You thought the chimp toon was bad? THIS is the most offensive thing I've seen in a long time

[n2doc]

This is the scum's web site

http://www.mikelester.com/comics.html

And here is the "newspaper" where he is employed....

http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=680

[Smith_3]

1. I don't understand it.

Sorry. :(

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. It's a reference to Jim Jones and drinking the kool-aid. n/t

[rurallib]

11. took me a while, but think Jonestown & koolaid drinking

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. Jonestown.

[opihimoimoi]

2. If they are stirring up HATE...they be doing a good job...

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. The chimp is worse n/t

[sunnybrook]

31. agreed

this is moronic and hateful on its face... there are actually people on DU defending the chimp cartoon and suggesting it has no racial basis...

[readmoreoften]

80. Agreed.

Racism is worse than an accusation of dangerous demagoguery.

[BlooInBloo]

4. I don't get it.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Jonestown.

[WCGreen]

12. Jonestown, drinking the Kool-Aide...

[dysfunctional press]

13. jonestown...kool-aid....

[sharp_stick]

16. Jonestown Guyana

Remember back in the 70's the "reverend" Jim Jones killed hundreds of his people by spiking kool-aid with cyanide. Hence the now way overused and cliched phrase Drinking The Kool-Aid.

Mike Lester is a scumbag POS

[TwilightGardener]

5. Good Lord.

[AirmensMom]

7. OMG!

That's horrible! :(

[tekisui]

9. I don't quite get it.

Is it suggesting everyone's gonna die because Obama? Or just white people? I don't like it, but I also don't get it.

[dysfunctional press]

15. jonestown...kool-aid

[tekisui]

18. jeebus.

That's horrible.

[NikolaC]

76. Jonestown

and just white people judging from this horrid "cartoon".

[On the Road]

77. It Indicates That Electing Obama

amounted to national suicide due to a cult-like belief. The cartoon does not imply a reason as far as I can tell as to why electing Obama is suicide.

[aikoaiko]

10. Thats not offensive in the least to me. I disagree with it, but its a "fair" criticism

[Ganja Ninja]

22. It lacks humor but at least it's not racist. n/t

[aikoaiko]

Yes, I agree. Of course satirical political cartoon are often not humorous

nt

[bunnies]

33. It is if you want to see it as racist.

Here we have a black man killing people. No? :shrug:

[WillieW]

51. Yes, it is racist. Why are there only white people dead?

[Bacchus39]

55. good one!

x

[proud2BlibKansan]

58. Comparing Obama to Jim Jones is fair??

Are you for real on that?

[TwilightGardener]

17. Oddly, it's a black man giving the whites the kool-aid--a reversal of Jonestown.

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. If the text said "deregulation" would we consider it as offensive?

If no, then it's simply pointed political commentary with which we disagree.

[TwilightGardener]

24. Obama's positive message of hope (yes we can) will lead to death?

Seriously, the artist is fucked up. I know "drink the kool aid" is a common statement, but to depict it in this manner is in exceptionally poor taste.

[lumberjack_jeff]

38. Okay then, replace the text with Reagan's positive message - a "shining city on a hill".

If he had, I think the analogy would be spot on the money.

No, not offensive, just pointed at the wrong target.

[TwilightGardener]

43. I just think an actual depiction of Jonestown is in bad taste, no matter what.

The "koolaid" phrase is meant as sardonic, black humor, but it's been somewhat divorced from its origins and is now in the popular culture as just a common way to imply believing in a misleading philosophy.

[Canuckistanian]

74. Or how about Bush's "Ownership Society"

We're suffering this recession right now because of that.

[cobalt1999]

27. Exactly

Change the words and it'll get the same reaction over in Freeperville.

[CoffeeCat]

20. Let the idiot draw his pictures...

...this is some right-wing nutjob on an obscure Website.

It's not the Washington Post or the NY Times.

It is offensive, but the truth is--the First Amendment gives this jerk the freedom to be an idiot.

He's obviously proud of his stupidity. He wants to get a reaction out of people. Trust me, these
types absolutely get off when they get people angry and in an uproar. They consider it "a job well
done" when they get nasty letters and phone calls.

Don't even let this cretin know that you saw his work. He wants your anger. He will take it as a
complement and he will consider your anger a victory.

No reaction is failure and humiliation to this person--so lets give him a boatload of nothing.

