First off, I would like to announce that one of my predictions from last week has come true, or at least started to come true. Imagery and memes relating to the Pertraeus Scandal have become widely circulated. Most of these have involved photoshopping or captioning photos of Pertaues and Broadwell to make sexual puns or commentary, and SNL took a crack at the affair as well, but I think the image that best illustrates this whole debacle is a flowchart from Gawker detailing all of the key characters of what continues to be a more confusing narrative the more we find out. It makes clear just how ridiculous this whole thing is, as it grows to something much more than just an affair between a general and his biographer.
Whether or not these images have peaked or if we've only witnessing the beginnings of a military-affair-image explosion will remains to be seen. A lot of it may depend on how much more information is released.
Another event that has started to reach wide circulation is the conflict between the Israel and Hama in the Gaza Strip. As Hamas continues to fire rockets at Israel, and Israel has begun to conduct devastating air strikes on Gaza as part of its Pillar of Defense, powerful, tragic images have been released. Many of these being put out by Palestinian sympathizers show the disparity between the damage caused by Palestinian and Israeli attacks, but regardless, images from both sides are painful. Perhaps the most talked about image was featured on the front page of the Washington Post. one of Jihad Misharawi, a BBC Arabic journalist living in Gaza, holding his dead 11-month old son, who was killed by an Israeli air-strike.
As these images related to the conflict continue to come out, I will keep track of them here on the blog. And though doing this will probably mostly have to do with the implications of images of tragedy, I am sure that images of this magnitude will eventual have political significance.
On to my final (and more light hearted) group of images. They have to do with the announced bankruptcy of Hostess, makers of Ding Dongs, Wonder Bread, and most importantly, Twinkies. This was not a surprise to many in the media, as Hostess has had financial troubles in the past, as people start to turn to healthier snacking alternatives. But a labor dispute and strike with the Bakers Union has seemingly put the colossus of sugary treats under.
As Hostess snacks, especially Twinkies, have been a mainstay of American culture for decades, famed for (speculative) deliciousness and seemingly unending, post-apocalypitc shelf life, it is unsurprising that there was an internet outcry about the bankruptcy. Most of these revolved around the theory that the world will end in 2012, drawing from either Mayan Calendar references...
or references to the zombie apocalypse, especailly due to the movie Zombieland, in which Woody Harrelson's character is obsessed with finding the last Twinkie on earth.
There have even been political implication from this meme (sort of), as Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), who many believe to be a front runner for the Republican candidate for President in 2016, was questioned about the bankruptcy at a question and answer session at a New Jersey school, which he perceived to be a loaded question due to his weight.
I think he handled it well, as far as maintaining his image is concerned. He's definitely got that roll-with-the-punches, I-won't-take-your-shit, yet good humored New Jersey thing going for him.
Yet, it can't be ignored that the whole thing has seemed to turn our attention away from real political issues, an effect that we have found to be characteristic of almost every "political" meme here on Post It Politics. This is touched upon by the following web comic.
Will touch base next week, reporting on any new developments in image culture. For now, Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
@Post_It_2012
