Sunday, August 31, 2008

Is it satire, or is it real?

Just came from a site that purports to be a right-wing site, but I'll swear up and down I can't figure out whether it is satire, or real. Yes, it makes some statements that at first look like satire on how Republicans think, e.g. "Obama's plan has you paying higher taxes even if you make only $161,000 a year" (note that the median family income in the U.S. is $61,500, and if you make $161,000 a year you're in the top 20% of taxpayers, so this seems suspiciously like John McCain's "joke" that if you make $4,999,999 you're "middle class"). The problem is that tighty righties often make such statements in all sincerity. They really do believe that if you make less than $5 million per year, you're "middle class".

That's the non-hilarious part of Republican rule of the United States. It's been such a joke over these past 8 years (if you can count two wars, a drowned city, a trashed economy, and a collapsing health care system as "a joke") that it's hard to tell the difference between delusional Republican beliefs in "invisible hands" and such, and satirists' attempts to make fun of those beliefs. Sometimes satirists just can't exaggerate enough for the rest of us to tell the difference between a satirist's depiction of Republicans, and a Republican's depiction of himself.

-- Badtux the Baffled Penguin

3 comments:

  1. It's often difficult for me to pickup on satire, and I notice that others often miss it.

    Of course politics baffle you, anyone that thinks they understand it are brainwashed or simply stupid. It's a stupid frigging system that needs to be blown up and rebuilt in much simpler ways.

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  2. I definitely get your satire, BBC. You're doing a piss-take of a typical grumpy American Grandpa Simpson/John McCain "Hey you little bastards, get offa my lawn" crank, right? It's hilarious! I used to have neighbors like that in my subdivision when I was a kid. Your wicked funny jests bring back memories. Of course, I realise that no one who is actually that apoplectically crochety would have enough intelligence to turn on a computer. So keep up with the grumpy act on behalf of those who can't do it for real!

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  3. i dont think republicans have a sense of humor - else they would have been laughing at bush for 8 yearsuinijv

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