A couple of old cartoons that would work just as well in response to the Connecticut shooting spree…should I just send them out again and take the week off?
LOS ANGELES TIMES CARTOON: A New Logo for the U.C. System
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I draw cartoons for The Los Angeles Times about issues related to California and the Southland (metro Los Angeles).
This week: University of California officials said they were trying to project a “forward-looking spirit” when they replaced the university system’s ornate, tradition-clad logo with a sleek, modern one. What they got was an online revolt complete with mocking memes, Twitter insults and a petition to restore the old logo. Students and alumni have taken to Facebook and Photoshop to express their displeasure, showing the new symbol ready to be flushed down a toilet and as a permanently stalled computer operating system. One critic suggested the controversial image be tattooed on its creators’ foreheads as punishment.
SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Self-Censoring of America
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How Sellouts Are Killing Growth
Are you a sellout?
If you came of age during the 1960s, whether or not to sell out was the existential question of your generation. Which to choose? Reckless youthful abandon or corporate “adult” obeisance? Films that dealt with that quandary, from “The Graduate” to Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” launched a million rap sessions, yet Baby Boomers are sure to leave this ethical dilemma unresolved.
My fellow travelers, we of unlucky, witty Generation X, have lived constrained careers with fewer options. Coupled with shrinking financial aid for college, the dismal job market made the choice between Wall Street and the Peace Corps depressingly simple. So we Gen Xers projected the debate onto practitioners of pop culture. Vanilla Ice, Milli Vanilli and The Knack, judged all commerce no art, were shunned. Artists who cashed in could be deemed genuine, but only if they took chances and/or made decisions that were bad for business: The Clash, Elvis Costello, RUN-DMC, Nirvana.
The booms have gotten shorter, the busts longer, the class divide deeper. The long-predicted winner-take-all society has arrived. A higher share of the income generated by each economic sector goes to a select few; others fight over scraps.
The cost of integrity and the payoff for selling out have risen. So fewer Americans are taking chances.
People are holding on to jobs they hate, making it harder for young people to find work. Businesses are hanging tight, picking safe bets (stuff that worked before) and slashing budgets for research and innovation. Banks and other would-be investors are hoarding cash. As a result, fewer entrepreneurs are starting new businesses.
Everyone makes concessions to the marketplace. I pride myself on ideological consistency and calling things as I see them even if offends my fans. But I rarely put vulgar words into my cartoons because newspaper and magazine editors won’t run them. (If I lived in, say, England, I wouldn’t have this problem.)
Charles Schulz was one of the richest men in America, his work licensed on billions of dollars of merchandise, yet comics fans lionize “Peanuts” because the strip itself is edgy and relatively uncompromising—more art than commerce.
“Right now, the pressures of the music industry encourage me to change the walk of my songs,” the Somali-Canadian musician K’naan wrote recently. “My lyrics should change, my label’s executives said; radio programmers avoid subjects too far from fun and self-absorption.”
It’s easy to tell K’naan to keep it real. But it’s not realistic.
Keeping it real doesn’t pay the rent.
Selling out does.
“Good work always finds success,” an old boss assured me. What a lie! The cutout bins of bookstores and CD stores (if you can find one) provide all the proof you need. People buy what advertising and publicists tell them to buy. If a cool author falls in the woods, she might make a sound—but no one will ever find her book at the front of the store, much less getting interviewed by Jon Stewart.
When artists rely on capitalist markets—hopelessly corrupt, governed by gatekeepers who distribute and promote vacuous apolitical pabulum over work that challenges conventional wisdom—the freedom to choose integrity over selling out is a fraud.
“If this was censorship, I thought, it was a new kind—one I had to do to myself,” K’naan continued. “The label wasn’t telling me what to do. No, it was just giving me choices and information about my audience.”
Make a living or starve. Or give up your dreams and silence yourself. Can anyone call that a real choice?
We see the same “choice” in politics. Senator Marco Rubio recently embarrassed himself twice, first by pandering to the idiot base of the Republican Party, then walking back his stance on creationism.
“Whether the Earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries,” he told GQ.
After a month of ridicule, Rubio acknowledged the existence of science: “[The age of the Earth] is at least 4.5 billion years old.”
Rubio explained his reasoning: “I just think in America we should have the freedom to teach our children whatever it is we believe. And that means teaching them science, but also parents have the right to teach them the theology and to reconcile those two things.”
Science isn’t reconcilable with faith. Rubio knows that. But he also knows what would happen to his presidential aspirations if he admitted the truth.
God is a lie.
If you believe in God, you are stupid.
If you think the earth is 6,000 years old, that humans and dinosaurs coexisted, and/or that climate change isn’t real or caused by people, you are an idiot.
