Stuff like this makes me miss the MAD Magazine of my youth. I flash back to how MAD’s writers in the 1960’s would have satirized this line up. Nowadays, satire is difficult when we’re looking through mirrors (darkly) at concocted truths so outlandish they approach self-parody.
Imagine thinking: Let’s personify the concept of democracy in 2023 with a video call montage of the heads of state of these nations.
Why didn’t they just call it “summit of nations still willing to sort-of support the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine against Russia”?
Their scripted statements remind me of the Cold War-era Spy vs. Spy comic in MAD which often used the theme of how much empires need their enemies.
The inane pronouncements of self-proclaimed “good guys” against alleged “bad guys” make me nostalgic for Rocky and Bullwinkle’s Natasha and Boris Badonov characters.
Because “Get Moose and Squirrel” is about as deep as our imperial spin doctors go in their grasp of current events beyond their control.
In further developments almost impossible to satirize, Twitter today replaced its universally recognized bird logo, one of the strongest brand identifiers on the planet, with a dog.
Maybe it’s an April Fool’s Day joke delayed three days by, um, streamlined staffing at Twitter.
Maybe it’s an attempt to get the cybercurrency Doge, whose logo is this specific dog, to drop its lawsuit against Twitter owner Elon Musk for manipulating the value of Doge.
Maybe it’s just a replay of the situation I used to see in schools all the time: a rich guy comes in and throws a bunch of money around, and suddenly he’s an expert on education. In other words, the final farce of late stage capitalism.
In any case, it’s hard to satirize something that appears to be self-parody.
My recent geography quiz post was such a hit that here’s one I created based on the heads of state image.
Enjoy!
Map A – A nation soon to host U.S. nuclear weapons!
Map B – This nation has its first far-right PM since the guy who coined the term “corporatism” to better describe fascism.
Map C – Apartheid nation claiming to be the only “democracy” in the region.
Map D – Invented white supremacy and currently has leader proud of pogroms and Hitler worship.
Map E – Difficult to find a blank map of this nation that is current after three of its eastern regions voted overwhelmingly to join a neighboring country.
Map F – Convener, nation that leads the world in racially motivated incarceration and treats money as protected political speech — in any dialect.
Answer Key:
1. President Joe Biden
2. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
3. President Andrzej Duda
4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi
5. President Volodymyr Zelensky
6. Prime Minister Georgia Meloni