XPost: alt.society.zeitgeist, ca.driving, alt.mountain-bike
XPost: ucb.math

By SE Cupp

(CNN)In the days, weeks, months and years following 9/11, there
were countless images, moving and still, that came into our
collective consciousness that changed us, as much as those
events did.

For me, a New Yorker who witnessed many of those images live,
there are a few that are forever etched in my brain. One, still
photos of men in suits jumping from the top floors of the World
Trade Center, their ties whipping upward in the wind as they
leaped from one helpless fate to another.

Many more images would follow. I was at my desk at The New York
Times in May 2004 when news broke that a missing American
contractor named Nick Berg had been decapitated by Islamic
extremists in Iraq. He'd briefly attended my college, so I'd
felt a small connection with him. I made myself watch the video
of his decapitation that morning, and immediately regretted it.

Of course, it was grisly and shocking and awful. But that's not
what made it such a lasting, haunting image that I can't shake
to this day.

It's that he was one of ours, and they took his head as a
trophy, held it up to the video camera, and with bloodlust and
hatred in their eyes, rubbed it in our faces. I was looking at
pure evil.

That's what came to mind when I saw Kathy Griffin's gruesome
image. I'm not sure what reaction Griffin wanted us to have when
she posed for a photo with a bloody, decapitated mask of Donald
Trump. But there are no good ones to be had after looking at a
picture like that.

In the more forgiving (but still unforgivable) metaphorical
version, I suppose she's suggesting that comedians like her will
symbolically take Trump down with their wit and humor and moral
superiority. But this photo is not witty, funny or moral.

In the more forgiving (but still unforgivable) metaphorical
version, I suppose she's suggesting that comedians like her will
symbolically take Trump down with their wit and humor and moral
superiority. But this photo is not witty, funny or moral.

In the literal version, she's posing as a terrorist who's
decapitated the President. She's issued a statement saying,
"OBVIOUSLY, I do not condone ANY violence by my fans or others
to anyone, ever!" But that isn't obvious, actually. She's
apologized, suffered consequences and asked the photographer to
take the photo down, but that won't undo the worst of the damage.

In addition to gratuitously playacting one of the most vile,
grotesque and evil acts of violence one could -- against any
human, let alone the President -- Griffin has also managed to
weaken good arguments against Trump's intolerance and the
intolerance of some of his supporters. There is no equivalency
between Griffin's photo, for example, and the stabbing of three
people on a train allegedly by a self-proclaimed white
supremacist, but if you think the President should take more
seriously his role in tamping down violence and hate across the
country, as I do, stunts such as this are a serious setback.

There are good people on the left and right who are trying
earnestly and responsibly to hold this President to account.
There are also millions of people who elected him and think he's
doing what's best for the country. And finally, there are evil
people around the world, some of whom want to behead innocent
Americans. With this photo, who does Kathy Griffin most look
like?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/31/opinions/kathy-griffin-immoral- photo-cupp-opinion/
 

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