An Exercise in Restraint: Not Political Cartoons

“What would a respectful political cartoon look like?”
― Salman Rushdie

Political cartoons are exactly that, political. There is no way for anything that is political to not be considered biased because the entire basis of the political system is to be biased either to the left or to the right. Political cartoons are staged admist controversy. If life's great social debates took place on a warzone, political cartoons would be right in the middle where the two sides are about to smash into each other. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is no stronger persuasive technique than satire. By making fun of the opposing argument, satirists essentially dismantle any modicum of respect their opposer might have had at some point. Take this political cartoon for instance, there is probably no better point of controversy than the abortion debate, in order to further push the argument into the danger zone, the author not only dicusses his views on abortion, he also bends the public's comfort zone to a snapping point. By bringing the attacks on abortion clinics into the light he ventures the opposing argument to think about if they agree with the attacks, and if not, why would they not go to the same level of extremism. The hypocrisy in the actions of the man who killed people inside of an abortion clinic comes in the form of this man claiming he is "pro-life" and then taking away the lives of those who opposed his argument. Another argument that mirrors this one is one that I saw on the internet a couple of months back. It stated: Dear transphobic parents, remember when you got asked if you wanted the baby to be a boy or a girl and you said you didn't care? Why do you care now?" By going back to the original argument and satirically pointing out the hypocrisy, political cartoonists and other persuasive authors who do this are easily able to dismantle their opposition's argument by casting doubt on their reliability.