200 Examples of anti-Obama merchandise during health care debate, 2008-2010

Anonymous

The one mistake they made is that on the “Your Next” poster they forgot to turn the gun sideways. Everybody knows that Obama only uses guns that shoot sideways ;)

Stefan Jones

Fucking idiots.

I mean, really. Falling for Red Menace scare tactics twenty years after Communism was buried ten feet deep and a McDonalds built on the grave?

And then, after participating in the FUD campaign to make their base confused, angry, and afraid, GOP pols base their opposition to reform on “the American people” being angry and afraid.

Steaming Pile

And if they were so pissed off that Barack Obama is the President and is aggressively trying to do exactly what he said he would do if elected, where were they on Election Day in 2008? Couldn’t they find the polling place? Maybe they shouldn’t drink and vote. Or smoke pot. Or drop acid. Whatever. Barack Obama won the popular vote by nine and a half million votes. I seriously doubt there are that many teabaggers in the USA.

Nine and a half million votes, and this handful of astoundingly ignorant people with nothing better to do (or the health insurer that employs them has them on the clock – true story) than yell SOCHALISM!!! at the top of their lungs is pissed off that nobody’s listening to them? Somebody needs to get real.
- Terry
  
  “Nine and a half million votes”
  
  Wow. That’s a really big number.
  
  Of course, that nine and a half million adds up to less than 8% of the votes cast.
  
  Less than 8% doesn’t look so big, does it?
  
  I’m just suggesting you don’t try to use numbers to make a point.
  - dcamsam
    
    Less than 8% doesn’t look so big, does it?
    
    Well, compared to the 2.4% margin of victory in 2004, the -.5% margin of “victory” in 2000, it does.

Anonymous

Anti-Obama? These are some of the most hilarious things with the Obama Face on it. He should put some of these on the bumper of the Airforce One!

Anonymous

“green is the new red” i love it!, it reminds me of XMAS.

eriko2

You could find an equally disrespectful collection from the Bush years. Anyone remember the Bush vs. Chimp pictures?

Anonymous

Didn’t your mother ever teach you two wrongs don’t make a right?
- eriko2
  
  That is my point.
silkox

I voted for Gore, but accepted Bush as my President for the first two years, even though Gore won the popular vote and had Florida stolen. Yet the anti-Obama B.S. illustrated here started well before his inauguration. Still, I take you at your word: I challenge you to find 1/10th as much mindless anti-Bush material for Bush’s ENTIRE EIGHT YEARS as is shown here for Obama’s first.
- Chupacabara
  
  Hmmmm… Outta office over a year, and CafePress has over 40 different Anti-Bush items on just one page…
  
  Think I’ll take you up on your Challenge.
  
  http://www.cafepress.com/beatbushgear
  - Anonymous
    
    Yeah, and notice how the anti-Bush materials are all related to things that *Bush actually did*, whereas the Obama stuff is all made-up BS. If Bush was doing what Obama is doing, these same people would be lining up to suck his **ck in public.
    
    Understand the difference ?
- Chupacabara
  
  Here’s another 364 “Unique” ones one web.
  
  I stress “Unique” for the other posters who commented on the lack of originality shown in the Obama images…
  
  http://www.antibushbumperstickers.com/index.html
  
  As you can see, these illustrate a great amount of “Originality”. Now if the had only used Comic Sans as a web font…
  
  364.
  
  1 shy of a being a different piece of hate for every day of a year.
  
  364.
  
  I counted.
Anonymous

except Bush did in fact, run the country like a monkey (no offense to any monkeys reading this)
Felton

Anyone remember the Bush vs. Chimp pictures?

Yes, and I believe chimps everywhere are still waiting for an apology.

cory

God I totally want a “you’re next” poster now. That is badass.

Plus, I’m completely on board with the “Barack Obama is no Jesus Christ” message. Hallelujah for that.

Aloisius

I would like to point out that people marching around calling for Bush’s execution were the craziest of the crazies.

If we pick up the arguably false equivalence between anti-Bush and anti-Obama, then surely we can theorize that all these tea party people with Obama is Stalin signs are surely the craziest of the crazies as well.

standard

Clearly, the Tea Party does not welcome many graphic designers into their ranks.

Brainspore

Clearly, the Tea Party does not welcome many graphic designers into their ranks.

I didn’t meet many neocon wingnuts in art school.

Phlip

The HMO lobby threw everything they had at this one, using up and burning out both politicians and confused poor people. Their money did more damage to the GOP than the Democrats ever could.

Now we need education, education, education to make sure bullshit like this never happens again!

And watch the cracks widen between the Palinites and the Ron Paulists!

badtux

For the person up there who believes President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a Socialist because Ike believed in redistribution of wealth via a 90%+ income tax on the upper income bracket: Dude, you haven’t the foggiest notion what Socialist means. Socialist means that the government owns the means of production of wealth. Like when the UK nationalized Leyland Motors and called it British Leyland, or when France nationalized Citroen and Renault and made them state-owned, or when Britain nationalized the hospitals in 1948 and made them state-owned, or when Sweden nationalized its banks in 1992. That’s Socialism — the State owning major industries. Redistribution of wealth is plain old liberalism, which is not the same thing as socialism at all.

