This fascinates me. Like giant close-up pictures of bugs fascinate me.
Published by Lisa Kansas October 14th, 2008 in Looks like someone needs an intervention, Obamarama
(Hat tip: Shakesville)
It isn’t merely the blatant racism shown that draws my eye and my attention; it’s also the conflation of all the particular issues and how they are presented. To wit:
1. Barack Obama is an Arab and/or Muslim.
Cognitive dissonance analysis:
You can tell this by the fact that he is wearing a turban and that his middle name is Hussein…
Saudi Arabian men wear turbans and Saudi Arabia is in the Middle East and all Saudis are Muslim. …um, the middle east consists solely of Muslim Saudi Arabia which means…
…all Middle Easterners are Arab and Muslim? My Iranian (not Arab) and Lebanese (not Muslim) friends would be really startled to hear that.
Barack Obama’s father was from Kenya, which is in East Africa.
They don’t wear turbans much in East Africa. They do, however, wear them a lot more in India; it is part of the Sikh religion, which is not remotely related to Islam.
Most Kenyans are Christian.
Hussein is most commonly an Arab name, though. Got to give ‘em that one.
What about the name “Barack?” It’s now African, actually originally Hebrew.
Maybe Barack Obama is a Jewish African!
2. Barack Obama makes women have more abortions.
Cognitive dissonance analysis:
Barack Obama performs abortions? Okay, probably not.
Barack Obama impregnates lots of women who are then going to have to get abortions. Probably not that either?
Barack Obama has liberalized abortion law nationally. Well, no…how about at the state level? Not as far as I know; as far as I know, Barack Obama has never been associated with any law that relaxes any current restrictions on abortions anywhere.
Barack Obama promotes unplanned pregnancy, which is overwhelmingly the main cause of abortion. …No, actually he generally attempts to pass legislation that reduces the number of unplanned pregnancies.
Wait, I know–Barack Obama is not out on the streets physically stopping women from entering clinics to obtain abortions!
Well, I believe that.
3. Barack Obama promotes gay marriage.
Cognitive dissonance analysis:
Barack Obama is on record multiple times as specifically not supporting gay marriage.
So, Barack Obama is marrying more gay men? Personally, as a bigamist, or in the capacity of the priesthood?
It only took us four lines of text to hit the point of extreme ridiculousness. Moving on…
4. Barack Obama raises taxes.
Cognitive dissonance analysis:
True, if you make more than a quarter-million dollars a year.
The creator of this billboard makes more than a quarter-million dollars a year?
Why don’t I believe that?
Maybe most of the people who are going to see this billboard make more than a quarter-million dollars a year…anybody could be on the road at any time! or maybe he should move it to “Wall Street.” Or tape it to the side of the Washington Monument.
5. Barack Obama increases gun regulations.
No cognitive dissonance here; fair enough. He does.
It sure would be a boring billboard if that was all that was on it, though. And it wouldn’t make the creator look anywhere near as stupid, which would be a shame.
Thanks for contributing to my surreal Tuesday!
The fright over “Hussein” always amuses me, because I can think of two people with that surname, and the other one is a former England cricket captain. Cricket just isn’t that scary.
But the billboard is hitting all the current right-wing bug-a-boos, so it’s successful like that.
Antigone: Hee! Lisa Kansas: It’s kinda apples-to-hand grenades for me personally…The billboard is disgusting and repulsive, and makes me wanna throw something. OTOH, the dust mite picture is nifty, and could easily be tweaked into a kickass scifi picture.
What amazes me (I mean, beyond all the obvious stuff) is the sheer superfluity of the racism. It’s like it’s not enough to point out that Obama supports policies with which right-leaning voters probably disagree; to really make the argument stick, they’ve got to use this horribly racist imagery as well.
Also, I find it amusing that it’s not “raising taxes,” but taxes in general. Apparently, these people think the state should be funded by, I don’t know, ill-gotten booty garnered from raiding missions off the Barbary coast or something. Vote Pirate in ‘08!
I wish he did promote gay marriage. He could give a shout-out against Prop 8, surely? But no, I guess he doesn’t want to get too close to that one. ffs, why does someone always have to get thrown under the bus?
Andrew: trufax, when my brother was 6 years old, he first saw Nasser Hussain (sic) on TV (getting that 207 in Edgbaston in ‘97 - yes, I have a fucking Wisden memory for good cricket), he said ‘Nasser Hussain?! Isn’t he the evil one who’s going to kill us?’ We are talking about a mistake a 6-year-old child makes. Definitely an important electoral issue.
Following a troll-influx stressing this middle-name issue, a lot of people on 538 added ‘Hussein’ to their username. It’s like being a Fenderson!
ahem, IRL I have the same surname as a well-known Middle East politician. And I’m ethnically Scottish, and I’m a pagan.