CSotD: The World Is Your Uncle
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It's not so much that this Dr. Jack and Curtis panel says anything that hasn't been said, but if nothing else, South Africans have a unique viewpoint in that they live in a nation which is Western in many senses and Third World in others.
Americans and those in Western Europe tend to think of places like Iran and Pakistan as nations of medieval, pre-industrial dusty people when, in fact, their cities and urban dwellers are quite modern.
Thus, when a bomb goes off in one of those nations, we chalk it up to life in a primitive society although there was no greater reason to expect it in Ankara or Beirut than in Brussels or Paris.
People in less homogeneous societies understand these things much better.
During the Troubles in Ulster, my friends from Belfast and Derry were both amused and annoyed by the idea that they lived in dangerous places, and would counter that, statistically, you were in greater peril walking through Detroit or Chicago.
In any strange place, they suggested, you should take sensible precautions, but they didn't live in constant fear nor did they need to.
I'm not entirely comfortable, then, chalking it up to "racism" so much as "ignorance" and "arrogance," all of which are on the family tree of Bigotry. The issue, however, is not whether bigotry is okay. It's just a matter of how the various brances should be placed, a variation on "We've established what you are. We're just dickering over your price."
The bombing in Lahore has, indeed, broken through the white folks/brown folks barrier of Western caring, but, as far as I can tell, only because the terrorists targeted a Christian minority. Still, the victims wore saris and sandals and so Western observers are able to distance themselves.
By contrast, when the body of Aylan Kurdi washed up on a beach, he looked so much like a modern, Western little boy that it took effort for the hatemongers to manufacture an explanation for why we shouldn't care about him.
And now cartoonists who want to capitalize on the Brussels bombing are attacking Muslim refugees, which requires them to avoid all serious news coverage, since, as in the case of the Paris attacks, this tragedy was carried out by domestic extremists.
I will not excuse their laziness nor their thoughtless venom.
I never understood the appeal of "All In The Family" among liberals who were amused by listening to an ignoramus spout hate while his son-in-law tried unsuccessfully to counter it with facts. Mostly, I didn't understand why people thought Archie Bunker was a "loveable bigot."
It reminds me of a religious retreat my mother went on years ago, when "My Sin" was a top-selling perfume. The priest noted that, if you had a proper understanding of the nature of sin, the perfume would have the same appeal as one called "My Vomit."
People have likened the Republican contenders to your ignorant, blowhard uncle who ruins Thanksgiving dinner. Well, the whole world is becoming your ignorant, blowhard uncle who ruins Thanksgiving dinner.
And if you find him loveable, I've got a perfume to sell you.
Speaking of whom
Your ignorant blowhard uncle is alive and well and writing laws in North Carolina, as Jen Sorensen reminds us.
She's only talking about one aspect of a wildly unfair, asinine and likely unconstitutional law, though the latter will depend on whether the 9th Justice is chosen by President Clinton v2, President Sanders, President Cruz or President Trump.
("The Ninth Justice" sounds like a horror film. Feels like one, too.)
Philosophically, I like the bizarre interplay between rejecting the iron-handed dictates of the federal gummint and then dictating to your towns and cities exactly how they must behave.
But Sorensen skips the political philosophy and goes straight to the heart of this brazen, ignorant bigotry, and why not?
If these unloveable bigoted uncles were not also unreachably ignorant, one might ask them about pedophiles, and suggest that, given the odds of who gets molested by whom, bathrooms be segregated not by sex but by age.
We've seen over and over again how often those who preach most loudly against "sexual deviants" have a catamite stashed in their closet, or a history of exploiting altar boys, scouts and choir members.
The laddies doth protest too much, methinks.
Which brings her fourth panel into even sharper focus.
So let's talk about the relatives we do love
Terri Libensen has started an arc at Pajama Diaries that should be worth following, hence I'm running both yesterday and today's strips to get you started.
It's a hard topic and not everyone would be able to blend caring and humor, but Libensen has been doing the strip for a decade and has crafted a good mix in which I think this will let those of us who have been touched by dementia get a chuckle out of the sad, shared experience, while providing insight for those who have not.
Also, if you're anywhere near Framingham, Mass., (and even if you're not), Terri will be presenting there Sunday, April 10 and signing books. I recommend that, too.
For the Record
I have had a request for a correction from the people who run a cartoon contest in Greece that came up in the recent kerfuffle over serial plagiarist "Mario Russo."
In parsing a website in a language I don't read, I had mistaken the cartoon at left for the one that he had submitted and been awarded a prize for, seen at the right.
The original artist, Cristina Bernazzani, had submitted that shepherd cartoon, for which she won an honorable mention. It was based on an earlier cartoon she modified for the competition, which explains the two versions I had found.
I couldn't find another version of this "Mario Russo" piece but I'm keeping his name in quotation marks because he's conceded that he's a thief, explaining that he's too young to understand the concept.
But, no, I found no evidence that his stole this one, and so I apologize for suggesting that the contest organizers were overly lax in vetting the entries.
Now here's your avuncular moment of zen:
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