Words have meaning. Using words in ways that aren’t applicable makes you look like an idiot to anybody who is intelligent. Which, I realize, is the minority of Americans since 50% of Americans are below average and average ain’t so smart anymore, but still. This is BoingBoing, not Freeperville, and we’re a bit brighter ’round these parts :).

Chupacabara

Oh, you mean like GM right?
- Anonymous
  
  You mean when GM went hat-in-hand, on their knees, begging for help to avoid bankruptcy because their incompetent management kept right on making gas-guzzling Hummers even though gas was pushing $4 a gallon and the American public weren’t buying their crappy, wasteful, inefficient cars and trucks? It is always amazing that the teatards classify that as some sort of socialist “takeover” of the car companies. GM hasn’t been nationalized but keep believing the lies if it makes you feel better.

jÃ¡quer

Holy crap, some of these are awesome! Too bad the site doesn’t say where to get them..

RevGreg

@
A lot of the images look like they’re from “The People’s Cube” (http://thepeoplescube.com/) as they are pretty big on the pseudo-Soviet imagery. I’m just upset he didn’t add an image of the design I have on Zazzle!

http://www.zazzle.com/caduceus_primum_tshirt-235149236626334127

Anonymous

99% of these teabagger morons have no idea what Socialism even means.

Anonymous

I get the arguments from both sides. However, we must remember that we have lived through each president and each party extremes said it was the end of the world. Reagan said Medicare was the end of freedom in this country, and he was wrong. They said clinton was a communist, yet he was one of the most moderate looking back.

They said Bush would change the way liberty and freedom was looked at by implementing domestic spy policies with out a warrant on American citizens. And he did.

But the courts have now deemed those illegal, so the system did its job! Thats why we have checks and balances. The system worked, and it still works. And for all you conservatives out there, Obama isn’t a socialist, he doesn’t advocate government ownership of the means of manufacturing and production. The government doesn’t own GM. And regulating health care, while liberal, is not socialism.

And when Obama is out of office, you will still have your guns, you will still have your speech, and there won’t be any internment camps. We survived Bush on the left, and you will survive Obama on the right.

Calm down. The world isn’t ending.

The only scary part about this is that with each president the rhetoric has gotten worse. Both Clinton and Bush W had attempted assassinations, so did Reagan. And yet, none of them had this type of rhetoric going on before they even got in office. Tea Party people need to calm down and stop acting like this is something to start a revolution over or impeach a president.

Chupacabara

On a lighter note…

My ABSOLUTE FAVORITE Anti-Bush / Cheney poster I ever saw…

DICK Cheney, before he DICKS you.

Loved that one.

ill lich

Wow. If you remove all the communist/socialist themes then there’s hardly any left. Just think if the left had made (and sold) this much Bush-as-Nazi-Totalitarian themed gear for the last 8 years.

And “Obamacare”– the health care reform bill is very similar to the bill the GOP offered as an alternative to Hillary Clinton’s 1994 health care bill– has America moved that far to the right that a very moderate health care bill is now “communism?”

Fear. It’s a strong motivator. The tea-baggers were couch potatoes until this “Red Menace” got elected. If the “Obama-as-commie/Hitler” meme loses it’s edge they will have to ramp it up a notch to keep their chubby minions marching. I propose “Obama-as-extraterrestrial-imposter”, maybe with the story “Obamalien is stealing human babies and transporting them to his home planet where they are ground up and turned into an addictive drug!”

Aloisius

And “Obamacare”– the health care reform bill is very similar to the bill the GOP offered as an alternative to Hillary Clinton’s 1994 health care bill– has America moved that far to the right that a very moderate health care bill is now “communism?”

There is only one rational explanation: In 1994, the GOP were communists.
IronEdithKidd

“Obamalien is stealing human babies and transporting them to his home planet where they are ground up and turned into an addictive drug!”

Sadly, TWWN is long out of print. They *so* would’ve done that send-up by now. Nice work!

(Somewhere, I may still have squirreled away the “Rush Limbaugh meets with Space Aliens” story with it’s companion piece “Bill Clinton meets with Space Aliens”. Good times.)

Terry

@ScottTFrazer – I’m sorry, but I cannot comment on that. If someone would be kind enough to translate your comment from the Gibberish, I’ll be happy to give it a go.

@Phikus – First, stop calling people names. It doesn’t help. Some of us are trying to have a civilized discussion here. Second, you seem to be under the impression that the constitution has degrees. It does not. It applies all the time to everyone, and it is not conditional.

What this means is that it is NOT okay when our current administration stomps on the rights of Americans. This circumstance does not change simply because the previous administration was worse. Like the rest of America, I spent eight years watching in horror as the Bush administration did its damnedest to fuck the American people. You’ll have to forgive me for choosing against dropping my pants and bending over for their successors.

