My general dislike of Internet memes is well documented. Yes, sometimes they hit home and make more sense than what is taught in our universities or reported in our news media nowadays. On the whole, however, at best they're a poor man's editorial cartoon, but without the wit. At worst they're used to attack, lie or otherwise misrepresent issues and people.
So I saw this pass by at Facebook:
Yeah, I get it. But here's the point. First, I know it's a joke. I get jokes. I have a sense of humor. But that's falling into the pit of sin that somehow we'll fight the Left by adopting its elevation of pride as virtue and biblical ethics as dependent upon one's group identity. That's one problem.
The other problem? Pride in being straight? That's like saying pride in gravity. To imagine there is some alternative to being straight that being straight has to vie with is already conceding the position to the opposition. It's playing their game, as if Straight is the option I'm proud of, as opposed to that other legitimate option they're proud of.
I know. I'm being a poo-poo. But you get my point. I've said one way in which Christians, as well as the broader world of conservatism in general, have lost has been repeatedly conceding the high ground with a host of issues by accepting the rules, the premises, even the broader narratives of the Left.
That would be like playing a game of Monopoly with someone who insists on writing their own rules. So they demand the game begins with them having all the money, all the properties, railroads and unities, and hotels on every monopoly - and you say, OK, that's fair, let's play. I'll bet you lose. And so those who would resist the Left by conceding the Left so much ground have lost, and lost, and lost again.
That's why I'd wager LGTBQ activists are more than happy with something like this. Not only can they shoot it down, as many FB commenters did, insisting with science and laboratories we have all we need to get gay people pregnant today. But in their guts, they know somehow we're handing them a tremendous amount of high ground in the process by accepting their basic premises.
Every time we accept their term "gay" instead of homosexual we play into their hands. Every time we accept the left's new definitions of hero, victim and equality, we play into their hands. Every time a married couple uses contraception to neutralize their baby making acts we play into their homosexual hands. Every time we accept the liberal's "Your truth may be good for you but not for me" without question we play into their hands. Every time we allow others to argue from an emotional point of view and give it equal weight as factual views we play into their hands.
ReplyDeleteIt seems at times that people have little fight for truth left in them.
I sometimes wonder how many actually believe in the truth anymore. Sometimes I think we might be shocked to find out. And sometimes I reflect on the fact that when Jesus speaks of the narrow way and those who will not be turned away, the word 'few' plays a large part in his verbiage.
DeleteThey believe David but for many of them it no longer seems to hold the value it once had in order to fight for it day after day. The left has assaulted our logic, reason, reality and senses so often that people are tired of fighting and have battened down the hatches until the storm passes.
ReplyDeleteThe far left knows how to play the long game, winning through multigenerational schemes and what seems like 4 dimensional chess. Somehow, most of their foot soldiers don't even know what they are actually voting for. The Right alternates between freaking the heck out and panicking over every crazy stunt the left puls, then forgetting it even happened. I remember as a kid a book series I was reading had a gay character. I mentioned this to my mother on 3 separate occasions (she kept forgetting that her kids were reading what amounted to LGBT propaganda) and I got a completely different reaction each time.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is not some overnight thing. I would even say it's been going on longer than those rascally sixties. Like the Muslim terrorists who patiently planned to try again at the World Trade center years after the rest of us forgot there had been a first bombing, so the Left has been playing the long game for quite a few years.
DeleteThat's why I'd wager LGTBQ activists are more than happy with something like this.
ReplyDeleteNo. They weren't...
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/31/us/straight-pride-parade-boston/index.html
I think sometimes you underestimate how "gut-level" a lot of the Left's reasoning is. Think like "mark shea" and how bad his logic is a lot of the times.
True. I sometimes think they think things through the way we do who are watching them. But then, if they thought things through, I wonder how many of them would continue clinging to these leftwing ideas.
DeleteSecular Pro-Life has a gallery of "corrected" memes, that may be useful from time to time in fighting what David Mills calls "clever-stupid" abortion memes. Here's the gallery: https://www.fixed-that-meme-for.secularprolife.org/set/c2a7e5e3-bf47-4a82-8872-2e36a5652146
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting take. Of course being secular, some of their counters may not line up with the God focused reasons we oppose abortion, but sometimes agreeing where agreement is, especially in such a grave emergency as the modern abortion era, requires uneasy coalitions.
DeleteRonald Reagan used to say that those who agree with you 80% of the time are allies, not 20% traitors. AFAICT, Secular Pro-Life is at least 80% with us on abortion, and probably assisted suicide and medical homicide as well.
Delete"Superstraight" and "it's okay to be straight" work because they merely uphold things that any ordinary person would consider to be perfectly sane, while simultaneously inviting the left to rage.
ReplyDelete"Straight Pride" doesn't work because it's the "all lives matter" or "the dems are the real racist" tactic: accept the enemies frame but then try to turn it to your advantage merely by swapping the words around. The "I know you are but what am I?" of political rhetoric.
It's OK to be straight. Now I like that. That seems to be something that would force them into a defensive position, which is often what the Left excels at doing on its own terms.
DeleteIt's a variation of the "It's Okay to be White" meme from a few years ago. It did indeed force them to be defensive, either calling by saying that in fact it is NOT okay to be white or instead by vaguely saying that the phrase is "problematic" without explaining how. The closest they get is "white supremacists think it's okay to be white, so if you spread that message, you are spreading white supremacist propaganda." The sad thing is that many people have been so conditioned to avoid the slightest hint of racism that they accepted this sort of explanation, but many others responded with "even if it's a prank, how is the statement in the least bit offensive?" The only response that could be given to that is that it was offensive because it didn't make white people look bad.
Delete"Superstraight" was a meme were people talked about a new "sexuality" which involved men who were only attracted to biological women and women who were only attracted to biological men (i.e. not "transgendered" versions.) Many hours were spent on the left trying to square the circle of how their hundreds of "orientations" could be valid without also making superstraight valid. Most ended up just giving up and saying that it was a myth that anyone could be "superstraight" and that everyone should be obligated to be attracted to transgendered of the "appropriate" sex. All this ended up doing was making those attacking the idea of superstraight people look like desperate perverts.