October 24, 2008
“B”
And they didn't think there would be any fallout from all the race baiting and incitement of crowds at those rallies? This picture represents the angry and paranoid flip-side of "yes we can."
Is it even fair, however, to probe into the visual elements here, especially as reflective of a troubled mind?
Writes Dana Goldstein at TAPPED:
Individuals who invent stories of victimization are often mentally ill, and deserve some modicum of compassion. But there's no question that … the lies were manufactured to whip up racial hatred.
Certainly the "B" — as opposed to using the almost universally familiar "O" — makes the image (the actual instrument of assault here) — that much more troubling for the first-name basis. I do hope Ashley gets help.
21 Comments Leave a comment
g said:
The story is compelling, but I feel sorry for this girl. She is obviously disturbed or fragile mentally. Can we just leave her alone, even though we know she did something dishonest.
Anonymous said:
An interesting insight:
She has several youtube videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-5nr3NK34 : She talks about a Janitor. Who is black.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqsBlXhnFng : Just her talking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGxhshrCssc : Her talking about making signs
In all fairness, I never got a mental illness vibe from watching her videos. I felt like she had potential for a drama queen personality.
As for the picture, it never had the feel of a real victim photo.
She seems to air a bit of knowledge. I know why I am letting this picture of myself go out.
There’s an air of seriousness in those eyes.
Earinc said:
Of course, if she’d been a little smarter and used the “O”, she wouldn’t be mocked for getting it backwards. That’s karma for you.
Karen said:
I go with disturbed. Although there is some sense of the grandiose to me in all this: one story to the police and McCain is saved. One 911 call and your future is ruined. Very sad.
elyely said:
What disturbs me was how the McCain campaign reacted to the story. They immediately pushed for MSM coverage just to get political points against Obama.
Pants Elk said:
Well, it’s the backward (backwood) B, isn’t it? What blade-wielding mutilator would laboriously carve the letter in mirror-image, unless it was in a mirror? Whoopsie. And I suggest she was also going to carve the O on the other cheek, but realized she’d got it wrong, or just simply felt the pain of her (upcoming) convictions too strongly to continue. Or maybe thought that “B.O.” could be misinterpreted as an attack by someone who objected to her lack of personal hygiene. Or anything.
paulimorph said:
sicAtrick
Quincy Scott said:
Certainly this young woman is disturbed, but what troubles me in the larger scheme of things is the paranoid victimization of so many “normal” people in the white, fundamentalist far right. When I see and hear Obama, it is difficult to understand how he can be perceived as such a bogey man by anyone. I don’t think it is out of line to think of Todd as a poster child for the kook fringe American right that the McCain/Palin campaign has tapped into.
I think the value of this photo is that it helps me feel compassion for these people. With all of the hate speech and anger spewed out at rallies in recent weeks, it is easy to feel quite a bit of anger in return. But there is a sad psychological sickness at the heart of this phenomenon. I hope this poor gal gets some help. I hope they all get some help.
Stephen Rose said:
The third video noted above looks like a prep for her eventual transformation — aka facial.
Poor girl is the seemingly universal reaction. I have no idea how appropriate that is. Nor whether she is paranoid, paranoid schizophrenic, delusional or what.
The heroes to me ate the PD folk who did not get taken in.
I hope we are not taken in. Occam’s Razor suggests to me a glory, save-McCain connection, a pre-event or a suggestion. I do not think she acted alone.
The insensitive coverage that fails to see the attempt as continuous with the worst stereotype within all racist stereotypes suggests that this needs to be a serious teaching moment for a lot of MSM folk.
