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Sunday, April 06, 2008

Perfect Satire

As a professional satirist (who has yet to be paid, but the check’s in the mail), I find our modern culture to be extremely disheartening. It seems these days that the only way the average person will understand that he is watching satire is if it says “Stephen Colbert” somewhere in the title. Personally, I think this has to do with the liberal mindset.

In fact, when I wrote Public Transit my goal was for Conservatives to roll in the aisle laughing at the irony while Liberals read it going, “What’s wrong with this? Sounds like a good idea to me!” In other words, I wanted my satire to be so realistic that those who believe the concepts that were being mocked wouldn’t even realize they were being lampooned.

Now whether or not I succeeded in that book, I have found something that has! It’s the Richard Dawkins Rap Video that Sinner & Saint first pointed us to a while back. When I first saw the video, frankly, I couldn’t see how anyone could miss the fact that this is a blatant anti-Dawkins video.

Then I read the response from the New Atheist front. They think that this video is pro-them!

Somehow, the atheists over at Richard Dawkins’s blog and PZ Myers’s blog (and many other dark holes) are convinced that this video is anti-Creationist and pro-Darwin. It’s actually quite revealing that these are the people who proclaim themselves to be the intellectual towers in the land…and they were sucked in by this.

From the opening, this video demonstrates how arrogant Dawkins is. “We appreciate your concern. It is noted and stupid. After all, we are scientists much, much smarter than you.” (By the way, am I the only one who thinks the Dawkins voice actor in this video sounds a lot like the guy who did the Dawkins Delusion parody?)

Immediately following this, you have two scientists examining a test tube. The Darwinist comments that “Natural Selection creates that sort of thing every day” and the other responds, “I think there’s something else going on here.” At which point, the Darwinian scientist makes a call: “Big Gadget, this is Little Tool. We’ve got ourselves a situation.” (Obviously, then, the Darwinians are “tools” of the machine, and now the atheists have edjukated us that being called a tool is a good thing instead of an insult!) The non-Darwinian scientist is then ejected from the lab with “Expelled” stamped on his forehead.

Obviously, this video was not done by the producers of Expelled. I mean, it totally doesn’t fit the theme of their movie at all...

Most of the atheists have simply managed not to view this entire section of the video. Instead, they respond: “The rap lyrics are pro-science!” In other words, they ignore the prologue that sets up the context to the video in order to claim the video is on their side.

It’s amazingly similar to the way Darwinists do science, too. Ignore all the evidence that doesn’t fit with their theory, and then claim that science agrees with Darwinists. They must have gotten used to skewing reality so often they didn’t even realize they’d done it here.

The lyrics of the song are hardly flattering either. And it’s certainly not “pro-science.” Instead, you have Dawkins claiming science while arguing solely from a position of authority. The chorus of the rap is:

He’s the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD
He’s smarter than you, he’s got a science degree.
Dick to the Dawk to the PhD
He’s smarter than you, he’s got a science degree.

The second time through the chorus it changes (evolves!) to:

Yo, he’s the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD
He’s smarter than you, he’s got a science degree.
Dick to the Dawk to the PhD
He’s still smarter than you, he studied biology.

Yet every good scientist ought to know that degrees don’t matter to science. Science is science if it’s testable and repeatable, not if someone with a degree says it’s science. So the lyrics are hardly “pro-science.” At best, one could claim they're pro-Dawkins...IF you ignore the fact that 99% of people who hear someone say, "I have a PhD therefore I'm right" experience this negatively. But it can't be good for science to rest on laurels instead of evidence.

That’s what makes it scary. Atheists who claim they want science to be the standard are saying this is what they mean by "science". Makes one feel all warm and tingly inside, don’t it?

So to sum up how this video goes, it begins by portraying Darwinism as an out of control “machine” that stifles intellectual thought and expels those who disagree with the Darwinian orthodoxy; it shows Dawkins is one of the most arrogant people on Earth (a true statement, by the way); it shows that the Darwinists argue on authority, not science; and it ends with Dawkins admitting he’s a rabid atheist:

Now the machine of our makin’
Sees culture ripe for the takin’
Cuz I’m the rapinest rabidest atheist too*
Unlike the Catholic, the Muslim, or even the Jew
Believes that no god but Science could ever be true.
[Heck] if I was dyslexic, I’d even hate dog too.

