{"id":27599,"date":"2025-03-06T15:45:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T23:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=27599"},"modified":"2025-03-06T15:45:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T23:45:31","slug":"cartoon-we-can-disagree-and-still-be-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=27599","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: We Can Disagree And Still Be Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Here’s a link to a timelapse drawing video<\/a>\u00a0for this cartoon!<\/p>\n

If you watch the timelapse videos, let me know in comments if you think they’re generally a good length, or if you’d like them to be shorter or longer. I can pretty much make them any length; it’s just trying to find a balance between going slow enough so people can see and enjoy the process, and going fast enough to avoid it being boring.<\/p>\n

———————–<\/p>\n

An organization called Braver Angels, whose mailing list I’ve been on forever, is dedicated to encouraging and facilitating friendly conversations between left and right leaning Americans. They’re convinced this is important, nation-saving work.<\/p>\n

I’ve been to one of their meet-ups. Since I live in Portland, most there were lefties (some considerably further left than me), so the few right-wingers in attendance were an in-demand commodity. Nonetheless, I somehow I got a turn with a right-winger and had a very cordial chat.<\/p>\n

I didn’t get much out of it, because it’s never been hard for me to be affable with people I disagree with. (Which might surprise people who only know me from my cartoons.) I don’t have trouble understanding that they’re humans, that they have hopes and dreams and frustrations, that they love music and puppies and some of the same movies I enjoy.<\/p>\n

And to tell the truth, if the other person is smart and willing to be civil and respectful, I enjoy a friendly debate.<\/p>\n

But – contra Braver Angels – I don’t believe these conversations matter<\/em>. Having a friendly conversation with a Trump voter isn’t going to restore USAID or give trans kids access to medical care or bring any of the women killed by pro-life policies back to life. It’s probably not even going to convince them to stop voting for politicians who support hateful policies.<\/p>\n

(Don’t get me wrong – when I have these conversations, I try to persuade folks to stop voting for terrible people. But I don’t think I’ve ever succeeded. Daryl Davis <\/a>I am not.)<\/p>\n

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In Time Magazine<\/a>, a psychologist and a pollster wrote that “estrangement has become an epidemic in America.”<\/p>\n

“Epidemic” may be hyperbolic, but I agree it’s happening more often lately. But the solution isn’t to tell left-wingers that it’s our responsibility to keep up loving relationships no matter what the other person supports.<\/p>\n

When I get Braver Angels emails, I always want to ask them what they think they would have been doing in 1936. Would they have been urging people to maintain cordial friendships with Nazis?<\/p>\n

I tend to avoid comparing contemporary politics to Nazism, for a host of reasons. But after seeing the entire right wing unite around the ridiculous premise that this <\/a>and this <\/a>weren’t Sieg Heil salutes, I’m realizing that as long as it’s presented to them in the right way, there is absolutely no limit to what the U.S.’s current right wing won’t defend and support.<\/p>\n

And I can absolutely understand not being able to stomach being friends with that.<\/p>\n

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON<\/strong><\/p>\n

This cartoon has four panels, each of which shows two characters on a sidewalk. One is a man in a yellow polo shirt, the other a woman in a striped tank top.<\/p>\n

PANEL 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

MAN: Why do you liberals make everything so personal? I know folks whose own kids have cut them off because they voted for Trump!<\/p>\n

PANEL 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

The woman has stopped to face the man, and is listening with a little smile. The man is smiling and talking, but his face has begun to fall off, like a mask.<\/p>\n

MAN: Sure, we’ve got political disagreements. But we shouldn’t let them stop us from being friends, right?”<\/p>\n

PANEL 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

The man’s face falls off, and under it is a monstrous, open-mouthed creature. His speech balloon has a creepy, intense font. The man’s human face, still visible as it falls, is laughing.<\/p>\n

MAN (monster face):\u00a0Black illegals eating our dogs get out trannies are pedos fuck voting rights Sieg Heil<\/p>\n

MAN (fallen face): Oops! Ha ha!<\/p>\n

PANEL 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

The man pushes his face back into place. The woman is in shock, eyes wide and hands over mouth.<\/p>\n

MAN: Anyhow, let’s not let politics come between us.<\/p>\n

CHICKEN FAT WATCH<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Chicken fat” is unimportant details slipped into the art for fun.<\/p>\n

Panel 1: Mickey Mouse, drawn in the style of “Steamboat Willie,” the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, is emerging from a hole in the ground, holding up a note that says “public domain ha ha!”<\/p>\n

Panel 2: A gravestone in the background has “Floppy Disks 1971-2011” inscribed on it.<\/p>\n

Tattoos: The woman has a tattoo on her bicep. In panel 1, it’s a tattoo of a nut (like at a hardware store). In panel 2, it’s a tattoo of a nut (a peanut). In panel 4, it’s a tattoo of Jerry Lewis as “The Nutty Professor.”<\/p>\n

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We Can Disagree And Still Be Friends | Patreon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a link to a timelapse drawing video\u00a0for this cartoon! If you watch the timelapse videos, let me know in comments if you think they’re generally a good length, or if you’d like them to be shorter or longer. I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-conservative-zaniness-right-wingers-etc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27601,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27599\/revisions\/27601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}