Since many of my readers believe in God, the words above will cost me sales and clients. Optimists might argue that being forthright about my beliefs will attract at least as many new customers. But that’s not the way the world works.
Integrity means doing the right thing even—especially—when it hurts you. But you have to question the philosophical underpinnings—and the future—of a society that requires its leaders and artists to work at Starbucks or to act stupider than they really are in order to get elected or sell records or books or whatever. Taking chances—which includes causing outrage—is how civilization tests new ideas, and how it progresses.
Not that they let you say whatever you want at Starbucks.
(Ted Rall’s website is tedrall.com. The author of “The Book of Obama: How We Went From Hope and Change to the Age of Revolt,” he is working on a new book about the war in Afghanistan to be released in Fall 2013 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.)
COPYRIGHT 2012 TED RALL
Last Week’s Column about Reddit
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Due to a glitch, last week’s column didn’t get posted. Here it is now.
SYNDICATED COLUMN: The Malicious Mallard and Me
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How Online Popularity Contests Are Killing Politics
Luddite? Not me.
I like tech.
Played Pong, loved Space Invaders. Was obsessed with the TRS-80, Commodore 64 and Apple II. One of my first jobs, as a traffic engineer for an Ohio suburb, had me programming a Honeywell 77 computer the size of a small car; I loved those crazy punchcards (“do not fold, spindle or mutilate”), FORTRAN and the green glow of the LED terminal.
I was among the first cartoonists to put my email address on my work; I loved the instant audience feedback. Still do. So I blog and I’ve embraced social networking. I tweet. I post to Facebook. And Google Plus, though I’m not sure why. LinkedIn has the dumbest business model ever–in the middle of a Depression, it’s where jobseekers meet nonexistent would-be employers—but I use it anyway (to connect to other underemployed losers).
So. Note to people who are reading this online: I’m one of you.
Anyway, when a friend told me I should post my cartoons and columns to Reddit, I did.
Reddit, which was owned by the Condé Nast media conglomerate from 2006 to 2011 and is now its sister company, is a bulletin board whose registered users (“redditors”) post items to various categories (“reddits”): links, images, thoughts, whatever. As these entries appear, redditors can “upvote” or “downvote” them. Each reddit has a front page where posts with the highest net number of votes (upvotes minus downvotes) appear first.
“Officially, votes are intended to indicate importance and relevance to the topic, and not popularity (i.e., a Downvote is not a Dislike, it merely indicates that the redditor thinks that the submission is not worthy of making it to the front page,” according to Wikipedia. From Reddit’s FAQ: “Well written [sic] and interesting content can be worthwhile, even if you disagree with it…If you think something contributes to conversation, upvote it.”
Nice theory.
Like capitalism, it doesn’t work so well in the real virtual world.
First I posted under my name. There’s no rule against it, but it turns out Redditors dislike self-promotion.
So I created an anonymous handle.
Here’s the thing: What makes the top listings at Reddit is usually dumb. Really really dumb. Rock-bottom low-brow. Stoopid.
As I write this, here are the top three:
No matter how old I get, I will always put my fingers in these (A link to a photo of rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in a store, with the shrinkwrapping punctured on each.)
So I went diving with sharks recently but this guy couldn’t help but smile for the camera (A link to a photo of a shark that appears to be smiling.)
Malicious Advice Mallard on marriage (A link to a “meme,” a joke photo of a duck with the caption “Marriage failing? Have a baby that will fix it.”)
This is a typical mix: Fluff, fluff, fluff. Yeah, I’m biased. Whatever; I think my stuff deserves as much play as a photo of a smirky elongate elasmobranch. Thus my fake handle.
The good news is that hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Reddit readers follow the links to each of my cartoons and columns.
Then an interesting pattern occurs.
There’s an initial flurry of upposts. The item climbs. Then there’s a flood of downposts.
This mirrors what I’ve seen elsewhere online. Left or right, political content often gets an initial burst of positive responses posted by people who agree with its point of view. Popularity-based metrics like Reddit’s bring the item to wider attention, which includes people who disagree with it. Who then vote it back down.
Usually to zero.
I’ve seen the same phenomenon on other sites but it’s particularly pronounced on Reddit because of its upvote/downvote scheme. I’ll watch my cartoon soar through upvotes only to come crashing down to zero as the downvotes come in.
It’s not just my stuff. Most content with a strong political point of view gets crushed by downvoters who evidently don’t know or care about Reddit’s “vote it up if it’s interesting, even if you disagree with it” admonition. The result: political content is vanishing down the cyber memory hole. It’s still there—if you can find it. But most people won’t bother. They’ll go to Reddit’s main page, click on the funny animal photos, and leave.
