I can’t make this shit up.
Some of you may recall, way back in 2006, when I first wrote the diary entitled, “Their reality has lapped our satire.” It was a story about a church in Tennessee, well, here was the final paragraph:
How could you cartoon the religious right's confidence that this is a Christian country, and that anybody else is here at their sufferance? Let's diagram the issue, and see what comes from it. First, what is the greatest symbol in America of welcome? What is the most obvious national monument to open arms, the availability of the American dream to one and all? You got it- the Statue of Liberty. There is really no second choice. Okay, good. Now, how to use the Statue of Liberty to caricature the religious nuts? Well, maybe we could replace the torch, the beacon lighting the way for one and all, into an exclusive symbol, marking the way for only Christians. Got it? Right, replace the lamp with a cross. But wait, we need a little more. What to do with her other hand? She's holding a tablet, remember? It has July 4, 1776, on it, the day we declared our independence. But hey, it's a tablet. You know what to do. Replace that silly date with some commandments. But there's one more problem- that pesky poem welcoming non-Christians. That has to go. Let's replace it with the commandments again. After all, "shalt nots" are a lot more fitting with the whole theme that language of welcome. Okay, we're ready to draw a cartoon, one that will really skewer the right, really cut to the heart of their hatred, their bigotry, their hypcrisy. But before we do, let's do a quick check of the internet, just to make sure we're not doing something that's already been done. What do we find?
This is real. A church in Tennessee spent a quarter of a million dollars on this thing. Jesus says feed the poor, the Commandments they worry so about say something pretty clearly about "graven images," and they build this?! Seriously, their reality has truly lapped our satire. When a church spends a quarter of a million dollars building the very thing, and being serious about it, that you would draw as a cartoon, then pen is simply dry. There is nothing left to do but crawl into a corner and whimper.
Their reality has lapped our satire.
There were a few more editions, ending with “That’s it. I give up. I just give up.” That one was about “Christians” going to Wall Street, particularly in front of one well-known piece of sculpture, to pray for intervention in the 2008 financial crisis. In short, praying to a golden calf for personal wealth:
But through it all there was one thing I was sure of, that I was always talking about THEM, not us. They were the ones who were so absurd that we could no longer tell satire from reality.
Until now.
And, to be fair, what I’m about to write about might not be fair. This might have been snark, or performance art. But I don’t think so.
So here we go. Put on your boots, make sure you’re sitting down, and go read Mississippi Bernin’ 2020.
I’ll wait.
…
…
Yeah, right?
A diarist on Daily Kos “acknowledged” that Black voters in Mississippi are “the base of the Democratic Party,” but went on to suggest that what we REALLY need to focus on are these people:
May I repeat, the diarist thinks THESE are the people we really need to focus on in Mississippi:
I was amazed, incredulous, and even a little bit entertained when the Republicans went bat-shit crazy.
But this just pisses me off.
Fuck.