[CTyankee]

21. The creator of this is a truly disturbed person.

People who do this sort of stuff need meds. NOw.

[cobalt1999]

23. A "Kool-aid" cartoon bothers you?

People have been using the term "drinking the kool-aid" in reference to Jonestown for 30 years now. Just because a cartoonist makes a visual image of something we've all said and you are upset?

It's a fucking cartoon? Change the words in the tub to something the republicans say or Rush L says and people here would think it's funny.

[Uzybone]

25. Chimp is worse, but this is despicable as well

unfortunately this type of thinking is now "mainstream" among hard right conservatives, racists, talk radio and anti Obamaites of all stripes. We even hear some of it (to a lesser degree) on this site.

[Marrah_G]

26. In bad taste maybe- but not nearly as offensive.

Jonestown is where the term "drinking the koolaid" came from........

[notadmblnd]

28. And those are republicans lying there dead? Because they'd rather die than save this country?

[Sal Minella]

32. Those are Obama voters lying there dead because they did what their "leader" instructed them to do.

Drinking the Kool-Aid at Jonestown was an act of mindless obedience, and voting for Obama was a positive effort toward saving our country from obliteration, but the cartoonist chooses to see Obama voters as mindless zombies.

[cobalt1999]

36. And liberals see Rush Limbaugh listeners as mindless zombies

We use the term "drinking the Kool-aid" with them all the time. Are we equally wrong?

[Sal Minella]

40. This thread is about the Jonestown cartoon, not the Kool-Aid phrase.

It's obvious from this thread that many people are unaware of the source of the "drinking the Kool-Aid" phrase.

If Luckovich or somebody has published a Jonestown cartoon featuring Rushbots, I missed it.

[cobalt1999]

50. The two are synonymous.

The cartoon is merely a visual representation of the phrase.

If some people were ignorant of the phrase's origins, then the cartoon was at a minimum educational. In fact, I wish someone on our side had the idea first. It fits for many republican ideas.

[Tarc]

53. I'm terribly sorry that you're too dim to realize how bad this cartoon is

Truly.

[cobalt1999]

60. I'm sorry you lack the intelligence to separate cartoons from reality

There are some Muslim extremists that would like you to join in their outrage over cartoons.

You probably have used the term "drinking the kool-aid" in the past, making you a hypocrite along with unintelligent.

:eyes:

[Sal Minella]

72. Wow, four nasty insults in three lines!!! Congratulations, and welcome to my Ignore list.!!! nt

[Sal Minella]

69. The two are not synonymous, but if you want to believe they are, that's certainly fine with me.

:)

[cobalt1999]

75. I'm not sure how anyone doesn't see them as synonymous

One is a visual representation of the phrase.

However, I'll accept for you and some others maybe they aren't synonymous.

It may be that I'm old enough to actually remember the events of Jonestown and the start of the phrase "drinking the Kool-aid". Back then it was such a powerful event, there was never a separation.

[alphafemale]

79. Yeah. The stupid idiots died of thirst.

:rofl:

[Gidney N Cloyd]

29. Chimp was worse. This strikes me as run of the mill RW stoopid.

[Lost in CT]

30. I saw much worse stuff during the primaries...

I obviously disagree with the sentiment but it's a political cartoon.

I don't see anything wrong with it.

[bunnies]

34. Nobody sees this as racist?

A black man killing white people? Or maybe thats not a stereotype anymore.

[lumberjack_jeff]

42. No.

I see no racial stereotype embodied in the cartoon.

Simply because the target of a political cartoon is (black/gay/asian/a woman) doesn't make it bigoted.

Personally, if the text had said deregulation, I would consider it right on the money.

[Tarc]

54. Intelligent people see it as racist, yes

Even the DU contains a few dim bulbs here and there, though.

[Marrah_G]

59. The picture is depicting the originin of the Koolaid reference

And for note: Jim Jones was an equal opportunity mass murderer. His followers were of many races.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

68. It's a reference to Jim Jones -- not a racist reference

[Historic NY]

35. what did you expect from the paper that views Raygun as the greatest POTUS.

http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=680

lower left could use some respondents.

[KittyWampus]

37. How many DU'ers used exactly the same metaphor during the primaries?

[rrneck]

39. We've been accusing

the other side of "drinking the cool aid" for some time.

