CSotD: Scoring for the opponent
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If you've visited here more than, oh, two or three times, you know I have an affection for gallows humor.
The gallows, however, need to be somewhat metaphorical, and, as Matt Bors points out here, gags about what a "gift" the current campaign is for cartoonists aren't particularly funny or insightful.
Or original, for that matter. Every clownish candidate is saluted as a gift to cartoonists, which, if it's a Ben Carson, can be true, but, then again, you can throw a lot of free publicity Ben's way without inadvertantly building him up.
I would put Sarah Palin in that category of self-destructing clowns, except that, for all the inexplicable nonsense that spills from her mouth, she still gets people to line up around the block when she appears somewhere.
This occurred to me last night when the news showed people lining up to hear Trump.
Trump is probably lying about his wealth, and is definitely lying about why he isn't releasing his tax returns, but what is true is that, however much money he has, he hasn't needed to spend a lot to get media coverage. And it didn't destroy him.
Look: In a football game, if a runner takes the ball the wrong direction and downs it in his opponent's end zone instead of his own, it only counts as two points for them, not the six it would have counted for his team, if he'd gone the right way.
Politics isn't that way. Intelligent, well-reasoned ballots count the same as irresponsible, insane ballots.
If you continue to point out what a delusional, ignorant, irresponsible, undependable imbecile Sarah Palin is and people continue to line up around the block to buy her books and hear her talk, it should suggest the falsity of that familiar story about how, if someone had yanked down Hitler's pants at one of his early speeches, he'd have become a laughingstock and World War II would not have happened.
It's a comforting notion, but they'd already thrown him in jail and that didn't stop him.
And, as Frank Zappa pointed out, Hitler was not some anomaly unconnected to the spirit of the day. The Germans wanted Hitler, and, if that particular candidate had disappeared, they'd have found another just like him.
Yanking down Trump's pants hasn't worked, and there's no reason to believe mocking him again and again will have a different effect.
And it's not just the long lines of people. Listen to them, and not just to the cuckoo birds in the crazy T-shirts. Listen to the articulate, sane-looking people who say they think he has some fresh ideas, despite no evidence of that at all, and plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Pointing out his foolishness and dishonesty only cements him as a rebel come to free us from the conspiracy.
And providing the most entertaining, rather than most credible, candidate with free platforms is only one facet of the "Let's You and Him Fight" of political coverage, which now includes ginning up what should be a non-existent feud between Clinton and Sanders supporters by elevating the likely-mythical-but-certainly-insubstantial "threat" of Bernie hardliners refusing to vote against Trump come November.
Whether demonizing Sanders supporters is part of this mindless search for clicks and conflict or is being actively carried forward by David Brock's paid trolls, it's like putting those "Search for Bigfoot" shows on TV: It popularizes and legitimatizes a viewpoint that should be confined to eight-year-olds and the mentally incompetent.
And correcting false beliefs, once they're out there, isn't as simple as disputing them.
Is Matt Bors the only person who realizes this is not a freaking game?
Obama has frequently said there is no need to "spike the football" when you've scored.
But, if you insist on doing so, at least make sure you're in the right end zone.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Perhaps there is some anniversary or something that brought "Metamorphosis" to mind for both Hilary Price and Pat Bagley, but I couldn't find it.
I like the way she trivializes the overused term, while he suggests that it has finally become justified, but I have no idea how they both happened to use it on the same day, particularly since their lead time is completely different, by several weeks.
I guess it was just a bug in the system.
Yup
I saw a couple of "give me a break" memes on the topic of Cinco de Mayo yesterday before I saw Medium Large, which must have updated after my pre-dawn wander through the bookmarks.
Not that any of them blunted the stupidity of the day. Been there, tried that.
There was, for instance, this perfectly good takedown, which shows some of the more astonishing slurs of the day, but simply shakes its head over them as any thoughtful person would, rather than going into a full militant rant.
And why rant? Her point is made far more persuasive by the utterly tone-deaf, uninformed comments that follow, most of them saying that there's no reason to be offended because it isn't actually a national holiday in Mexico and, besides, nobody objects to St. Patrick's Day, which came as a surprise to this mackerel-snapping Mick.
But, of course, racial insults and trivializing people's cultures is just good, innocent fun, as long as it's not done on an actual National Holiday.
If Cinco de Mayo were a national holiday, then insulting and trivializing the culture would be a matter of taking a brave stance against political correctness and you'd have to do it.
Sigh.
Usually, Ces exaggerates people's stupidity in order to get a laugh. This time, he simply had to transcribe it. Maybe tone it down a little.
Don't try that lame excuse on me
Come on, pal. Nobody came out of nowhere and got in your blindspot.
BTW, other sports aren't as forgiving as American Football
They all count the same, regardless of intent.
Kind of like in real life.
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.
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