I… don’t understand?
Person being crushed is protestors/dissenters that is being crushed by a large oppresive whale (police/media/counter protestors) for speakingout against the whale. Other person comes allong to help, raises their voice, and is told to “keep things civil” as if they are the instigators, while the whale is maliciously using its weight to stiffle the oppressed.
Basically the norms and establishment of society is large and unwieldy and can crush any oppsition with no way of retaliation. And if somone points it out, dispite being equally small and cannot truly harm the whale, they are the ones out of line and instigators.
Edit: Words
The system is designed to protect the system.
No worries.
Cat is being crushed by the whale. Girl repeatedly asks the whale to stop crushing Cat, getting louder each time. The whale ignores her until she shouts at it. The whale finally acknowledges Girl, but only to reprimand her for not keeping the “discussion” civil.
The joke is that whale ignored her pleas until she shouted, but instead of addressing the content of her pleading, all the whale cared about was the perceived incivility of being loud.
An additional layer to the joke is that the reason Cat is being crushed by the whale is because Cat complained about being crushed by a whale.
As an allegory, it’s applicable to scenarios where one group abuses another group, and then punishes those victims for complaining about the abuse by victimizing them further – and when called out on it by a third party, the abuser does not address the abuse, but instead complains about the tone of the call out.
What specific, real-world situation this strip refers to is open to interpretation, since it’s illustrating a typical dynamic of severe power imbalances.
(But my own errant speculation is that it was inspired by the crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations at US college campuses. YMMV.)
I think it’s about moderators
I assumed.it was about Gaza.
I mean, given that it’s a blue whale and it’s referencing the whole crushing thing I’m assuming it’s meant to be police
No no… That would be a thin blue whale. This whale is clearly a porker… so I guess it is about the police after all.
Me either
This comic is only about what I specifically feel it is about.
Whale: Stop resisting!
Now the whales are getting all political
Hey the whale’s just doing what it’s always done, it’s these agitators who are raising their voices, behaving like animals
I mean those yacht wrecking orcas got pretty political.
This comic is about student loans
Climate change amirite?
Average experience with a moderator.
