Heaping Shit on the Russians: Danger of a Low Bar?

via Greg Wyshynski @wyshynski – editor of the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo! Sports. 100k followers

via @cathalkelly – Columnist -Toronto Star

If we’re plunging headfirst into a crass visual meme, I think it’s instructive.

Sure there is plenty to despise about Putin, the gay ban, Russian corruption and repression … and, apparently now, the resultant state of Olympic accommodations. That said, the base extent of that explosion of media hate is impressive, and concerning. Perhaps it’s the human rights outrage of the homosexual ban that has pushed the media over the edge, driving reporters and other observers to seek out the dirtiest visual Russian laundry and “out” the Russians from the (water) closet of moral decrepitude.

That said, the most popular snapshot/visual analogy relayed from Sochi upon the landing of the Western media, more than the missing lightbulbs and door handles, has featured the toilet bowl or urinal (etc., etc.). And no surprise.

Like a lot of people, I’m sure, I got a kick out of the photo tweeted a few weeks ago by Steve Rosenberg of the BBC. The double bowl achieved a wide editorial impact using irony, almost whimsy, to surface thoughtless construction and the gay ban). This has a whole different tone though.

If invective is your intent and all gloves (and more primary articles) are off, any five-year-old could confirm it’s the icon for heaping shit on the Russians. I’m not saying I’m surprised but I do think it’s laden. I’m afraid it lowers the bar so far, it sets the ground work for two weeks of potshots. As if an early warning — we’re seeing how fast the already lightening quick media sphere has been in reposting unauthenticated and inaccurate images as the meme skyrocketed.

Slate specifically produced these examples, one by an author-journalist who should clearly know better.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to see the missing manhole covers, the roaming wild dogs and every other messed-up thing that’s symptomatic over there. At the same time, though, the more blood we have in our eye, the more it prevents us from seeing more clearly, more in context.