Plain truth — I do not know yet.
iamcoyote said:
She’s barely suppressing a smile in that photo, I’m sure of it. Especially after watching her Youtubes. She knew what she was doing, and thought it was a clever stunt. She’s no more mentally disturbed than Tracy Flick, whom she’s apparently modeled herself on. No compassion from me; she was hoping for a firestorm, and didn’t think she’d be the one getting burned. Prosecute, and let her be a lesson to others. May she be greeted with catcalls and rotten tomatoes for a decade.
harrier said:
g commented: “The story is compelling, but I feel sorry for this girl. She is obviously disturbed or fragile mentally. Can we just leave her alone, even though we know she did something dishonest. ”
I heartily agree. If you’ve ever been close to someone with a serious mental illness, you know how inadequate current help is. Our main mental health facility is our county jail, and the police are expected to act as care workers. (As absurd as expecting Marines to act like policemen).
My political side, more callous, regrets that the truth came out too quickly for McCain to commit fully to the story. Guess he’ll ride his plumber down the drain.
Cointreau said:
can anyone make a pumpkin stencil of this?
Annie said:
Commenters already touched upon the major issues underlying this:
Untreated mental illness
Republican messaging is a manifestation of mental illness (anger, rage, obsessive/compulsiveness, fear, suspicion)
Criminalizing mental illness (using incarceration and criminal justice system to access mental health services – BTW – over one half of ALL inpatient psychiatric care is delivered in prisons – we just shifted institutionalization from hospitals)
The pornification and victimization of this person by the McCain campaign demonstrates misogyny, stigmatization of mental illness, racism, bigotry, anti-intellectualism
This is really awful on so many fronts.
I worry, most of all, about the youth who did this. She needs – and is deserving of – adequate health care, of which she isn’t getting. That should be the follow-up to the McCain campaign.
Stan B. said:
Anyone recall the previous right wing “mugging victim” with mirror image facial etchings?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E3D61231F933A05751C1A9679C8B63
jtfromBC said:
Sarah, please tell us it aint so
“…According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack,…”
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/mccain_aide_gave_reporters_inc.php
bushwahd said:
Seeing the backwards B, I immediately assumed george bush had attacked her.
Democratic muggers/hoaxers–being literate and doing well on those SAT 3-D questions–would have carved an H to feed the islamoredneck conspiracy theorists’ bloodlust/racefear and simultaneously avoid the mirror issue.
Exredstater said:
Anybody else see this leaked 527 spot?
http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Leaked_Pro_McCain_527_Negative_Ad_Small_Town_Fear_Itself/
Jan Kees said:
The mug shot invites us to wonder who she is and what’s going on behind her de-faced cheek. Crazy or not, an interesting psychological story may be told about her some day when all the facts are in.
But she’s not the important story. Nor, really, is Fox, Drudge, Palin, or anyone else’s specific encouragement of her fraud. The real psychological thriller lies in each of us, progressive and reactionary and middle-of the road, white and black alike: the huge jump to generalization we all make at the drop of a hat in a case like this, or that we try equally urgently to prevent others from making — that one crazy violent black man’s actions would suddenly reflect on all black people, including that audacious black man who would be President. We feared, and Ms Todd hoped, that White America’s stereotype of the Violent Black Man would kick into action. This stereotype is actually a projection, one that has served Euro-Americans well to assuage guilt and avoid having to come to terms with the ugly details of owning African people as property for 250 years, an institution as American as apple pie, one upon which the early economic success of this nation was built. It is the power of this stereotype that explains Ms Todd’s action, Fox’s eagerness to believe her, and our sigh of relief when we heard it was not true this time.
But in a nation of 300 million people, what didn’t happen this time may well happen next time, and it will be no more proper to turn it into a symbol when it really happens than it was when it really didn’t.
By the same token I’d rather not take Ms. Todd as a symbol of anything, and certainly not as a symbol of what is wrong with the McCain campaign. Assess its errors on the merits and demerits, and assess her on hers.
Rightwingsnarkle said:
Apparently, this was not her first attempt at a hoax.
merl said:
I laugh every time I see the picture of that pathetic loser.
yesterdaygone said:
so is that a real black eye? or make-up? if it is real, was it self-inflicted?