Ah, Fawkes You and the Horse You Rode in on!

On common theme you often see at popular protests these days is the so called "pro-anarchist" Guy Fawkes mask. The masks look like this--surely you've seen them in photos of Occupy rallies and anti-war protests. The masks are a great way to determine that the person wearing one is either a crusader for Catholic domination or a blithering moron.

Guy Fawkes is somehow equated with anarchy because he was part of a plot in the early 1600s to blow up the British parliament house with the entire legislative branch present. Whoo! Stick it to the man! Except of course Fawkes wasn't trying to break down authority and create some sort of freedom loving utopia. Instead, he and his co-conspirators were fighting on behalf of a restoration of Catholic domination in Britain (still an issue less than a century after Henry VIII) and suppression of Protestants.

Now, Catholics were persecuted in England at that time, so one could sympathise somewhat with those fighting against "the man". But this hardly makes Fawkes a paragon of anti-authoritarianism--after all, could you really favor the papacy and be anti-authoritarian at the same time?

Other incongruous uses of famous figures' likenesses include:

1) Hipster liberals wearing Che Guevara's image, considering Che was too busy slaughtering dissidents to shrug ironically and drink PBR.

2) White frat guys wearing Bob Marley, considering the late singer was not known to ever ONCE perform at a raging kegger for Kappa Sigma house with the dudebros.

3) Conservatives wearing Reagan buttons, considering the man agreed to tax increases, pulled the Marines out of Lebanon after our barracks were bombed, and advanced detente with the Russians.

4) College kids with Albert Einstein's photo on their wall, since Einstein never would have struck out with that hot chick from Sociology 101.