Let me put this simply: IT IS NEVER OKAY FOR THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT TO TAKE AWAY THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE. That sort of behavior was unacceptable during the Bush years – it is no more acceptable now.

Is our present government better than the last one? Certainly. Is it good enough? Certainly not. And this ridiculous idea that the Obama administration is wonderful simply BECAUSE the Bush administration was horrible is really tiresome.

ScottTFrazer

Oh. Hey. Sorry. I’ll use smaller words.

you said:
“but let’s not pretend this crap doesn’t happen on both sides”

And then linked to an article that described our current President, meeting with people generally considered to be opposed to his plans. During this meeting, others, who didn’t think the plans went far enough, protested. They wanted universal health care. Something our current President wanted, at least at some point, but the Republicans he was meeting with, didn’t want.

So who do you think it was, exactly, that had those women arrested?

Let’s entertain your supposition that it was the President who made that decision. In order for “this crap to happen on both sides” I’d like an example where:

a) A recent Republican President
b) met with the opposition party
c) was picketed by people who thought the President was capitulating with his opponents
d) asked for them to be arrested.

President Bush having Code Pink protesters doesn’t count because b and c aren’t met.

I look forward to your enlightening reply.
- Terry
  
  “In order for “this crap to happen on both sides” I’d like an example where:
  
  a) A recent Republican President
  b) met with the opposition party
  c) was picketed by people who thought the President was capitulating with his opponents
  d) asked for them to be arrested.”
  
  You misunderstood me. I asked for something OTHER than Gibberish.
  
  I think I’ve figured out your general gist, though, so here’s the enlightening reply you asked for: Stop nitpicking over meaningless details. Both are examples of an incumbent administration running roughshod over American citizens’ First Amendment rights. Why on Earth do you need to connect them more intricately before it bothers you?
  
  Or are you just looking for an excuse to blame one side but not the other?
  - ScottTFrazer
    
    Hey, if you don’t have a firm enough grasp of the english language to debate, I’d suggest you quit commenting on message boards.
    
    There’s actually a pretty huge difference between quashing speech you don’t agree with and arresting people who are being disruptive to a conversation that is trying to accomplish something.
    
    That you can’t see the difference between them, doesn’t really surprise me given the arguments you’ve put forth in this space.
    - Terry
      
      “There’s actually a pretty huge difference between quashing speech you don’t agree with and arresting people who are being disruptive to a conversation that is trying to accomplish something.”
      
      You’re right! In one case, people were arrested for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech. In the other case, people were arrested for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech.
      
      COMPLETELY different scenarios.

mdh

terry, anecdotes are not data, they’re anecdotes.

I think it’s safe to say that “free speech zones” surrounded by security fences and located at a great distance from the event were implemented for the RNC in 2004. I saw them. The ones at the DNC were closer and less jackboot-y. That is all.

Terry

Hey – thanks for sharing that anecdote.

mdh

imitation is the highest form of flattery, or in this case, flat-earthery.

Anonymous

I think these are great, but they are crude artistically and off the mark boot. Painting BO as the mastermind vs. just a puppet is a shame in my opinion as it only perpetuates the modern dictator mythology.

Anonymous

Awesome collection, any chance of you letting us know where we an purchase item?

Anonymous

WOW, so most of them are dumb/racist but other ones are awesome and I would love to have them on my wall. I love old communist style propaganda.

Antinous / Moderator

He should get a Che beret. It’s a good look for him.

MadRat

They left out the Hope Is Fading tee-shirt.

Chupacabara

WOW! I guess the Boing Boing “Powers That Be” were really looking for a way to stop all the Ipad arguments.

Anonymous

I’m torn because I love that communist “CHANGE” tee shirt, but I hate the idiocy of the teabaggers. Why must the awesome design be spoiled by crazy politics?

ill lich

I know there were indeed a lot of anti-Bush t-shirts/stickers/etc during his 8 years in office, but consider that Obama has only been in office a little more than a year, and it sure looks like there are already far more of these than during Bush’s entire 8 years. The anti-Bush cottage industry didn’t really take off until he staged his Iraq invasion (save some anger at the 2000 election debacle), whereas the anti-Obama vitriol started almost as soon as he took office, and what has he done to deserve it? Health care reform (oh the horror!) Really: is health care reform even remotely comparable to war? I wonder how much of this outrage would even exist if it weren’t for a non-stop barrage of AM radio gripers and FoxNews demagogues stirring up the red ants versus the black ants so they can sell advertising. “Bush as chimp” is pretty tame compared to most of these “Obamunist” stickers.

MarkM

I think the explanation here is, if you live in
a red state like kansas, youre just not very smart.
none of these guys could have finished high school
if they compare obama to hitler.

annick

*facepalm*

Tyrsfist

Wouldn’t it be lovely if, just for a little while, we as Americans could have two or more political parties that were different enough from each other that there was actually something to argue about?

Bill X from the GOP is almost exactly the same as Bill Y from the Demmies, Yet they fight tooth and nail about it.

Often politics in our country today remind me of that Futurama Episode. “I say your 3 cent titanium tax goes to far” “And I say YOUR 3 cent titanium tax DOESN’T GO TOO FAR ENOUGH!”

