A Forum for Vigorous Debate, Cornerstone of Democracy

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A FORUM FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND VIGOROUS DEBATE, CORNERSTONES OF DEMOCRACY
[For the journal--guidelines, focus, etc.--go to www.theamericandissident.org. If you have questions, please contact me at todslone@hotmail.com. Comments are NOT moderated (i.e., CENSORED)!]
Encouraged censorship and self-censorship seem to have become popular in America today. Those who censor others, not just self, tend to favor the term "moderate," as opposed to "censor" and "moderation" to "censorship." But that doesn't change what they do. They still act as Little Caesars or Big Brother protectors of the thin-skinned. Democracy, however, demands a tough populace, not so easily offended. On this blog, and to buck the trend of censorship, banning, and ostracizing, comments are NEVER "moderated." Rarely (almost NEVER) do the targets of these blog entries respond in an effort to defend themselves with cogent counter-argumentation. This blog is testimony to how little academics, poets, critics, newspaper editors, cartoonists, political hacks, cultural council apparatchiks, librarians et al appreciate VIGOROUS DEBATE, cornerstone of democracy. Clearly, far too many of them could likely prosper just fine in places like communist China and Cuba or Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia, not to mention Sweden, England, and Austria.
ISSUE #47 PUBLISHED MAY 2024. NOW SEEKING SUBMISSIONS FOR ISSUE #48.

More P. Maudit cartoons (and essays) at Global Free Press: http://www.globalfreepress.org

Friday, August 16, 2019

The Iconoclast


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The above cartoon was drawn in 2006.  The only real question to pose:  Is The Iconoclast at all iconoclastic?  My conclusion was a definite NO.  Iconoclast would definitely imply harsh criticism regarding the academic/literary establishment.  For its editor, Phil Wagner, "Poetry and prose from authors interested in the creation, sharing, and transmission of ideas, imaginings, and experiences. Getting rich or famous from publication here is unlikely, but more people in more places actually read Iconoclast than the vast majority of other small press literary magazines."  Not a single word on The Iconoclast website encourages "iconoclasting" (criticism).  Mind-boggling, or rather numbing, indeed!  Perhaps it is time to give The Iconoclast an award for Literary Magazine Title Misrepresentation!  In essence, The Iconoclast is as establishment as it gets.

In any case, yesterday I was "battling" with a Quebec publisher, Jean-Sébastien Larouche (L'Ecrou) who, for some reason, had not learned the establishment credo:  thou shalt not respond to criticism.  He was recently highlighted in Le Devoir (Montreal) as an iconoclast, which is why I questioned and challenged him... and indeed he was anything but an iconoclast.  Then today I looked over Poets & Writers magazine online and noticed Matthew Zapruder was highlighted.  The name rang a bell.  So, I checked to see if indeed I'd sketched a cartoon on him.  And sure enough I had (see https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2016/03/matthew-zapruder.html).  After the posted cartoon is a dialogue de sourds I created with him, questioning and challenging his statements.  He unsurprisingly never responded.  And thus I wondered would The Iconoclast publish it... knowing quite well it would not.  After all, it is listed in Poets & Writers magazine directory, which refuses to list The American Dissident... just like NewPages.com.  For the literary establishment, The American Dissident and I simply do NOT exist...


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