You have to be pretty smart,

to be this stupid:


This is the cover to the July 21 issue of the New Yorker magazine. I don’t read the New Yorker regularly, as a matter of fact I can’t say I’ve ever bought an issue.

I always think of the New Yorker as targeted towards a very literate, highbrow and liberal audience. I just can’t say I fit that demographic. Not that there isn’t stuff in there for me to read, it’s just one of those things I never went out of my way to seek out.

Madame X used to subscribe to Harper’s (and Mother Jones) and I would read an article in those from time to time but again, not my thing (and before anyone gets too up in arms I realize Mother Jones is not in the same vein as Harper’s or New Yorker - the comparison was meant between the latter two magazines).

Over the coming days though, I have to imagine you’ll be hearing more about this cover.

Why?

Well, because even a moron like me realizes it is in horribly bad taste. The people at the New Yorker want people to believe that this was a commentary on satire, they even go as far as to show examples of the artist’s previous satirical work for the magazine. However, looking through the other images there is nothing remotely close to this in terms of bigotry... plus it is one of those things that will be used to reinforce a fallacy (Obama being a Muslim).


The same image if it had been the cover of a right-wing, conservative publication would have been pilloried for their lack of editorial scruples and rightfully so. Like I said, you have to be pretty smart to be this stupid, what were they thinking?