Holy bejesus, I have literally never once seen the bottom text of the "BE GAY / DO CRIME!" poster. Every time I've ever seen it used, the bottom was cropped out. https://twitter.com/ioascarium/status/1002934418854633473
Interesting to note is that the original comic, by Thomas Nast in 1880, features him complaining about California in literally the exact same way that conservatives complain about California almost a century-and-a-half later. 🤨
Though tbh, some of Thomas Nast's cartoons were kinda fuego🔥
( #CW blatant racism)

Though some of Thomas Nast's cartoons were also, uhh....interesting. Lots of distasteful depictions of black people, but he seems to actually support emancipation, so that's pretty cool. (Check my image descriptions I've been adding for clarity on images.)
( #CW even more hella blatant racism)

...Well, Thomas Nast was *usually* supportive of freed black slaves, anyway.

...And uh. He really, really, REALLY did not like the Chinese. Like. Wow, dude. Also he may have invented vore. 😬😬😬😬😬😬
I have no idea why I went through all of this. I guess #QuarantineLife is just melting my brain like this.
I definitely just noticed the oddly boob-shaped stains in the lower-right-hand part of the original source cartoon and now I can't unsee them. I'm sorry I had to share this with you all.
So @EnyotheHunter added some context to the anti-Catholicism sentiment of Thomas Nast. While early Americans did objectively hate Catholics, they also had great hatred for Italians and Irish...who were overwhelmingly Catholic. So anti-Catholic hatred is also a dogwhistle tl;dr.
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