Current Events, Caricaturing the Caricatures

So, I saw the mayor of Lansing, Michigan on an interview on FOX, spewing platitudes, espousing the virtues of union-negotiated benefits (like health care for life), for workers of the Detroit automakers while completely ignoring the consequences of the resulting exhorbitant labor costs - the insolvency of the Big 3.

It was so hilarious, and the performance was so over-the-top that it reminded me of that popular meme in comics, now in TV and film, of the "crazy TV guest". First popularized by Frank Miller in works such as "The Dark Knight Returns" back in the '80s, it's often used to draw the reader or viewer to a conclusion that is opposite what the "crazy TV guest" is arguing for.

When real life starts to imitate the caricatures in TV and film, you know that the situation in the real world has started moving towards the extreme.

When the talking heads on TV start talking about bailouts in the trillions of dollars, when people no longer feel that they are causing a panic by calling the current economic situation a "depression", when you see ordinary Americans scream and collapse in tears in the presence of the new president - much like the poor, impoverished, future-less masa in Manila forget their own hopeless condition to adore and swoon over Judy Ann - you know you're in deep trouble.