On unfunny cartoons
I agree with this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and especially this.
In short, this is all more complex than it appears and everyone involved should grow the hell up and stop acting like those fat toddlers you seen rolling around on the floor screaming when Mummy doesn't buy them a sweetie. Most importantly, the cartoonists who sparked the whole thing off should piss off to art school, learn how to draw, and then get a sense of humour from somewhere. If those shoddy, sub-schoolboy efforts had been posted on b3ta does anyone really think they'd get frontpaged? I doubt they'd even be worthy of a "woo", let alone a "woo yay".
But whoops - I'm appealing to reason, and everyone involved is a moron. The newspaper editors who were prepared to pay for and print such cack are morons for being duped into parting with cash. The Muslim nutties who got offended are morons for having so little confidence in their faith that some artless scribbles shake its foundations. The people who have turned this into a free speech issue are morons for being conned into supporting talentless idiots who actually most likely WERE intending to be offensive. Anyone who unreservedly apologises - beyond saying "yes, some of them were offensive, but the most important thing is they were crap and had been seen by hardly anyone until you idiots started kicking up a fuss" - is a moron.
Why does it always seem to be shite that gets more publicity thanks to nutters complaining? Jerry Springer the Opera was rubbish. David Cronenberg's Crash was by far his worst film. I - and undoubtedly a large number of other people - only made the effort of watching them BECAUSE of the fuss kicked up.
Is it really such a hard concept to grasp? Controversy => MORE publicity, you idiots. It's hardly a new idea - in fact, both Jesus and Mohammed used controversial words and actions to get noticed when they were starting out. And both of them were probably better cartoonists than the people responsible for this little spat.
Update: You see, this is funny. Obvious, perhaps, but funny nonetheless. The ones this fuss is over are just plain rubbish.
Update 2: Aaaah! NOW I know why Muslims don't like the Prophet being depicted - it'll reveal his secret identity as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch...
Update 3: Further proof of the Johnny Storm theory - a nutty demonstrator holding a "Fantastic Four on their way" sign. Does that make Jesus Mr Fantastic? Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman,the Holy Ghost? So where does The Thing fit into it all?
8 Comments:
By way of comparison, the Washington Post recently ran a cartoon involving a limbless U.S. soldier (it was lampooning Rumsfeld more than any soldier), and the cartoon offended many in the military. The top generals wrote a strongly-worded letter to the Post, which it published yesterday.
Note that none of the offended parties donned ski masks, picked up AK-47s, and stormed the newspaper's office.
1st of all- haven't seen the cartoon, not bothered if I do or don't, cos the point is tolerance of other peoples views, particularly the ones we don't agree with. Nick Griffin, Abu Hamza, Kilroy-Silk, Rupert Murdoch,Jordan,- All have views I find repugnant and offensive. I have views they, or you, may find equally objectionable. What makes me better than most of these toads is that I accept they have a genuine held belief and don't think they should be suppressed from spouting them-apart from Jordan, that is-, and they would be much happier if forums like this one for example didnt exist. The way to defeat racists is to remove the cause of racism. the way to stop rabble rousing"Muslim" Clerics from stirring up hate and violence is to not give them an excuse to do so.And on the subject of cartoons, Cummings of the daily/sunday express was far more vicious, hateful and nasty than anything I have seen since, and he was almost universally applauded for hitting the target time after time after time so, lets not deride the cartoonists "talent", rather lets see if they make the point they intend to.if they do, and you don't like it, hey, they've done their job!
Speaking of which...
http://b3ta.com/board/5614945
AFAIK, the pictures could be submitted by just about anyone, so they must have been lacking in choice.
"An orange in the turban" is Danish expression meaning 'good luck', so that sort of explains one of them.
great links, thanks Nosemonkey
To be honest, I'm a little curious about the row occuring now, rather than in September when the cartoons were originally published.
Were the Danish right to publish these images? Probably not.
Is the reaction over the top? Indeed. Death threats and threatening to kill westerners is reinforcing the images message.
Whatever the intentions of publishing the cartoons in the first place, the reactions have guaranteed that they will get everywhere. Lets face it, would you have heard about them otherwise? I doubt it.
Wikipedia, as always, has the low down.
And as always, it is this rather vital bit of context that the BBC helpfully drops.
You are right: there may be an element of a PR stunt, but the Islamonazis are doing a pretty good job of playing to stereotype in reaction.
In this context, the Strawman's statement is little short of grovelling dhimmitude.
MuppetLord: Why now? Ask The Religious Policeman. He is always a useful read and he knows about these things.
I've still no idea what this "dhimmi" bollocks means because I have no interest in the whole "Islam versus the west" meme. I'll agree that Straw's comments were somewhat pathetic and that he should have kept his mouth shut, at least.
I am also inclined to agree that if you find something that happens in Denmark offensive when you don't live in Denmark, you can fuck right off. I find plenty of things that happen in Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, China and even the United States offensive. I may complain, but I won't go around calling for the murder of the ambassadors of those countries, because that's fucking pathetic. I also have every right never to visit any of them, and certainly to never live in any of them. Problem solved.
Still, if this kind of insanity continues much longer, the whole "European identity" thing and European demos that everyone says has been missing for so long in the EU could well sort itself out...
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