"England? We Thought You Came From the Moon."

A Current.Tv cartoon by Josh Faure-Brac (hosted on Blogging.la) on the great immigration debate of 1621, as Indians and Buffalos debate how to cope with and control the wave of undocumented aliens flooding their shores.

Comments

[Anon]

I'm not sure if that was supposed to be pro-immigration or anti-immigration. In any case, it was pretty damn funny!

[thoreau]

I'm with anon. I don't know what (if any) slant was intended, but it was funny.

[Warren]

ditto

[Marcvs]

Gotta go with others on this one. What position, exactly, was that for?

[brian423]

No offense to anyone here, but I wonder if it tells how politically polarized our country is that everybody's first question to a satirical cartoon is, "Whose side are you on?" Satire is arguably best when it refuses to take up sides on anything.

[thoreau]

BRIAN IS A MORON!!!! HE'S WRONG!!! HE'S ONE OF THEM!!!!

But seriously, that's a good point.

[Marcvs]

Brian,

I agree with your point when both sides of an issue are equally ridiculous, or the issue itself is -- maybe the current immigration debate falls into this category. However, I would argue that satire is often best when it makes clear how ridiculous the opposing side is (e.g. A Modest Proposal).

[Yogi]

I'd agree with Marcvs, and Colbert is a great example of this. The term that someone used to describe it, which I thought was great, is 'philosophical judo'. Using the weight of the opposing argument to make it look it ridiculous just like someone using judo techniques can make an attacker look silly. (As in any Bruce Lee movie.)

[Eric the .5b]

No offense to anyone here, but I wonder if it tells how politically polarized our country is that everybody's first question to a satirical cartoon is, "Whose side are you on?" Satire is arguably best when it refuses to take up sides on anything.

Bull. You can't make satire without a point of view on some question. It can be "these guys and these and even these guys are wrong", but satire is never neutral.

It came across as clearly unsympathetic to the louder current pro-immigration arguments, I thought. I had to restrain a loud snort when the tree-hugger Indian was praising the blankets the settlers had given them...