Christopher Hitchens on the Barack Obama cartoon controversy

Mirror UK ^ | 7/15/2008 | Christopher Hitchens

[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".

[allmendream]

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

[PGR88]

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.

[griswold3]

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

Obama will NOT be criticized, so sayeth the Obamamessiah!

[Deb]

In “Raceland” there is no irony.

[alloysteel]

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.

[Deb]

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.

[subterfuge]

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!

[snarks_when_bored]

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...

[Verginius Rufus]

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.

[Cicero]

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.

[reasonisfaith]

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.

[reasonisfaith]

Don’t speak too soon (see post 31).

[karnage]

To say nothing of a Maasai!

[Alia]

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

[MHGinTN]

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

[MHGinTN]

Sam would not use a Browning High-Power.

[Biblebelter]

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.

[Billthedrill]

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.

[reasonisfaith]

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.