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AAEC-feed Editorial cartooning

When A Quixotic Analogy Is Wrong But Still Right

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John Backderf and Mike Peterson weren’t the only ones to notice Trump Cult cartoonist Ben Garrison‘s recent cartoon heralding the former president’s heroic crusade against social media titans.

Liberal site Raw Story called out the cartoonist:

Conservative columnist Ben Garrison this week drew a cartoon depicting former President Donald Trump as the heroic knight Don Quixote — without realizing that essentially means he’s calling Trump delusional.

Second Nexus, also left wing, joined in:

Far-right cartoonist Ben Garrison frequently posts bigoted illustrations of conservatives’ favorite enemies on his website, but the absurdity of his work is even more apparent in his portrayals of former President Donald Trump.

Garrison often paints Trump as an athletic, god-like figure leading the crusade against supposed enemies of freedom.

But a recent Garrison masterpiece is going viral for all the wrong reasons.

Right wing media nemesis Media Matters piled on:

The problem, of course, is that Don Quixote is a delusional literary character who thought he was a great knight, and he charged at the windmills believing them to be giants. As the story goes, he then broke his lance and got flung off his horse. From this 17th-century novel comes the phrase “tilting at windmills,” meaning to fight against imaginary enemies.

All those sites show reaction, of the ridicule sort, from various Twitter accounts.

But none apparently read Ben’s column accompanying the cartoon
(posted at the same time?) that claims he knows what he’s doing:

Yes, I realize that the Don Quixote character from Cervantes’ novel attacked imaginary enemies as represented by the windmill, but Donald Trump Quixote’s enemies are not imagined.

They are all too real and dangerous.

Though some on social media agreed that Ben had it right.

Wonkette took up the Garrison banner with an article headlined
“Comic Artiste Ben Garrison Wasn’t Talking About *That* Don Quixote, You Guys”:

Because Garrison has more than a bit in common with the man of La Mancha, he did not back down. Rather, he followed that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far … and stood by his cartoon. He explained that in his artistic interpretation, “the windmill enemy is not imagined — it is real” and it is running away from big, tough, not-at-all delusional Donald Trump.

With a screenshot from Ben’s Twitter account.

 

All the ribbing seems to have gotten to Ben who responded with a cartoon today:


all art © Grrr Graphics

and a column to go with the “Last Laugh”:

Apparently nobody read my post about Trump charging a windmill. They said I didn’t understand the Don Quixote metaphor. In my post I explained I did indeed understand it, but as an artist I’m free to take liberties with any metaphor I like.

This is the part where Ben speaks slowly so the mentally challenged Left can understand…

 

Sought a “fair and balanced” approach, but found nothing on conservative sites.

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Comments 6

  1. Polar bears aren’t dying, Steele Dossier was paid for by Ds and proven false, Icebergs cleave everyday and not because of cars, Obama weaponized the IRS, HRC erased her own server, Kavanaugh will forever be thot a rapist w no evidence, One person was assassinated June 6 but its bad as 9-11 & Benghazi, 1619 Project is racist fiction, Avanatti didn’t get Trump he was just sent prison, Russian collusion didn’t happen and guns alone have never killed a single person but I’ve seen everyone of these lies and hundreds of others in cartoon form for years and nobody’s questions their validity.

    But this guy doesn’t use a 17th century metaphor to the lefts liking and he’s painted as an idiot.* That’s called punching down.

    *don’t know Mr. Garrison but freedom of the press allows him to be just as wrong as the hundreds of drowning polar bear cartoons that won all those pulitzers.

  2. “I MEANT TOO DO THAT HA HA LIBS YOU TOOK THE BATE”

  3. The point of using a metaphor is to attempt to relate an idea in a manner you believe is more suited to being understood by your audience, by using material they are familiar with.

    Using image evoking a metaphor that many are familiar with, but intending exactly the opposite, only guarantees your point will not be taken in the manner in which you meant it.

    Garrison is indeed welcome to take artistic liberties with any metaphor he wants, just like the rest of us are free to consider him an idiot when he repeatedly does this – not only has he made this same mistake with the concept of ’tilting at windmills’ at least three times, but he’s also put out cartoons similarly misusing Samson and the Wizard of Oz, to name a few.

    So to answer your question, Lester, Garrison is an idiot for repeatedly and vehemently insisting he’s not saying what he’s quite clearly saying (though that’s just one of many reasons). We’ll leave the discussion on what that makes you as an exercise for the reader.

  4. Mr. Merritt, I didn’t ask a question. Not one.

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