April 11, 2015

"What free speech absolutists have failed to acknowledge is that because one has the right to offend a group does not mean that one must."

"Or that that group gives up the right to be outraged. They’re allowed to feel pain. Freedom should always be discussed within the context of responsibility. At some point free expression absolutism becomes childish and unserious. It becomes its own kind of fanaticism.... Writing satire is a privilege I’ve never taken lightly. And I’m still trying to get it right."

Says Garry Trudeau.

95 comments:

Writ Small said...

The right to offend means that someone, somewhere will. Therefore, (some)one must.

It is simple bigotry to presume some groups cannot handle offense.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

To his credit, Mr. Trudeau admits that he has no extraordinary insight into anything and that 80% of his success is showing up.

From Inwood said...

Writing satire has always been offensive to the people satirized but now we have the PC police who say that certain people (Hil & Nancy)& groups (Social Justice Warriors) cannot be satirized & certain people(Palin & Quayle) & groups (pro-Lifers & Repubs/Cons in general)must be satirized.

Michael P said...

Does he say whether he considers his last 20 or so years of work to be meta-satire? Some kind of elaborate performance of what a dyed-in-the-wool liberal satirist would do if they stored caring about being funny or connecting with half of the country?

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Can we hear from someone relevant?

Qwerty Smith said...

There are some circumstances when one must offend a group.

If I published a magazine or a newspaper and made a big stink about my courage to speak truth to power, I still would have refrained from publishing depictions of Mohammed, in deference to Muslim sensibilities.

Once other publications had been threatened or attacked for depicting Mohammed, however, I think I would have a moral obligation to join join them out of solidarity.

If hundreds or thousands of publications had reproduced the Danish Mohammed cartoons, probably none would have been attacked. The attack on Charlie Hebdo was a direct result of other outlets' cowardice, hypocrisy, and tacit collaboration in the face of terrorism.

Anonymous said...

You'll notice he never quite got around to apologizing to the people who were offended by the stuff about the transvaginal probes.

Chef Mojo said...

Free speech is a natural right. Period. And if that's "absolutist," Trudeau, you can kiss my flabby white ass. Expressing pain over the barbs of speech and howling with outrage in response are choices. If I attempt to offend you with my speech and succeed, it is not because of what or how I said to do it, but how you chose to deal with it. So fuck you, buttercup, and get your special snowflake, whiny-bitch ass ot of my kitchen.

rhhardin said...

I always judge free speech by whether it's true.

Perhaps it corrects a meme.

Unknown said...

To people in the media - like Trudeau - free speech is just for the insiders. It isn’t for the common folk.

Anonymous said...

I think a lot less about Garry Trudeau after reading his thoughts on free speech.

rhhardin said...

Isn't Trudeau married to a newsbabe?

There's no trying free speech around his house.

Jason said...

Scratch a liberal, you'll find a fascist. Every time.

tim in vermont said...

And Gary is happy to volunteer to be the referee of what can and cannot be said.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Don't see any apologies for all the Republicans and conservatives he has humiliated over the years. Just don't say anything mean about the folks doing the beheadings!!

Chef Mojo said...

Writing satire is a privilege (..)

There. Right there. No, you stupid ossified dinosaur, it is not a privilege! It is a right! If, after all these years, you haven't been able to get this distinction through your thick, elitist skull, then you're far more idiotic than I ever imagined you to be.

Amadeus 48 said...

I stopped reading Doonesbury when it came more predictable than Beetle Bailey--about forty years ago.

The Godfather said...

OK, Gary, you've knocked down half a dozen straw men. You got anything for an encore?

deepelemblues said...

Actually, Garry, the essence of free speech is that because that everyone has the right to offend, some must. And you and your friends are all about making certain speech socially unacceptable, because of your hangups. He must be so proud to be the heir of spinster aunts everywhere, and every topic he doesn't like = the birds and the bees.

Douglas B. Levene said...

Says M. Trudeau: "Je ne suis pas Charlie."

traditionalguy said...

