Cartoon: Fighting Global Warming

[hereville.livejournal.com]

Comments

[hereville.livejournal.com]

But it's kind of fucking hilarious that I was so goddamn mouthy without realizing you were in the room.

I certainly thought it was funny. More importantly, being loathed the way you loathe me is really encouraging to me, as a cartoonist. As long as you stop short of driving across the country and burning my house down, I encourage you to keep it up.

[r0n1n.livejournal.com]

Is loathing the right word? Because if the fact that I hate your cartoons and take every shot at them that comes up motivates you to make better cartoons, do better research, or be smarter than your audience, good on you.

If it motivates you because you want to infuriate your detractors or the people who disagree with you, however, you might want to rope it in. On the majority of issues, we probably align pretty closely, provided your cartoons are an accurate representation of your own views. You just tend to take things either way too goddamn far (see your pathetic, groveling worship of everyone black or female) or you throw out very valid ideas because you find the attitude some people who hold that idea pernicious or because you disagree with one aspect of that idea (see your tired and completely ill-informed objections to Libertarianism).

My extreme dislike of your cartoons and my explosive attitude towards them is largely cartoon violence, a la Yosemite Sam. I tend to default to anger and violence with things I dislike because, hey, you work with what you've got and what you're good at. Also, you know, hippie pinko bullshit aside, violence tends to get the goods. Anyhow. Truth is, I've got legitimate things to be angry about. The sum of your cartoons makes me far less angry than a single airing of 'The 700 Club', so take heart. As familiar as I am with the Pacific Northwest (born and raised), I got no beef with you that can't be settled by screaming at the stars and telling you why I hate you.

[hereville.livejournal.com]

Because if the fact that I hate your cartoons and take every shot at them that comes up motivates you to make better cartoons, do better research, or be smarter than your audience, good on you.

Well, believe it or not, I try to make my cartoons better all the time (although part of my effort is focused on things you don't seem to have much interest in, like the drawing aspects). I do sometimes take criticism into account (I just a few minutes ago made some revisions to this cartoon, in response to some criticism I got on another forum -- for comparison's sake, the original version can be viewed here (http://www.amptoons.com/livejournal_images/global_warming_old.png)). However, you're so extreme and over the top that you don't have any credibility with me.

It's telling that, in a thread following a cartoon including a fairly negative depiction of a black woman, you complain that I "worship... everyone black or female." A good example of why I can't take your comments seriously: the kindest interpretation I can think of is, you're responding to some image of me you've built up in your mind, rather than giving my cartoons an open-minded reading.

My extreme dislike of your cartoons and my explosive attitude towards them is largely cartoon violence, a la Yosemite Sam.

Understood. :-)

[r0n1n.livejournal.com]

Well, believe it or not, I try to make my cartoons better all the time (although part of my effort is focused on things you don't seem to have much interest in, like the drawing aspects).

You're wrong, there. I just don't criticize your art. I don't care for it aesthetically, but I see technique in some of your more recent stuff, and just because your art style doesn't jibe with my tastes doesn't mean I need to bust your balls over how you draw your fuckin' cartoons.

However, you're so extreme and over the top that you don't have any credibility with me.

What, none? Seriously? Man. You're shooting yourself in the foot. Having me dress you down is the sort of thing that people would pay me six figures for and call it "life coaching" if I lived in southern California. I sure am a bastard, but I sure am right. Shit, at least I acknowledge that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

It's telling that, in a thread following a cartoon including a fairly negative depiction of a black woman, you complain that I "worship... everyone black or female." A good example of why I can't take your comments seriously

Well, I could get in to the rather complicated tapestry you seem to weave with your cartoons of depicting Americans of all shades and colors as the self-obsessed, benighted simpletons the rest of the world stereotypes us. But we're not talking about characters, Barry. The fact that you "depict" a black woman as this week's cartoon villain doesn't change anything about the message and tone of your comic work: that message and tone is to depict women and minorities as goddamn living saints whenever the mistreatment of said minority is the cause du jour of your comic. Oh, wait, let me back that up; minorities are okay to shit on if they disagree with you, right? It's not hip in the lib community to make fun of Muslims, but Libertarians are fair game.

the kindest interpretation I can think of is, you're responding to some image of me you've built up in your mind, rather than giving my cartoons an open-minded reading.

Don't flatter yourself. What "image of [you] built up in [my] mind" could I possibly have, Barry? What, you think I'm prejudiced against chubby white gamers from the Pacific Northwest? That rules out a quarter of my friends and myself. The truth is, I picked up 'Attitude 2' at a book store, read through the strips, laughed at some, didn't care for others, and when I got to yours, I nearly cried aloud "This guy is full of shit!"

