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Obama "Joker" Poster Campaign

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I've seen some news reports of posters picturing The U.S. president Barack Obama as a joker from the newest batman movie. The media smears this campaign but the comments on the internet seem to be on the postees side. What do you think of it?

Here, for example, is the media report with comments attacking the Media itself.

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I've seen some news reports of posters picturing The U.S. president Barack Obama as a joker from the newest batman movie. The media smears this campaign but the comments on the internet seem to be on the postees side. What do you think of it?

The first thing that comes to mind is that it's non-intellectual. This is more a sense-of-life reaction to the Obama administration. That said, I find it interesting as an example of the right engaging in a kind of cultural activism that has historically been the province of the left. (Organizations like Bureaucrash are similar; left-wing style tactics deployed in service of right-wing goals.) It's also entertaining watching the left whine when it's subjected to the kind of tactics that it has been deploying against others for years. They've got a bit of a glass jaw -- they can dish it out, but they can't take it.

Ultimately, the course of history is determined by ideas. This sort of perceptual-level response may be an interesting symptom of how people are feeling, but I'm doubtful it has any significant effect on the longer-run course of events.

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The first thing that comes to mind is that it's non-intellectual. This is more a sense-of-life reaction to the Obama administration. That said, I find it interesting as an example of the right engaging in a kind of cultural activism that has historically been the province of the left. (Organizations like Bureaucrash are similar; left-wing style tactics deployed in service of right-wing goals.) It's also entertaining watching the left whine when it's subjected to the kind of tactics that it has been deploying against others for years. They've got a bit of a glass jaw -- they can dish it out, but they can't take it.

I share the same opinion of the poster and the other activism that has been routinely used by the left in the past, but is now being used by the right; and in this I include the interruption of town hall meetings organized to discuss health care reform. When the left was doing it, they would defend it as their right to free speech, and the right-wing journalists would consider them Nazis; now the right is doing it and defending their activities as free speech, and the left consider them (insert what ever derogatory word). However, the right-wings use of this type of material isn't that new: they've used much more anti-intellectual material in their religious war. Material that includes the sinister chopped fetus poster, and the different "God" billboards. What's next, street riots in Seattle during a tea party?

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I think Pink Floyd said it best:

*Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are.

You well heeled big wheel, ha ha charade you are.

And when your hand is on your heart,

You're nearly a good laugh,

Almost a joker,

With your head down in the pig bin,

Saying "Keep on digging...

Pig stain on your fat chin.

What do you hope to find.

When you're down in the pig mine.

You're nearly a laugh,

You're nearly a laugh

But you're really a cry.*

-Pigs part one from their album Animals.

Will Obama ever stop digging? It doesn't look like it to me. The socialists can dish it out, but they can't take the heat. Ha Ha charade they are...

Not that the conservatives are offering much better!

Edited by MissLemon
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Seems like something

:):rolleyes:

Fat idiot has to ruin everybody's fun. It's like watching Larry King rap with Snoop Dog, on network TV--it makes everyone who raps a douche from that point on.

How is irritating people good? How is this making a dent? The whole thing doesn't even make sense. Obama is not the Joker.

Alex Jones irritates people. But it's not his idea, he just stole the poster and uses it to plug his website. Hopefully the author's lawyer already sent him a nice letter about it.

The poster does make sense: Obama is a villain.

Edited by Jake_Ellison
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How is irritating people good? How is this making a dent? The whole thing doesn't even make sense. Obama is not the Joker.

It makes a dent because it's an expression of free speech that offends the current political machine and makes them sputter "racist... racist..." Irritating people is good because it's fun to do! Nobody should take themselves that seriously. Irritate them, and irritate them some more. What other use is there for them other than to amuse me?

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Obama is a villain. So can we also portray him as Two Face? The Penguin? The Black Mask? ad nauseum. Why the Joker? And why "Socialism" under it? The Joker hated politicians and all suits in general. He was certainly no socialist. Obama is most definitely "a schemer", as the now most famous version of the Joker put it. He isn't trying to create terror or anarchy.

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I've seen some news reports of posters picturing The U.S. president Barack Obama as a joker from the newest batman movie. The media smears this campaign but the comments on the internet seem to be on the postees side. What do you think of it?

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/11/dark-knight-fan/

from James Lillis last fall, after the election - too bad this version didn't get slapped up & around. The contrast between the two posters will make for an interesting paper in visual rhetoric some day...

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