More real

Cartoons often portray reality in a way that, sometimes, reality can’t. Think of political cartoons v. journalism, for example. Cartoons can help make the truth clearer.

The video above is a cartoon by Mark Fiore in which he takes on the sudden amnesia of the USA’s anti-gay industry and its attempt to export their anti-gay bigotry around the world, Uganda in particular. The bigots got what they wanted, then when the world expressed revulsion, the bigots pretended to be shocked and surprised.

Fiore said in the YouTube description:

“Since Uganda's anti-gay law was signed recently, it's been amusing (and maddening) to watch various religious right characters scurry for cover. When nobody was watching, the holier-than-thou set have been visiting Uganda preaching their extreme anti-gay views. Now that people are appalled at Uganda's life-in-prison-for-homosexuals law, the ‘evangelical’ right-wing preachers are laying low or rewriting history.”

The players in the anti-gay industry may attempt to re-write history, and pretend that they weren’t exporting anti-gay hatred when that’s exactly what they were doing, but they have a small problem: In the 21st Century, it’s easy to fact-check: We know when someone is lying.

Cartoons like this one portray reality uniquely, making truth accessible in a way that straightforward news reporting doesn’t; maybe it can’t. I think that anything that helps ordinary people to understand the true nature of the leaders of the anti-gay industry, and their actual role in exporting anti-gay hatred, is a good thing. It’s also a far greater service to humanity than those bigots will ever be.

Tip o' the Hat to: Joe.My.God.