Bill Leak cartoon: what are you tweeting about? by Bill Leak. The Australian’s cartoonist recently published a cartoon with a copper (who looks aboriginal) holding an aboriginal youth by the scruff of his neck, baton in the other hand, talking to a slouching aboriginal man with a can of VB in his hand and the other hand in his pocket. The policeman says “you’ll have to sit down and talk to your son about personal responsibility.”, to which the aboriginal man says “Yeah righto. What’s his name then?”. Cartoon at link (paywall).
By lunchtime, a quick Google search showed people working at any number of media organisations all over the country were struggling to understand it [the cartoon].
When little children can’t understand things, they often lash out and throw tantrums. Workplace and safety considerations prevent adults stamping their feet and hurling themselves onto the playground, so they have to content themselves with spewing invective all over the virtual playground of Twitter.
By enabling tantrum-throwers to re-establish their feelings of moral superiority they can walk away purged, but it doesn’t get to the root of their problem: Chronic Truth Aversion Disorder.
The CTAD epidemic that is raging unchecked through Australia’s social media population is rendering impossible any intelligent debate on serious social issues, such as the rampant violence, abuse and neglect of children in remote indigenous communities.
Today Leak drew the same cartoon, but with the aboriginal kid replaced by a white young mainstream man, and the aboriginal man replaced by a PC bald guy with the glasses, holding a noose and baseball bat. The policeman says “This bloke’s been telling the truth and he thinks it’s funny,” to which the PC character from central casting screams “Lemme at ‘im…”.
