Friday 25 July 2008

The Funniest Thing I've Read All Week...

... is a review of The Dark Knight by some right-wing nutjob in the Wall Street Journal. It goes like this:

"There seems to me no question that the Batman film "The Dark Knight," currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war."

I wasn't aware that invading a sovereign nation required "moral courage". However, I suppose some "fortitude" is needed to trample over human rights, or torture people.

Oh, wait -

Batman is a vigilante. He operates outside the law. He's a criminal. So, by the same argument, George W Bush must be a criminal too.

The article also says:

"Conversely, time after time, left-wing films about the war on terror -- films like "In The Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Redacted" -- which preach moral equivalence and advocate surrender, that disrespect the military and their mission, that seem unable to distinguish the difference between America and Islamo-fascism, have bombed more spectacularly than Operation Shock and Awe."

Hang on. Islamo-fascism? That would be right-wing Muslim extremists who blow people up and fly planes into skyscrapers, then. Who are apparently not the same as right-wing American extremists who advocate invasion, extraordinary rendition and torture. Right-wing. Fascism. They look the same from where I'm standing.

Anyway, here's the full article. Enjoy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There is something morally suspect about movies and ideologies that espouse a vigilante approach to solving problems. Go outside the law (the law protects wrong-doers), punish extra-judicially, torture to get information, assassinate troublesome opponents, as long as the end (never clear) serves some nebulous moral purpose. Vigilante-ism is lawlessness, the destruction of moral order and governance by consensus. The Dark Knight lynches his victims after exposing them to only summary justice; Bush carries out selfish foreign policy objectives with little consideration given over to suffering and petty notions like justice and due process. I suppose in that sense, the Prez and the Bat are simpatico...