Perilous Times For Political Cartoonists

NOTE: The price for signed prints of this cartoon is $100.00. That’s higher than the usual price because of the size, paper, and shipping. Thanks to everyone who’s expressed interest in purchasing a copy.

Donald Trump is hosting a “social media summit” today at the White House. This morning, he tweeted, “A big subject today at the White House Social Media Summit will be the tremendous dishonesty, bias, discrimination and suppression practiced by certain companies. We will not let them get away with it much longer. The Fake News Media will also be there, but for a limited period.”

So, Trump is having a tantrum over “bias” and “discrimination” but he’s only invited people who are extremely friendly to him and he’s going to shut out the press. Also, not invited are representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Conservatives don’t get irony or hypocrisy.

Trump and other conservatives claim their voices are suppressed on social media. Basically, they scream suppression whenever one of their racist posts, personal attacks, or lies are removed. This is a very popular conspiracy theory among those who believe they’re the most oppressed segment in today’s society. You know, white, Christian, male conservatives. The summit will be an airing of grievances for conservatives without the Festivus pole. The only pole they’ll be dancing around will be Trump’s.

Among those who will be present at today’s bullshit summit will be the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA (a group that maintains a “professor watch list” of those they accuse of discrimination against conservatism and advance a left-wing agenda at universities), PragerU (short for Prager University which is not actually a university or any sort of institution of higher learning), and Claremont Institute, another right-wing think tank.

Individuals invited are Bill Mitchell who is a radio host who’s promoted extremists QAnon conspiracy theories, Carpe Donkum, an anonymous troll who won an InfoWars contest for best “fake news” meme or some crap like that, and Ali Alexander who is popular with the haters and Donald Trump Jr. for smearing Senator Kamala Harris by claiming she’s not an “American black.”

Others are James O’Keefe of Project Veritas (the group that tricks people while they’re being secretly filmed, then they doctor the footage and release it), and Benny Johnson who’s a right-wing activist who was a journalist until he got canned by BuzzFeed for plagiarism.

One guy who was invited, then uninvited is conservative-conspiracy-loving Ben Garrison, famous for using anti-Semitic images in his cartoons and for loving him some Trump. If Donald Trump could draw himself, it’d look like a Garrison drawing. Strong face, large hands, muscles, regular tie, and hair only slightly ridiculous. How much of a right-wing lunatic is Garrison to be uninvited to this troglodyte shitshow?

Apparently, after his invite became public (and Benjy proudly posted a pic of it on Twitter), a cartoon he drew of George Soros being manipulated by a hand of the Rothschilds, and Soros in return pulling puppet strings on H.R. McMaster and General David Petraeus started to receive more attention. It probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal for the White House if they hadn’t expressed fake outrage and shaken their pearls at a cartoon in the international edition of The New York Times that many perceived as being anti-Semitic.

The White House decided this was one jerk they couldn’t invite to their circle. Garrison is upset about being uninvited. You have to understand and appreciate his disappointment. This was like Nazi Space Camp for him.

Benjy said the cartoon wasn’t anti-Semitic because it was based on “historical fact” and that the Rothschild family played a large role in the evolution of centralized banking and being behind the scenes of the creation of the Federal Reserve. Of course, none of that is true, but Benjy bases his beliefs on conspiracy theories, lies, and racist bullshit. And this is where I have a problem with the guy.

I don’t have a problem that he’s a conservative cartoonist or that he even loves Trump something fierce. While I’m not a fan of his style, which consists of labels, labels, labels, and more labels, I respect that’s his thing and he’s not witty enough to write an idea that doesn’t need label overload. I can appreciate he doesn’t know how to actually draw a cartoon. I don’t care that he’s obsessed with Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (and in case you can’t identify them in his cartoons, they’re labeled).

My problem is he’s mistaken for a political cartoonist when he’s a propagandist. What’s the difference? For starters, a political cartoonist would NOT accept an invite to help a politician advance their agenda, even one that wasn’t based on conspiracy theories.

Garrison also bases his cartoons on conspiracy theories and not facts which is not something any journalist would do. And, yes. Political cartoonists are journalists. There are journalism awards for it. Although we engage in opinion journalism and satire and make a mockery of our targets left and right, a political cartoonist bases his work on truth. You can disagree with an opinion. You can find that the cartoonist left something out. The cartoonist is biased. The cartoonist is unfair. But, the cartoon is based on a fact. Benjy bases his shit on shit Donald Trump says. For Benjy, Donald Trump is truth.

Benjy does not just drink the Kool-Aid. Benjy is on a Kool-Aid IV drip. If you don’t believe me, Google the guy. I’m not sharing a link here because he’s famous enough and today’s cartoon has done enough to increase his name recognition. But, the guy is a hack. He is extremely talented as an artist, but a hack.

Michael Ramirez, Rick McKee, Scott Stantis, and Nate Beeler are conservative political cartoonists. I can pick apart any argument they push into a political cartoon, but they’re still political cartoons. I love reading their work. I love reading Benjy’s work too because it’s inadvertently funny. It’s funny how much of a hack he is.

The thing is, I’m not the one who should have the largest problem with Garrison. The people who should really take issue with the guy are other conservative cartoonists because he’s often lumped in with them. They’re the one who should be disinviting him to a party.

Political cartooning is under attack. Cartoonists have been laid off from positions they held for decades. Last year, one was fired for doing his job because he refused to stop drawing cartoons criticizing Trump. The New York Times has banned all cartoons, but they plan to take graphics and enter then in the Editorial Cartoon category for the Pulitzer Prize. Cartoonists worldwide are being murdered or jailed by their governments. Idiots are comparing memes to political cartoons (I spent ten hours on today’s cartoon. Nobody has EVER spent ten hours or even done research for a meme). Political cartoonists have to spend their entire careers working with editors who don’t understand political cartoons. And then, the White House attempts to elevate Ben Garrison, the hackiest hack who’s ever hacked out a cartoon.

While Garrison craves for his Trump love to be returned and accepted the invite, I crave to be blocked by Trump on Twitter. Why? Because I’m a political cartoonist. And as you can see here, I really don’t care who I piss off.

As for Benjy’s disappointment, I’m sorry. But hopefully, at the very least his Big Mac and Kool-Aid are in the mail.

Update: Several posters of this cartoon have been purchased. Since this cartoon is larger, and so are the posters, they are specially-ordered and the price is $100. You can make payment through PayPal or contact me for other methods. Make sure you leave a note if you’re making a purchase. Thank you.

Be Complicit

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