I read The Stranger so you don't have to. In the Nov. 23 issue, the Seattle alternative alternative weekly is again whoring for The Man (bar and nightclub advertisers), with a cover story on where family-averse misanthropes can booze up. The teaser is "Escape From Thanksgiving - Where To Drown Your Holiday Sorrows." Combined with the prominent cover art of an over-busty pre-op (?) trannie pigeon of sorts, the come-on certainly captures the jaded Seattle hipster's world view. Anything with intrinsic value (i.e. female sexuality, distilled spirits) must be slaked over the coals of disaffection or vulgarity. Inside, on p. 21, post-ironic post-holiday activity suggestions include abortion, vasectomy, mooning Santa and child abduction. In humor, true feelings often lie. Take The Stranger, here, on vasectomy and abortion.
(Under "The Rest Of The Weekend - Diversions For Holiday Visitors").
Get a vasectomy. Thanksgiving is over. Mom is sniffling; Dad is drunk. Your sister's being a sanctimonious pain in the ass and your brother - Christ, let's not even talk about him. What better time to resolve to end the absurd carnival of suffering called the human race. Snip, snip."
The name, address and phone of a clinic follow. Then there's this:
Get an abortion. Admit it. Being around your dysfunctional disaster of a family makes you question the wisdom of ever having kids. Enter Aradia Women's Health Clinic, which offers birth control, emergency contraception and abortion."
The address and phone number follow. It's just the spot for a date with the vacuum tubes. Aradia's outgoing head Marcy Bloom earlier this year declared to the Seattle Times that abortion was "normal and common" and "a moral good."
Birth control is of course quite legitimate, and one perhaps wishes it had been practiced on certain current denizens of Greater Seattle, though I suspect they might not agree. And personally, unlike many Sound Politics readers, I am reluctantly pro-choice, believing abortion is a weighty, often wrenching decision, but ultimately none of the government's business.
Yet to suggest vasectomy or abortion as merely two more tongue-in-cheek holiday weekend diversions - right along with boozing, dancing and clubbing - captures well the self-impressed nihilistic worldview that could spell demographic disaster for Democrats within several decades. Especially given that Republicans are red-hot breeding machines. Then again, if the relationship between Democrats and evangelicals deepens, who knows?
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 29, 2006 11:00 AM | Email ThisI heard about a new male contraceptive...it's a pill dat a man can take two hours before he has sex and the woman can't be knocked up... the only problem is, as I see it, is... when do men know when they are going to have sex?
Forgetaboutit
Truthfully, I'm surprised you even bother to look at The Stranger much less read it.
Posted by: Cato on November 29, 2006 12:33 PMActually, there really isn't anything left to that name that old-guard conservatives value. Perhaps they should just change the name to something more appropriate, such as "Christian Empire" or "Theological Dynasty", or "Enforced Fundamentalist Morality"....
Posted by: H Moul on November 29, 2006 01:09 PMThe Stranger is on honest rag! WYSIWG. It is far more reliable the the PI. It's a fringe / alternative publication and is up front about it. I rather read something I disagree with but is honest in presentation, than something that tries to pass as objective but has all to apparent agendas.
There was something to having 2 newspaper towns, 1 liberal 1 conservative, that lending to a more open and honest debate.
Posted by: JCM on November 29, 2006 01:40 PMTake for example this fellow, Walter Duranty's "work" which they accepted without question and pointed to as proof that the former Soviet paradise was none other than an engine of suffering the likes of which the world had never seen, and belittled others for even questioning the comunist's motives.
Actually what the left did was award him phoney ballony "honor" after "honor" in order to buttress his credentials (including a pulitzer prize which they damn well knew at the time it was awarded that it was a sham). they systematically and deliberately did this to use as a club to beat down those who would question Duranty's veracity or his motives.
The verdict is now in and it can no longer be doubted but what he is responsible for encouraging and perpetuating. uin the future we will also be able to look back on what these barbarians are promoted and place them in the same catagory as the former Soviets.
http://www.aim.org/aim_report/A107_0_4_0_C/
Posted by: JDH on November 29, 2006 03:13 PMCall Lt. Eric Sano, vice commander, at SPD NOW! Investigating ads that some people find offensive is a top priority for SPD!! Remember the recent hooker sting predicated upon complaints about ads on Craig's List!!! As Sano said, "We're going to do this again and again and again."!!!!
I think that's a cop out. Good satire depends on a good satirist. The Stranger is not putting forth good satire, but instead half wishes that are poorly written in what appears to have been a dashed collective effort, possibly while drinking at a holiday party? Or maybe they were trying to one-up Michael Richards?
Dave Barry is good satire. There's no mistaking that it is satire and it's well written. Even David Goldstein has some good satire. But again, it's actually recognizable as satire and it has actual humor.
Most of these Stranger Diversions are recognizable under different descriptions: Poor taste and Not funny.
Posted by: Jeff B. on November 29, 2006 06:01 PMAs I wrote, "In humor, true feelings often lie." Satire is a political tool at The Stranger, always has been. You're in denial.
And as it happens, friend, I'm pro-choice, pro-transit (within reason), and a Seattle dweller - an actual "urban adult" to use your term, with a mortgage and kids. Although perhaps that's not how you'd define the term.
As far as your assertion I'm a shill for the conservative outrage over "The War On Christmas," that's rather humorous. Uh sorrry, but I've been on your side on this one for quite some time, and have taken some major hits at this site as a result. (I'll send you a link if you want, let me know).
Satire is often, usually even, political - and if you are telling me satire about abortion, vasectomy and family is devoid of political meaning, then I guess so is the Lenin statue in Fremont. Hey, it's next to a burrito stand. Conversation over, right?
The "it's only satire" riff is a cop-out for thoughtless juvenile liberals and "progressives" who help make Seattle less than it could be, and who don't want to face the consequences of their truly half-baked (or, make that one-sixth baked) value systems.
Happy Holidays, Compadre. And Viva Fidel (although he's dying).
Posted by: Matt Rosenberg on November 29, 2006 08:27 PMInteresting how you skate past abortion by writing that The Stranger is simply "advocating sex without children." Condoms.... abortions....whatever, dude.
Abortion as a casual form of birth control. Sheesh......that's really..... progressive....really....urbane.........really....hip.
If you had bothered to click on the second-to-last link, for instance, you'd see that nationally, birth rates among liberal Democrats are badly lagging those of Republicans. Liberal political and social culture and the "satire" therein (go boozing and clubbing after Thanksgiving, oh, and get an abortion or vasectomy while you're at it) is part (part) of the backdrop.
Posted by: Matt Rosenberg on November 30, 2006 09:38 AM