As Wm Borroughs says, listen to the carny barker who passes along truth using obscene words and ideas. It sets the hearers free. That is why religious carny barkers go after the competition.

Kevin said...


I used to find Mr. Trudeau's strip humorous.

Then, I grew up...

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Dude, I remember you going on about George Will and his "quote boy" for a couple of weeks. But then you knew that George Will wasn't going to come by your house and cut your head off, yes?

Anonymous said...

The whole point of the "punching" metaphor, before its untimely death, was that you were punching up if the people you were attacking were in a position to harm you, and punching down otherwise. But now, if they retaliate by getting you fired or killed, it was your own fault for punching down, while punching up is safe as houses.

Alex said...

Typical SJW rant.

traditionalguy said...

Trudeau takes the aristocrats' position on speech being free among our kind, but must be prescribed among the commoners.

He is proud to get away with that. He will match his family heritage against yours anytime.

What a sad use of talent.

rcocean said...

"Scratch a liberal, you'll find a fascist. Every time."

Yep. They're for "responsible" free speech. Which means stuff they like.

phantommut said...

Gary Trudeau, bravely defending the privileged.

BudBrown said...

Was he wearing a football helmet when he gave that talk?

Alex said...

Reading the comment thread on the article, 99% were pro-Islamic radical. There was one guy fighting the good fight all the way through, to no avail.

rcocean said...

Trudeau has always been a member of the elite. From Yale to the Washington Post. Always punching down.

weh said...

Has anyone laughed at his strips in the last 40 years?

YoungHegelian said...

Or that that group gives up the right to be outraged. They’re allowed to feel pain.....

"....you know, like, Sarah Palin & her family."

If Trudeau would have said that I would have given him props, but he never will, because he's a sanctimonious wimp. He always was & he always will be.

Nobody's saying the folks who suffer the brunt of free speech can't be upset about it. They just gotta stop somewhere before mass murder is all we're asking.

Remember, folks, this is a satirist saying this malarkey. Aristophanes & Rabelais must be rotating in their graves!

Bob Boyd said...

What would be speech police have failed to acknowledge is that because one has the right to feel offended does not mean that one must.

Jason said...

The late Christopher Hitchens in an epic defense of freedom of speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyoOfRog1EM

The last of the true liberals. If he were here today he would give dipshit protofascists like Trudeau and Pollitt and others a smackdown for the ages.

I didn't agree with him on a lot of things. But good Lord I miss him.

traditionalguy said...

You are not permitted to say Mohammedism is a War Ideology, because that triggers their warriors to go to war until you are killed, and that is all your fault. Ask Mohammed's defenders... or ask Trudeau who knows best.

Laslo Spatula said...

Back in the long ago I went, with my fellow college journalists of the Great State of California, to a College Journalist Convention in Santa Cruz, CA.

We were there to celebrate Journalism and learn and share and -- of course -- feel like we were better than other, less knowledgable, people.

As a side note: I drove four of us down in my 1972 AMC Javelin, still the best car ever. End side note.

Anyway, sexually transmitted diseases were shared and naughty secrets were learned, and we had a luncheon with Jane Pauley speaking.

She told us of the Importance of Keeping the Respect of Journalism sacred while we used those Powers to Make a Better, More Equal, World.

I don't remember much of the speech because I was drinking Screwdrivers and making a mountain out of the mashed potatoes from everyone's plate. I know -- Screwdrivers: college kid drink. Yet tasty, and maybe nutritious. Vitamin C, I believe.

And: Jane Pauley. Of NBC. Yes: hot back in the day.

So after the Speech I happen to be in the bar when Jane Pauley takes the open seat beside me. We exchange pleasantries, and she asks what kind of journalism do I do.

I tell her I am the Editorial Cartoonist.

She says: "That's funny, my husband Garry Trudeau does a comic. It's Nationally Syndicated."

So I say: "Yes, I love 'Bloom County.' The Penguin 'Opus' rocks."

She then explains that 'Bloom County' is an inferior knock-off of her husband's strip 'Doonesbury,' to which I nod, and silently think: Hell no it isn't.

