war profiteering useless dick.
September 1st, 2006 10:29
I actually don’t follow those two. I do most of my surfing at work, and they’re too movie-heavy to covertly watch. So I stick to the following primarily text sites (shield your eyes!):
Ezra Klein is a wonky writer who cares a great deal about healthcare, but gives measured opinions about politics as a whole, plus some slice-of-life stuff.
Pandagon is where Ezra got his start. I feel it’s kinda gone downhill into too much pointless bitching since he left, but Pam Spaulding has given it a good focus on gay rights stuff.
Finally, there’s the big one, DailyKos. Kos is kinda hated in the lefty blogosphere because he is unabashedly about political organization and winning elections over ideological purity. Still, I feel confident saying that this is the man who made Ned Lamont’s victory over Joementum possible. Solid politics, no slice of life stuff, all issues, all the time.
Figure if I get you angry (Ted’s good at that), I should give you a chance to get informed.