Now and then, in the beginning, some of their writers were capable of turning the lingo of American Evangelicalism into genuinely funny satire:
I don’t care who you are, that’s funny!
But those days are long past, because the Bee, like so much of American white conservative Christianity, came to believe in MAGA freak show theology so that they might know, love and serve Donald Trump in this life and (they imagine) be happy with him in the next. Consequently they have become tediously unfunny. The reason is given by reader Evan Cogswell, who compares what has now simply become a site devoted to selfish white conservative bullying and and self-pity to actual satire in the Onion:
This morning I saw headlines from two different satire sites. Or more accurately, one from a satire site and one from an unfunny wannabe satire site.
Both made jokes about yesterday’s tragic shooting in Atlanta, but the crucial difference is the direction of the humor. The one from The Onion (seen below)
punched up at the tone deaf statement from the police officer for his horrific and appalling comment that mass murder can be attributed to having a bad day. It’s an example of the weak mocking the powerful.
The one from The Babylon Bee mocks victims and their families by “joking” about white supremacy not factoring into the killing.
As racism was unquestionably a factor in the crime, and as Asian-Americans have stated white supremacy was involved in the murderer’s motivations, the Bee‘s post is not only offensive but actively attacks the victims, their families, and anyone acknowledging the role racism played in yesterday’s shooting. This is not only an example of how satire needs to be based on an element of truth and mock those in positions of power, but also making up headlines as a “joke” is not satire and can be deeply hurtful and offensive.
Real satire always punches up and never down while right wing lie machine “humor” always punches down and never up. In the Bee‘s case, that is no accident, since its editor is a transparent racist who tells the targeted victims of mass murder and systemic oppression to quit whining:
That’s not a one-off. He hits the marks every time for tired white racist rhetoric, whether it’s “Yay for killer cops!” or “There is no such thing as racism in America!” or “Trumps respect for loser POWs like McCain and dead loser troops is as unparalleled as his magnificent criminal neglect of the Pandemic!”
This is racist, self-pitying, bullying that uses the Bee as a platform to lash out at perfectly legitimate criticism of its racist, self-pitying bully of an editor. It is the service of an antichrist gospel.
How do I know? Because I know Scripture.
When a man specifically targets Asians for massacre, the response of a Normal to such a crime is “My condolences to the Asian community for this outrageous assault, capping a year long spike in such crimes against you. We need to put a stop to this.” As Paul says, “Weep with those who weep.”
The response of a MAGA moron like Berry is oblivious to the suffering of the victims and all about Culture War. His first and last instinct is to cry, “The Left is the real problem. And Asians are gullible mind-controlled suckers, just like those paranoid blacks, if they think they are victims of racial hostility.”
It’s a narcissistic jerk response from a defender of white domestic terror pretending to be a humorist.
Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death,
is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I am only joking!” (Proverbs 26:18-19)
God “has cast down the mighty in their arrogance and lifted up the lowly” according to Our Lady. MAGA humor does exactly the opposite: casting down the victim and lifting up the victimizer: because its heart is with the victimizer as the defender of MAGA privilege and against the victim as a threat to that privilege. It is the mentality that gave us Limbaugh’s Homeless Updates, Trump’s mockery of POWs and Gold Star Families and this:
It is from hell and God hates it. So do all Normals, which is why this monstrous sect and its organs like the Bee are a scandal and a hissing and the gravest threat the gospel faces in this hour. Its “humor” is nothing but Unit Cohesion propaganda for slaves of the devil and inspires only the ice cold laughter of pride at the sight of Jesus on the cross and present in the lowly, the poor, and the oppressed.
I spit on it.
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27 Responses
Yah, the Babylon Bee one about Cain wasn’t even funny. It was stoopid though.
Eye of the Tiber is by now infinitely more funny. than the Babylon Bee.
“As racism was unquestionably a factor in the crime, . . .”
I think it’s premature to say this.
Brother, white sex workers were at less risk of slaughter than Asian sex workers. Don’t define racism so narrowly that you are forced to reject a rational interpretation. Furthermore, noticing that the murderer slaughtered because he had dehumanized the Asian woman as other doesn’t mean you are making a philosophical decision on critical race theory. A fanatical southern baptist terrorist unloaded his rage on scapegoats he had decided were at fault for his slavery to vice. the murder wasn’t the only thing that was racist; his fetishistic sexual use of their bodies for the sole purpose of sexual gratification is also racist, and our systemic blindness to the slavery in our backyards at these massage parlors is also racism. We wouldn’t stand for the massage slave brothels if the enslaved were primarily our white mothers and daughters, but they are Asian woman and we make jokes; we don’t resist evil. We must reject the temptation to deflect the impact of evil, but we must love the Lord our God, His son, Jesus Christ, and resist the diabolical oppression of the poor.
peace
Of course you do.
My experience in following the news media in cases like this is that’s it’s often more complex than it first appears. Remember the Covington Catholic case? Lots of people had egg on their face when the facts came out.
Now obviously here we know what they guy did and how evil it was, but human motivation is complex. If I recall correctly the narrative about the motivation of the Pulse Nightclub shooting turned out to be wrong.
