This is like the fat guy who goes around making fat jokes, or the "loser" who runs around proclaiming "loser pride!" I don't know if this is a bad idea, or a brilliant one, but I'm leaning toward the latter. Imagine if the Iranians spend all that time and effort on a Jew-hating contest and still suck compared to their Western counterparts? Oh, the humiliation!
If anything, the cartoons will probably make more fun of the people who hold anti-semitic sentiments than of Jews themselves. Think of Mel Brooks's The Producers. "Springtime for Hitler" was hardly a paen of praise for the Nazis or their followers.
Whether brilliant or otherwise, they won't be wanting for material.
Conceivably this could somehow backfire, but absolute bare minimum they're not taking it lying down and are mounting a counter-offensive instead. However astute it proves to be as it plays out, it's an indication of a thoughtfully formulated response which avoids social/political apathy and reticence and instead is a well-directed attempt to take the offensive, without devolving into reactionary forms.
Not that many readers of a high quality blog like this, with its astute commentary, are politically naive or easily coopted, but thoughtfully and commensurately taking the offensive is of elemental importance. Some things bear emphasis and bear repeating. eos (end of sermonette)
"Springtime for Hitlar" not withstanding, the rest of The Producers (especially the musical) is outrageously antisemitic as far as Jewish women are concerned. Non-blonds are ridiculed directly as ugly and unacceptable, and the Blond worship jumps out of the production as sickening and bizarre, once the "It's just a joke" mask comes off. It's not just a joke. All I can think of when the anti-heroes ridicule any woman who isn't an "Ulla" is Winston Smith condemning Julia to torture. "Don't do it to me. Do it to her." Obviously, there's something still lingering in Jewish men of Brooks' generation that leads them to hate Jewish women, in pursuit of some sort of psychic safety for themselves.
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If anything, the cartoons will probably make more fun of the people who hold anti-semitic sentiments than of Jews themselves. Think of Mel Brooks's The Producers. "Springtime for Hitler" was hardly a paen of praise for the Nazis or their followers.
Whether brilliant or otherwise, they won't be wanting for material.
Conceivably this could somehow backfire, but absolute bare minimum they're not taking it lying down and are mounting a counter-offensive instead. However astute it proves to be as it plays out, it's an indication of a thoughtfully formulated response which avoids social/political apathy and reticence and instead is a well-directed attempt to take the offensive, without devolving into reactionary forms.
Not that many readers of a high quality blog like this, with its astute commentary, are politically naive or easily coopted, but thoughtfully and commensurately taking the offensive is of elemental importance. Some things bear emphasis and bear repeating. eos (end of sermonette)
"Springtime for Hitlar" not withstanding, the rest of The Producers (especially the musical) is outrageously antisemitic as far as Jewish women are concerned. Non-blonds are ridiculed directly as ugly and unacceptable, and the Blond worship jumps out of the production as sickening and bizarre, once the "It's just a joke" mask comes off. It's not just a joke. All I can think of when the anti-heroes ridicule any woman who isn't an "Ulla" is Winston Smith condemning Julia to torture. "Don't do it to me. Do it to her." Obviously, there's something still lingering in Jewish men of Brooks' generation that leads them to hate Jewish women, in pursuit of some sort of psychic safety for themselves.