Yo! NYPD!
Posted by Mike E on September 28, 2011
This entry was posted on September 28, 2011 at 4:44 pm and is filed under >> analysis of news.
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cigar guy said
How’s the NYPD ‘hero’ status looking now?!?
Jan Makandal said
In general, reactionary act of repression should not be supported and needs to be denounced by us; I think this poster is quite limited in this sense. Even when we do expose general act of repression but/and at the same time we need to differentiate act of repressions due to inter capitalist class struggles, Tea Party Vs the Democratic Party, that are secondary and act of repressions against the popular masses that happen daily , are not selective and are principal. There is nothing progressives or positives if the repressive forces pepper spray the Tea party, the fact is we are next.
Mike E said
This poster is not calling for pepper spraying the teaparty It is pointing out that the NYPD white shirts peppersprayed the protesters in NYC, but that the tea-party faces no repression around the U.S.
It is a statement of irony and contrast. And you misread it if you think it is a demand that the tea party be attacked by police.
It may be a language issue?
Jan Makandal said
I guess it may be a language issue or simply “marketing pragmatism.”
I simply mention of its limitation by the way the comparison was done. But, Ok for the clarification.
I still will not use it, because of my reading between the line interpretation. YO NYPD PEPPER SPRAY ANY TEA PARTIERS LATELY. I did translate it in my native language and my point on its limitation still remain.
Mike E said
As someone who, like you, has done my share of translating, the point is real: Highly idiomatic irony often is hard to translate. Certainly you can rarely do it literally, or the irony evaporates.
The use of “Yo” (for example) in this context is a mockery of the particular dialect of certain New Yorkers (including cops), and so on. It would be hard to translate and keep the irony (and mockery).
I have been part of promoting a school called “meaning-based translation” — where the translation is consciously not of the words or sentence structure, but of the meaning of the original in all of its cultural and contextual nuances.