The Smurfs, the blue comic strip characters, are anti-Semitic and racist, treating blacks like moronic primates, a French author has claimed.Antoine Bueno, 33, a lecturer at the eminent Sciences Po political sciences school in Paris, says the blue figures represent an "archetype of totalitarian society imbued with Stalinism and Nazism."...Bueno, a speech writer for François Bayrou, the leader of the centrist Modem party, says the Smurfs are like white colonizers of the 19th century in the way they view Africans.He also claims that the Smurfs' arch-enemy, the wizard Gargamel, is a classic anti-Semitic caricature of a moneygrabbing Jew.Bueno writes: "Gargamel is ugly, dirty, with a hooked nose, fascinated by gold."Papa Smurf, the village's elderly white-bearded leader, is portrayed as a dictator, whose red hat and trousers are a nod to Stalin.Smurfette, the only blond female, created by Gargamel, to wreak havoc among his enemies is a misogynistic take on Aryan woman.
Personally, I always thought somebody must be living in a "mushroom village" to dream up a lost tribe of little blue people to begin with. But leave that aside for now; let's just stick to the sociopolitical subtext here. What about Jokey Smurf? Haymarket-era anarchist, right-wing schizophrenic like the Unabomber, modern-day religious terrorist, trickster god, or simply the raw, destructive, mindless chaos at the heart of existence? Discuss.
6 comments:
sacre bleu!
And Sesame Street inculcates SOCIALISM and MULTICULTURALISM in our defenseless tots!
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abaldwin/2009/11/03/sesame-street-all-monsters-are-equal/
Well, yeah; I watched Sesame Street all the time, and look how I turned out. Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken our culture warriors this long to go after that show.
I never saw Sesame Street, or the Smurfs. I was fond of Tintin and Asterix, though-- more examples of European politics and enculturation.
Of course, it kind of helps that Canada is like everyone's youngest brother, tagging along, checking things out. No culture or personality to speak of....
Well I grew up watching Sesame St, too, and I'm practically a Socialist, but shouldn't there be about 50 million more if it had had that effect?
And Tinky Winky gave me the courage to come out when I was 30.
Practically a socialist? What's that, man?
Let me tell you about Saskatchewan... The crown owns all the utilities: power, gas, telephone; they control health care, liquor, licensing, insurance, gambling, recycling, lottery and schools (no independents allowed) as well as almost all mineral and water rights. In fact, many third or fourth generation landsmen actually only work their lands on 100-year leases, most of which came up in 2010, and caused great controversy when the crown chose not to renew some and turned them into nature preserves.
At least one half of the population (~1M, total) receives regular stipends from the government, whether for Treaty agreements, unemployment, or child-care stipends. (Admittedly, most of that is federally-funded)
And Hutterite colonies (a registered Church) work (I would say) about 40% of the cropland and as small family farms dwindle, that number keeps growing.
My take-home was a hair over 60% of my gross, and it's probably only because of the strength of the resource sector that it's not higher. (For instance, the provincial sales tax recently dropped 2%)
Coops and Credit Unions consistently edge out larger corporations and multinationals, in spite of marked inferiority in many respects, simply because as a whole, we're quite tribal.
That, sir, is socialism.
I never saw Teletubbies either. How come no one is mentioning X-men and Sailor Moon, damnit!?
"Practically" means "not quite".
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