CSotD: Rights, Wrongs and Truths
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Baron’s cartoon seems a noncontroversial bit of pushback to an ignorant and hateful policy, which is the proper role of political cartooning, but she reports a huge negative response to a simple description of what hate and discrimination do to its targets.
Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission does seem misnamed, given that it has declared that single-sex toilets and changing rooms must only be used by people with genitalia matching majority sexual identity. This not only allows, but mandates separate-but-equal treatment of those who don’t fit the common mold and seems the opposite of equality and human rights.
All her cartoon says is that the policy is going to make it very hard for trans people to live normal lives, but I suppose if this were 1963 and the cartoon showed a Black teen unable to go out with white friends because of Jim Crow laws, there would be people insisting that this is how it is and how it ought to be and asking why don’t they know their place?
It feels odd to still be having this conversation at the time of Barney Frank’s death, Frank having been one of the early people to shrug off bigotry and declare his sexuality, helping make it at the same time nobody’s business and nothing to be ashamed of.
Certainly, opening closet doors lets in fresh air, and the AIDS crisis forced people to at least admit, if not accept, that Rock Hudson and several other matinee idols were gay.
Well, some people, and I’d hope most people.
There are still people who think sexual identity is a choice, just as there are still people who think Noah had kangaroos and polar bears on his boat. I even saw a news story the other day that referred to people who choose to describe themselves as transgender.
Never saw one that said anybody chose to describe themselves as having red hair, nor has anybody mounted a purposeful campaign to spread fear and hatred of red-haired people.
At least nobody is accusing LGBTQ+ people of eating the dogs and eating the cats. We save that for spreading hatred of immigrants and racial minorities.
As Berge notes, we will always have those who feel that there is a finite quantity of equality, that it can only be given to somebody by taking it away from somebody else. Perhaps they’re confusing it with privilege, but it reminds me of the small children, who on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day want to know when it’s going to be Kids’ Day.
The traditional answer is that it’s always Kids’ Day, and that same reasoning can also be applied to people who are older than seven and should behave as if they were.
Unfortunately, world history is full of powerful men who have capitalized on our worst instincts in return for power and profit. As it has been in the past, so it is today.
I wish that I could see some likelihood that the fellow in Sheneman’s cartoon will change his way of thinking as he realizes the cost in dollars and cents of having accepted bigotry as the way things should be.
I suspect, however, that the best we can hope for is that rising prices will make him less inclined to vote in off-year elections, which is not a small thing and could offset some of the gerrymandering and voter-suppression tactics currently being unveiled.
Things could be worse, a statement I make because they are worse in other places, and I note that American cartoonists seem less inclined to challenge what is happening in the Middle East than those of other countries. And you can’t say it’s because we’re not as close geographically, given that Cathy Wilcox is from Australia.
There has, however, been little commentary from cartoonists here over the international flotilla of boats bringing aid to a blockaded Gaza which, as previous flotillas have been, was intercepted by Israeli military forces.
In this case, however, not only did released members of the group report beatings, rape and sexual abuse by their captors, but Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itimas Ben-Givr released triumphant videos of their harsh treatment, with the chortling headline “Welcome to Israel.”
Even Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against his braggadocio, and, while no sane person is justifying the horrors of the slaughter and rapes committed by Hamas in the brutal attacks that initiated the current round of violence in the region, Hudson suggests that turnabout is not fair play, and that the denunciation of Ben-Givr’s video stems from fury over his indiscretion, not over the actions being taped.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Turner is not accepting any excuses for the actions, while Rowe cites the international condemnations and accuses the Netanyahu government of an intentional policy of brutal repression.
Neither cartoonist seems to fear being branded antisemitic for criticizing the Israeli government, though the accusation seems highly likely to arise.
Indeed, NYTimes columnist Nicholas Kristoff had earlier touched off a firestorm of such protests with a well-documented report on sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners, despite his clear declaration that he found no indication that the issues he uncovered were the result of government policy.
Still, Netanyahu threatened to sue the newspaper over what he termed a “blood libel,” a term that would have to be stretched to apply even if Kristoff’s report had been patently dishonest or even incompetent.
Nobody likes such accusations, but suppression of unwelcome news and opinions is an occupational hazard.
In a strong defense of the free press Wednesday, NYTimes Publisher AG Sulzberger declared his newspaper’s refusal to knuckle under to lawsuits and bullying, while specifically criticizing others that have.
And while observing that the Biden administration had often bucked heads with the Times, and that Biden declined their interview requests, he quoted the president’s congratulations on a Pulitzer for a story the government had not been happy to see in the paper.
As Biden said:
I cannot say that this process was pleasant. But I guess that’s the whole point. It’s not supposed to be. That’s what a free press at its very best does — it holds us to account and makes us think even as it informs.
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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