Funny concept. Shame that The Onion's writing these days so mid.
I think the Babylon Bee has been a good replacement.
I opened Babylon Bee and all I saw was mockery of already marginalized people. I guess that's funny if you hate them.
The Onion buys Infowars
161–170 of 1001 posts
Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great point! When The Onion starts making threats against survivors and relatives of school shootings, they should also face defamation lawsuits.
Honest question: what threats did Jones make against them? I understood that he claimed it was a hoax/conspiracy, not that he had made any threats. Not even sure how he could make threats against people he didn't believe were real.
The threats were made by Jones followers rather than Jones personally.
Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#163There's tonnes of worthless merchandise and supplements of a dubious nature which The Onion, the least expected of all possible buyers, now has to find a use for. My first suggestion would be melting down all of the 500% marked up gold bars[0] and make a one-time-run charity auction collectible for the Sandy Hook families. Or upcycling all the paper in Alex Jones' books [1] into paper mache, and use it to make globes…
> supplements of a dubious nature
They are re-labled existing products that are sold in other places, and unironically already-recognized, before being re-labled by InfoWars, as very high quality.
If you're gonna criticize InfoWars you have my 100% support in your right to do so, but try not to post out of your ass. This is HackerNews, not Reddit.
Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#164There's tonnes of worthless merchandise and supplements of a dubious nature which The Onion, the least expected of all possible buyers, now has to find a use for. My first suggestion would be melting down all of the 500% marked up gold bars[0] and make a one-time-run charity auction collectible for the Sandy Hook families. Or upcycling all the paper in Alex Jones' books [1] into paper mache, and use it to make globes…
>> make a one-time-run charity auction collectible for the Sandy Hook families They've got $1.5billion. Probably don't need the gold as well. There might be equally valid causes with less funds.
They've got $1.5billion.
No, they've got a judgement on paper for $1.5 billion. This is part of the process of actually getting that money.
Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Being funny is great, but for years people will continue to go to the website not knowing what has transpired.
The core idea of satire, which is often missed in supposedly satirical works is that you should not only make fun of the thing you don't believe, but you should also explain what you do believe under the cover of pretending to dismiss it. For example everybody knows Swift's Modest Proposal does not seriously intend that the problems in Ireland ought to be fixed by literally eating children , but if you read it, the p…
> The core idea of satire, which is often missed in supposedly satirical works is that you should not only make fun of the thing you don't believe, but you should also explain what you do believe under the cover of pretending to dismiss it.
I often suggest that satire is a dangerous double edged sword and not a good primary vehicle for positive change. Part of your audience will understand it's satire, but a significant part maybe even a majority, might take is as genuine or worse come to embrace/support the satirized.
I believe we ask and expect too much of satire which relies heavily on hypocrisy and shame, two concepts that no longer carry the same weight.
Examples: South Park, The Colbert Report, SNL, The Onion
Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#166The announcement by America's Finest News Source: https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided-to-buy-infowars/ Alex Jones response: https://x.com/RealAlexJones/status/1857058831135645739
On a whim, I decided to peek at the InfoWars homepage. At this moment, I cannot determine which of the headlines are genuine InfoWars content and which are the product of Onion writers. (I assume it's genuine due to the recency of the sale closing?)
Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
If Brexit taught me anything it was that the correct phrase is pesky unelected EU bureaucrats!
Now if we want to get into dirty details, no bureaucrat is ever elected. You elect the representatives, and they nominate in turn whoever bureaucrats they feel comfy to work with. Or is this in the UK different?
> You elect the representatives, and they nominate in turn whoever bureaucrats they feel comfy to work with.
This is not always the case, although I guess it depends how you define bureaucrats. As an example, in France, most of the administration is not nominated. You become a public worker through exam, and the representative usually have no power over your nomination, raises, etc. It does make sense in a lot of cases. For example, in a city, only the mayor and its advisers are elected, and they do not have any control over the administration of the city. But the administration cannot refuse to work with a specific mayor. If they do, they would need to be moved elsewhere, or simply be fired for not doing their job. On the other hand, they are also bound by the law, so they also act as a counter power to crazy mayor who wants to do illegal stuff. Meaning, if the mayor ask the administration to do something illegal, they can absolutely say no with no fear of repercussion for their job.
It also makes sense for other counter-power office, where having the currently elected representatives being able to choose who control the office would go against its whole purpose.
Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#168Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#169There's tonnes of worthless merchandise and supplements of a dubious nature which The Onion, the least expected of all possible buyers, now has to find a use for. My first suggestion would be melting down all of the 500% marked up gold bars[0] and make a one-time-run charity auction collectible for the Sandy Hook families. Or upcycling all the paper in Alex Jones' books [1] into paper mache, and use it to make globes…
>> make a one-time-run charity auction collectible for the Sandy Hook families They've got $1.5billion. Probably don't need the gold as well. There might be equally valid causes with less funds.
I had the goldbugs and silver bugs in mind- they'd be more than willing to pay exorbitant markup, with the feel-good ennui of it going towards a good cause. These were $100 for a 1/10 gram at the time of writing and now are sold out. Coincidence???
Re: The Onion buys Infowars
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honest question: what threats did Jones make against them? I understood that he claimed it was a hoax/conspiracy, not that he had made any threats. Not even sure how he could make threats against people he didn't believe were real.
The threats were made by Jones followers rather than Jones personally.
Okay. But I think that undermines the argument the OP was making significantly.