I am an unabashed liberal. But I can’t tell you how often my ideological comrades upbraid me for proffering discordant views on controversial issues. Such was the case earlier this year, when I sang out of tune with their chorus of support for the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.
I reasoned in “Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie,” January 14, 2015, that:
I see little difference between Charlie Hebdo publishing anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic cartoons and the KKK publishing racist … and anti-Semitic propaganda. They both peddle hate speech that offends all reasonable notions of free speech.
Therefore, imagine how vindicated I felt earlier this month, when no less a person than Gary Trudeau sang in tune with moi.
Here is how the Daily Beast reported, in its April 10 edition, on how he finally chimed in on whether it’s nobler in this case to be, or not to be – Charlie.
Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer Prize-winning satirical cartoonist behind Doonesbury, says his fellow satirists at Charlie Hebdo ‘wandered into the realm of hate speech…’
‘Free speech … becomes its own kind of fanaticism,’ Trudeau also reportedly said, adding that the job of satirists is to punch up, not punch down.
Incidentally, if his name means nothing to you, suffice it to know that Trudeau comes as close to being the conscience of modern-day liberalism as the pope comes to being the conscience of modern-day Catholicism. Oh right, did I mention that Pope Francis preempted him by singing in tune with me too:
To kill in the name of God is an aberration.
[However], if [a close friend] says a swear word against my mother, he’s going to get a punch in the nose. One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith.
(TIME, January 15, 2015)
But, with all due respect to the pope, Trudeau’s voice is far more relevant because he’s a cartoonist too. His pulpit, of course, is the critically acclaimed Doonesbury strip, where, until February of this year, he had been delivering daily sermons, disguised as social and political humor, for over 40 years.
It speaks volumes that Trudeau sounded this rebuke while accepting the George Polk Career Award for outstanding achievement in journalism, becoming the first cartoonist to win this distinction. For this award effectively acknowledged his preeminence among cartoonists worldwide.
So, trust me folks, Trudeau rebuking cartoonists for propagating hate speech is the secular equivalent of the pope rebuking cardinals for committing, well, a cardinal sin.
Amen … again.
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Pope rebukes Charlie Hebdo…
je ne suis pas Charlie