[catzies]

44. Agreed. And this liberal is still for free speech in cartoons & not getting upset

about some of the subject matter, whether it's primates or purple beverages.

Tasteless, yes. Offensive, maybe. Worth getting upset about, definitely not.

[angrycarpenter]

41. fixed

[xcoastal]

45. are you sure this is not about Karl Rove?

The cartoon could be about the deep betrayal felt from President Obama's stand regarding Karl Rove. We believed President Obama would restore our courts to justice. Now, many of us wonder if we were tricked.

[Control-Z]

46. It's sick

but not racially motivated.

And it's graphically compelling. Too bad it wasn't a limpballs quote.

[petronius]

47. The only thing 'unusual' about this cartoon is that we don't like the message,

as others have said, put a Faux logo in that tub and we'd be cackling like mad...

Ridiculous right-wing cartoons and jokes have been around forever - if we're going to hunt out and yell about a racist/offensive undertone in every one of them, it's going to be a long eight years...

[HardWorkingDem]

48. Oddly....the Kool-Aid one...

actually makes sense, while the chimp one makes hardly any sense at all.

I don't think the cartoonist of the chimp cartoon could ever convince me of his actual point with any explanation, while I "get" the kool-aid cartoon.

[undeterred]

63. It doesn't really make sense.

Where are people dying BECAUSE of something Obama has done or failed to do? No reasonable person thinks that a month is time enough to solve all the problems Obama inherited.

Its so far over the top that you have to really reach to figure out that this is just about hatred for Obama. It doesn't make a comment on any particular political situation.

[lumberjack_jeff]

78. The only way the chimp cartoon makes any sense at all is if you ascribe the worst possible motive.

Which either makes him a howling racist or a shitty cartoonist.

[snake in the grass]

49. The content of this cartoon doesn't offend me...

...as much as the stupidity behind it. The message is simply wrong. The dead monkey cartoon is vile and conveys a message to the readers that the writer of the stimulus bill (Obama -and yes I know he didn't write it personally-) needs to be shot in order to prevent the next one. Your example is in bad taste, the monkey cartoon is a racist call to violence. I'll take bad taste over that any day.

[TheCowsCameHome]

52. Change the words to "GOP's Last Supper"

[Chorophyll]

56. Good grief!

That is despicable!

[proud2BlibKansan]

57. Yes that IS bad

Who is the asshole who drew this?

[progressoid]

61. Then Democratic Underground is offensive too.

I first saw the term "Drinking the Kool Aid" here on DU in reference to Bush supporters. I doubt a week has gone by in the last six years that I haven't seen someone us it.

Of course we didn't have the visual of a graphic cartoon, but the meaning is the same.

[Lex]

64. Believing Bush's rheoric led to deaths of countless persons

and I think that might be a big difference.

[Lex]

62. So who's died due to Obama's message?

The toon is stupid.

[spanone]

65. these people who do this sick shit are on the way out.....America voted for change

fuck them one and all

[xcoastal]

66. Mike Lester's pets

Dogs: Satchmo and Ella
Birds: Ray and Charles
Don't know the man but on the surface his naming of his pets tends to make me think he's not racist. He could name his pets after people he admires and still be racist I suppose but I still think his point may be possibly that those who trusted President Obama to uphold the constitution were tricked and now are going to pay the price. I think how President Obama handles Karl Rove is the defining moment of his presidency so far. Unless Rove is brought to justice the corrupt courts will continue and many of our citizens will have no recourse. This is today and tomorrow we are talking about. There is no looking forward without understanding just how little justice we have right NOW. Karl Rove was not content with just stealing the election from Gov. Siegelman, he put him in jail. This can happen to you and will happen to you if our laws aren't restored.

[blondeatlast]

67. I'm torn between expressing my outrage and giving the yeast infection who created it

any publicity at all and a further mouthpiece.

Seriously--I can't decide which is the lesser of two evils.

That cartoon is vile.

[WI_DEM]

70. Where were these jerk cartoonists during Bush's rein of terror?

[ConcernedCanuk]

71. wow - just wow - If I posted 10 more Iraqi children died from US bombs/bullets today

.
.
.

It would get less attention

(sigh)

[jmowreader]

73. Today's is bad too

How big is Rome, Georgia? Never mind...35,000. Looked it up.