A good way to boost your blog traffic is to slag something or someone off in disparaging terms, hoping that many people who are fans of that person will fly to their defence and although they’re having a go at you in the comments they’re at least visiting and commenting!
I’m not going to do this as I think this is a bad way to go about things. However here are some things annoying me at the moment.
Oh noes!!! Obama is teh socialistz!
Take this recent depiction of President Obama by some no doubt brain-dead fuckwit right-wing American.
You see what they’ve done there? It’s Obama, make to look like the Joker off of the Batman. Brilliant! And then they’ve written “Socialism” underneath, because Obama is a socialist don’t you know? Just like the Joker is!
Christ alive.
To whoever came up with the Socialist/Joker/Obama thing the following things are all completely different and do not inevitably imply each other: communism, socialism, Marxism, social democracy, state intervention, totalitarianism, the US Democratic party. Thanks.
Though I suspect when this person says socialism they mean in fact, insufficiently right-wing.
Twilight
Sometimes I see people reading this on the tube, people who look otherwise intelligent. As if the borderline misogynist / 18th century sexual politics wasn’t bad enough, it seems to have started a whole new category in your local bookshop (if it hasn’t turned into an Oxfam) which makes me want to vomit more than the previous contender “Painful Lives”. It goes by the name of: “Supernatural Romance”.
*vomits*
I once tried to read the plot synopsis all the way through on Wikipedia and couldn’t manage it as tears of laughter were streaming down my face.
It is that good.
Seriously people, the Mysteries of Udolpho is loads better and at least it is actually set in the fucking 18th century. I’d also recommend Poppy Z Brite’s Dead Souls. Very cool.
Thomas Kinkade
They have a shop dedicated to him in Chiswick. I can’t walk by without my eyes bleeding. Hate.
Blogging
In terms of public acclaim, it seems to rank somewhere between pigeon-fancying and stealing women’s underwear for sexual gratification; the kind of activity that logic dictates should be pursued solely by lurking, sexless freaks and pallid shut-ins with abnormal genitalia.
The form has its upside, allowing snarky, semi-literate smartarses like myself to put buckets on our heads and make like we’re miniature Hunter Thompsons until the wife gets home and kicks off mental about the unwashed dishes.
From the delightful Flying Rodent. Love it.
They seriously have a shop dedicated to Kinkade? What’s wrong with people????
Why aren’t you doing the washing up?!
Rapunzel – Oh yes. There’s apparently millions of them in the States as well.
MJ – Actually (for once) I’ve already done it.
The Obamajoker meme is daft, and just makes us realise how completely out of step the US is with every other country in the developed world. (In the 2004 election, GWB accused John Kerry of being on the far left of US politics. John Kerry!)
It makes no sense – the Ledger joker was an anarchist, the physical manifestation of the free market gone haywire, the antithesis of socialism.
Bbbbbut… It is a good, memorable image. And Obama’s supporters have characteristically overreacted, describing it as racist. I mean, wtf?
I don’t get how it is racist. Twattish, stupid and pointless, yes, but racist no. I could be missing something, but then over here things tend to be classist.
Don’t you just love it when the right try to do satire? Terrible and fascinating in equal measures…
There must be some good “right” satirists, but the only one I’ve ever found even remotely amusing is PJ O’Rourke.