Ben Garrison cartoons are fantastic time sinks to try and figure out all the ways his symbolism doesn’t work. For example, in that cartoon, “Internet Providers” are a truck on the “Social Media Freeway.” That’s the kind of thought he’s put into his own metaphors.

Interesting that you bring up Scarface. I’d argue that the message I take from it, i.e. about the nihilism and ugliness of such a self-destructive an selfish worldview, is not the message that the folks wearing XXXXL Scarface t-shirts or putting the poster on their wall are taking from it. The tension between the…

Must? Of course not. But neither should we be blind to the messages (intentional or otherwise) contained in art. I don’t think that being a critical consumer of culture is a bad thing, nor that it prevents enjoying certain things that happen to contain aspects one finds distasteful.

This article is producing an incredibly high ratio of folks who completely ignore what is being discussed as a preface to their “what you’re actually saying is...” posts.

I think the tattered flags represent flags that haven’t been honored sufficiently by NFL players. And the squinting represents the failure of opthamology care in the ACA.

You’re both right.

I like how Trump is standing beneath his own face.

That’s not real, is it?

I have no idea what you think is even being argued here, so I can’t disagree.

Troll smarter, not harder.

If violence in one medium “sends a message” then it does across all mediums.

We all know that the police don’t care about violence perpetrated against rich white families. That’s just common knowledge.

You’re not wrong, especially re: the upset dog. It’s weird, because people who want to shoehorn discussion of video games into every single topic are usually so reasonable and pleasant.

Nope, not any closer.

Well, as long as you’re sure that the fact that you could detect no message from the film means there is no message, we can put the issue to bed. Thanks for clarifying.

You’ve gotten so much wrong about what I just said that I’m honestly not sure where to start. I’m not making any argument akin to violent video games making people more violent. If you want to talk about that argument, find someone else who is making it.

Well, it might help if you read more than the headline of the article before jumping down to the comments. I haven’t seen the movie, but taking the article at its word that Chicago is portrayed as a lawless hellhole in which the white father must avenge his wife and daughter by killing a bunch of gang members because,…

Perhaps it isn’t about being offended, but just recognizing that art of this sort should be recognized for the message it is sending.

Couldn’t agree more. Sometimes a turd is a turd regardless of its motivation.

With people like Roth, it’s really tough to disentangle what portions of his shittiness come from being a genuinely simple-minded dumbdumb, and which come from being a disingenuous prick who wants to put a message into the world but doesn’t want to be held responsible for putting a message out into the world.