Monday’s Maddening Meme 8/3/15


In an attempt to dismiss the anger many people have felt over the killing of Cecil the Lion at the hands of Dr. Walter Palmer, this meme gets a couple of things wrong:

1. It treats knowledge of geography as an essential component of outrage.  I couldn’t point out where Charleston, SC is on a map, but I sure as shit was angry at Dylan Storm killing 9 black people there. I don’t know where Jerusalem is on a map but that’s not going to stop me from being outraged that an ultra-orthodox Jew chose (twice) to go on a killing spree because he’s a homophobic douchebag. I don’t know where Maricopa County, AZ is, but I’m plenty ticked off that rabidly racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio still has a job instead of being imprisoned where he belongs. It is not necessary to know where an incident occurred to be angry about it. Otherwise, people would not be able to get angry about a host of things.

2. It appears to dismiss the reasons people are outraged. There are many reasons that I’ve seen people angered over this and those reasons are a bit more substantial than ‘Zimbabwe lost a lion’. I’ve seen people angry over the fact that an animal famous with tourists has been killed. Others are angry because they feel that poaching should be illegal. Some people are angry because they see Walter Palmer as a guy who has too much money, too much time on his hands, too much macho toxic masculinity he’s stewing in, and too little regard for the lives of other living creatures. I’ve seen people angry that this is another case of unnecessary gun violence. I’ve seen people angry that Palmer broke the law in killing Cecil. I’ve also seen conservationists angry that Palmer killed a protected animal that was being studied. The meme fails to adequately address these points in favor of just dismissing people who are angry. Of course a meme isn’t exactly the place to address these points, which is one of the reasons this meme is a bad idea all around.

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Monday’s Maddening Meme 8/3/15
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2 thoughts on “Monday’s Maddening Meme 8/3/15

  1. 1

    Hi.  I am new to The Roost and wanted to say congratulations on the new digs.  I agree with all of the above post, but I am struck by the cluelessness of Mr. Tomczak: one cannot find Zimbabwe on a map of South America!

  2. 2

    Welcome in!

    I actually think the map of South America plays into his argument somehow. I think he’s trying to illustrate his point by insinuating that a lot of people would be so ignorant of the location of Zimbabwe that they wouldn’t know the difference between Africa and South America.

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