I'm sure it's safe to say we all know what a political cartoon is, it is simply a form of political opinion that is expressed through a different medium. These are also know to incorporate the use of humor to bring some comedy to the political world. If I can recall correctly, I think political cartoons were more common when I was younger when compared to today, due to the fact many people seem to be "offended" by what is expressed in the cartoons. I put offended in quotations because I don't find myself in this situation nor can I exactly comprehend how other people are upset with them. Though I will admit that I have seen some pretty messed up cartoons from before I was born but during the time that the cartoon was originally released it was all in good fun, if you will. I'm pretty much unaffected by political cartoons, a joke's a joke, if I think it's funny I laugh; although I'm not afraid to admit most of these cartoons go right over my head.
I think people have a problem with political cartoons because they require less effort than reading an editorial or article expressing the same opinion. The physical dimensions of cartoons are relatively small, letting the reader get the artist's full opinion in a matter of seconds. To adequately express this
opinion the artist needs to blow actuality out of proportion, this is where I can see people getting offended. If you were to compare an article and a political cartoon with the same purpose, views, opinions, etc., someone will most likely find the cartoon offensive and not the article. This is just reiterating what I stated, the artist has less room to convey their opinion; they must be bold and unrealistic to prove the point.
The prompt asks if we have ever been offended by a political cartoon and I think I can honestly state no, at least not by anything that is in my time; what was considered to be normal and okay in the past can easily aggravate me. So I guess if the prompt is speaking about my entire life then yes, the racist cartoons of the past will constantly offend me.
As an author in this section stated political cartoons are becoming extinct because the world, or at least the U.S., is too afraid of angering the people with them. The ways of caricatures and "witty" remarks are becoming a thing of the past. I honestly won't miss them much, but some people get a good laugh out of these cartoons. If at least one person like them though, why stop? Because it makes some people angry? Who cares they need to get a sense of humor, laugh it off and move on.
I totally agree with you on your view on the cartoons. Most cartoons these days, if I read any, mostly go over my head too. They are written for entertainment and if I don’t find them entertaining then I don’t, so what. People get offended way too easy these days; we sue people for just about anything that goes wrong in our lives. Racist jokes, I agree, there should be a line that print should have to not cross. We should be bigger than that. Those people that make racist remarks are just ignorant and ethnocentric. I was born in ’80 and I remember a lot more newspaper comics then than now days. I actually enjoyed reading them back in high school, and I even could understand most of them. These days it seems like you have to have a Ph.D to understand some of them. I don’t know if I would want them to completely vanish but I do think they need to concentrate more on improving their audience focus. And they definitely need to be more conscious on the racial remarks. Most people would rather base their opinions on a quick glance then read a paragraph or two on the same issue, isn’t that sad? Some people are so ignorant and it just makes you thank your lucky stars that you are not one of those people, doesn’t it? Having an education makes us less ignorant so keep plugging away!!!!
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