Deepest Darkness

In the latest blow to the Washington Post's dying credibility, editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned after management killed a cartoon she was slated to run depicting various tech moguls (including WaPo and Amazon.com owner Jeff Bezos) prostrating themselves before Donald Trump. Telnaes says it is the first time one of her cartoons was killed because of its point of view in her tenure. The official Post line -- that they had already published or planned to publish two columns on the subject, and so Telnaes' cartoon was redundant -- is even more pathetic than the last defense they gave of obvious political interference in the editorial team's work (two whole columns!).

As Dell Cameron writes, what we're seeing now is a pattern of interference, which in turn amply justifies readers assuming the worst in future incidents -- and that sort of skepticism is toxic to a healthy relationship between a newspaper and the public it serves. Cameron suggests that there may need to be a "mutiny" in the Post in order to restore this confidence. I've written before about how these evermore overt acts of right-wing pandering by media leaders could finally disabuse the journalistic community of their illusion that "everyone" (who matters) already knows and agrees with liberal perspectives (so their main goal is not to present the truth but rather to present "the other side" -- i.e., the conservative view). It hasn't happened yet, but the stress has to eventually reach a breaking point.

Right?

Hungry for Apples?

There's an episode of Rick & Morty where Rick is trapped in a simulation by alien scammers seeking to steal some of his scientific discoveries. But somehow, Rick's idiot son-in-law, Jerry, is in the simulation too. Not wanting to be distracted from the primary mark, the aliens cap Jerry's part of the simulation at 5% power and let him be.

The result is a "simulation" of a human experience that is comically skeletal. Jerry's coworkers respond to every question with a simple "yes!" A few pedestrians (bodies reused) speak a single phrase on loop when they're not phasing into and out of trees. The radio plays "human music", a series of isolated beeps and boops.

Jerry loves it. He "sells" an ad campaign ("Hungry for Apples?"), has sex with his barely-mobile wife ("the best sex I've ever had!"), even talks himself into a promotion and an award for his apples slogan. Eventually, he declares it not just the best, but the most meaningful day of his life -- at which point simulation suddenly ends. Jerry is devastated; Rick patronizingly consoles him by asking "So what if the most meaningful day in your life was a simulation operating at minimum complexity?"

I was thinking about this in relation to the Russian bots which spread pro-Trump and pro-Putin propaganda throughout the right-wing ecosystem. The people who write these posts can barely speak English. They by design have no grasp on reality. It's not just that they appeal solely to people's baser instincts, it's that they appeal to these instincts in a transparently moronic way. They are a simulation of political reality, running at 5% complexity.

And yet a huge chunk of Americans are never happier than when they are gobbling it up. They love this. It's not just that they don't realize that it's all fake. It's more pathetic than that: they've never found more meaning than that which they get from automated Russian twitter accounts spitting out half-literate reactionary fantasies too stupid for Rush Limbaugh to run.

Basically, Trump's base is a bunch Jerrys. That was today's epiphany.

Bar None Roundup

There's a feeling of freedom in the air, but it will dissipate as soon as I start working on my bar application in earnest.

* * *

Israeli and Iranian relief workers join together in Japan. Unfortunately, as Harry's Place notes it is likely that one of the two countries will force out a denial that any cooperation occurred at all (remember this?).

I really like the cartoon at the bottom of this post.

Ahmadinejad predicts that the Arab revolutions will destroy Israel. Of course, he seems to say everything from the sun setting to the birds chirping will have that effect, so forgive my skepticism of his savvy geopolitical analysis.

Dahlia Lithwick describes Connick v. Thompson as "one of the meanest Supreme Court decisions ever."

More minimalism from the Roberts Court! (see my older post on the subject).

That One Quote

Great cartoon on MLK's unlikely membership in the Tea Party.

Fruits and Vegetables

A student newspaper at Notre Dame has issued an apology after running a cartoon with the following punchline:

"How do you turn a fruit into a vegetable?"

