Controversial political cartoonist Ben Garrison, a popular alt-right cartoonist best known for his fawning cartoons about Donald Trump where Trump is depicted as a super-manly hero, is defending himself over a recent cartoon featuring Trump that appears to have badly misunderstood the point of Miguel de Cervantes' novel, Don Quixote.
Garrison's cartoon is a response to Trump's recent lawsuit against a number of social media companies who banned him, claiming that they violated his right to free speech (since they are private companies, Trump's lawsuit is effectively baseless, but it gives him something that he can use as the basis for some fundraising, at least). Garrison depicts Trump as the heroic Don Quixote, facing off against the dreaded windmills of "Big Tech."
The issue, of course, is that Don Quixote was a delusional old man who convinced himself that he was a chivalrous knight fighting against vicious giants when he was actually just attacking windmills that he saw as giants. The scene is so famous that it has even inspired a turn of the phrase, "tilting at windmills," to describe someone who attacks imaginary enemies.
Naturally, then, Garrison's cartoon, as read through the lens of Don Quixote, would be a CRITIQUE of Trump, positing that he is fighting an imaginary battle, which is precisely what critics of Trump are saying about this current lawsuit.
Garrison, though, argues that he somehow did not misread Don Quixote. He defended himself on Twitter, arguing, "Ok I need to talk slowly so the leftist twits can understand.
1. Yes, I realize that the Don Quixote character from Cervantes' novel attacked imaginary enemies as represented by the windmill, but Donald Trump Quixote's enemies are not imagined. I read the book, did you?
2. This is a twist on a classic metaphor. Did anyone even LOOK at the cartoon the "windmill" is running away and knows he has been caught. Trump is charging forward in defense of everyone's free speech including Democrats.
3.The Marxist mainstream media may condemn Trump's lawsuit as desperation and folly, but it's happening and a major lawsuit against the social media leviathans is long overdue.Right now censorship is happening to conservatives but it can/will happen to everyone if not checked.
5. And if you're here just to troll and get your derps in, that's your choice. But don't be shocked if I go all James Woods on you. Have a wonder America First Day!"
In other words, Garrison's cartoon is intentionally going against the point of Don Quixote for...reasons.
People have noted that this is not the first time that Garrison has done other cartoons that similarly misunderstood the point of Don Quixote, with his past depiction of what he sees as heroic conservative figures like Kent Heckenlively and Robert David Steele in the Don Quixote role and their enemies as the windmills...
These, too, presumably are "twists on the classic metaphor."
Garrison then showed that the constant mockery was not bothering him at all by releasing a cartoon mocking his critics, with the professional cartoonist arguing, "Calm down. It was just a cartoon."
Garrison continues to quixotically try to convince people that he didn't get his original cartoon wrong.
Source: Twitter