I like it, and I have a BFA. Soooo - appeal to authority?
Well, thanks for clearing that up. I also happen to have bought both your tattoo books yesterday. I can’t wait to get them.
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I get his hate mail too. 
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Yeah, my eyes are rolling pretty hard right now, just at the article, not its targets.
This is not fine art. It’s agitprop. Clever, well placed, effective agitprop that functions exactly as it was designed.
One might think that ridiculing those who are reacting as intended, would only deepen its effectiveness. Thats what Im rolling my eyes at.
Ridiculing ones opponents may feel good in exactly the tribalistic way that ejecting black people from a Trump rally feels good.
Thats not something I want any part of, whether its red or blue factions doing it.
Fuck fascism.
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If I had never seen the movie, its hard to imagine what kind of sense this image would make. Without the film reference, is it even obvious that this is satire?
He does put a URL on the billboard, so I suppose if anyone’s genuinely trying to figure it out (instead of just making the typically brain-dead criticism from Il Douche’s followers we see here) they’ll find out quickly enough. And then they’re in for a treat if they watch the movie.
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This is decent enough advice on the whole. I’m considering bookmarking it in case I ever need to leave generic critical feedback anywhere.
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I suspect that covers most reaction… but its hardly either/or.
I was kinda grossed out by the film when it first came out. The core idea was brilliant. But it only took 5 minutes to explain that part, the rest was just kind of painful, I thought.
So turning the traditional american challenge to “Vote!” Into a monster movie poster, I guess it kind of assumes that everyone is already polarized, everyone will either love it or hate it.
And its that polarization that evokes fascism to me, more than the ideology of the other side.
The film is a matter of taste, as most are. Carpenter’s mix of political satire and low-budget silly exploitation cinema isn’t for everyone. I saw it at an early preview in college, and still remember the reaction being split between “awesome” and “what the heck was that?” (I was in the former camp, obviously, but I’d liked weird 1980s cinema since middle school).
“Polarised” is the right word, because in a sense it’s a take on the movie’s sunglasses. If you’re already figuratively wearing them and are a liberal or progressive, you’re looking at the billboard and seeing Il Douche for the greedy and corrupt monster he is. The reactions from others, who are or aren’t in on the sunglasses, are more interesting – just like in the movie, some don’t want to wear them, and some wear them and decide to ally with the monster out of greed or ignorance or pure spite or misanthropy.
The polarisation these days comes down to whether one supports right-wing populism (AKA fascism) or opposes it. So-called “moderate centrists” may bemoan the lack of civility because there’s no middle ground, but the fact is there really isn’t any middle ground between fascism and anti-fascism.
Taking that view, it’s the right-wing populism of the other side that evokes fascism to me far more than the fact that there’s another side that opposes them.
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Um, no.
First off, this says “see this monster for what he really is”, using an obscure-ish pop culture reference. That’s not ridicule, it’s imploring the viewer to be more aware.
Second, Trump isn’t just some opponent. I don’t think these would exist if John Kasich or Jeb Bush were president. Trump is a special kind of awful. I’m not against him because I’m a Democrat (I’m not), but because I’m a somewhat decent human being.
Besides, even if I did get some kind of tribal feeling from ridiculing my political opponents, it does not compare to roughing up black people. Not. At. All.
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I had hoped to be more clear: my reaction is not to the billboard. It’s turning the negative response into memes and posting them.
Merely hating on Trump is the easy part. But he is just a symptom, theres plenty more where he cam we from. I t doesnt matter what he does, no matter how shortsighted or self defeating… as long as it enrages the left, his base loves it.
Its turning that tactic around, milking right wing outrage, thats what disgusts me. I shed no tears for their feelings, I could give a shit if they think we are being open minded to their logic. But mimicking their tactics of outrage, because “they went there first” is just as self defeating and short sighted as when Trump does it.
To me, this was the obvious moral lesson of the original Star Wars trilogy. It’s not enough to merely defeat the enemy. They oppose your agenda, you need to defeat them in order to accomplish your goal. But if they can get you to hate them, then defeating them becomes the goal, and the original agenda is forgotten.
Derivative art is derivative. People are going to derive all kinds of satisfactions from it. But just pissing people off that dont agree with us doesnt bring us any closer to victory, it brings us closer to a hot, shooting civil war. That does not offer up any victory conditions that I can see.
What I see here is not hate of and outrage over his supporters but more well-earned contempt and mockery.
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Mockery is fine. Contempt, though… what does it take to earn your contempt?
Im sure that for someone on the blue team, there is a different standard. Being brown, being a woman, not owning a gun, that’s soneone else’s play book. What’s the proper standard to earn contempt from blue team member, I wonder?
When the Russians were placing facebook ads in 2016, they werent just targeting team red.
Being stupid and/or ignorant and/or spiteful enough to still support America’s foremost public grifter (since the 1980s) after three years of his regime of demonstrably corrupt and traitorous behaviour. It takes real effort to be that big of a willful sucker, and that’s before we take into account the racism and sexism that also informs their support of Biff.
Or should we just continue to pretend that these responses are all perfectly reasonable expressions of “economic anxiety”?
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