• QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
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    1 year ago

    Is it just me getting unreasonably irritated when the artist captions the things they’re depicting, as if we’re either too dumb to understand or they suck at making subtle references?

    • LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      It’s a political comics thing that has its roots in England around 250 300 years ago. The comic is meant simultaneously to be funny (and therefore disarming) and legitimate political propaganda. To ensure that the political propaganda message is not lost on the masses they label everything to make sure their message most clearly gets across.

      For example, see this political cartoon from 1903. Panama_canal_cartoon_1903.jpg

      • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
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        1 year ago

        That’s actually cool to know, though I dislike the practice, they kinda look like previous century memes lol

        For example, see this political cartoon from 1903.

        That was lost on me either way, but I guess it’s just my lack of knowledge on US’s history 👀

        • Phrodo_00@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The cartoon shows the US aligning with Panama separatist factions to break from Colombia so that they can permit the construction of the channel.

          Panama was a separate colony from Colombia, but they joined when becoming independent.

          • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I find it utterly hilarious that the cited purpose is clarity, but the referenced comic required explanation. Bravo.

            Also thanks for the explanation because I wasn’t getting it, either. Makes sense, though. Give it a few hundred years and English might be so different the labels wouldn’t have mattered at all, let alone missing context.

            • thatgirlwasfire@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I’m guessing you just don’t know History very well, i didn’t need any sort of explanation to understand the comic.

              • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Good for you! Totally and completely irrelevant to my point.

                The comic already required explanation … while it had text on it. Nothing you say, do, or believe will EVER change the fact that the comic required explanarion about as soon as it was posted.

                Grow up and realize you are not the main character. Your beliefs or knowledge do not change reality.

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Well, his audience seems to pretty obviously need things spelled out for them. In very, very short words.

        • FormerlyChucks@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          At least when Garrison does it it’s so over the top it’s farcical and ridiculous which makes it funny unlike this comic

      • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Ben Garrison. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of political philosophy most of the jokes will go over a typical reader’s head. There’s also Ben’s perennialist outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Nouvelle Droite literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Ben Garrison truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Ben’s antimodernist catchphrase “Wubba Lubba Dub Dub,” which itself is a cryptic reference to Solzhenitsyn’s Russian epic Gulag Archipelago. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Ben’s genius wit unfolds itself on their phone screens. What fools… how I pity them. 😂

        And yes, by the way, i DO have a Trump tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It’s for the ladies’ eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they’re within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid 😎