* That’s my best guess as to the last word in that line. It actually sounds like he says “atheist Sue.” Interestingly enough, none of the atheist’s versions of the lyrics that I read said “rabidest” there. The one on PZ Myers’ site, for instance, just says: “Cos I'm the rapper thats rappin the ....” (the “….” at the end shows I’m not the only one who can’t figure out that last word!) But if you listen to the video at the 3:12 mark, he definitely says “rapinest rabidest atheist”).

Now, in what way could this possibly be construed as a pro-Darwinian piece? Well, because:

it's far too smart to be pro-creationism. Whoever made it is on the side of the atheists...

I get the feeling that the video is meant to poke fun at both sides of the evolution/ID debate, albeit I agree with the commenter who said that it seems too clever and hip to be the work of a creationist.…

This is simply not how a creationist would parody the pro-science side….

The quality of the work was relatively high (except for a talent for blustering…and whining craetionists have never shown that they are capable of anything artistic, unless directly aping [heh!] another source.)…
No wonder these atheists thought it was pro-them. They’re just as arrogant as Dawkins!

8 comments:

  1. BTW, as I think about it, I think the line with the unknown word might be:

    Cuz I'm the rapinest rabidest atheist who
    Unlike the Catholic, the Muslim, or even the Jew,
    Believes that no god but Science could ever be true.
    [Heck] if were dyslexic I'd even hate dog too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought it was obvious too.

    The whole "Natural Selection creates that sort of thing everyday" scene made it obvious that the producer of the video wanted to portray the current scientific climate as that of a statist ("propaganda" from the beginning) machine that "Expelled" anyone who didn't hold to the dogmas of Darwinian orthodoxy.

    Then again, maybe atheists take pride in this. You're probably right: what is obviously satire to us is normal to them.

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  3. What's scary about Dawkins is even if God zapped him with a million volts of the Holy Spirit his reaction would be to sin against the Holy Spirit rather than to 'give in.'

    You also see in him the mind of the 20th century perpetrators of genocide. He'll justify anything, and his mind runs in Satanic currents.

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  4. What's so great about satire or satire recognition? Satire is an attempt to "win" an argument by spin, attitude, and image manipulation rather than by providing actual arguments. I'm sure these guys could have satirized Galileo's heliocentrism effectively too, had youtube existed in those days.

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  5. Thnuh asked:
    ---
    What's so great about satire or satire recognition?
    ---

    Satire is a great teaching tool that helps demonstrate how absurd a position is. In this case, the fact that the atheists totally missed the satire actually helps reinforce the point of the parody. It's like that old song: "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you."

    Thnuh said:
    ---
    Satire is an attempt to "win" an argument by spin, attitude, and image manipulation rather than by providing actual arguments.
    ---

    Not all satire is. Satire done well is simply analogical language, not that much different from a parable. It represents a viewpoint in a specific light such that someone's perspective on the issue will change. It points out absurdity by being absurd (think Jonathan Swift promoting canibalism for the Irish as a solution to the potato famine).

    In point of fact, the best satire is the the kind that has a hidden argument underlying it. It works best at pointing out the hypocrisy of the other side. You take the position, "If X is true, then Y is the result" and show that Y is absurd, therefore X must not be true. It's really just a form of the reductio ad absurdum, which is a perfectly valid logic technique.

    Thnuh said:
    ---
    I'm sure these guys could have satirized Galileo's heliocentrism effectively too, had youtube existed in those days.
    ---

    It's only in the minds of atheists that those who reject Darwinism equate to geocentrists. It's like the flat earth myth Darwinists keep trotting out.

    BTW, you do realize that this comment above is your own (feeble) attempt at satire, don't you? While you lambast it, you engage in it, thus setting yourself up as the perfect foil for a satirical piece....

    Just thought you should have a heads-up.

    ReplyDelete
  6. thnuhthnuh,

    Your comment is self-serving and historically illiterate.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete