Funny Stuff Thread.... to loosen your day

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Lethe

Lethe

Captain
horse said:
It's racist.
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How is it racist? The cartoon's message is that India overtaking China by one measure (population) does not mean that it has overtaken China in others (infrastructure and technology). This message should be uncontroversial. Beyond the meaning lies the specific metaphor employed to convey the message, the image of the Chinese high-speed train contrasted with a dramatically overcrowded slow Indian train. Again, this imagery should be uncontroversial. China has the world's largest high-speed rail network. India's high-speed rail network is today nonexistent despite ongoing projects. The depiction of persons riding on the outside of Indian trains is simply factual, to deny that this occurs is to reject reality.

The cartoon does not support a narrative of triumphant Indian progress that is favoured by the BJP ministers who have objected to the cartoon, but that is far from being racist. Just because a joke pokes fun at a particular country does not make it racist or otherwise objectionable to persons from that country. If there is any truth to the joke (and there must be, for it to be a good joke) then more open-minded persons from that country will be able to recognise it and acknowledge the joke as a good one.

As I suggested earlier, I think an inability to laugh at oneself is in fact deeply suggestive and associated with political conservatism, perhaps with zealotry of all forms, because it suggests that one is unable or unwilling to adopt the perspectives of others or to acknowledge the complexities, nuances and absurdities of reality.
 
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