The art of hate

The art of hate

A friend of mine on Facebook posted a call to arms on an image today. A group called Weda People LLC posted on their FB page a drawing , similar to Obama’s Hope poster, but depicting him being lynched, with the verbatim and grammatically incorrect comment, “hehehe string the basturd up from a tree”.

My friend has a page where he shares Pop culture images, and it’s skewed towards the homosexual population. It’s a quirky, retro, cheeky page. In the past week he had been threatened by FB for posting semi nude images of men, nothing full frontal mind you but  leaving a bit to the imagination. They threatened to kick him off Facebook for these images.  And yet today, because the  above image is offensive and incites hate, he reported this image… and was subsequently told, eh, nothing we can do about it.

And I know many people out there are saying, well it’s freedom of speech, a first amendment right, nothing can be done. They can do it.

But at what point does the first amendment blur into inciting hate and threatening the President’s life?

I am appalled at this art. It took a pop culture image of Obama asking for Hope., and turned into a Jim Crow propaganda image for the new millennium. So I guess we haven’t evolved as much as we would like to think. And it endorses the lynching of our Commander in Chief. I don’t care who you are, Republican or Green, Muslim or Christian, but hate is blatant hate. I can hear the outcry if this was an image showing W in a similar setting. Yes the political comics that are posted on a daily basis are quite partisan, but come no where close to out right hate.  And I do not seeing the Washington Post, or the New York Times, or any reputable publication running this in their op/ed section of their periodical.

But this got high profile release on Facebook. And suddenly I’m wondering has the social network become the social hate network. To believe in this is one thing. I still think you are despicable and need serious assistance. But to share and endorse murder, a hate crime, makes me wonder. Have we devolved so far? Are we so divided that a new civil war isn’t just some red neck judge making an observation, but a reality? Hey I joked that Arizona (with the most anti-woman woman politician ever), Texas, Utah and those wonderful anti immigrant gardeners of Alabama would make a great new United States of White Trash Bigot Red Necks.

Part of me is beginning to wonder if it’s not so far fetched image of the future to be.

 

note: I updated this post in January 2013