There was no preconception. I hadn't heard your name before I picked up that otherwise very cool book. And not all of your cartoons are shit. But the ones I read there got me pretty angry, because I thought they were myopic, toadying to everyone who wasn't a white guy, and seemed to imply that as someone who isn't from a minority and doesn't have a vagina that I should somehow share in this feeling of societal guilt or responsibility for the injustices done to those people. Sorry, fucker, it's not happening. I've been on the fucking margins of society since I was born; I don't even have control over my life, let alone anyone else's. And I'll be damned if I'm going to feel guilty or ashamed or indebted to somebody because I happen to share a skin tint with the descendants of the people who did the descendants of the oppressed wrong. Most of my distant family on my mother's side died of fucking heatstroke in Barbados as indentured servants that were kidnapped and shipped on vessels no better than any slave ship to fucking die harvesting sugar can for fat landowners, so you can stick it up your ass.

[r0n1n.livejournal.com]

Also, dude. I make dick, seriously. I'd have to, like, road trip to Oregon, and my truck probably wouldn't even make it, and I'd have to sleep in this shitty little tent I bought at a garage sale, and there's no fucking way I could make my rent if I took that much time off, and just...yeah, man. So not fucking worth it.

[hereville.livejournal.com]

Also, dude. I make dick, seriously.

Well, there's something we have in common. :-)

By the way, the "burning down my house" thing was intended as a tongue-in-cheek reference to this news story (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070726.wgtpsycho27/BNStory/Technology/home). I didn't mean to imply that I think you're violent.

[r0n1n.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. This guy is my new hero. He's elevated Internet Tough Guy to a fucking performance art.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

You've just changed my opinion of you, big time, not that you'll give a damn, but what the hell.

[r0n1n.livejournal.com]

Why shouldn't I give a damn? Because I'm hostile, and that somehow indicates that I'm some cocky kid who just doesn't give a shit about anything? Don't confuse the fact that my sense of self is unaffected by criticism with being totally unconcerned with how other people view me. Like most sentient meatbags, I get a sense of gratification from the praise of people I like and the scorn of people I hate, and the reverse from the opposite stimuli. Now, I don't know you, and certainly we've disagreed, but I'd hardly call you an idiot.

But now you've piqued my curiosity. In what way has your opinion of me changed? And why?

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I had considered you to be another clever though ideologically hidebound right-wing loony. Thankfully bereft of the non-rational Christian fundamentalist stuff, but nevertheless rather tainted by the racial and sexual agendas that seem to govern American politics.
It is becoming increasingly evident that you can and do think. And in your own confrontational way, you have a certain generosity.

I like most of the Americans I've met across this medium: though it sometimes takes me a little time to get beyond what I assume to be cliched and outrageous prejudice, and see the person behind the argument.

The reason why I thought you wouldn't care what other folk think is your persona is pretty confrontational: your debates open with a degree of vehemence that I would need months to work up to, if I could manage at all.
I also think the race thing, as I understand it in America, seems completely alien to my way of thinking. But that could be contextual: I live in possibly the most cosmopolitan city in the English-Speaking world, with concomitant values. Black, white, blue or green: a Londoner is a Londoner. It's just not the same this side of the pond.

Prior to this exchange, I didn't think compromise was in your vocabulary: now I'm not quite so sure.

As for your compliment (for which I'm flattered), I'll have to correct you, alas: I'm an idiot sometimes, but hopefully with decreasing frequency.

Think well: it's better than the alternative.

[r0n1n.livejournal.com]

I do believe I can honestly say that you're the first person to call me "right-wing". Let me make it crystalline that I am wingless: politically, I align as a strong Socialist with Libertarian leanings. I identify closely with the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky, and Harold Zinn.

I wonder where you get "tainted by the racial and sexual agendas that seem to govern American politics", but I think I can see how I might be misinterpreted that way, especially when I don't take the time to explain myself fully. Don't mistake my attitude towards all Americans with a specific animosity towards some minority group; the only groups I'm opposed to unilaterally are the wealthy (for practical reasons) and theists (for reasons that would take a long, long time to explain). You'll note, however, that the above two groups represent members who are categorized by choice, not fiat of determinism. As for the rest of us? To borrow your turn of phrase, "an American is an American is an American" in my eyes. My apparent problem is that I'm unwilling to acknowledge the elephant in the room of American culture. Of course, by my reckoning, I'm not so much ignoring the elephant as trying to convince everyone else it's a rhino.

I'll try to explain my vehemence, as you call it, at a later date. It would be a lie to say that I do not have anger issues; it would be equally untrue to say that my 'cowboy' style of debate isn't calculated. Tell you what; I'll add you to the list. Check out my Journal sometime, and maybe you'll understand, some, where I'm coming from.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Will do.
I added you too.