I’d love, if just for ONE YEAR, America could somehow Missplace both the Democrats and the Republicans, and we could have the Libertarians, Green Party, National Socialist, Fascist, and American Communist Parties take over the government.

Perhaps if we put a couple REAL fascists and a couple REAL Communists into high office, people would stop throwing those words around.

Frankly the biggest difference I saw between Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin was which chair the Old White guy would be sitting in at state dinners.

Can we get someone SMART in high office? No? The smart ones all became business men and built an empire from the blood and sweat of their workers instead? They all live on private Islands now? Oh, okay. Well, I guess we’ll just keep appointing Bold Faced Liars to run things. Would it be different if we’d elected McCain? Only in that we’d be pissing and moaning about a different bill.

You know, maybe this whole democracy thing has run it’s course. We just seem to be making things worse and worse lately. Do you think Queen Elizabeth II will let us have Prince Henry if we ask nicely? A good century of Absolute Monarchy might just iron out the mess we’re making. Then we can revolt and start Democracy again.

querent

“Don’t let their identical DNA fool you. They differ on some _key_ issues.”

please don’t godwin’s law futurama quotes, oh mighty moderators!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  please don’t godwin’s law futurama quotes, oh mighty moderators!
  
  We should publish a list of memes too tired to be used: quotes from Orwell, correlation =/= causation, the plural of anecdote is not data. They’re the geek versions of “God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve” and “I’m more man than you’ll ever be and more woman than you’ll ever have.”

coaxial

They left out the “Don’t blame me. I voted for the AMERICAN.” bumper sticker? Sad.

Times like this, I’m glad I got out of Southern Illinois. It’s gotten really really churchy and Glen-Becky-the last few times I was back. It wasn’t like that when I was growing up.

dsac86

I don’t know about everyone else, but “Hitler gave good speeches too,” “Stalin was a community organizer too,” and “Jesus gave more than a good speech” have me convinced.

okiedokie

Hmm, I googled “anti-bush” & got 128,000 images. I googled “anti-obama” and got 674.

Still, you say I only need to find 10% of say, 200 as presented here. I think 128,000 is more than 10% of 200.

Anonymous

funny the webpages show a different story, you think maybe google hasn’t indexed all the images yet? Number anti-bush 23.3mil anti-obama 86.3 mil. Why don’t you try doing a real search before you decide one particular search means you’re right. I’d be willing to bet there are in fact more anti-bush images, because 8 years is a long time, but I don’t think the gap is nearly that far. Regardless of what you may or may not think, racism plays a large role in about 15% of those who are anti-obama, whereas the people who say they disagree with his policies would be about 30% bringing you to right about 45-47% disapproval.
Anonymous

Try googling “socialist obama”:

“Results 1 – 21 of about 2,110,000 for socialist obama”
- Boomshadow
  
  And for more random silliness from Google, check out Autocomplete Me!
  
  (Disclosure: I do not work for Autocomplete Me or any other affiliate of the Cheezburger Network.)
Anonymous

For okiedokie

“Hmm, I googled “anti-bush” & got 128,000 images. I googled “anti-obama” and got 674.”

Results 1 – 10 of about 86,700,000 for Anti-Obama
Results 1 – 10 of about 23,300,000 for Anti-bush
4/5/2010
Maybe Google is different on a Mac.
- Terry
  
  And let’s round out the image search:
  
  Results 1 – 21 of about 46,400 for pro-obama
  Results 1 – 21 of about 23,900 for pro-bush
  
  I guess people are just quicker to criticize than to praise.
Anonymous

Try Google image search for nobama, you’ll get about 73,500 hits.

Anonymous

Not being from America I find this commie fear thing very odd. Can someone clarify for me why giving farmers big subsidies isn’t seen as communism but a more universal health care system is.

meatpigeon

I think some of the designs are cool, but I also like Obama. Let’s re-appropriate them. Ironic anti-government t-shirts GO!

Terry

Have you seen Anti-Protests?

http://urbanprankster.com/tag/anti-protest/

Raj77

Anti-Bush stuff is morally equivalent to anti-Obama stuff as soon as Obama invades a sovereign state for no discernible reason.

I’d rather be mocked for being stupid than have a bunch of rednecks paint crosshairs on my forehead ‘cos I’m a black ‘communist’.

Chupacabara

Nice “justification”.
Steaming Pile

Not to mention actually stealing a presidential election, as opposed to stealing…um….uh…what?

Terry

Is anyone actually surprised by this? Did we think politics was somehow remarkably devoid of propaganda?

dcamsam

Wouldn’t it be lovely if, just for a little while, we as Americans could have two or more political parties that were different enough from each other that there was actually something to argue about?

If it put an end to the notion that there is no difference between the major parties, then it would be lovely. But it wouldn’t put an end to that. People would still use the fact that the Fascists and the Socialists have a similar position on, say, copyright as a pretext to ignore their more substantive differences on other issues.

Exactly as they do now.

