Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for November 12, 2023

Drop that phone! And back away slowly.

If you don’t follow politics, you are safe until after the election.

Religions hate critical thinking.

Oh, they’re itty-bitty little aliens. Cute!

I can relate to true-believing Christians, because I feel the exact same way about the Green Bay Packers, the greatest sporting team in the history of the planet (despite abundant evidence to the contrary). Everybody needs a hobby; they’ve got their churches; I’ve got my team. And we treat them both the same way, with our rituals every Sunday, our altars (mine’s a 50-incher), our vestments (mine are green and gold), our sacraments (beer and pretzels for me, some tiny tasteless canapés for them), our call-and-response chants (“Go, Pack, Go!”), our saints (Lombardi, Starr, Favre), our demons (Bears and Vikings instead of Jews and Muslims), our Mecca (Lambeau Field), our holy scriptures (Packer Yearbook), and our miracles (Rodgers to Cobb vs. Bears, 48 yards in 2015, 75 in 2018). And of course we’ve got our own promised land, which we know is real, because we’ve been there 5 times (won 4 of ’em) and have the pictures to prove it!

So I totally get Christianity. It’s just like football! The main difference is that we’re not proposing to napalm Soldier Field.

If I ever meet up with aliens visiting this planet, I would beg for them to abduct me.

Yes, yes. All kinds of faith and hope are automatically bad, and the only way forward is to embrace conceited mocking despair and nihilism according to the great positively constructive mantra of “Life sucks and then you die”. That will surely produce a far more enlightened, kinder, peaceful, and prosperous humanity. Just ask Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Xi Jinping, Kim Il Sung, and Kim Jong Un.

Fanatically ideological and amoral atheism is awesome, and doesn’t at all risk to turn all of humanity into resigned, hopeless, and directionless easily pliable clay for tyrants and oligarchs. Let’s place all of those pesky spiritual or religious people into reeducation gulags immediately. They, and only they can possibly be the problem, and not anybody else whatsoever.

What, outer space has Wifi?

I got the impression Wiley is referring to people’s blind devotion to social media more so than religion per se.Just my opinion, after all the aliens had a phone and not any type of bible!

The religion in this area is climate change.

The followers are true believers, zealots and authoritarians. Plus, they take their tithe by force.

Gone are the days when you bought a mobile phone just to send and receive phone calls. Actually, that’s what I use mine for; if I want to look up something, I read a book .. yes, really!!!

Somehow, I was expecting a MAGA hat.

A lot of Babel came down the cable

Everybody can be famous for a day

From shore to shore

A big department store

Is all that’s left of the American way

It’s another second coming, like it or not, yeah

Oh yeah

It’s another second coming, like it or not

You better start praying to a new God

No that was a deliberate slap at theology with a cover story that we can all (wink, wink) poke fun at phone use (wink, wink).

Finally! finally finally finally we get to see what it looks like inside one of these iconic ufos where they pop their heads out of the top! Great design! love it!!

Hmm, I never thought about the fact that aliens may actually be much smaller than we think normal (or much bigger for that matter)… now I have something else to worry about…

Brilliant Wyley, as he put that the specimen will be inert as long as it kept “UNCHARGED”

This cartoon fits well with a “thought experiment” in which I engage frequently. I am a boy/girl/whatever scout from the planet Zarg and I am trying to get my merit badge on primitive societies.

So I come to this piece of debris orbiting a middle aged yellow dwarf star in the galactic boondocks. Some of the inhabitants call it “Earth.”

When I look at the culture and the things that the occupants take for granted, I find most of them to be totally arbitrary. Some of them are quaint and amusing and cause me to laugh (We Zargians have a good sense of humor – and we find the so-called dominant species a good source of comic relief). Others are absolutely frightening and make me wonder how the civilization got as far as it did.

Stop. Step out of yourself. Step out of your place. Step out of your time. Then look at yourself. What you see will be different than what you see in the mirror or in the media.

“I’LL GO POP THE TRUNK”

(imagines a different version of this part of the dialogue of this cartoon)

I’LL OPEN THE TRUNK

Buddhism is nothing but critical thinking.

Perhaps the anti-cell phone wave has begun to build. Lots of us don’t like them and don’t use them unless absolute necessity requires us to.

So let me add another anti-cell facet. How is that phone sellers have the power to make your phone obsolete by a mere shuffle of electrons and then require you to replace it or lose your right to use it? For a thing that started out offering basic communications in a reasonable price and size, you now pay big bucks for what has become a portable entertainment center that requires addons to prevent it being damaged and weighs over a pound.

Mortgage companies can’t do that with your dwelling. Auto companies can’t do that with the car or boat that you bought a year or so ago. TV mfgs can’t do that with your tv set.

Only cell phone mfgs and sellers get to do that. Why??

I thought this was going to be a cat…

People walking around, head bowed, talking to their cellphones always reminds me of the chanting monks in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.

We’re doomed.

For some reason, I have been thinking a lot about Heinlein’s book, The Puppet Masters 1951, in which alien slugs invade earth and take control of individuals by attaching to their spines between the shoulders [they later discover that the aliens can attach anywhere on the spine]. When I hear political talk, I have an urge to check everyone’s back to see if they are a bit hunch-backed.

Excellent! Anti-Christians would have something else in mind as they read the cartoon panels! But, observation of MOST humans, with their attention glued to their ‘smartphones’, WOULD give an alien this idea.

Checked my pocket – whoo, what a relief. That wasn’t my phone they got!

I thought for sure it would have been a bible.

That could’ve gone a couple of ways. One, the lies are constantly coming at you, not just election years, and the other is politics.

Humans are stupid and blindly follow anything. Low hanging fruit, I must say.

To me, Wiley is showing how the vitriol flies with political comments.

At first I assumed this was another slam at the worst forms of the Abrahamic faiths, the punchline is amusing and scary at the same time.

You know you are one of those “primitives” if you are using one of those “sacred altars” to view this toon.

Actually you want to avoid this primitive planet in the years before and after elections….and any other time also.

Is every year an election year somewhere on Earth ?

Good one, Wiley.

Small aliens.

Social Media is Today’s Religion…

Point on. Brilliantly Illustrated.

This is great, Wiley! Keep up the great work!!

Where is Lars?

Dear Wiley, you almost always have the most response in the comment section of the funny pages, Entertainment at its best!!!

I’ll stick with my simple flip phone and note that others are also returning to them.

Every year is an election year in the USA. As soon as the ballots are miscounted, they start all over again.

Smart phones, stupid people. Darwin in reverse.

Don’t forget, hatred and opposition. Sad that our society has become that way for the sake of politics.

And the alternative is…?

It may be powered off, but it’s still recording what you say, aliens

I like the idea of something (or someone) being charged during an election year

It looks a lot like an iPhone, except the volume buttons are on the wrong side.

Yes. That was the first thing I noticed.

Ah yes, we have many false gods these days.

We believe in many comforting things. Too bad so few of them are true.

I wasn’t doing much last week except the routine. I didn’t even notice I hadn’t packed my phone. Found it last night under some mail, dead flat. I do go online, obviously. But I limit my time.

Another great strip, Wiley! Many thanks!

Wow, nice to know that the herd mentality still rules, you do get that every year is an election year right ??? Have a good week ;-)

is the orange one Starfire of the Teen Titans?

I thought they were talking a bout Lucy. Well,there’s horsebleep either way

definetly one of the best

What if phones, but too much?