Wednesday Morning Rant

Last week, an interesting picture briefly made the rounds on social media and one of the Morons (I forget who, but all credit to that person) dropped it in a thread. It purports to be an "infographic" from a Japanese newspaper created to help its readers roughly understand the American political divide. I have no idea which paper it appeared in - if any - or if it is real at all. I can find the picture easily enough, but not its true origin. It appears to be a social media phenomenon, but I found it interesting enough that even if it isn't real, I think it's still worth looking at.

The graphic shows a point-for-point comparison of some of the differences between "Democrats" and "Republicans" in the culture, not policy:

Click to Embiggen

Some things immediately jump out. For one thing, it puts far too much stock in party affiliation. The infographic no more describes "Democrats" and "Republicans" than it describes literal donkeys and elephants. But the parties are still how most people think of things despite the fact that they're functionally merged at the national level, so I won't hold it against them. This is an illustration to try to communicate broad concepts, not a treatise on single-party rule. The contrasts the illustrator chose to draw, however, are interesting.

Casual vs. formal (I think is what they're going for, or perhaps "animated and casual vs. restrained and formal") isn't really all that close to the mark, I don't think. Standoffishness and sloppiness aren't monopolized by either "side," but as far as an idealized concept, it may be valid. The middle panels are more interesting. Urban vs. rural. Basketball vs. baseball. Sushi vs. fried chicken. EVs vs. pickup trucks. The "trendy coffee vs. soda" comparison, however, baffles me.

The final panels, though, have what is probably the most accurate thing in the picture. The last piece has three themes: cable news, technology and religion. The cable news piece is decently close, presented as "CNN vs. Fox." It could have been any non-Fox outlet, but fair enough. Fox News sucks hugely and is part of the same complex, but it still rides an undeserved reputation for being "Republican." The technology piece is portrayed as a baffling "Apple vs. HP" computer preference, though it might really mean "Apple vs. non-Apple," - but even that is a stretch. The religion piece, though is incisive. Church on one side, pride marches on the other. Wokism is the demonic and amoral religion of the Left, and the comparison is apt - however much the Left hates it when their creepy articles of faith are described as such.

An outsider's perspective on things is often useful to see how you're being interpreted by others. Seeing it boiled down into a low-resolution view in a high-brow political cartoon will help reveal the distillation of that perception. On balance, I think it's fairly valuable. If this is how the Japanese really see the divide, I think it's at least inside the realm of reality.

I'm glad I'm on the "courtesy, tidy homes, faith and fried chicken" side of things, if nothing else.

posted by Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM

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