Forbes

Still my favorite response:
http://www.printfection.com/Adam/Cant-Be-All-Four-T-Shirt/_p_4266473

ohyran

Good God I want a tshirt with some of those. First off I love how the idea of communism seems so linked with the USSR. Im a communist and the line of communists Im part of fought against the USSR.

Anyway some of those where fun and I think you in the US should steal them from the anti-obama groups. “if health care is communism, call me Crustchev” or something – you know make fun of the whole idea :)

badtux

Wow, so much fail! “Obamacare” is of course Romneycare (err, a REPUBLICAN plan) with the serial numbers filed off, thus why it’s hilarious to hear it called “Communist”. But what’s especially baffling is that the Teabaggers don’t seem to have noticed that they’ve outed themselves as major racists. “Marx brother”? Indeed? Obama as black thug out to rob you? Say wha? Dudes and dudettes, it ain’t 1950 anymore, geez!

standard

I think an important consideration to make when getting upset/irate over this stuff is to remember that it has very little to do with politics and very much to do with consumerism. Print-on-demand sites like zazzle, cafepress, etc has made it pretty damn easy for any quick-buck dipstick to spend 3 minutes on a graphic and instantly offer it for sale on a couple hundred different products. Many of the aforementioned dipsticks are not crazy right- or left-wing nuts, they are just hucksters trying to grab some of those crazy right- or left-wing dollars. You could seriously buy Balloon Boy t-shirts before the balloon landed. No kiddin’.

Anonymous

I have an awesome t-shirt of The Shrub ravishing Lady Liberty, vampire-like, wait, I’ll google it…

http://www.zazzle.com/please_help_her_bumper_sticker-128149741942884774

Like that, only bigger, no words, and flipped left to right. Never fails to make my pop froth at the mouth!

I have to admit I really want some of these Obama ones, too.

wygit

So simple “Obama ’08″ bumper stickers are anti-Bush images?
Bush wasn’t even running.

Anonymous

Question from a non-american an inexperienced guy in politics:

I know most of the differences between both sides of the US government, but not much of the behind the scenes changes in congress or that.

So, is there a chance at all that a Republican could make it to Presidency and have a call a second vote to get rid of Obama’s Healthcare program? Thanks for any replies.

Xenu

The “Tea Party” folks don’t like their campaign material to look too professional, so the graphic designers hired by the health care lobby have to keep that in mind.

Phikus

At least Obama won’t have people arrested at his speaking engagements for wearing such things… unlike the previous “president.” Google that, will ya?

Terry

Not quite as bad as arrests for wearing t-shirts, but let’s not pretend this crap doesn’t happen on both sides:

http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19725
- Phikus
  
  Nice attempt at false equivalency, but the article you linked does not provide any details as to why they were arrested or the circumstances surrounding it, other than that they seemed to be actively protesting. It is a fact that the couple arrested for wearing anti-bush t-shirts at a 4th of July parade where bush appeared were doing nothing but bystanding in the crowd. That’s a huge fucking difference, dude!
  - Terry
    
    You’re right! In one case, people were arrested for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech. In the other case, people were arrested for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech.
    
    COMPLETELY different scenarios.
    - Phikus
      
      If I get in front of you with a sign and start yelling, it is a very different thing than just standing by in a public space among a crowd wearing a t-shirt, watching a parade, minding my own business. There is a very different climate in the two situations. Sure, both things are free speech, but your attempt to say there is no difference is equivocation. I agree that these folks should have the right to protest, but again, we don’t have any facts on hand about the circumstances, do we? For all of Obama’s flaws, intolerance of other people’s ideas does not seem to be one of them. This administration has a looooooooong way to go before approaching the big brother level of the previous 8 years and you know it, so cut it out, dude!
- ScottTFrazer
  
  Not quite as bad as arrests for wearing t-shirts, but let’s not pretend this crap doesn’t happen on both sides:
  http://www.citypaper.com/digest.asp?id=19725
  
  Those people weren’t Tea Partiers, btw. They were protesting the removal of the single payer option from the bills.
  
  So in this case, a Democratic president, meeting with House Republicans, had left-leaning protesters arrested.
  
  Did Bush ever have a member of a militia arrested for protesting that he didn’t go far enough in the war effort? That would seem to be the rough equivalency based on this thread so far.
  - Phikus
    
    Good point, which brings up the additional point that we have seen more reaching across the aisle from Obama in the past year than ever occurred in the past 8. Did bush EVER publicly address groups of dems to get their input on controversial matters? No, when dems questioned the last administration, they were told unequivocally to go fuck themselves. Maybe it’s time to stop feeding the troll.
    - Boomshadow
      
      To be fair, though, it wasn’t Bush but Dick Cheney who issued the impossible anatomical imperative.
      
      …and we thought LON Chaney was scary.
Chupacabara

How about a little video to prove you wrong.

http://dailyradar.com/beltwayblips/video/man_arrested_for_wearing_mccain_shirt_at_obama_victory/

Arrested for merely wearing a McCain T-shirt.

