I can no longer tell if this is satire!

[Louise57]

www.theonion.com/it-is-journalism-s-sacred-duty-to-endanger-the-lives-of-1850126997

In this world today its impossible to tell what is satire and what isn't.

Think about the truly great satirists. Start with the Greeks and the Romans, journey through Chaucer, Butler, Swift, and Voltaire, then arrive in the contemporary period.

Ask yourself: how many of those did their best work by appealing to the masses and feeling safe that they're saying what all the nice and unquestioning people are most comfortable with?

What a dishonest piece of writing that is.

Oh, it gets worse:

www.theonion.com/the-onion-s-exclusive-interview-with-j-k-rowling-1850141221/slides/20

This bit is particularly dire:

Yes, I remember like it was yesterday: you see, I was advocating for their total annihilation and then a few of them said some mean words to me on the internet.

The woman gets actual death threats.

It’s really badly judged ‘satire’ aimed squarely at people who don’t actually know what JK Rowling has even said or written.

It reads like India Willoughby scripted it using glove puppets.

Came here to talk about this latest Onion article on JKR. I don't get what the satire is supposed to be? Why is it funny? They're just repeating what extremists say about her, and what more and more people think is true because they hear it online. It would only be funny if they were satirising the extremists, but I don't think they are... so I don't get the joke.

I mean, it would only be funny if people know it's exaggerated and are in on the joke... but this is what a lot of progressives actually believe.

Crikey. That was awful

this was one of the 23 not funny questions

Why are you such a huge fucking hateful dork?

Agree that the interview was not funny. It's exactly like trans activists represent JK Rowling's opinions on Twitter. So the exaggeration needed for sarcasm is missing.

What is disappointing is realising that the staff at the Onion have done no thinking about these issues at all, but simply present the tribally correct surface views as the only possible correct ones. I held them to a some esteem before.

I find it really disturbing. Hateful, even, which is pretty ironic. Certainly not satire.

I don't think it is a coincidence they have designed it gallery style, so each section can be easily screenshot and shared?

And what's this all in aid of? To distract from JKR's actual words, once again. Funny, that.

Even TRAs can't give examples of JK's supposed hatefulness, even while they're cheering The Onion on.

Q: Wait, I'm genuinely asking, gas JK ever expressed that she doesn't believe transgender people should exist?

A: She's constantly promoting people who've said that out loud or made public declarations to that effect. She is part of the same culty political movement. I am confident she wants to make a world without trans people but don't think she'll say it out loud

twitter.com/KatyMontgomerie/status/1628686995743465474?t=1m18vhDGSWicD61iIUq2-w&s=19

i know it’s spiteful bullshit, but again, I can’t help feeling sad at the demise of The Onion. How unfunny. Sometimes I find people funny even when they are being a-holes, in spite of myself, but there’s a total lack of wit. So depressing.

The wokebros have been absolutely delighted to find out that they can be all self righteous while shitting on and threatening violence to women (the XX kind).

We see you.

Satire is an art form. When done well, you can laugh at your own or your tribe's expense and it brings us all closer as we see shared flaws in all humanity. The Black Sheep headline is a perfect example.

I also think of Dave Chapelle who jokes about how maybe he should be in charge of the women's movement-that was funny and while it poked fun at elitist celebrity feminists, it was a social commentary that recognized how lower income women suffer in silence because they have little power and no platform for their #metoo.

This Onion piece is depressing because it so missed the mark AND it shows the writers' hubris, who think they've made clever social commentary.

The Onion has been fairly lame for many years, but that "interview" is just pathetic. The Babylon Bee can be pretty funny though - Here's Everything Transphobic In Hogwarts Legacy.

Also, Joan Smith comments at UnHerd: The Onion’s J.K. Rowling ‘interview’ isn’t satire.

It's hard to do satire about this as the whole thing sounds exactly like the things TRAs tweet about JK Rowling already, i.e., they argue that she is for the annihilation of transgender people, that she is the avatar of the devil etc., and they put things in her mouth just as is done in this supposed humour piece.

I simply think its a wake up that maybe the NYT wasn't so wrong in it's editorial. Isn't it wrong to allow a 14 year old to make these decisions when they aren't allowed to drink, drive, or get other medical care without a parents permission. 25 year old females are denied tubal ligation by doctors telling them they may change their minds but a 12 year old can have their body flooded with hormone blockers?