Ted Rall
There's this political cartoonist, Ted Rall, who is supposedly quite highly acclaimed. I just came across one of his recent comic strips on StumbleUpon and was really, seriously offended.
Those of you who know me realize that while I am frequently annoyed at general stupidity, it takes a lot to actually offend me. Maybe I'm just PMSing, but I wrote him a snitty e-mail anyway. It served its purpose in that it made me feel better. Anyway, this guy's comic talked about how all the troops who join up must be such idiots that sending them off to die in Iraq will result in a eugenic utopia of more intelligent people.
Now, I'm fairly certain all of this was meant to be ironic, a sarcastic jab at the more hypocritical liberals. (Nonexistent god help us all if it wasn't ironic, and a man like that can honestly even be nominated for a Pulitzer).
The fact is this ridiculous portrayal of greedy cretins as the only sort of people who would ever join the military is damaging, irresponsible, and callous regardless of the artists' intent. It will be misinterpreted, it will be misused, and it gives liberals a bad name. Don't we have enough problems without stirring up conflict and confusion? More importantly, it's incredibly disrespectful to even joke about people being killed or maimed. He even threw in that chestnut about more troops being killed in car accidents than combat. Yeah, anyone who dies in a car accident must be stupid, even the passengers. Everyone knows the roads are impeccably safe in Iraq, and military vehicles are a breeze to handle.
Jerk.
Those of you who know me realize that while I am frequently annoyed at general stupidity, it takes a lot to actually offend me. Maybe I'm just PMSing, but I wrote him a snitty e-mail anyway. It served its purpose in that it made me feel better. Anyway, this guy's comic talked about how all the troops who join up must be such idiots that sending them off to die in Iraq will result in a eugenic utopia of more intelligent people.
Now, I'm fairly certain all of this was meant to be ironic, a sarcastic jab at the more hypocritical liberals. (Nonexistent god help us all if it wasn't ironic, and a man like that can honestly even be nominated for a Pulitzer).
The fact is this ridiculous portrayal of greedy cretins as the only sort of people who would ever join the military is damaging, irresponsible, and callous regardless of the artists' intent. It will be misinterpreted, it will be misused, and it gives liberals a bad name. Don't we have enough problems without stirring up conflict and confusion? More importantly, it's incredibly disrespectful to even joke about people being killed or maimed. He even threw in that chestnut about more troops being killed in car accidents than combat. Yeah, anyone who dies in a car accident must be stupid, even the passengers. Everyone knows the roads are impeccably safe in Iraq, and military vehicles are a breeze to handle.
Jerk.