Can’t WAIT to see the justifications given as to why THIS is OK.
- ScottTFrazer
  
  How about a little video to prove you wrong.
  http://dailyradar.com/beltwayblips/video/man_arrested_for_wearing_mccain_shirt_at_obama_victory/
  Arrested for merely wearing a McCain T-shirt.
  Can’t WAIT to see the justifications given as to why THIS is OK.
  
  Um… That dude had a sword handle sticking out of his shirt back (visible at 3:26 in the video)
  
  Plus he was egging on a crowd. I’m pretty sure the cops were worried for his safety (and theirs)
- Terry
  
  Let’s be fair here. Google that again, but this time click on ‘News’ instead of ‘Web’.
  
  Let’s not lose sight of the nature of the internet here, folks.
  - Chupacabara
    
    Oh, you mean that if it’s not “Reported” as “News” by the MSM, which we ALL know is not biased in any way shape of form, then it doesn’t count?
    
    Just asking.
    - Terry
      
      Not even Fox picked up this particular lie. Think about that.
      
      And try to keep a civil tongue in your head. The fact that people disagree with you doesn’t make them ‘pathetic’, not does it make what they say ‘laughable’. Your inability to carry on a civilized discourse, however, does call your motives into question. Telling other people they’re wrong doesn’t make you right.
    - Chupacabara
      
      Roger that Terry. Toning it down.
    - Terry
      
      Thank you for the tone-down.
      
      For the record, I have never felt particularly compelled to confine my outrage to a single political party.

Av

Wait, let me get this straight:

Obama wants to have universal healthcare, for everyone? Even the people who can’t afford it right now?

And he’s being compared to a communist for this? Please tell me I’m wrong.

ill lich

I don’t find any of these logos/designs particularly creative or funny, but I didn’t really find any of the anti-Bush t-shirts very funny either.

There is a certain venomous hatred that arises in political discourse. I’m sure it’s always been there, and not just in the US but everywhere. I wish that wasn’t the case, it’s just so counterproductive. Obama is not a communist, nor was Bush Hitler– neither of them even come close– but you can’t reasonably discuss that with the hardcore true believer of either side.

If you repeat something enough times people will believe it, so I’m sure there are plenty of people who are convinced that Obama really is a communist, and are not just being petulant. Glenn Beck regularly mentions how the Obama administration is full of “Maoists”, he may as well be saying “Satanists” or “pedophiles” since his only evidence is conjecture. If I were to publicly and constantly call Glenn Beck a pedophile, wouldn’t that be slander? It’s illegal to advocate assassination, but by constantly portraying Obama as evil they are coming awfully close to just that. For 40 years we were prepared to wipe out all life on the planet in our defense against the Soviets, and now we apparently have a Soviet in the White House, so. . . .

One of the best dissections of this “Obama as communist” idea was the John Stewart impersonation of Glenn Beck on the March 18th Daily Show– it’s about as close as we are going to get to Johnathan-Swift-level satire in the modern world. If you haven’t seen it yet it’s still up on the Daily Show website.

Enoch_Root

The amount of amnesia some people are exhibiting is a little much for me. There was a cottage industry of Bush=Hitler, conservatives are Nazis, etc for nearly eight years. This is also not related to mugs and such on cafepress.com which is hardly indicative of a massive cultural wave of hatred since any crank with a computer can pump out hundreds of “unique” items. When the first movie about assasinatingBarack Obama wins a major, international film festival award then I might worry that things are getting out of hand.

I think it is all incredibly lame and the bottom rung politics of bumper stickers and coffee mugs is often disgusting and stupid. However, the assertion that its new, conservative-only, and amplified is just willfully dense or shockingly ignorant.

mdh

There was a cottage industry of Bush=Hitler, conservatives are Nazis, etc for nearly eight years.

And have you forgotten that the people who today wear these anti-obama shirts are the very people who claimed the moral high ground against those of us who wore anti-bush shirts for not supporting the president 100%?

The difference is the message. the lefty message is based in hope and frustration, the teabagger in fear and intimidation.
- LILemming
  
  > And have you forgotten that the people who today wear
  > these anti-obama shirts are the very people who
  > claimed the moral high ground against those of us who
  > wore anti-bush shirts for not supporting the president
  > 100%?
  
  Wait, there’s hypocrisy in politics? When did this happen? Next you’ll tell me there’s gambling at Ricks.

holtt

A friend put this up on Facebook the other day…

“I see alot of Easter-themed posts. Here’s mine: “Obama is not a brown-skinned, anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare. You’re thinking of Jesus.”

das memsen

The thing no one mentions is that all this moronic anti-Obama right-wing nonsense makes it difficult to criticize Obama for all the b.s. he actually deserves to be criticized about. Why do the right-wing morons get a monopoly on obama-trashing? What bizarro-world am I stuck in, where a totally corporate president succeeds in sucking the life out of a health care bill to ensure that fat-cat capitalist corporations can continue their pillaging, and is praised by liberals for a totally un-liberal bill, then called a socialist despite upholding the very values these greedy republicans claim he’s dismantling?

heeeeeeeeeeelp……

Boomshadow

That, das memsen, is a very good point, and I wish I had thought of it.

