Monday, July 14, 2008

Seriously?

David Remnick's internview on HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/13/david-remnick-on-emnew-yo_n_112456.html

For those of you who don't know, this week's New Yorker cover features possible Muslim Terrorist and US Democratic presidential nominee Barack Hussein Obama and his wife portrayed as Taliban-style insurgents. And of course they're fist bumping, which is actually how terrorists start their foreplay.

And people, including the Obama campaign, are freaking out.

The title of the cover is "The Politics of Fear," and I'd say it was pretty obvious to me that this cartoon, expertly drawn, is meant to poke fun at the RIDICULOUS AND BIGOTED notion that Barack Obama is a terrorist.

I'm pretty disappointed, even more so because I am also not surprised at everyone's outrage. As Cher says in Moonstruck - Snap out of it! Not talking about the scary parts does not make them go away. This cover is clearly satire, and it's satirizing an effective strategy of the Right's to portray ANYONE, but especially Barack Obama, who disagrees with them as unpatriotic and therefore a terrorist.

And, I'm sorry, but anyone trying to place David Remnick and the New Yorker to the right of center is just plain ignorant SLASH in desperate, obvious need to improve their progressive image.

Excuse me, I have to go to my not-for-profit arts job and talk about how I blogged about this now.

2 comments:

richard.fredric said...

when people chest bump they're really trading nuclear weapons.

sachalouise said...

as much as i have to admire the New Yorker for creating such an incendiary cover and effectively rubbing our noses in the fact that people can be so goddamn fanatical.. i feel like i have to mention that they are also in the business of selling something. the publishing industry is floundering and this cover will sell, the end. this ensures they'll be in the news for a good while to come.