He targeted Asians. Stop being deliberately stupid.
Incidentally, speaking of racism, the recent Harvard case showed that Asians are discriminated against in college admissions. It’s too bad that the Biden DOJ dropped the appeal (the judge found there was discrimination against Asians but no so bad as to violate the law).
It is KKKlassic that you defend racism while pretending to care about discrimination, all while defending mass murder of Asians as having nothing to do with race. You MAGA hat is screwed on tight.
I’m starting to think that the concept of “white supremacy” has become meaningless, like “facsicm” or “McCarythism.”
For example, most white people I know think Chinese and Japanese are naturally better in math and science than whites. I imagine most Asians are aware of that perception.
Most (South) Asian people I know, and that includes a rather extensive group of in-laws, laugh at the notion that they are ”naturally” better or worse in anything. They are, however, convinced that studying hard is a good thing.
The high IQ Asian groups are the North East Asians (Japanese, Chinese and Koreans with 105 IQ). Southern Asians seem clustered around the world average (85 to 90 range).
@ Johnny Rochester
Yeah I don’t do IQ. But if you wish to exhange white superiority for Asian superiority, be my guest. I honestly don’t know which position is the more ludicrous one.
@johnny
Ya does unnerstand that a statement like that doesn’t actually make ya look any smarterer?
Whatever validity it might possibly have might be vastly better correlated with wealth and education than geography- not to mention, considerably less in the way of european colonization.
It’s not a question of superiority. It’s an acknowledgement that groups differ, which is what you’d expect from evolution. Albert Einstein was smarter than me and that was because of his genes.
Race theory straight from the 19th century. Goodbye.
@ Johnny
Today I was mostly interested in the first cycling classic of the Season, Milan-San Remo, La Primavera. Jasper Stuyven won, establishing clear Flemish dominance over the Italians. Yes!
@ johnny
You could have, and should have, left it at “einstein is smarter than me.” That would have established humility.
“Because of his genes” just proves the point.
@ arteveide
Du flämischen!
@ Artevelde, ben, myshkin: DO NOT waste time trying to reason with Johnny. Nothing good can come of it.
@ joel,
Today I’m in full agreement with Ben, and that includes agreeement on the meaning of ”reasoning with someone”.
@ joel
If i were trying to reason with him, i would have written paragraphs.
I was only trying to slap him.
I probably should not be taking the time to post this here, but I’m going to have to blame Mark for it. A picture of that perverted old fossil, another picture of officer “he was having a bad day when he murdered eight people“, and the Babylon bee beeing not funny, Was just too much of an opportunity for me. Forgive me, but I can’t help myself.
I also understand that this is a Catholic blog, and that perverted old fossil etc. are funDelibangelists, but it’s mark’s fault.
The Baptist Church of our murderous boy issued a statement. Read it and weep. Or laugh.
“ We are thankful for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that offers forgiveness and new life to all who truly repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ alone for salvation.
We are thankful for the grace and mercy of the Lord that gives us strength to endure in times of extreme suffering. We are also thankful for faithful friends, pastors, and partners in ministry who have covered us in prayer and have reached out with support and encouragement.
Our hearts are broken at this devastating loss of life. We will continue to grieve, mourn, and pray for the families and loved ones of the victims. Finally, we deeply regret the fear and pain Asian-Americans are experiencing as a result of Aaron’s inexcusable actions.
These actions do not in any way reflect the biblical character of a true follower of Jesus Christ and member of His Church.
In accordance with the biblical pattern and our church bylaws, we have started the process of church discipline to remove him from membership since we can no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ.”
There it is: the money shot. If I may be permitted to translate from the Qhristianese: “He got caught. He’s making us look bad. We don’t know him.”
And let us not leave out the constant standby of hypoQritical Qhristianity: “ no true Christian would do that. He did that. Therefore, he is not a true question.“ and sotto voce: “don’t look at us”.
Why do I think that? Because the last I heard, Christianity was all about redemption. No one is beyond the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. No one. And yet,
before he made them look bad,before he murdered eight people, he was in a clinic dealing with his “sexual addiction”. Oops, that’s wrong. He was in one of the businesses, getting yet another “massage“. I can just guess where. Christian churches are not supposed to reject sinners; they are in the sin redemption business.Sexual addiction, though real, is used primarily in Qhristian Qounseling to describe any sexual behavior which they don’t approve of, which means any sexual behavior which does not occur within a man – woman marriage. And from some of the material I’ve seen, but cannot cite, you’re not safe from “sexual addiction“ even there.
But here’s the thing. The boy was 21 years old. That means that he is horny. What he has been taught his entire life is that being a normal human being makes him suspect, at the least. Rather than being taught responsible sexuality, all he was ever taught was, most likely, “DON’T!”. And thus he felt guilty for being a human being. All he was ever taught was to pray, and to trust Jesus. Because it had to do with sex, it was even more reinforcement that he was a broken human being. Where are you put your attention is what you create in your life. What you resist, persists. This is an axiom of psychology.
