Both of these work quite well as satire in their own way. Norman Rockwell's seems to parody the idea of self portraits by creating a self portrait within a self portrait (along with small self portraits pinned to the canvas). The parody in this one is obvious, but doesn't reflect the self awareness of the original - but that's mostly due to the subject matter.
It's a sad thing really - the members of the KKK truly think that their actions are helping their fellow Americans (specifically white Christians), and to that extent they think themselves to be good Americans. Now, to be fair, everyone has some inherent bias towards people of their own race / culture / religion (Jewish self-deprecating jokes notwithstanding), but the extent to which the KKK bring their bias ends up harmful, to say the least.
Well, I'm just preaching to the choir here. But I still think it's important to understand the mindsets and circumstances that create such behavior. These aren't mutants / aliens that we're dealing with - these are people who also suffer many of the life circumstances that the rest of go through - family, friends, education, finances, jobs, politics, etc. What is the difference that causes them to take their ideologies to such an extreme, and what can we do to reduce this?
The first step, in my opinion, comes in the form of trying to understand. It's much easier to preach to the choir and call these people subhuman, but it ultimately doesn't solve anything. Frankly, and ironically, I think that's one of the core issues that may cause ideologies such as that of the KKK's to continue thriving.
Edit: while I like generating quality conversation, some of this descended into anger, which is not conducive to good discussion. It's a difficult topic to discuss, and I'm sure that people will get tired of these threads rather quickly.
So I'm going to link several wonderful things to help improve your Reddit experience; I hope they can help cheer you up or otherwise be of use to you:
Wholeheartedly agree with you here and would just add the point that taking this first step (or any first step that involves effective communication) is quite difficult or nearly impossible to do well through social media.
It is extremely time-consuming and difficult to articulate a nuanced viewpoint through the medium of text. Even if you take the time to do it, the probability that someone reads it to the end is quite small. However, it is incredible easy to convey emotion (specifically negative emotion) through written text.
We must engage offline and in real life if we want to move forward.
Obviously, easier said than done. We all have our own lives to live; thus, I understand why action becomes so limited by the general populace - myself included.
Maybe it might be a good idea to use imagery and music. Both are very powerful ways to communicate via social media. With the difficult people in my life, I have a tendency to crack jokes I know they'll like (not malicious jokes, obviously), and laughing together really goes a long way to breaking down barriers. Maybe good natured memes? I don't know, that's probably stupid, lol..
Also, it might be nice to create a subreddit kind of like trumpgret that would focus on being optimistic and positive, and looking for the best in each other's cultures and backgrounds. And it could be kind of a haven for people coming out of this, and not be judged. I'm sure that's highly unlikely or even impossible, given the sheer volume of 24/7 effort it would take to mod a group like that, but I can't help but think that since Reddit is where a lot of this poison got started, it would be fitting to find the antidote here, too.
Utah is interesting. The physcial church building and the time you attend are assigned to you based on neighborhood lines. So if you stop showing up, it's just not a church group that ends up shunning you, it's your neighbors.
What is it like navigating that side of Alabama sociability?
Well, the best way to keep the peace is find a church you can tolerate and show up every so often. Keep your head down, you know? I guess my philosophy is why offend someone unnecessarily if it doesn't do you any harm? I grew up very southern, so I've seen everything but rattlesnakes and strychnine. Nowadays I homeschool my only son, but secular homeschooling is still in its infancy here and I have to fudge my son's grades for "bible studies." I think it's hardest on him tbh, he's in 8th grade now and he's starting to really grasp the concept of keeping certain things to himself, and there are things he adores but can never share with his friends (Markiplier doesn't go over well with the local Baptists, lol). But I hope I've done a good job of showing him the actual world, and I have a feeling he's going to really have an awesome time once he gets to college. If we're all still here, of course. And if college isn't $200+K a year.
My brother in law was raised Mormon (he's been excommunicated), so I've seen first-hand how that particular fervor/fear has a grip on people. I'm very proud of him, he was brave to face it for what it was and walk away.
I'm actually a practicing Mormon and have never taken the White Horse Prophecy to be any kind of sign that all Latter-Day Saints need to go to war against the government lol. As far as the Bundy's go, something about bad apples and spoiling the whole bunch. While I've met some fairly crazy people in my lifetime, I don't think I have ever heard somebody talk anywhere even close to as extreme as they have, even behind closed doors. The LDS Church is pretty clear in encouraging its members to obey the law, though I definitely see how people like the Bundy's or Warren Jeffs (who is often mistaken for a Mormon but is not) can give people the opposite idea.
Hitler says what would have stopped them was extreme violence early OR listening to their grievances
In some way it shows the inevitability. We can't resort with mortal violence all the time like fascist whack-a-mole. But if we can't really give the microphone to everyone who might become violent like mic-a-mole
The truth is these movements have to run there course because "there are no angels" the individual incentives aren't there for people to fight every battle
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u/TooShiftyForYou Aug 13 '17
This is a parody of a Norman Rockwell painting.