Bad Satire Gets Confused with Reality

Apparently a number of gun control groups and at least one Brady Campaign Board Member were confused by a parody Facebook event. Looking through the Facebook Event, it even looks like it was mostly being enjoyed by the “Let’s make fun of those dumb, toothless, cousin humping rednecks” crowd. So either anti-gun groups are really, really dense, or they’re deliberately trying to use this anti-redneck parody to make gun folks look like people who are stupid and irresponsible enough to think shooting a hurricane will help things.

Which is it? I don’t know. I could see them believing gun owners are dumb enough to put something like this together for real. In that case, who’s the joke on here?

8 thoughts on “Bad Satire Gets Confused with Reality”

  1. I know it sounds like I’m defending those Other Guys when I say things like this, but it disturbs me when anyone mistakes gullibility and a tin ear for satire as a special attribute characterizing the stupidity of their opposing faction.

    When you think that way, you are being gullible, yourself, and feeding the gullible in your own camp.

    I have never been able to write anything for public consumption, that was so outrageous that somebody didn’t take it literally, and believe it. I have also never been able to write anything in plain-enough, well-diagrammed and explained sentences, that someone wouldn’t misread it and misconstrue my meaning entirely. I have found it to be independent of ideology, and I have recently been observing that some outlets and authors apparently count on poor to non-existent reading comprehension, to tell the strictest truth while giving a large percentage of their audiences a perception of the exact opposite of the truth. That someone in the propaganda business would cite someone elses joke/hoax while sporting a straight face does not shock me at all.

    But again, my main point is, don’t be smug when your enemies fall for it. You’ll find your allies are just as bad.

    1. “…don’t be smug when your enemies fall for it.”

      After thinking about the subject for a day, it came to me that if someone like Sun Tzu didn’t say it, they should have: “Never underestimate the abilities of your enemies, nor overestimate the abilities or virtues of your allies.”

        1. I will only say that in my professional experience related to the defense security industry, I saw several involved examples of seeking to misrepresent our capabilities to our enemies, so they either would over-estimate our abilities, or under-estimate them.

          I’m sure it is a tactic used by everyone and in all conflicts.

  2. Any one with half-a-lick of sense knows you don’t shoot rifles and shotguns at hurricanes, you shoot AIR RIFLES if you want to have any effect on the storm.

  3. Joan Peterson: “And as if on cue, a Sheriff had to warn Floridians not to actually shoot their guns at the hurricane because of a ludicrous “event” created urging people to do just that. Really sometimes you just can’t make up the lunacy of some gun rights enthusiasts.”

    Actually, Joan, you CAN make this stuff up… seeing how it was made up and all.

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