She then asks me about my politics, and I explain that I am the Editorial Cartoonist because I am humorous and can draw well; I don't care about the politics, I just like funny.

So Jane Pauley says, "That is refreshing."

I have to admit: I was surprised at her response. I thought everyone believed you should only take pot-shots at the hermetically-approved targets.

Then Jane Pauley said: "Do you know what else I find refreshing?"

"No. What?"

"Having anal sex with someone besides my emotionally-and-politcally-constipated husband."

A little background: Blondie's 'Heart of Glass' was playing on the bar jukebox. Just thought I'd toss that in for a little narrative color.

Anyway.

So:I had anal sex with Jane Pauley in my room on the fourth floor of the Holiday Inn, we drank some wine, and she left with a winsome smile.

Seriously: there was no-one at NBC that could give this beautiful woman the non-political anal sex she was craving? No-one at all?

That is how I learned about modern media.

Two weeks later I received a 'Doonesbury' compilation book signed by her husband.

Sucker.

I am Laslo.

rcocean said...

"Has anyone laughed at his strips in the last 40 years?"

He's been unfunny for a long time, yet still remains employed. He must appeal to the over 60 crowd.

Fen said...

Satire? Is that what calls them?

A murder of crows
A gaggle of geese
A satire of strawmen

Saint Croix said...

Imagine a satirist who is boring and predictable, a satirist who has a whole laundry list of sacred cows who cannot be mocked, and a satirist who is not read by anybody under 60.

Yes, he's the tip-toeing satirist, the oh-so-careful satirist, the kinder and gentler satirist. It's such flaming bullshit it sent me to the dictionary.

Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement.

Should radical Islamic theology be ashamed about anything that it has said, or done? Why not speak out about this evil? Garry Trudeau is silent as to why he is silent.

And as South Park steals his audience, all he can say is...

At some point free expression absolutism becomes childish and unserious.

When a cartoonist is worried about being "childish" and "unserious," maybe you ought to stop drawing the squiggles. You are afraid, Garry Trudeau. You are afraid and narrow-minded and boring and old. And if we're playing Jeopardy, the question would be...

Why is Zonker no longer reading Doonesbury?

Saint Croix said...

Good take down here

Bob Boyd said...


The inscription in Laslo's signed funny book:

"What anal sex aficionados have failed to acknowledge is that because one has the opportunity to have anal sex with another man's wife does not mean that one must.
Or that that the aggrieved husband gives up the right to be outraged. He's allowed to feel pain.
Anal sex should always be performed within the context of responsibility. At some point free anal sex absolutism becomes childish and unserious. It becomes its own kind of fanaticism.... Anal sex is a privilege I’ve never taken lightly. And I’m still trying to get it right."

Guildofcannonballs said...

I raped it only after I fucking acknowledged that shit.

Yo.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Anyone else see the rank hypocrisy here?

Paul Ciotti said...

People who marry their first cousins for 700 years fly off the handle a lot.

Alex said...

I stopped reading at "Free speech absolutist" and grabbed my AK. Still hugging it tightly.

Big Mike said...

The White House took a lot of hits for not sending a high-level representative to the pro-Charlie solidarity march, but that oversight is now starting to look smart.

To Garry Trudeau everything this administration does looks smart.

mishu said...

By punching downward, by attacking a powerless, disenfranchised minority with crude, vulgar drawings closer to graffiti than cartoons

What is this "punching down" bullshit? Last year the world sent OPEC nations $750 billion. If you take out Venezuela and Ecuador, the world sent these Muslim nations $690 billion dollars for a product on which they are totally dependent. The West now has to walk on tip toes around Islam and Muslims lest some poor sap will be sent to explode a wearable bomb in some random location, usually related to air travel. And we are the ones punching down? Piss off Doonesbury.

Laslo Spatula said...

I'd probably be embarrassed to look at those political cartoons again. Young, stupid, etc etc.

But I did a strip in the paper twice a week that I think I'd still be proud of. It involved an aimless drifter who just hung around the campus area, looking for 'opportunities.'

