Jonathan Swift is not amused
Posted by Richie on February 1, 2009
We released a new shirt a couple weeks ago that says “It’s not gay if you beat them up afterwards”. I will not explain the irony or the social commentary of the slogan because anyone with half a brain should be able to handle that on their own.
Yes, the dude who runs T-Shirt Hell is closing his e-doors because he “just can’t handle dealing with idiots anymore”. I couldn’t decide which of the eighty-seven obvious jokes to use here, so in the end I thought I’d let you come up with your own.
Social commentary is meant to encourage you to think critically about society. For all my clashes with self-identified “Politically Incorrect” divots over the last almost-two-years of blogging, I do believe there’s a grain of legitimacy in the basic argument, because sanitised images of social problems are anathema to thinking critically about them. That’s sanitised images, not humanising images, but you’d think they were interchangeable given the amount of dudebro whining that goes on. You’d think a shirt that makes a joke about beating up homosexuals would be as far from a sanitised image as possible, then… only, on closer inspection, it fulfills exactly the same social function, even if it takes a slightly different route to get there. Instead of asking not to take a problem seriously by hiding it from sight and pretending it’s not really there, it bombards us with self-consciously irreverent mockery of it, with the underlying message being that, yeah, it happens, but it doesn’t really matter and we’ve all gotten over it. Or, rather, all the cool people have gotten over it, and anybody who does seem genuinely concerned is unreasonable and overreacting. In other words, the message of T-Shirt Hell’s “Arrest Black Babies” shirt isn’t social commentary on racism, it’s a billboard telling us that racism doesn’t matter anymore, so let’s accept that it’s all subjective and, hey, white people have ethnicities too, so quit whining. Phrase it less belligerently and you’ve got exactly the kind of thought-policing newspeak that it purports to be fighting against. These are the most politically correct shirts ever.
wiggles said
The only one of those that’s even remotely satirical is the one that reads “The Black Man is Keeping Me Down.” And it’s still pretty weak; Someone who believes in “reverse racism” would probably take it at face value.
T-Shirt Hell going. At last. — Hoyden About Town said
[...] talks about the flounce demise of T-Shirt Hell here – “Jonathan Swift is not amused” – and highlights some of the more violent, hateful, racist, sexist, homophobic designs. To [...]
bellatrys said
What *I* find ironic is the way that these self-styled Champions of Machismo are such pitiful wet napkins under the blowback from their actions – they are such classic examples of “can dish it out/can’t take” or “needs to get out of kitchen, stat!”
(We’re dealing with one on LJ/RL right now, Luke Jackson aka “darkerblogistan” claiming that the “PC heifer brigade” is suppressing The Man, is a lawyer for a firm that handles sexual harassment cases, is ALSO longtime pornspamming sexist troll “igorsanchez” it turns out…)
Yeesh. (The “just get a sense of humor/grow up” commenters on that Tech Central thread were special, too. In the “YOU FAIL AT IRONY FOREVER” sense of special.)
Richie said
Yeah, my favourite is when they accuse the people calling them out on their shit of “having too much time on their hands”. Do they think that logic somehow doesn’t apply to them…? (Yes)
I’m rootin’ for ya, PC heifer brigade! Fight for everlasting peace!
Seren said
Oh my -god- I cringed at the last one.
The idea of ’satire’ doesn’t even remotely work on that one, unless he thinks somehow comas just “aren’t that bad” anymore. Satirizing what?? It blows my mind how someone could honestly think they’re doing anything other than trying to upset people. It’s just sadism, plain and simple. Bullying.
Richie said
I used to not like using the word “Bullying” because I thought it made things seem less serious than they actually were, like you’re dealing with some ten year old brat who can’t share. Then, well, yeah, I realised that’s exactly what you’re dealing with, and they just never grew out of it. And just like a bratty kid, this guy takes his toys and goes home once he gets told off for being bad.
Margaret said
If the guy’s so tired of idiots, then how does he live without going insane?
franzferdinand2 said
I’d read the larger excerpt of his retirement announcement (I guess that’s what you’d call it). I always love it when people try to pretend that they’re championing some kind of noble cause by being an asshole. I’d almost be okay with this kind of shit if the people behind it just said “Hey, we’re assholes! We like doing asshole things!” It would still be obnoxious, but at least they wouldn’t be metaphorically nailing themselves to a fucking cross.
But, I guess we just don’t “get it”. Because a shirt that’s about raping clowns is fraught with hidden meaning.
ispower said
I’m off the “He’s just trolling to get more people to buy shirts and not really closing down at all” opinion, but the whole thing is pretty lulzy and terrible.
chocolatepie said
I’d almost be okay with this kind of shit if the people behind it just said “Hey, we’re assholes! We like doing asshole things!”
And yet those people piss me off the most. “I’m an asshole; deal with it” is the slogan of a generation of (a)pathetic, asocial, socially unconscious and selfish losers who use it as an excuse to be unforgivably mean to everyone who doesn’t agree with them.
“What? It’s just a joke” is the mantra of every high school douchenozzle with a voice box.