3 ms·

This is a really good point. They don't see those inflammatory actions as satirizing them, they see them as serious policy beliefs. "See? They want to outlaw us

• wahern 4y ago
  I've heard this dynamic mentioned many times by politician and pundits, regarding reactions by groups to satire that could only be construed as the group being completely oblivious to the satiric character. It seems a sizable fraction of the population doesn't get satire. In this current epoch they also seem to skew conservative, but certainly there are many who lean in other directions and likewise aren't capable of recognizing satire. (We might say they choose not to see it, but I'm not sure that's a meaningful distinction at the end of the day.) The apparent conservative bent might simply be because satire is usually employed by cultural and academic elites, who skew liberal by a significant margin these days. In any event, it seems to be a real and important dynamic, and for anyone earnestly advocating some policy, satire is best confined to narrow audiences, or preferably not at all given how difficult it is to choose your audience in the information age.