Sueddeutsche Zeitung: Anti-American Hate, But No Humor

(a) Sueddeutsche Zeitung, May 31, 2006

(b) Sueddeutsche Zeitung, June 3, 2006 ("Collateral damage")

These two cartoons from Sueddeutsche Zeitung go a long way toward explaining the different mindsets of German and American left-wing media.

In a nutshell: the German media's reporting on American affairs lack humor and finesse. Their disregard of the Bush administration is blunt, brutal, unsophisticated to the extreme. While I don't appreciate the attacks of American left wing media on the Bush administration the least you can say is that they try to exhibit a certain kind of intellectual style, a tiniest bit of objectivity and - in cartoons - they make their point in a sharp and funny way

In contrast, the two cartoons shown above, both from a leading German left-wing daily, hammer home simple anti-American messages:

• Picture  (a):  Reckless USA derails Iraq and Afghanistan, which both - without American interference - would be heading in the right direction.
• Picture (b): Murderous GIs, under the order and the approval of the U.S. government resp. of "Amerika", go on a senseless killing spree, much in the tradition of My Lai.

Both cartoons are accompanied by run-of-the-mill, viciously anti-American comments from Christian Wernicke. No need to present details; suffice to say that Wernicke is a tragic victim of the "Bush Derangement Syndrome", as are so many other German journalists.

For a different view of the Haditha incident read this posting at Instapundit (and follow the links given).

Comments

[Doug]

Picture (b): Murderous GIs, under the order and the approval of the U.S. government resp. of "Amerika", go on a senseless killing spree, much in the tradition of My Lai.

I think you might have missed this one. The message that I get is that it's a cycle that America keeps repeating - slaughter and massacre of civilians is what America does.

One thing both the German media and American left have in common is an uncanny ability to be uncritical of extrapolating one anecdotal incident to a broad generalization. This practice never seems to raise an eyebrow.

[Charlie]

The second cartoon looks like an Afghani car and an Iraqi SUV crashed behind an American mass transportation vehicle. I think the author is trying to show how single occupancy vehicles harm the environment not just by toxic fumes, but also the rusting hulks of abandoned vehicles on the side of the autobahn.

The first one, I don't know. The figure on the tank isn't wearing cowboy boots or hat so there is no reason to assume it has anything to do with America. The figure has a top hat, commonly associated with 19th capitalists or the game of monopoly. Oh wait, there is a gunman behind the billboard on the grassy knoll and he's going to shoot Abe Lincoln. That's it!

[Davod]

We must be winning the war. This is the same or worse than the cartoons published when Reagan was fighting and winning the cold ward.

[Cousin Dave]

@Davod: You're right; these cartoons do have that retro-Red flavor to them, don't they? Next thing you know, they'll be calling us imperialist running dogs.

[Doug]

Too late, Cousin Dave.

[Buckeye Abroad]

A visual reinforcement connected to overall social pavolovian conditioning to obtain the desired response torward an object. After subsequent years of exposure to related ques, the desired response is stimulated with no critical thinking needed when the object is later confronted.

At least, thats my take on it. Met plenty of intelligent people here in Europe, but when it comes to America and/or its foreign policy its jaw-dropping to hear some of them. Ask them to back-up what they have just said with sources or confirmed facts and they're stumped to give an explanation.

[Scott_H]

"Met plenty of intelligent people here in Europe, but when it comes to America and/or its foreign policy its jaw-dropping to hear some of them. Ask them to back-up what they have just said with sources or confirmed facts and they're stumped to give an explanation."

I second this observation. A few times, I was astounded by the idiocy coming from the mouths of some of my friends -- folks who are otherwise extremely bright and well-educated, just grossly mis-informed. Usually, the "source" is something they read or heard in/on some magazine, newspaper, or TV station -- the usual suspects.

[Calahan]

This is very typical for the Sueddeutsche. Not even Ant-Semitism (coming from the left!) is a no-go for this newspaper. Basically, I can just recommend the WELT as a newspaper which is not anti-american style. Sad but true.

[Cousin Dave]

@Buckeye: Very astute. What I remember of my Skinner readings from Psych 101 is that, to make the Pavlovian response work, what you do is tie the desired behavior in with a need or desire that already exists on the part of the subject. In this case, I think the tie-in is pretty clear: it's the natural desire by insecure people to project their own (real or perceived) failings onto others who are unlike them, and thereby achieve a feeling of superiority. Tie that into a "hot button" word or phrase via repeated exposure, and you achieve the desired emotional reaction at the mere mention, with logic and reason being completely defeated. Thus, one now gets that visceral reaction in Europe (and certain parts of America too) at the mere mention of the word "Bush", even if one is just discussing landscaping. Propaganda of all sorts have relied on this technique for ages. I guess that's the real reason the cartoons look aged to us -- because they are. They may be recently drawn, but we've seen it all before.

[PacRimJim]

Amateurish drawings. Reminds me of elementary school scribblings.

[Dave]

I wonder what people did AFTER elementary school, when the first thing they notice about a cartoon is the "amateurish drawing" :D

[joe]

Thank goodness they labelled everything. For a minute I thought those were german troops marching through Poland again.