Paleo Pat at Political Byline kicked a hornet’s nest by posting a picture of Obama next to a noose, along with the text, “Asphyxiation/The Fucking Solution.” He has taken it down now, but it can still be seen at Gawker.
While I think I understand his motivation in posting the image, I think he handled it poorly. We have exchanged blogroll links, but I do not know him personally. Since I don’t have any reason to doubt him, though, I am wiling to take him at his word that his intent was (as he stated in the original post) to hold up a mirror to the increasingly unhinged and violent imagery directed at Sarah Palin, and to a lesser extent, John McCain.
By posting it when he was clearly angry, though, he sabotaged his own message. “You guys think this is so great? Here, see how you like it!”
It would take an exceedingly deft hand to make the point he was trying for, using that imagery, without giving the wrong impression or allowing it to be easily taken out of context. It is not something I would want to try, but if I did, I would have attempted a tone of clinical neutrality, saying of the hateful Palin images, “This is apparently okay, and so is this,” and then follow with the Obama/noose image. “If those are okay, why is this not?”
The main flaw in that argument is that most people would not find any of the images acceptable. The ever-angry, ever-self-absorbed fringe that you find at places like the Democratic Underground and Daily KOS that find the Palin images amusing and worthy of praise would never accept that those are just as bad as a hateful image of Obama. If they were capable of that level of rational introspection, they would not harbor such an irrational fear and hatred of Sarah Palin to begin with.
Although I’m sure the irony utterly escapes the writer, there is a blog focusing on this story (Washington Scandal [no link from me]) which demonizes Paleo Pat, while at the same time having in the sidebar of his site, and thus seen on every page, a photoshop of a half-dressed Sarah Palin. It is highly unlikely that anyone so dense and hypocritical as to claim outrage over a picture of Obama next to a noose while simultaneously highlighting a picture like that will be able to internalize the message that the hatred is wrong no matter where it originates.
The argument, then, cannot be with the creators and fans of all things anti-Palin, but with the observers, the (hopefully) reasonable onlookers who do not embrace the hatred, even if they do not reject those that are spewing it. If those people see what the mirror of the hatred from the left really shows — instead of all the ‘cry wolf’ charges of racism that have almost lost all meaning — then maybe they will reject the hatred on both sides.
Like I said earlier, it is not something I would try because I do not think I could pull it off. Like Paleo Pat, I think my attempt would result in being caricatured rather than in getting my message across.
Was Paleo Pat wrong to create and post that image? Maybe, maybe not. Only he knows what his true thoughts and intentions were. But he definitely should have thought twice, and then maybe a third time — and then made sure he was calm — before doing so. (I think we need ‘email goggles‘ for blogs, too.)
To those that are crying foul and rushing to throw stones, though, I say look in the mirror first.
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