Senses
In the beginning, good people saw the Internet as a way to spread information and truth, and bad people saw it as a way to deceive people into handing them more power and/or money. As Jonathan Swift once said, a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. (This saying is currently widely misattributed to Mark Twain. Churchill once said a version of it and some websites cite him, but he didn’t originate it, either.)
The sad fact is that so many people prefer the juicier, more conspiracy-laden version of almost anything that the truth is either quickly buried or made to look desperate as it tries to convince people of its veracity.
This has always been true, but in the past, society had fewer news sources and so the main newspapers (and later, radio and TV newscasts) more-or-less agreed on the truth. You could get differing opinions on whether we should go to war, but you didn’t have one major news source saying that a continent across the sea was at war, and another saying there was no war and that someone was just trying to make our president look bad.
You see, in those days, every average street-corner lunatic shouting into a megaphone couldn’t buy a newspaper or TV or radio station and appear to be a legitimate news source. But with the Internet, any psycho-nitwit can put any horse shit they want online and immediately compete with CNN or the BBC.
And so the Internet (and Fox News Network, but that’s a slightly different story) has become the world’s most powerful tool in deceiving people into supporting politicians and policies that are against their wellbeing and that of the world at large. This is probably the most dangerous thing the Internet does.
The above cartoon, a satire of the ancient Japanese maxim, “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” attempts to illustrate how on the Internet, seeing, hearing, and speaking evil has become the preferred norm. And not just in ways that authoritarian conspiracy nuts use it to mislead people, but in the way we all use it to eavesdrop, spy, gossip, argue, insult, and otherwise exercise our insecure egos in ways that seem delicious and satisfying at the first, but which darken our outlook and mood over time.
This is the primary reason I don’t read or respond to comments on the Interwebs. To be clear, I read all comments left on my cartoon posts and occasionally will respond once to an attack (succinctly, in an adult manner, without insult or profanity) but it ends there. I won’t argue with people online. I may as well be arguing with the radio in my car.
I find that this approach leads to a more peaceful daily existence. If I read a rant by someone who thinks Donald Trump was sent by God to give Amurica back to white people, it aggravates me for days. As pointless as it is, I can’t stop arguing with them in my head. It’s like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die. I know the world is full of gullible idiots—there’s no need to keep proving it to myself by spending time on Facebook.
Let’s end on a more positive note. When I was a kid in the 1960s, the whole country was falling apart. By the time I was 12, three of the greatest hopes for a better world, JFK, MLK, and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated in broad daylight. Racism and sexism were openly legal in many states, there were riots in the streets over civil rights, riots on college campuses because of a meaningless war that was drafting and killing tens of thousands of our best kids, and white folks in big cities were afraid to leave all-white neighborhoods. It was chaos and my parents must have thought the world was coming to an end. Meanwhile, I just floated along unaware, playing baseball and riding my bike. One could argue that things were as bad or worse then than they are now, but I had no concept and no fear and enjoyed my childhood as much as any other kid. By the time I was an adult, things were relatively calm and “normal” again. I’m not saying to turn a blind eye to injustice or danger, but only that for these things to ruin our inner peace, to some extent we have to cooperate. My method these days is to generally know what’s going on, but not to bathe in it. What I do bathe in each day, however, are the things I’m grateful for.
Now it’s time to find out what humor Wayno has been bathing in with his Bizarro cartoons this week…
For me, the real kicker for this gag is the TV image. If you’ve not seen the film it is taken from, do so soon. If you don’t know what film that is, here’s one of those things the Internet is pretty good at—research!
(If you want to be super lazy about it, Wayno spells out the answer in his weekly cartoon blog post.)
This gag doesn’t work as well for me because my favorite smoothie is mostly tequila and I don’t bother blending it.
But will she put a bird on it?
For those of you who have been wondering, this is why many vegan anteaters test positive for opioids.
I understand an insect building a tiny apartment for itself but where did he find a tiny woman to live in it with him?
I sometimes wish I could believe in God but I always wish I could believe in Hell. If I could design Hell, it would be different for different people. For the Apricot Assfruit and everyone making decisions at Fox News Channel, I’d give them each a small apartment in which to spend 100 years of isolation. Zoom would be available but the wifi would never be quite strong enough to hear an entire sentence without warbling or freezing. And their homemade masks would be unremovable. (And there would be no orange makeup for D.J.T.)
Lastly: Unremovable is one thing that the lovely item below is NOT. I’m calling this fashion line Pandemic Pretty.
Wait a minute…Is this cap for the pandemic or golden showers?
This week’s humor feedbag has been emptied, Jazz Pickles. Don’t forget to wipe your mouth. If you like what we do and that we do it free, without ads, give our links below a gander and maybe toss us a buck. Every little bit helps us to save up for medical treatment to save our lives should we be struck with the plague while visiting the U.S.
WE ARE STILL DONATING 50% OF ALL OUR PROCEEDS FROM BOTH SHOPS TO WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN AS THEY BUY FOOD FROM LOCAL, SMALL RESTAURANTS AND USE IT TO FEED FRONTLINE HEALTHCARE WORKERS. IF YOU WANT SOME BIZARRO SWAG OR DIEGO PIRARO ART PRINTS, NOW IS THE TIME TO SNAG!
Until next time, be smart, be nice, be happy, and resist ignorance and Trumpism.
…Daily Bizarro IN YOUR EMAIL + archive access
…Signed, numbered, limited edition prints and original Bizarro panels