Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, who I am sorry to say represents my district, got into some pretty hot water a while back over a tweet he posted [1]. The video in his tweet depicted him as an anime character going on a rampage against his political enemies, dispatching Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and threatening Joe Biden with two swords.
Since that time, Congress has been considering what to do about it. Democrats may not even be happy with a simple censure — many argue he should be criminally prosecuted for making threats against his fellow lawmakers. He has attempted to explain himself, but being the kind of guy who would post something like that to begin with, he’s done a pretty poor job in his own defense.
Enter Matt Gaetz.
Gaetz will defend the gross behavior of his Republican colleagues in every measure. That’s likely because he’s accused of a lot of gross behavior himself. But when he went to bat on the House floor in defense of Gosar, he went absolutely off the rails.
Anime is fiction, to the point of the absurd. It’s not really my thing, and it does glorify vi0lence, but often to symbolize conflict, not realistic harm to another person. In the last session week we had, we reviewed Steve Bannon’s podcast. Today, we’re critiquing Paul Gosar’s anime. Next week, we might be indicting Wile E. Coyote for an explosive ordinance against the Roadrunner.
I’m sorry, what?
Nobody is talking about the antics of cartoon characters, obviously. The discussion is about Paul Gosar using those characters specifically to symbolize the actions he’d like to take against the people he works with. If I made a cartoon that showed me slicing and dicing a city full of my coworkers, I’d be fired within the hour, and I bet no one would even mention Wile E. Coyote.
Watch Matt try to defend the indefensible here:
Gaetz says Wile E. Coyote might be next if Gosar is held accountable.
Nobody’s talking about the medium he used, Matt. It was the message of Paul Gosar’s tweet that had people upset. pic.twitter.com/Us0fQ8Wu32 [2]
— The Political Flare (@politicalflares) November 17, 2021 [3]