First Openly Gay Racehorse and Satire in the Current Social Environment

I just checked out YouTube's home page and saw a video entitled First Openly Gay Racehorse To Compete Sunday.

I really thought it was for real, then saw that it was from The Onion, and that it's fourteen years old! And, frankly, I doubt that The Onion would touch something like this now; it'd be too close to controversy. This would, now, be more the realm of The Babylone Bee.



I was somewhat disturbed by the fact that for a split second I thought it could be real. Fourteen years ago this was laughable, a joke, and I would have recognized it as such at first blush. At this point in our cultural and societal devolution would it surprise anybody to see an actual headline like that? I considered that it could have been an actual "news" report.

A few years back I wrote an essay that I entitled The Five Stages of Satire In Its Relationship To A Decaying Culture. I've linked it in its entirety here on a couple of occassions. I'll quote an excerpt from it below:

... within a socio-political construct satire moves between five distinct stages, but through slow progression, one stage bleeding over into the next.

>First, satire is funny; while it exposes extremes and excesses, it makes us look at ourselves through a more honest lens and gives us a chuckle in the process as we get a clearer picture of how silly we are. At this stage, it's funny though it is also meant to be biting and to challenge the status quo.
>Second, satire becomes confusing in that it becomes difficult to distinguish between the reality and satirical commentary. It begins to mirror reality in a way that makes us realize how twisted the reality has become. At this point, it begins to bother some people as it aggressively mocks and exposes excesses and stupidity.
>Third, satire becomes disconcerting. It loses its humourous edge and acts more as biting social and political commentary. Here is where it begins to elicit reactions of anger, opposition and censorship.
>Fourth, satire becomes downright scary as it denudes the reality, stripping the lie from the hidden truth. Here, it is attacked by those protecting the “official narrative” as what it exposes is too dangerous to acknowledge. This where “factcheckers” begin to “factcheck’ satirical content. (This is where we are now in the United States.)
>Fifth and finally, satire is outlawed or aggressively censored. (We are headed there.)

I really thought that "the first openly gay racehorse" was an actual thing. Can you fault me? Again, fourteen years ago it would not have occured to me to take it seriously. This is what they call "news" now.

The last time I looked at CNN for news was about 15 years ago. There had been a major earthquake in China, and as I'd just moved back to the US from central Asia, I went to CNN for some news about the extent of the quake. I had to dig down several layers to find anything on it. The lead story (and mind, this was about fifteen years ago) was I Am Of The Third Gender. Now, the same story could be, I Am Of The 79th Gender, and not be considered satire.

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a reply to: incoserv
Well, I too read your thread title out loud, while waiting on my wife and daughter to finish looking at patterns, fabric and thread at Joanne’s Fabric… my personal kryptonite.

I had every old lady in the place looking at me while I roared with laughter. I so wanted it to be true, just for a moment.

a reply to: BlueJacket

Warms my heart to know that my written musings have been shared in public to your delight and the consternation of a few old ladies.

a reply to: incoserv

you know that there are some wild animals that will bump uglies with the same sex.

go rillas are just one,



they also seem to be exhibitionists,

warning hemosexaul animal sex,

putin on a show at the zoo,

bumbin uglies

and a wiki,

List of animals displaying homosexual behavior

a reply to: BernnieJGato

Yeah.

And...?

I'm aware of this fact, but not sure what bearing it has on this topic. Gorillas are not "openly gay." If they engage in homosexual activity, that says nothing about humanity.

Lower primates also cannibalize their own children or other members of their species. Does this make it good for humans to do that?

Lower primates eat their own feces. Maybe humans should try that out, too? At the least, maybe we should consider flinging our own turds at other people to be socially acceptable since they are known to engage in the practice.

They pick parasites out of each other's hair and consume them on the spot. Sound tasty to you?

This is about the state of satire in our current socio-political environment and how it reflects what is happening in the culture. Wild animals engaging in homosexual behaviour have nothing to do with it.

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a reply to: incoserv

Satire is about the only thing I write anymore.

I once took a poll from my readers from another site and asked if I should continue writing satire.

I had it tabulated through a Dominion voting machine and the results were that Biden won.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: incoserv

Satire is about the only thing I write anymore.

I once took a poll from my readers from another site and asked if I should continue writing satire.

I had it tabulated through a Dominion voting machine and the results were that Biden won.

Not surprising, as Joe Biden is pretty much the quintessential definition of satire.

He just ain't funny satire. Sometimes there's a fine line between satire and mockery.

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I read about this, it's already creating a lot of outrage. Lots of Republicans were mad at the race organizers that they didn't let them know the horse was going to be gay. They're asking for refunds on the race tickets.

I hear DeSantis is already passing a law in Florida to outlaw gay racehorses. Only straight horses for straight races. And no female clothing on male race horses.

Oh, the horror.

originally posted by: Mahogany
I read about this, it's already creating a lot of outrage. Lots of Republicans were mad at the race organizers that they didn't let them know the horse was going to be gay. They're asking for refunds on the race tickets.

I hear DeSantis is already passing a law in Florida to outlaw gay racehorses. Only straight horses for straight races. And no female clothing on male race horses.

Oh, the horror.

I am a biologist and can define what a horse is.

originally posted by: DBCowboy

originally posted by: Mahogany
I read about this, it's already creating a lot of outrage. Lots of Republicans were mad at the race organizers that they didn't let them know the horse was going to be gay. They're asking for refunds on the race tickets.

I hear DeSantis is already passing a law in Florida to outlaw gay racehorses. Only straight horses for straight races. And no female clothing on male race horses.

Oh, the horror.

I am a biologist and can define what a horse is.

You are clearly a speciesist! How dare you assume an animal's species? Let the animal decide its species.

ETA: That ^, BernnieJGato, is satirical.

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