It’s not just the specific political content that’s disappearing. It’s the idea of politics itself. When politics isn’t part of the dialogue online, the idea that we can and should argue about the laws and ideas that govern our society disappears from our national consciousness. People simply stop thinking about it. Those who remember to look for political content take note of the disappearance of politics and draw the conclusion that they are alone, that politics aren’t popular. If you like politics but no one you know does, you probably won’t bug others with the subject. Soon the subject starts to fade from your own brain.
What’s crazy is, politics are popular. Reddit readers read my political cartoons. They vote them up. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at Reddit.
Should you care?
As the crisis of print media continues to shrink mainstream reporting, analysis and opinion, sites like Reddit are supposedly poised to step in to fill the void. A clunky transition is inevitable.
The problem is, Michael Barthel wrote in Salon, too many online consumers and gatekeepers think they’re already awesome: “One of the weirdest things about the Web is its eagerness to obsessively criticize every other form of media except the Web itself. Traditional journalism is dying, and it’s just a matter of time before the Internet figures out a new and improved form that will make everything perfect forever,” Michael Barthel wrote in Salon in July.
Barthel was criticizing “citizen journalism.” But his web skepticism can also apply to social media’s unwitting contribution to depoliticization: “The Web seems neutral, because it is an open platform that anyone can use. But just because anyone can does not mean everyone does. The stories that get covered are the ones citizen journalists care about most, and these citizen journalists tend toward a certain social-cultural-economic orientation.”
The Internet is exciting. Old media is stodgy. But democracy will suffer unless the Web gets better at politics.
Thanks to the social-cultural-economic orientation of too many Redditors, it’s the Malicious Advice Mallard’s world. We only live in it.
Not that you can see us on Reddit.
(Ted Rall’s website is tedrall.com. The author of “The Book of Obama: How We Went From Hope and Change to the Age of Revolt,” he is working on a new book about the war in Afghanistan to be released in Fall 2013 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.)
COPYRIGHT 2012 TED RALL
DISTRIBUTED BY Universal Uclick/TED RALL
4520 Main St., Kansas City, Mo. 64111; (877) 682-5425 / TED RALL ONLINE: rall.com
RALL 12/5/12
Shoutout: Who Sent the Dragon Dictation Software & the Ink Cartridges?
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To those of you who are brightening my holiday season by sending me stuff from my Amazon Wish List, thanks! I’ll be dropping you a little something in the mail.
Two item, however, appeared at my door minus a shipping tag: the awesome Dragon Dictation for Mac software! I can’t wait to start using it to help save my poor hands. I have several books I plan to use it for. To the person who sent it, if you’re reading this, please email me via the “contact” link above with your mailing address so I can say thanks properly.
Same thing with the Rapidograph cartridges. Essential! I want to thank!
New eBay Cartoon Auction
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Get a gift for the political junkie who has everything: original cartoon art! I’ve just posted a new eBay Cartoon Auction. Simple rules: I draw three cartoons a week. Next week, you choose your favorite. I send you the original artwork!
LOS ANGELES TIMES CARTOON: Hate is Hard Work
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I draw cartoons for The Los Angeles Times about issues related to California and the Southland (metro Los Angeles).
This week: The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to take up the issue of gay marriage in California as soon as Friday morning. The moment has prompted nervous debate within the gay-rights movement about the best path to achieve gay marriage. If the justices opt not to hear the Proposition 8 case, then a federal appeals court ruling that found the 2008 state ballot measure banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional would stand, clearing the way for marriages to begin. If the justices take up the case, a ruling would not come until next year and gay marriage would remain on hold until then, or longer depending on how the court rules.
Wish List
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In case you’re wondering, yes, I have an Amazon Wish List. So if you appreciate what I do, and wonder what you can do to keep me doing it, this might be something to consider.
Not to whine, but as a self-employed cartoonist I don’t get a Christmas bonus. Or benefits of any sort. I haven’t seen benefits since 1995, when I got fired from my last day job. As you probably know, newspapers are shedding cartoonists right and left (well, mainly left) but an economically viable online model has yet to emerge. I’m committed to cartooning and writing, and will continue to do it whether you help or not, but it’s often tempting to throw up my hands and walk away from a vocation where you mostly hear from people when you make them angry.
So if you are so moved to make my holiday a joyous one, I would much appreciate it. Anything from the list would be amazing, of course, but the Dragon Dictation package would come in handy to help me stave off carpal tunnel syndrome while I work on my next book. Shoes are nice. Drawing paper is useful. So are those Rapidograph pen nibs; I break them sometimes and they’re not cheap. My sad old Third Generation iPod is showing its years—ten—and could stand replacing.
(I currently have two proposals for major prose books out to my agent, not including the cartoon book proposal. The Afghanistan book is scheduled for release in Fall 2013, is finished and awaits edits, but is definitely coming out—and looking great!)
