Posted on 03/13/2008 7:27:57 PM PDT by B-Chan
Will.i.am Pushes Creepiness Factor Past 11 for Obama
Effort Borders on Fascist Chic
Perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the guy who brought you lyrics that equate the CIA with the KKK and seem to yearn for those always mystical golden days ("whatever happened to humanity") is no student of history and would thus make a video that sounds creepily reminiscent of a -- well, hell, I hate to say it -- a Hitler rally. It's one thing for a stadium full of drunk people to shout out the name of a rock band. I'll even give a pass to people who've worked hard in a campaign getting riled up during a victory speech. But it's another thing entirely to use a politician's name, being chanted over and over again, as the backdrop for a slick and empty-headed production. If you thought the first Will.i.am video for Obama was creepy, get a load of this one.
I'm in no way suggesting that Barack Obama has any similarities at all with Hitler or Stalin. His politics don't match. He's too smart a campaigner for that. Besides, the Barack Obama campaign has no official contact with the people making these videos. None. Zilch. Nada. (Right?) Though the campaign did tap Shepard "Obey" Fairey for posters. And Fairey's work makes an appearance in the video. Ahem: "The Obey campaign attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the campaign and their relationship with their surroundings. Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda provoke thought and possible frustration. ... "
Fairey knows exactly what he's doing; he's a student of the form. And if his enthusiasm for Barack Obama gets the better of him, if it has him sort of blurring the lines between the intended message of his art (compare and contrast) and some of the inspirations, then so be it.
And let me be extra clear. For targeting the youth vote, for getting an edge in the Democratic Primary, these efforts are brilliant, bordering on genius. The first video is still piling up the views. This video -- which also seems to be tweaked to target Black and Hispanic voters -- will do the same. The posters are amazing. Hell, I'd hang one up in my house! But if I'm a savvy Republican campaigner, I'm going to make an issue of these. You can bet your butt that if John McCain -- who's old, cranky and has a military background -- started putting up these posters, there'd be a huge outcry. (But you can also bet there's someone on the McCain side saying, "Man, I wish we could get away with that!")
It also brings into question Obama's over-ardent supporters and what appears to be historical or political ignorance (I know such ignorance is a fine American tradition). I don't expect pop stars and starlets to know much about anything other than singing or acting. And I can forgive them for making fools of themselves in their glossy-magazine interviews. But to have Jessica Alba -- who undoubtedly has her one-millionth men's magazine feature suggesting this is the year she'll quit taking crappy roles and turn into a real actress (but until then, here are some half-naked shots) -- say anything to anyone about politics is a bit much. To have her saying anything about politics while a maddened crowd shouts "Obama, Obama, Obama" in the background is entirely too much.
What really gets my goat (and, really, I'm down to my last goat, so please stop), is that Will.i.am seems to be slightly ignorant of pop history as well. I'm not the first to make this comparison, but didn't he see Living Colour's video for "Cult of Personality"? (Thanks, Sony, for not allowing us to embed that one.)
But maybe it's just this sort of chanty, fascist-appearing (and sounding) messaging is hot right now. After all, Under Armour's Super Bowl spot -- from the chanting, to the whiff of genetic superiority, to the red and black colors -- looked like little more than something from the History Channel's 1932 reel with a multicultural cast thrown in.
I saw the video before reading this article and I posted on another thread here the other day that it was a creepy, nutty video that no halfway normal person could find appealing..... so I guess we will have to disagree on what the ‘normal’ range of response is in this country. For me, a political video that consists largely of fervent chanting of a politician’s name, with no quality ideas worth speaking of, is creepy propaganda. It reminded me of Nazi and Soviet propaganda aimed at irrational manipulation of opinion without contributing anything to the contest of ideas. Creepy.
My exact thought, Munich!!!!
Yeah, dem sure is purty...
I’ll agree on “nutty” and unappealing. But it doesn’t scare me any more than the whole situation before the election does. BTW, it scares me less, because there’s no way he’ll be elected. If he puts Hillary out of the way, though, that will be enough.
Hillary’s cause and friends are more of a threat to our country, IMO. Our USA is too feminized and full of pretenses of bothered sensitivities. And men won’t fight for our Nation under her.
Tim Robbins loves to play creepy, nasty conservatives, because he believes that's what conservatives are. His character in Arlington Road is a perfect example.
Obama's economic proposals from a national service corps, to dirigist protectionist measures in a bill the classifies corporations that go along with them as 'patriotic' corporations, are distinctly fascist. And the posters, well, straight out of the heyday of fascism.
If I didn't have a more important tagline (no cheating and looking at other threads where I explained it, but as a challenge: what is the completion, and who said it?) I'd take "White men are the Jews of liberal fascism" as mine. No, I don't think Obama's contemplating genocide against his version of 'Jews', but other than comparisons with Hitler are apt.
“I’m in no way suggesting that Barack Obama has any similarities at all with Hitler...”
My wife just got me the book, I’ve only had time read into the first chapter - but I agree. The link between the “science” of genetic purity (the “science” makes it true and right - we just need a Leader to bring it about) and the “science” of global warming is especially scary.
Time to raise the voting mental age.
Yes, very creepy, very scary.. The Democrats will be the ones that take the country to political violence as they did in the 60’s and early 70’s.
This contest between Hillary and Obama is really taking shape to be a dangerous situation this summer. They are both SO CLOSE to winning the nomination, but with Obama ahead, Hillary is going to have to resort to some pretty dirty tricks to steal the nomination via the Super-delegates. Then Obama’s folks are going to burn down at least a dozen cities in response (their own nieghborhoods, of course, since they won’t be allowed to riot in liberal white neighborhoods and the conservatives are all armed). Obama’s response will be to condemn the violence while encouraging the Of course, the media will blame Dick Cheney and Halliburton for the whole thing!
If Obama wins, the next opportunity violence will be delayed until November when Obama loses the election to McCain. He will lose because, deep down, blue collar whites in the Democrat party don’t really want an closeted afro-centric activist endorsed by Louis Farrakan to be President. When he loses, the cry will go up again as it has in 2000 and 2004 challenging the election. Democrats and the media don’t realize it, but they are working feverishly to bring third world politics and election violence to the United States.
Either way, the white devils may to have to pay in 2008. A lot of represssed but simmering truths are waiting to be exposed.
Jessica Alba could easily convince me to do a lot of things. But she can’t make me follow Barack Obama.
America does NOT tolerate racist, black pantheresque rhetoric. The America they embrace is from the riots of the 1960's. The America they see in the hearts is from the 1860's.
We don't need this crap, we are so far beyond their kind of filth.
Bump
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