I do NOT like Obama’s stance on the bank bailouts.

I do NOT like Obama’s stance on eavesdropping on U.S. citizens, or for that matter, much of the PATRIOT Act, whose renewal he just signed.

I do NOT like Obama’s stance on copyright and DRM.

I do NOT like Obama’s stance on Afghanistan and Iraq; we are gaining nothing and hurting people by being there.

I agree with a lot of other policies and legislation he supports, but there is much I disagree with in addition to those elements above. Unfortunately, the tendency toward polarization in American political discourse means that I spend so much time debating pundits’ half-truths and untruths that I don’t even have time to bring up real issues on which I disagree with the President.

petezombie

I laughed so hard when I saw the “Charles Manson was a community organizer” sign, pure genius!

Glossolalia Black

On my corkboard here at home, I have an authentic “LICK BUSH IN 88″ button. I was 2 years too young to vote when it was given to me by a gay friend who copped it at a specialty bookstore.

These don’t compare too easily. Mine is a little tart. Some of these are vile.

cinemajay

Gotta love the “Big Brother” signs. Apparently they’re clueless to the fact that it was Bush/Cheney/Rove who shoved the Patriot Act to keep track of “terrorists”.

What a load of shit!

Antinous / Moderator

Compose yourselves.

Terry

I’m trying pretty hard to behave myself here. It’s not easy.

dhalgren

Wow. All that blowing of hot air over a whole lot of nothing. This is nothing new. We have a long tradition of the opposition party badgering those in power with their little cartoons, shirts, posters: propaganda pornography – no boobs except for the politicians themselves.

Republicans/Democrats are both driving the bus cackling maniacally as it plunges over the cliff.

rastronomicals

What I’m mostly getting is how the memes running through these are mostly stolen from what the Dems were raising up the flagpole when Bush was in office.

“Re-defeat Bush” was hilarious, because of, you know, the history. “Re-defeat Communism” is just sorta lame. “Bush lied people died” again referred to a particular lie Bush told. What is this lie the radical right ascribing to Obama? Seems to me all he’s done is keep his promises . . . .

The only original theme seems to be this “Mr. X gave good speeches too” or “Mr. Y was a community organizer also.” Funny that their only clever criticism of the man and his poltics is actually founded on his strengths.

LILemming

Perhaps folks here are rather young, but I certainly remember this sort of thing as far back as Nixon, and 5 gets you 10 it went further back than that. It’s just so much easier today.

Now if one wishes to unknot their underclothes I suggest Googling some 18th/19th/early 20th century policitical cartoons.

I find myself fond of Puck Magazine, but it’s a rich vein to mine. People used to be _mean_, this is barely rude.

eviladrian

Can we please have Godwin’s Law extended to cover George Orwell?

Quoting random bits of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four got old a long time ago.

Antinous / Moderator

That would make me very happy.
- arkizzle / Moderator
  
  I’m sure that rule can be added to the BongBoing drinking game..
  
  Gotta be careful though, we may end up very drunk indeed.

Phlip

The main difference: anti-Bush propaganda focuses directly ON his strategic incompetence, in detail.

Anti-Obama propaganda, by contrast, does everything it can to distract FROM the actual issue – reforming the horrible status-quo with HMOs.

That’s why you call Obama Hitler, or Mao, or Osama (or Hussein); at least one will stick, and provoke an over-reaction…

Chupacabara

Jesus… you guys are really pathetic.

Let’s just take 1 simple issue. One of the corner stones of Socialism is the redistribution of wealth. Obama flat out said he believes in the redistribution of wealth.

And you are going to try and say that Comparing Bush to Hitler or a Chimp is DIFFERENT than people saying that in their OPINION Obama is a socialist and his policies, such as his HCR are not SOCIALISTIC?

Don’t be an ass.

If you are FOR social programs, and you are for redistribution of wealth and if you are for Higher taxes and capping executive salaries… OK. Fine by me. That is what you believe in… and who am I to argue with your beliefs?

But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck… don’t be ashamed of it and try calling it a “Pretty pretty pony”… Just say “Yeah, it’s a goddamned duck”.

These “It’s OK to do to Bush because he really IS an idiot” arguments are laughable.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Chupacabra,
  
  Compose yourself.

GauchoAmigo

Wow, these range from ignorant all the way to racist!

