My brilliant colleague and friend Trevor Clark penned an article in Thursday’s issue of The Daily about the importance of getting outside of one’s ideological bubble.
While the first half of the article was hard to make out due to the rambling incoherency of it, the last half of the column was a bit more clear: Clark wants us to consider the apparently novel idea of abolishing human abortion.
In his signature incomprehensible style, Clark urges us to open our mind and listen to the arguments of the hip, new anti-abortion group Abolish Human Abortion. He then derides people who ridicule the group on its website.
Clark, of course, is being somewhat tongue-in-cheek about this whole ridicule thing. For those not aware, the Abolish Human Abortion group was created as a spoof of the Abolish Horse Abortion group that has been challenging people to contemplate the moral evil of terminating horse pregnancies.
They have a blogeasily accessible online where they lay out various arguments against horse abortion, challenging others to step outside their ideological bubble and consider this moral harm.
I am personally on the fence about their position right now, but they do make compelling arguments. The website is loaded with quotes from The Good Book that — speaking as a layman here — appear to indicate God’s dislike for horse abortion.
For those out there who are not keen on religion and The Truth, they have secular arguments as well.
One in particular I found persuasive was the argument that stallions become upset when mares are allowed to have abortions, and they end up taking their anger out on them.
For instance, the horse abortion abolitionists hold that beloved Hollywood actor Christopher Reeve’s paralysis was the result of a horse acting out against the prevalence of horse abortion.
I cannot go into their entire abolitionist doctrine here, but suffice to say, it is a genuine effort to bring attention to a moral issue overlooked in our time.
However, instead of engaging in the very serious arguments of Abolish Horse Abortion, Clark and his friends decided to mock the abolitionists by starting their own group and blog called Abolish Human Abortion.
The satirists created a blog with an identically ugly theme and styled arguments. They took the logo and branding of Abolish Horse Abortion and reappropriated it for their own ends.
For instance, Abolish Horse Abortion created a campaign where they took a snazzy stylized AHA icon and it slapped it on pictures of the founding fathers with their horses. At the bottom of each of the pictures, the horse abortion opponents placed the word “Abolitionist” in LOLCAT lettering.
Abolish Human Abortion then took the very same AHA icon and word “Abolitionist,” but placed it on pictures of obnoxious white hipsters with looks as vacuous and empty as themselves. All of this is done to mock those trying to bring attention to the overlooked issue of horse abortion.
I am not here to tell people how to feel about horse abortion, or even human abortion for that matter.
I do want to point out that Abolish Human Abortion is being very disingenuous when it asks people to step outside their ideological bubble. If they were serious about dialogue they would not take to mocking horse abortion opponents like they do on their website.
— Matt Bruenig, philosophy senior
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CNMyrick 1 year ago
This is the poorest fact checking I have ever seen. From the comments I gather it's supposed to be a satire, but I thought satire was supposed to highlight someone's/a group of people's follies or vices in order to be funny and provide social criticism, not making up facts.
Steven Zoeller 1 year ago
Bruenig's last column was also his funniest. Well played.
NormanAbolition 1 year ago
classy.
Abolitionist_4 1 year ago
Matt Bruenig,
This is about the most vacuos attempt at engaging a group of people that I have ever seen. Would you please meet with a group of abolitionists sometime this summer and engage us in a serious dialogue about the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma, our stated mission, our foundations, our arguments, and our methods.
Get the mock anti-abolitionists who made Abolish Horse Abortion to join you (just ask the LGBTQF/WGSA to find out who you are), and snag up some fellow misophists from the philosophy department to come along as well.
We can all sit down and discuss the merits of our position and your opposition. We can talk about philosophy and methodology. You could also explain to us how we are empty obnoxious and vacuous white hipsters. Which, I have to tell you, is going to be pretty darn difficult. Especially to those of us who are niether hip, nor white.
As for the charge of vacousity. Well... we don't engage local societies with mockery and poor satire when we find ourselves otherwise incapable of dealing with the substance of their claims.
IJP Member of the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma
colinwkirk 1 year ago
Speaking of rambling incoherency, just what point are you trying to make here?
bruenig 1 year ago
Just a fyi, the error on "incoherencey" was actually edited in to the column by the Daily's copy editors. They edited in another error later in the column as well. I don't know why. But what are you going to do.
mikemoody02 1 year ago
Matt Bruenig's columns are the only worthwhile thing in the 'OU Daily'. I'm going to miss him when he graduates and moves on.
HORSE 1 year ago
AS A HORSE WHO HAS LEARNED HOW TO USE THE INTERNET I HAVE TO SAY BRUENIG IS THE ONLY HUMAN REPORTER WILLING TO TAKE SERIOUSLY THE GRAVE INJUSTICE THAT IS ABORTION
williamwilburforce 1 year ago
We at Abolish Horse Abortion appreciate the shout out. We love to dialogue, so people, please support our cause by going to Facebook or commenting on our site. We admire the Alan Maricles and Grant Keeters of the world, so it would be awful to learn if they were mocking our cause.