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Jen Psaki laughingly swats down Fox reporter’s attempt to tie Biden to “Dr. Seuss” controversy
Occupy Democrats
Occupy Democrats
April 19, 2024

Jen Psaki laughingly swats down Fox reporter’s attempt to tie Biden to “Dr. Seuss” controversy

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March 2, 2021
https://twitter.com/thecjpearson/status/1366807751909928965?s=20

Now that the right-wing’s manufactured outrage over the “woke” gender-neutral marketing changes being made to Hasbro’s Potato Head toys has died down they have to move on to some fresh inane culture war issue to keep their base roiled up.

The Republicans know they have to constantly feed this grievance machine they’ve built or else their voters might cease being distracted long enough to realize that the GOP exists solely to shovel more wealth to the super-rich. They aren’t offering any actual material improvements to the lives of average Americans so they have to conduct idiotic media circuses over things nobody actually cares about in order to have something to talk about.

The current apocalyptic topic du jour is the decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company in charge of the incredibly popular and long-lasting books of Dr. Seuss, to stop publishing six of his books due to their overtly offensive imagery. The books are “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”

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Some of them contain racist caricatures of Asian characters (referred to and depicted as stereotypical “Chinamen) and African characters (shown as savage and pseudo-simian). Choosing to cease their publication isn’t “canceling” Dr. Seuss as conservatives are insisting nor is it book burning. It’s a decision by a company to stop investing in printing books that no longer fit with contemporary sensibilities.

“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises explained in a statement.

6 Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published over racist images | The Times of IsraelAnd To Think They Saw Racism On Mulberry Street

It must be stressed again that nobody is “canceling” the late Dr. Seuss, whatever that would even mean. This company is under no obligation to continue publishing books that are more likely to offend readers than entice them. Republicans should respect the free market they’re always insisting they love so much and accept this decision. Instead, they’re absolutely falling to pieces.

During her press briefing today, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked by a Fox News reporter about President Biden’s Read Across America Day and specifically his failure to mention Dr. Seuss. Laughing, Psaki explained that Biden’s statement was written by the Department of Education and aimed at celebrating diverse American authors. Not surprisingly, the Biden administration does not have a stance on the imagined “scandal” brewing in the conservative bubble.

From Ben Shapiro to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the usual GOP blowhards have been racing to pump out aggrieved takes on the Seuss story. The pattern is a familiar one by now. They take some small story about a company doing something that they consider overly “woke” and then act as if every single liberal in this country is fired up with pitchforks and torches over the issue. In reality, conservatives are the only ones who care (or pretend to care) about the Dr. Seuss story. Yes, liberals will likely support a decision to get rid of the racist imagery, but we weren’t marching in the streets demanding these changes. Democrats are focused on actually passing legislation to help struggling Americans. Republicans are focused on crying about changes to children’s books.

The irony is that Dr. Seuss himself would have abhorred most of these right-wingers as he regularly satirized “America First” isolationists.

Dr. Seuss Satirized “America First” Decades before Donald Trump Made It Policy - ArtsyDr. Seuss - and the wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones, but those were foreign children and it really didn't matter (1941) : museum

Given the fact that many of these conservative “thinkers” are functioning at a fourth-grade reading level (Charlie Kirk immediately springs to mind), it’s perhaps not surprising that they are getting so worked up about a reduction in the overall supply of these books.

Disgustingly, Fox News gave Rep. Madison Cawthorne (R-NC) air-time to rant about Dr. Seuss but failed to ask him about the tidal wave of allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him.

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1366770020890664960?s=20

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April 19, 2024
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