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Christopher Hitchens on the Barack Obama cartoon controversy
Mirror UK ^ | 7/15/2008 | Christopher Hitchens

Posted on 07/16/2008 8:02:43 AM PDT by afortiori

Satire, according to Jonathan Swift, is "a mirror wherein every man will commonly discern every face but his own". The New Yorker’s cartoon of Barack Obama and his lady wife, according to its editor David Remnick, "takes a lot of distortions, lies and misconceptions about the Obamas and puts a mirror up to them to show them for what they are."

Swift’s satire on satire could hardly have been better, er, illustrated. The cartoon, by veteran satirist Barry Blitt, omitted no detail in showing the Obamas kitted out as a combo of Muslim and Black Panther, with a photo of Osama bin Laden on the Oval Office wall and the Stars and Stripes smouldering in the grate. Within hours, even Senator Obama’s Republican revival was heading for the moral high ground and denouncing the cover as "offensive".

(Excerpt) Read more at mirror.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: hitchens; husseinobama; newyorker; obama; obamacartoon
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To: afortiori

If “the New Yorker” makes a joke, and liberals don’t get it, is it still funny?


21 posted on 07/16/2008 8:38:36 AM PDT by allmendream (If "the New Yorker" makes a joke and liberals don't get it, is it still funny?)
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To: reasonisfaith

I think Hitchens is agreeing with everyone here. His use of the words “lowly white hicks” is also satire. He is speaking from the point of view of the NY’er magazine.


22 posted on 07/16/2008 8:42:29 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: beezdotcom

You nailed it! All must worship at the alter of Obama!

Obama will NOT be criticized, so sayeth the Obamamessiah!


23 posted on 07/16/2008 8:44:45 AM PDT by griswold3 (Al qaeda is guilty of hirabah (war against society) Penalty is death.)
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To: Cathy

In “Raceland” there is no irony.


24 posted on 07/16/2008 8:45:50 AM PDT by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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To: afortiori

Talk about playing into perceived prejudices.

This a parody of just about every cliche about Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., the charismatic, messianic Magic Negro and his Marxist hissy-fit spouse. Is he a closet Muslim? There is WAY too much vague information about his youth, perhaps half or more is either misdirected or wrong, but does nothing to dispel the doubts. This satiric cartoon may just be a nudge from others on the Left to Obama, to become either a little more transparent, or to cover his warts and blemishes better.


25 posted on 07/16/2008 8:48:52 AM PDT by alloysteel (Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., the candidate of change - change the rules, change your mind....)
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To: Cicero

The thing that is often missed about the original photo of Barry is that the costume is actual Kenyan dress. I’m not sure if they even noticed that the headress matches bin Laden’s (a Kenyan) in their cartoon.


26 posted on 07/16/2008 8:50:32 AM PDT by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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To: dead
It was one of those unfortunate moments when the group you wanted to mock found humor in your half-assed attempt while the group you were attempting to impress found your efforts offensive.

Well put. It's very similar to when Imus recently tried to curry favor with blacks by patronizing them with his latest "thoughts", but instead he ended up offending them. What a laugh riot!

27 posted on 07/16/2008 8:50:38 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: reasonisfaith
I think the best satire could be done on Hitchens and his fixed, self-absorbed notion of “sophisticates” and “lowly white hicks.”

I'll have to respectfully suggest that you missed Hitchens' point...

28 posted on 07/16/2008 9:11:27 AM PDT by snarks_when_bored
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To: Joe 6-pack
For those not familiar with David Horsey, he's an anti-Republican cartoonist for one of the Seattle papers, so this is not a genuine NR cover (in case there are any lurkers from Rio Linda).

The difference between this and the New Yorker cartoon is that the latter doesn't represent the cartoonist's real opinion of Obama, whereas this may be how Horsey would like to portray McCain normally.

29 posted on 07/16/2008 9:11:48 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Deb

Well, there is Kenyan dress and Kenyan dress. Obama’s family happens to belong to a Muslim tribe, and their dress is Muslim. It’s rather different from what a Christian Kikiyu would wear.


30 posted on 07/16/2008 9:21:37 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: PGR88

This comment suggests otherwise:

“These are of course exactly the sort of people who do not read the New Yorker, or go in very much for the ironic and the satirical”

Ignorance is the last thing in the world Hitchens would attibute to himself. But it’s merely a lack of general experience that leads to his stereotyped thinking.


31 posted on 07/16/2008 9:56:15 AM PDT by reasonisfaith (Liberalism is service to the self disguised as service to others.)
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To: snarks_when_bored

Don’t speak too soon (see post 31).


32 posted on 07/16/2008 9:59:44 AM PDT by reasonisfaith (Liberalism is service to the self disguised as service to others.)
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To: Cicero

To say nothing of a Maasai!


33 posted on 07/16/2008 11:11:13 AM PDT by karnage
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To: afortiori

Blimey! But I can swear I ‘eard Mr. Hitchens laughing very quietly in that last sentence. Laughin ‘ard.


34 posted on 07/16/2008 8:25:37 PM PDT by Alia
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To: reasonisfaith

‘Take that you humorous rabble!’ Hitch was poking fun at the fools sitting in leftist judgement.


35 posted on 07/16/2008 8:34:14 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: Lancey Howard

Sam would not use a Browning High-Power.


36 posted on 07/16/2008 8:38:20 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: afortiori
obvious as it should be that the New Yorker would never do anything deliberately to hurt the Democratic nominee,

No one understands the reality of liberal bias like a true liberal. What makes Hitchens unique is that TRUE liberals usually speak anything but the TRUTH which is asserted in that statement.

37 posted on 07/16/2008 8:48:15 PM PDT by Biblebelter
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To: afortiori
I still think that certain Hillary fans on the staff of the New Yorker were getting their digs in. That isn't all there is to it, but it's there. IMHO.
38 posted on 07/16/2008 9:01:21 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: MHGinTN

Well, he clearly refers to “the sort of people who do not read the New Yorker, or go in very much for the ironic and the satirical” with every indication that this stereotype is not the object of his taunting but that he too believes it.

Hitchens is a leftist with purely leftist thinking, what makes him act differently sometimes is that he enjoys being oppositional.


39 posted on 07/16/2008 9:33:56 PM PDT by reasonisfaith (Liberalism is service to the self disguised as service to others.)
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