"No idea."

"With a baseball bat."

Here is the apology:

The editors of The Observer would like to publicly apologize for the publication of “The Mobile Party” in the Jan. 13 edition. The burden of responsibility ultimately lies on us for allowing it to go to print. 
There is no excuse that can be given and nothing that can be said to reverse the damage that has already been done by this egregious error in judgment. 


Allowing this cruel and hateful comic a place on our pages disgraced those values and severely hurt members of our Notre Dame family — our classmates, our friends. For this, we sincerely apologize. Unfortunately, the language of hate is an everyday reality in our society.”

The South Bend Tribune has the most complete coverage I've seen. Via Andrew Sullivan.

The Cartoons

A great post by fellow-TMV author and resident cartoonist Daryl Cagle on his trip through Israel, Palestine, and Egypt and his discussions with Arab cartoonists (on what they drew, on how it would be seen stateside as anti-Semitic, on their own perception of their work, and other fascinating topics).

Let That Be a Lesson For You

#45 on the list of things not to do as an evil overlord reads as follows:

I will make sure I have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in my organization. For example, if my general screws up I will not draw my weapon, point it at him, say "And here is the price for failure," then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.

I kind of got that feeling while reading this article about a Dutch prosecution of a Muslim group for hate speech. The Arab European League had published a cartoon on its website insinuating that the Holocaust was exaggerated. It did this, it claimed, not because it subscribes to Holocaust denial, but in order to draw attention to the dropping of charges against Dutch filmmaker Geert Wilders, whose film they claimed insulted Muhammad (the charges were dropped after authorities decided the film was targeted at Muhammad himself, not Muslims as a group). There's a solid case to be made against hate speech laws in general because of line drawing problems like this. But as Ronny Naftaniel of the Center for Documentation on Israel, who filed the complaint, pointed out, engaging in counter-hate speech against Jews, even to "make a point", is not justifiable, particularly when Jews had nothing to do with the film you're protesting. Even if you are pissed that Jews seem to be getting protections that you're not (and don't we all love the crabs-in-a-bucket mentality that evinces), there is something deeply immoral about claiming that person A wronged me, so I'm going to abuse innocent group B over there in order to draw attention to the injustice of it all. This is what happens when you're cast as history's scapegoats. Every situation, every context, every gripe, every misfortune -- the first thought of some people is to take a whack at the Jews. Forget the cartoon -- that's the real insult to Jews as a group.

Civil Rights Roundup:07/09/08

Your daily dose of civil rights and related news (abbreviated and late due to work, alas)

CNN has now picked up the story of the racist Mexican cartoon character I posted on in yesterday's roundup.

An atheist solider is suing the military, alleging discrimination.

A Louisiana judge has overturned the conviction of Albert Woodfox, an ex-Black Panther and one of the "Angola three", who was held in solitary confinement for thirty years.

Can a diversity advocate serve two masters? A Loudoun County advocate tasked with outreach to the minority community has been ousted, despite rave reviews and strident support from the minority community. The county itself, however, apparently did not like her performance (hints in the article point to her being too aggressive).

ICE is reporting that tougher enforcement against employers who hire undocumented/illegal immigrants is coming up.

Illegal/undocumented college students face anxiety about their future. Following up on a theme, I'm not all that keen on deporting B+-average UCLA grads.

Buried in this piece on that same issue comes a shocking policy out of Virginia: apparently, state universities are allowed to decide "on a case-by-case basis" whether U.S.-born child of illegal immigrants (also known as U.S. citizens) should be allowed in-state tuition.

Girl Detective at Feministe has a post up that I'm thrilled to see: This is What Anti-Semitism Looks Like.

Try Incarcerex!

Bwahahaha. Slash: sad.

Dark Humor

Great cartoon from Amp


If only it were a joke....

Dark Humor

Great cartoon from Amp


If only it were a joke....

My Perfect Girlfriend

Exemplified.

Xkcd is an excellent cartoon in general, FYI.