I don't know what's worse here, that some bunch of conservative morons would pass off a racist picture so approvingly; that they would get busted for using an image that was photoshopped to make the racist point; or that they would misunderstand what the offense was.
I'll probably go with all of the above just to be sure.
So, thanks to Pharyngula (I find this stuff in the weirdest places) I got to read about this nasty little bit of photoshopping work. Apparently, this lady protesting the injustice in the Trayvon Martin case needed to be mocked, shamed by the racist right-wing, so some enterprising little shit added a few typos to her sign.
Racism is someone in front of his computer whose face twists into the same mask of disgust we see in grainy old black and white films of the KKK burning schoolhouses and churches, and instead of a racial slur spilling from his curled-back lips, he sneers, “Sheeple,” or “Socialists,” or “Obamanation,” and he clicks “like” and “share” on this photo because there’s no little switch in his brain to say: “Is this right to do to a human being?” No. The filter turns off when his hate is triggered by this image. And the really scary thing is, that missing filter means he’s also missing the ability to honestly ask himself, “Am I responding this way because of this woman’s race?”
The blogger at
Cowgirl Up goes on to explain the method...
Showing my work: The racist photoshopped image was found on Facebook. Use of FotoForensics validated my assumption (based on jpeg artifacts) it had been resaved repeatedly. A Google reverse image search using the photoshopped image revealed the original. I used SnagIt to create the side by side comparison here. To his credit, the friend who first shared the fake version retracted it and declared it “despicable” after being shown the original photo.
So, she gets the problem -- it's not
just that the picture was doctored to fit the preconceptions of racism. It's not just that so many folks accepted it unquestioningly; it's that so many folks happily shared and liked and commented favorably and joined in the mockery of a lie, created just to titillate their senses, crafted to meet their expectations.
For example, the folks at 'Patriot Nation' who shared it, and are now tripping over themselves to try to walk it back...somewhere.
This image is floating around the web and here and now, we are stating the fact that we are not the creators of it. The image was passed to us and we shared it.
It wasn't until we received a message that the image had been fabricated aka Photoshopped, the original being on Breitbart or The Blaze, and upon being notified we promptly removed it.
As much as we despise Obama or the liberal element that's destroying America, we will not be guilty of spreading misinformation, untruths, or blatant lies.
Except that you are guilty, heh. :p Likely story, Breitbart or the Blaze. There's your problem. Can't even keep track of what nefarious drek you get from where! But here is the failure. These guys evidently find the problem to be just the
fakery. After all...
Anyone who is found to be posting such racist crap on this page or using racial slurs, will be banned permanently.
Yeah, and I'm sure those patriots commenting on your screw-up, still searching for excuses to attack and mock that woman who dared to hold up a sign because her sons are in danger, will get smited forthwith. I mean, the patriots put up the picture in the first place. Even if it wasn't fake, it would still be wrong to post that up and like and share and whatever else those darned kids do on Facebook. As far as 'posting racist crap' goes, they've already failed.