One particular published strip about his 'adventures' resulted in the college paper's Editorial Board universally condemning me in the next paper's Lead Editorial.

I think that was when I found my voice. Bitches.


I am Laslo.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Hey let's pretend the quoted author is sincere.

Where are your 18 year old daughters Sir?

Skyler said...

Gary who? Wasn't he prime minister of Canada or something?

Skyler said...

And didn't he marry a comedian named Pauly Shore?

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

The pro-choice model is a selective deferment of judgment. It is generally incompatible with the preservation of human and civil rights. It is predisposed to create moral hazards. The sanctimonious hypocrisy of its philosophers undermines their credibility. Hebdo's employees were victims of his pro-choice policy and partisan interests that intentionally left its consequences unreconciled.

rcocean said...

"And didn't he marry a comedian named Pauly Shore?"

No, he married the funny Shore.

rcocean said...

"Wasn't he prime minister of Canada or something?"

No, this is the unfunny Trudeau.

richard mcenroe said...

How very Proglodyte of the bourgeois old fart with his factory-produced comic strip...

richard mcenroe said...

From Inwood: THAT'S NOT FUNNY!/sarc

Saint Croix said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ken in tx said...

I read Trudeau everyday, out of habit. Currently he is recycling his old strips of the Reagan era. Last week his characters were calling for James Watt to resign. Only on Sundays does he come up with a new strip and he frequently flubs it. For example, he thought the UVA hoax was real and used it in a strip.

I also read Truesbury whenever it gets updated. It's much better.

Chris N said...

Brave, brave Sir Gary..

Guildofcannonballs said...

Oh I just found out Fidel cent, aka 50 cent, thinks his count output is unTupac.

Fuck fifty.

Only God could judge Tupac, and cunt fiddy cent bitches cunt-wise.


Guildofcannonballs said...

"Only God can judge me" - An American named by his mother Tupac Shakur.

richardsson said...

I never got the idea that he was so "smart" until I realized that "smart" means "I agree with" in the lexicon of those people.

DanTheMan said...

Trudeau: Now that I've made my millions with it, let's pull that free speech ladder up behind me, OK?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Je suis Char Char.

Unknown said...

I stopped reading in 1982 when I realized that Trudeau had an agenda, I was 22 at the time, and it was an epiphany. I figured out for the fist time that the press has a way of influence based on personal bias. Thanks for that awakening, Gary.

Gary Larson is the true social genius in the world of comics.

Static Ping said...

Ah, "hate speech." Last I checked pretty much everything qualifies as "hate speech" to someone. Maybe we should all shut up for the good of humanity. Of course this would also apply to Trudeau but we all have sacrifices to make, some smaller than others....

David said...

The fact that you are able to incite bigots to mayhem with a drawing does not make you important, or coherent. Trudeau seems to think that he is both, but he is mistaken. And predictable. Indeed there is no fool like an old fool, especially one who seems to think that he is now past foolishness.

kcom said...

"By punching downward, by attacking a powerless, disenfranchised minority with crude, vulgar drawings closer to graffiti than cartoons"

Powerless, disenfranchised minority, my ass. They have 1.2 billion adherents, one out of every six people on the face of the earth. They have political control of dozens of countries. There are 49 countries with majority Muslim populations. As mentioned above, they bring in hundreds of billions of dollars a year in foreign revenue. At one point, they conquered half (or some very large percentage) of the known world. They have a long history of literature, science, and other fields of human learning (which they have let atrophy lately unfortunately).

Anyone who thinks they are powerless and disenfranchised can't see reality. The facts don't support it. It's also very patronizing to infantilize them that way.

P.S. The only disenfranchisement going on is their leaders towards their own people.

Alex said...

sorry but these days they're more known for suicide bombers than science.

rcocean said...

"hate speech" is anything the writer dislikes. Its an amazingly flexible label. You never know what the writer means by it until they define it.

DanTheMan said...

