CSotD: Mixed Bag Monday
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I wasn’t going to feature any political cartoons today, but this one not only made me laugh but is extraordinarily topical, given that it has just been revealed that our Secretary of Defense set up a personal Signal chat on his personal phone on which he gave friends and family advance details about the attack on the Houthis.
The White House has explained that “Recently-fired ‘leakers’ are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the President’s agenda, but the administration will continue to hold them accountable,” but that doesn’t apply to Loose-Lips Pete because he’s a good dude.
Or something.
Anyway, it stood out in a crowd of otherwise unremarkable Easter cartoons.
There’s a little bit of politics, too, in this
Juxtaposition of the Day
I was struck by two strips on the same day about Twitter. Twitter isn’t “Twitter” anymore, but both are right about how toxic and unpleasant the place has become, which, to use the cliche, is not a bug but a feature.
Musk has deliberately positioned the site to advance his agenda and makes no attempt to hide it.
When I used to lecture on political cartoons, I’d explain to students that well into the 20th Century each town of any size had two papers, one Democratic and one Republican, and that, for instance, a presidential speech would be Page One in one paper and buried in the back of the other, and that their editorials would be similarly skewed.
But as we eased into the current century, I found I could shortcut the explanation by comparing it to Fox News and MSNBC, and the kids got the point.
If today I were telling high school kids about Der Stürmer, I think we’re getting close to the point where I could just say “Like Twitter” because I don’t think they call it “X” either.
And I hope they don’t miss the slant of the place, though that brings us to
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
Three of the more intelligent humor strips hit on the same depressing topic today, which is people’s deliberate attempts to avoid knowing what’s going on.
Danae’s attempts to live in a fantasy world are an ongoing feature of Non Sequitur, which often contrasts her avoidance of reality with her sister Kate’s more grounded outlook, and even Lucy, her talking horse, has a more responsible view of life.
By contrast, Frazz brings in an anonymous kid for a similar dialogue about avoidance, but makes the point that editing the news begins before the consumer gets to make choices. Of course, it always has, and see my remarks above about partisan newspapers in the Good Old Days.
However, there is also the double factor of the decline of print and the growth of on-line reporting. Back when newspapers were healthy and thick, the act of leafing through the paper often meant noticing a news story or feature you wouldn’t have sought out. Today, newspapers don’t have the bulk to offer that range of coverage, and on-line news tends to push forward what you were already looking for.
We’ve gone from “All the News That’s Fit To Print” to “All the News That’s Hip, We Print” because it’s all about marketing, often at the expense of important things that ain’t got that swing.
Finally in this juxtaposition, F Minus makes the point that you can’t place this all on the shoulders of the young, however much they may prefer TikTok to more serious coverage. There’s no fool like an old fool, because it takes a lifetime of practice to cultivate true ignorance.
Though in defense of my generation, I’d note that gray hair seemed to outnumber pink hair at the recent Hands Off gatherings.
But it does little good to point fingers. It’s better to seek allies and to shake the dust from your feet rather than waste time with those who defend their right not to know.
Juxtaposition of the Day #3
Non Sequitur returns with this cold splash of reality, which then gets a boost from Mr. Boffo.
Book publishing isn’t the only industry full of nepo babies and vacuous celebrities, but they certainly do seem to flock there.
One of the facts of life is that the slush pile where unsolicited manuscripts by unknown writers end up seems to pile up for a while and then get purged all at once, so that a manuscript can sit for two months or more while the author hopefully imagines it being passed around as in Mr. Boffo, when, in fact, it might as well have gone straight into the trash as seen in Non Sequitur.
On the other hand, a friend and colleague was at a cocktail party, and was telling someone about some research she was doing for a historical fiction novel when a woman in the next pod of people said, “I couldn’t help but overhear. I’m a new agent …”
Still on the topic of taking a chance, Maeve is considering moving to Paris to be with her beau, though there’s a lot to be figured out, not the least of which is that she had been working for him which seems a bigger risk to true love than merely changing continents.
Susan is fretting over a more specific problem, which is that the three friends at the center of the strip have often been seen bonding over coffee. Harvey is right that there’s no need to lose touch, but, then again, Susan’s right and he just doesn’t get it.
Betty and Bub are basically replaying a scene out of Deborah Tannen’s You Just Don’t Understand.
One of the examples of missed communication she cites is a wife’s assumption that “I’m going to take a walk” includes an invitation, while her husband assumes she’d have said so if she wanted company.
The book is full of similarly unnecessary missed connections and is potentially a life-changer, but I’m going to assume that Betty has read it. Or that she doesn’t need to.
This cracked me up and so I venture this response:
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