Darwin Fish

An excerpt from Jonah Goldberg:

I find Darwin fish offensive. First, there’s the smugness. The undeniable message: Those Jesus fish people are less evolved, less sophisticated than we Darwin fishers.

The hypocrisy is even more glaring. Darwin fish are often stuck next to bumper stickers promoting tolerance or admonishing that “hate is not a family value.” But the whole point of the Darwin fish is intolerance; similar mockery of a cherished symbol would rightly be condemned as bigoted if aimed at blacks or women or, yes, Muslims.

As Christopher Caldwell once observed in the Weekly Standard, Darwin fish flout the agreed-on etiquette of identity politics. “Namely: It’s acceptable to assert identity and abhorrent to attack it. A plaque with ‘Shalom’ written inside a Star of David would hardly attract notice; a plaque with ‘Usury’ written inside the same symbol would be an outrage.”

But it’s the false bravado of the Darwin fish that grates the most. Like so much other Christian-baiting in American popular culture, sporting your Darwin fish is a way to speak truth to power on the cheap, to show courage without consequence.

Comments

[Noumenon]

Couldn't you take this as a criticism of your COEXIST graphic?

[Marcus Auerlius]

Tom,

Were I not at the office when I read Jonah's blog I would have e-mailed him reference to your bumper sticker.

Noumenon, I would actually say Jonah's criticism criticism is more on target to the original bumper sticker than Tom's spoof.

In fact, Jonah & Christopher Caldwell capture very nicely what happened with Tom's spoof here:

"As Christopher Caldwell once observed in the Weekly Standard, Darwin fish flout the agreed-on etiquette of identity politics. “Namely: It’s acceptable to assert identity and abhorrent to attack it. A plaque with ‘Shalom’ written inside a Star of David would hardly attract notice; a plaque with ‘Usury’ written inside the same symbol would be an outrage.”"

[Tom McMahon]

I think the criticism would apply more to my recent War Relic post, but maybe the crescent moons inside the swastika were just too subtle.