For those not there, or who have forgotten...
Doonesbury regularly made fun of Iranians during the hostage crisis, so I guess he's the right one to lecture us about Muslim sensitivity.

Sammy Finkelman said...

And what about Dan Quayle, and taking Brett Kimberlin seriously as a source, back in 1992?

Amexpat said...

"Has anyone laughed at his strips in the last 40 years?"
He's been unfunny for a long time, yet still remains employed. He must appeal to the over 60 crowd.


The same thing happened to Al Capp's Lil Abner. In it's hay day it was popular and influential. By the 60's, only people over 60 were reading it.

Xmas said...

I started reading Laslo's Jane Paulie story without realizing it was Laslo's...

My eyes.

Beorn said...

I am offended by this, and demand Trudeau be fired.

themightypuck said...

Holy shit. I think he can be funny. Alpha House was funny (while outrageously ignorant about its targets). But what the fuck. Free speech absolutists in the Charlie Hebdo mode are doing a test. If you can't hack it, that says something. That something is the point.

Paul said...

Trudeau has spent his life offending people, and now he gets what, an attack of the conscience?

Or just an attack of hypocrisy?

Gary Rosen said...

"What a sad use of talent."

You may have a mistaken assumption there.

chickelit said...

Gary Rosen said...

You may have a mistaken assumption there.

Indeed. Calling Trudeau "talented" in the context of the last--let's just say--decade or so is a dictional stretch.

Laslo Spatula said...

A month or two after the Jane Pauley Incident I received a phone call from a woman purporting to be Diane Sawyer's Personal Assistant. Something about possibly setting up a meeting to discuss rumors circling about the College Journalist Convention in Santa Cruz, CA. The Personal Assistant stressed that the meeting would be 'Private'.

I know what you're thinking: No, I did not have anal sex with Diane Sawyer -- that is how great my respect for Jane Pauley was.

I did, however, have anal sex with Diane Sawyer's Personal Assistant. Afterwards she gave me a CBS News coffee mug and a rather nice pen that she swore had been in Diane Sawyer's vagina.


I am Laslo.

campy said...

"... my AK. Still hugging it tightly."

Better than clinging to it bitterly.

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

"What free speech absolutists have failed to acknowledge is that because one has the right to offend a group does not mean that one must."

Correct, Einstein. But then, that would be called "compelled speech", and we are not talking about that at all.

We've only just recently reached "compelled behavior". Give it time.

Moneyrunner said...

At a certain age, and garry truedough is of that age (and level of wealth) you start writing essays to share your wisdom. And then Ann notices them. Senility follows.

Jon Burack said...

Trudeau's tired old 60s-has-been strip offends me just about every time I see my newspaper wasting precious space to include it, but I will defend to the death his right to offend me.

rhhardin said...

My favorite offense is too soon jokes.

dbp said...

I used to read Garry Trudeau 25-30 years ago. I knew he was a big fat lefty, but he was funny. As time went on the laughs became more rare and the cheap-shots more common, so I stopped. Once my net pleasure got to less than zero, there was no longer any point. With a different time-line, the same happened with The Daily Show.

I sometimes wonder why this evolution happens. These are people who could be funny and have become not funny. Did their priorities change? Did they just run out of Jokes? What?

campy said...

Just because a cartoonist has the right to kiss the asses of lefties doesn't mean a cartoonist must.

Freeman Hunt said...

A true headline I've never seen in print: "White Person Treats Minorities Like Babies."

HoodlumDoodlum said...

New sign: "Behead Those Who Oppose Absolute Free Speech"

Kirk Parker said...

Hoodlum,

That's awesome.

But for pure symmetry, it should really say "Censor those who oppose absolute free speech", don't you think?

orthodoc said...

In other words, you can make fun of people that you know aren't going to take a swing at you, or slit your throat.

Explains a lot, actually.

How brave do you think Trudeau would be if he knew that the people he offends (me, for example) were going to find him and take a baseball bat to his fat, cliche-ridden head?

Rusty said...

Jason @ 6:04

Yes he is.
In many ways he was a classic liberal.