I will be a little bit “unorthodox” here. I suspect that racism is more incidental to this sad, sad tragedy that it is absolutely germane. I’m not saying it’s irrelevant, because i doubt that it is. But misogyny is also there. The views of women in general, especially Asian women and black women, which you can read as not white women, of Qonservative Qhristianity are well known. “ The woman you made for me gave me of the fruit of the tree, and I did eat.“ It’s all about Eve, all over again. The reason he murdered these Asian women is because they were the ones “satisfying” his “needs”. Have they been white women, I’m sure the narrative would be much different. and All of that was being done behind closed doors, behind “legitimate“ businesses. Where racism might have something to do with it yet again, although incidentally, was that if he was picking up prostitutes, they might have been black, and it would have been very public.
But my point, as badly as I may be stating it, is that his sexuality was screwed up from the beginning. The church is taking no responsibility for that, anymore than other churches take responsibility for producing a boatload of men who are sexually confused, sexually immature, socially ignorant, self hating, and predatory. Or willing to look the other way. It’s the attitude toward sexuality in general that is the problem.
But I don’t want to lose my actual point here: Christianity is supposed to be in the redemption business. You can embezzle church funds, you can abuse children, you can get divorced twice after committing adultery and still get married a third time at St. Newtie’s. You can do just about anything, ask forgiveness of Jesus, and everything will be forgiven.
But what you cannot do is shine a very bright light on a screwed up theology of sexuality, failed Qhristian-based Qounseling, institutional racism, institutional misogyny. Because that will cause them to look bad.
And that will cause them to abandon any pretense that they actually believe in the product they are selling.
i reply to this particular comment because it contains the words from the church to which i actually wish to respond:
“in accordance with the biblical pattern and our church bylaws, we have started the process of church discipline to remove him from membership since we can no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ.”
and by your fruits you shall know them. This man, filled with the human sewage of sin, saw fit to destroy the Imago Dei; first, to those to whom it applies, in your sorrow, don’t forget to pray for these poor souls, but also imagine for a moment that the people he killed are now within the Beatific vision; what would they be doing there? I’ll tell you what they would be doing there, they would be conformed to the Son of God. What did the Logos do as He was murdered? What did the Lamb of God teach on the mountain. I’ll tell you; He interceded for the murderers that they be forgiven and He taught us to pray for our enemies. And so our murdered sisters and brother existing within the Beatific would be praying / interceding for the one who hated them, but the terrorist’s church, not so much.
His church, humiliated by his crime and their complicity say: i never knew you depart from me. but this man/boy, now truly the poorest of the poor, now the likely condemned prisoner, has a new identity. this Christian terrorist is the distressing disguise of Jesus, yet his church, because they do not know the Gospel, have at the moment of their exposure failed and shown themselves to be condemned already.
Indeed if this is his church, I don’t wonder as to his spiritual madness, for he was taught a corrupt american imperial gospel where the teachings made it possible for him to be the ever present center of the narrative and everyone else just bit part players existing only to have the privilege of a part in the story of his life. he could destroy lives for they had no meaning outside of his story, and besides a scapegoat was required, but, now, in his moment of need this church abandoned him. In the end this church never believed that the love of Jesus Christ was invincible and indefatigable, and so they are incapable of imagining a path where they can both condemn this evil whilst at the same time always fighting and always searching for the lost sheep. also their lawyers told them it was probably necessary to get ahead of the lawsuits.
jj
I’m really not supposed to be writing anything more on this, but the more I thought about it, the more I just had to.
What is not emphasized enough about this, the mark does acknowledge it, is this: the far right is now blaming the far left for what the far right does.
Robert long is a white boy. He is not antifa. He is not BLM. He is not George Floyd or breonna taylor.
Robert long goes to a very conservative Baptist church, one that blames “radical feminism”, whatever that means this week, for all kinds of things that they think of as bad, like the legal and social equality of women. They deleted all of their sermons and Facebook postings and such, but the Internet never forgets. The sermon is there.
Robert long is the son of a pastor of that very same church. With all the churchyNess going on, you would think he would be a better Christian than he is. But no. White Jesus is his savior.
But wait there’s more! ROBERT LONG IS BEING QANCELLED RIGHT OUT OF HIS QHURQH BY QONSERVATIVES, QHRISTIANS AND QONSERVATIVE QHRISTIANS. Cancel Culture!
And worst of all, Robert Long sports the kind of bad neck beard you usually see on far right people.
OK, I’m going for a walk until I simmer down.
The BB has always come pretty clearly from a conservative evangelical / Republican viewpoint. They just never seemed to buy into the Trump cult. But they are still — and always have been — very, very obviously conservative Republican in their views. But I wouldn’t say they are no longer funny. They are often hilarious — even when I disagree with the ultimate point of the humor.
That’s not necessarily always a bad thing. There are lots of great comedians out there I find gut-wrenchingly hilarious, but I don’t necessarily agree with them on everything or even the ultimate point in a lot of their humor. That’s not a bad thing. One of the great things humor can do is expose us to contrary points of view and make us laugh so that it makes us think.
But Mr. Shea is right. Good satire always punches up, not down.
As for Eyeofthetiber … I love it. But for the past year or so they only seem to post new content every few months. I miss them!