Thoughts?
2.24.2009
Any thoughts?
Our buddies got all wrapped up in some controversy over at boingboing the other day over this new shirt. They've sold quite a few now, but I NEVER would have predicted that people's interpretation of the print would be so ugly. Do YOU happen to get a "cruel irony of the cost of the two wars" sort of a vibe? I mean I suppose that truly dark people might go there, but not really.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
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how about adding a photo of iraq war dead on the back with the caption "others didn't"?
ReplyDeleteYou must not know anyone that was directly physically affected by war during the Bush administration. Very naive post. Put your spats on and do a skid.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I LOVE anonymous snide comments. You seem to be assuming quite a bit about me, without giving any context for your opinions.
ReplyDeleteYou know actually, I don't know anyone "directly physically affected" by the two wars of the Bush administration. But I also don't think that's a prerequisite for comprehending the implications of this shirt. I do know plenty of people affected by the policies, culture and economic meltdown that are direct consequences of those wars.
I'm aware of the death toll of Bush era foreign policy. But I don't find this shirt offensive; it's frank and it's meant to draw attention to the fact that the Bush administration DID have a body count. Who really, at this point, is trying to be subtle about that?
This is obviously an emotional question. I just think writing off the shirt is like hating "Bring Our Troops Home Now" messages for being supposedly anti-military, when they are just as much about advocating for the well-being of men and women in uniform. You are of course entitled to your opinion, but so am I.
ditto to mary's response. the shirt may be contextually offensive but it is not inherently offensive, unless you mistake your own view for the only legitimate one.
ReplyDeletethe bush administration was utterly catastrophic and has irreparably destroyed hundreds of thousands, more accurately millions of lives. it, like other catastrophes, was potentially unsurvivable, and for many it was, emphatically so. of course it's tongue in cheek, but its a riff on a very common idiomatic expression and a play on the double meaning inherent in the use of the verb 'to survive.' usually 'i survived --' shirts denote something potentially unbearable but ordinarily survivable (a family reunion or severe blizzard, perhaps), but here its referring to a regime that actively and purposefully transformed itself into a killing machine.
and let's not forget, one didn't have to be a victim--iraqi or american--in the iraq war to be a victim of the bush administration.