The Politics/Exploitation of Fear

Seriously…This is News?

The July cover of the The New Yorker printed and rolled out cover  art that’s apparently pissing lots of people off. The cartoon, named The Politics of Fear, depicts Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as a “Muslim” and a militant black woman in the oval office, flag burning in the fireplace and Bin Laden’s picture on the wall. I got a few phone calls from my friends who were upset, but I was really busy yesterday so I didn’t check it out. My reaction?

Who cares? Have you read The New Yorker ? Alot of what they have in that publication is just plain false. Some of it’s true, and thought-provoking. Much of it is unfunny. Some of it is frikkin’ hilarious. But with so much crap to talk about like health care, immigration, school fees, genocide, global warming, energy, etc. I knew the News Media would focus on this shit.

Why should they? This isn’t a story. I’m an Obama supporter, but this doesn’t bother me. The New Yorker tried to be funny, and it didn’t work. When I got a chance, as soon as I saw the picture, I went online and actually looked at the magazine. Within the pages, was actually two articles on Obama and his history in Chicago and early beginnings. Although some of the content is questionable, it’s a news magazine and that’s expected. I found nothing wrong with it. Yeh it was unfunny and dumbass people will look at it an some will believe that Obama’s Muslim and his wife owns an AK-47. If anything, Muslim people should be offended cuz apparently Muslim = Evil.

The cartoon’s name alone ( The Politics of Fear ) should have flagged off all criticism, or at least postponed it till the reader look further passed the surface. And that’s the problem, moFo’s don’t do that anymore. To me, it’s saying, “This is what the media and political propaganda is feeding people and trying to pass off as truth“. And the media, true to form, eats it up. It’s always hilarious (and saddening) to watch the news media scald people for allegedly playing on people’s fear, and then insinuating much much worse in the same programming. It’s like more and more, the few “more credible” news reporters out there sell out.

The bottom line is:

People, get over yourself. It’s political satire. It’s not offensive, it’s just not funny. Please go waste your time being outraged over something else. As far as I’m concerned, The New Yorker got what they wanted, attention. And that mess didn’t even have to be funny. What do you think? Is this a nonsensical waste of time, or am I missing a larger point?

Discuss…