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The Tell-Tale Hue
Let’s all clap and feel good about our devotion to each other and our utterly correct view of the Stupid-American Community:
It’s perfect, isn’t it?
I saw this cartoon in my local paper, in black and white. Even without the damning red hue – Pantone #666 – the hat itself was sufficient to tell me everything I needed to know. Of course, the heretic would wear a hat like that. Tells you all you need to know about someone. Also, the working class should totally vote for us because we’re on your side.
I’ve known a few political cartoonists in my time, and almost without exception they were smarter, and more capable of nuance, than their drawings. And that’s fine. They’re polemicists; they work in broad strokes. They go for the quick hit, and probably most know that the arguments they make dissolve like cotton candy hit with a firehose, but they get the laugh and the jolt: mission accomplished.
The audience is different. The people who basked in their perfect and correct reaction to this image might explain that it’s true on so many levels — the Red-Hat Fat Man would be a denier of science, mulishly devoted to “freedom” to the extent that he would not take an air mask if the pilot — i.e., the ELITES — said he must, and also because he rejects vaccines and is fat, and therefore will get covid on a plane and end up in Intensive Care, he will require a ventilator, which is like the life-saving instrument of Science the flight attendant is demonstrating. Also, he is disrespecting her because she is a woman.
One could respond that the fellow might be having a larf, because technically, he’s right. Could be a joke: “Can’t make me wear that either. But that one, I will.” It’s not inconceivable. Now and then on a flight, the stew is right there a row ahead of me, going through the motions, and I like to give her my full attention, to show it’s not completely in vain. Sometimes we joke. Oh, the seat belt? That’s how it works? I wondered what that thing was! Some play along. Some don’t.
Imagine this running in a newspaper: It doesn’t work because the archetype is wrong. That’s the problem the right has these days, I guess. We can’t tell how we should feel about someone just by looking at the back of their head.
True, but I think you can in some circumstances get in trouble when doing it on an airplane. Best to be discrete.
Typo fixed.
Some claim to be able to do it by looking at a person’s tattoos or facial jewelry. I’m not so sure I believe them.
I recently travelled to California and back from Eau Claire, WI. Recent enough that the outbound flight was masked all the way and on the inbound flight not at all.
Of the two the return flight was much more pleasant.
How is the circulation of newspapers these days?
Cut off at the neck, apparently.
Thanks for not using flight attendant.
I too do that if she’s close to my row. For the same reason.
One, the O2 mask was always voluntary. Lefties fail to understand this. They can conceive of free will. Everything is either prohibited or mandatory.
Two, that drawing of the plane makes it seem spacious. In reality, most people would prefer to save money and have less space.
Always hammer the message: Republicans are either evil or stupid.
I love @jameslileks piece but the whole situation really gets to me. Set aside that the left especially puts themselves outwardly as being the people of non-judgment, inclusivity, and acceptance yet when it comes to politics (and isn’t it everything now?) snap judgments based on outward appearance are the cerebral standard. But it’s this succession of badges that signals moral
smugnesssuperiorityvirtuecorrectness that is so unsettling. Masks are the latest thing, just as AIDS ribbons, “All Are Welcome Here” yard signs, or sporting a New Yorker tote have been. I remember working at the pet store during the mask mandate and I was quite friendly with a customer, a nice older lady and I’d help carry her dog food to her car. It was covered with bumper stickers that all conveyed a different iteration of “Trump is the Devil!” message. She wore two masks and gloves, always. I had to wear a mask. I always wondered if she’d be as friendly to me if she knew my politics. Well, one day an elderly man, a regular and also extremely nice who had a little Weiner dog named Shorty, came in wearing a MAGA hat. She nearly jumped out of her skin and genuinely thought he was going to give her COVID, is responsible for every virus death, and shouldn’t be allowed in public. I guess I got my answer. I wonder what the next badge is going to be, or will we just tattoo our bellies like Dr. Suess’ Sneetches?I had that thought too! I wish flights had that much space!
Cancel Culture is the dress rehearsal for mass killings.
Years ago the British Top Gear television show made fun of southern Americans by driving across the southern U.S. in cars painted with slogans designed to offend southern Americans – mostly slogans denouncing things southern Americans tend to like. In the show they were shown being attacked by “rednecks.” I assume in Top Gear fashion the attacks were fabricated, but the show people insist they were not. But the episode was used to support the idea that southern Americans are intolerant bigots.
I immediately wondered why they didn’t try the opposite – driving through Cambridge, Massachusetts in cars emblazoned with slogans criticizing the then-nascent woke ideology or supporting populist middle America topics. Were they too afraid the woke denizens of wealthy New England would actually attack them, consistent with the then-emerging idea that violence by the Left is acceptable?
Hah! I can tell you aren’t 6’5″. I have stories. But they’re too painful to recall.
I have a terrible time keeping up with whatever the current title is. Air hostess? No, that’s not right.
If someone has a nose ring I usually think I would go for it straight off if I were to get in a fight with them, at least.
I happened to see the Ultraviolet movie again just the other day, and this reminded me of how Violet used some idiots’ dreadlock braids to great advantage in a fight.
The Liberal version would be just too busy — an emotional support llama in the isle, an Indiana-Jones style hat with a “I Heart PBS” button attached, big hoop pierced earrings and a filthy rat-tail braid hanging down his back. It’s too much.
Llamas!!!
Pilots have a pretty good record of completing flights successfully…whereas government officials??
Stereotyping is stupid, James.
They shoot for a takeoff/landing ratio of 1.0.
In fairness, I should have said not ‘government officials’ generically, but the current crew of public-health officials and spokesmen. Air traffic controllers are government officials, and they contribute plenty to aviation safety.
Panteone 666 looks like this:
“Can’t make us wear those masks either.”
Said no one, ever.
Actually, it used to be a survival trait.
What I like about the cartoon is that it makes explicit whom the artist imagines the noncompliant Americans to be — and I agree with him or her.
So what means the literal opposite of molon labe but captures the same sense of defiance? Because that’s what the guy is saying. “You want to make me wear a mask? Good luck. Come and try.”
When I look at the cartoon that way, I actually find it kind of charming. I’m with the guy in the red hat on this one. He’s my people.
100% among parrot owners. No app can do what they need.
I’m wondering how fearful anybody would be of attack by anyone in Cambridge. Boots may be less than filled with quake, generally. Crossing the street in Cambridge is way more dangerous than sissy slaps to the shoulder.
And still is.