Anonymous

I saw the best minds of my generation
Destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical
I should be allowed to glue my poster
I should be allowed to think

I should be allowed to glue my poster
I should be allowed to think
I should be allowed to think
I should be allowed to think
And I should be allowed to blurt the merest idea
If by random whim, one occurs to me
If necessary, leave paper stains on the grey utility pole

I saw the worst bands of my generation
applied by magic marker to dry wall
I should be allowed to shoot my mouth off
I should have a call in show

I should be allowed to glue my poster
I should be allowed to think
I should be allowed to think
I should be allowed to think
And I should be allowed to blurt the merest idea
If by random whim, one occurs to me
If necessary, leave paper stains on the grey utility pole

I am not allowed
To ever come up with a single original thought
I am not allowed
To meet the criminal government agent who oppresses me

I was the worst hope of my generation
Destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical
I should be allowed to share my feelings
I should be allowed to feel

I should be allowed to glue my poster
I should be allowed to think
I should be allowed to think
I should be allowed to think
And I should be allowed to blurt the merest idea
If by random whim one occurs to me
But sadly, this can never be

I am not allowed to think
I am not allowed to think
I am not allowed to think (I am not allowed to think)
I am not allowed to think (I am not allowed to think)
I am not allowed to think (I am not allowed to think)
I am not allowed to think (I am not allowed to think)

VagabondAstronomer

Probably getting this wrong, it has been such a long time, but this reminds me of something I think Peter Cook said. To paraphrase -
“The United States has two major political parties; the Republican Party, which is to the right of our Conservative Party, and the Democratic Party, which is to the right of our Conservative Party.”

Julien Couvreur

Along those lines, I just came back from China were they were selling a funny T-Shirt: Mao (in green uniform with red star cap) with Obama’s face.
Legend: “Oba Mao”

dcamsam

Yes, conservatives, yes:

Outrage over Bush’s victory in spite of his failure to win even a plurality of the vote is EXACTLY AS JUSTIFIED as outrage over Obama’s victory because he won 10 million more votes than McCain.

Outrage over Bush’s invasion of Iraq and use of torture is EXACTLY AS JUSTIFIED as outrage over Obama’s regulation of the health insurance industry.

Honestly, conservatives. Comparison of anti-Bush rhetoric to anti-Obama rhetoric only illustrates how completely unhinged conservative partisans are when compared to liberal ones, and how extreme Bush was when compared to Obama.

Chupacabara

I didn’t think it could get any more absurd. Your post shows how wrong I was.

Lemme get this straight… Liberal “Outrage” at the policies of a conservative government is more, shall we say “Pure”, than Conervative “Outrage” at a Liberal Government.

So one group has one set of beliefs that you disagree with, so your derision and ridicule of them is OK…. But when another group feels that their beliefs and ideals are being trampled on by the first group… well heck, we all know that they are just outta their minds, right?

I’m diggin the whole “Our outrage is way better and much more OK than YOUR outrage argument.

Let’s put another way.

You have Lung Cancer, and you have about a 30% chance of survival more than 5 years.

I have Malignant Melanoma skin cancer that has metastacized into my lymph system and I have about a 50% chance of survival more than 5 years.

Do you –
a) – Say “Cancer is fukked”
b) – Say “My cancer is way worse than your cancer”

I’ll give you a hint… Go to a wellness community meeting and sit in a group with a bunch of people with different types and flavors of cancer. Know what you will find?

Cancer fukkin sucks. PERIOD.

Reasoned discourse didn’t die from idiots on the left. It didn’t die from idiots on the right.

It died because one group feels that THEIR OUTRAGE justifies such actions.

The really funny part is that Group “A” is then so completely stupid, that they then cry “FOUL” at the top of their lungs when they Group “B” does the exact same thing.

Th ntr pnt f vry pst md hr s smply ths… QT PNTNG FNGRS nd tryng t jstfy bng twt. LD BY XMPL. D NT THRS. Y knw… ll th hky sht Grndm sd t sy.

REASONED DISCOURSE.
- dcamsam
  
  Liberal “Outrage” at the policies of a conservative government is more, shall we say “Pure”
  
  No, simply more reasonable.
  
  A reasonable person would admit that outrage over the election of a person who didn’t win even a plurality of the vote is more justifiable than outrage over the election of a person who won 10 million more votes than his opponent.
  
  A reasonable person would admit that outrage over the use of torture is more justifiable than outrage over the regulation of the insurance industry.
  
  The really funny part is that Group “A” is then so completely stupid, that they then cry “FOUL” at the top of their lungs when they Group “B” does the exact same thing.
  
  The problem is that torture and insurance industry are not “the exact same thing,” but people like you pretend that they are because they are far too invested in the notion that the far right is the exactly the same as the far left.

theLadyfingers

When Obama eliminates rendition, torture and indefinite detention wthout rrial from America, he might be the change he promised. So far it’s all just new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss.

Anonymous

Obamunist, har har har! So clever! /sarcasm
And of course, the very last one is Obama dressed in a pimp costume. Stereotypes ftw!

Chupacabara

Hey, dehumanizing ones “Enemies” makes it easier to HATE them as well as allowing one to justify actions they would otherwise condemn.

Classic tactic used by soldiers everywhere to allow them to more easily KILL the opposition.

Just look at some classic WWII propaganda posters from ALL sides involved and see how the “Enemies” are portrayed.

Anonymous

‘Hey, dehumanizing ones “Enemies” makes it easier to HATE them as well as allowing one to justify actions they would otherwise condemn.’

Hey, anyone know what 20th-century political movement turned propaganda into an artform?

200 Examples of anti-Obama merchandise during health care debate, 2008-2010

More at Boing Boing