2006-07-11

A Call to Arms

I've written previously about the American Religious Right's war on satire.

Before now, our enemies in the holy battle had as their primary weapon a tendency to act in such a dunderheaded way that no parody was possible that didn't run the risk of coming true. While this weapon was a potent one, to be sure, I was comforted by the fact that there was an obvious defense against it. If only we could give the enemy independent motivation to stop acting like Neanderthals, the war would be ours.

But now a new tactic has been developed, and I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. The enemy has started believing the satire that's written about them*. Now that the enemy sees our satirical accounts and true and reasonable characterizations of their thoughts and actions, I'm afraid the war has been lost. After all, convincing them to stop acting like Neanderthals was one thing. But convincing them to stop *thinking* like Neanderthals? I don't see a way out. I'm not yet ready to lay down arms, but winning this war is now going to take some serious out-of-the-box thinking.

Any ideas?


*Link via Pharyngula

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