Cherry Picking and Broad Brushing: Some "How-to" Guides

Over at the Daily Stumble, the author is sad that the satirical Babylon Bee "...used to be funny, now and then, but is now simply dull GOP agitprop for Evangelical Trump adorers." I'm not an Evangelical nor a "Trump adorer", and I find the Bee a funny read now and again. What's insightful about the Stumbles accusation of "cruelty" and those of a blog post at Hacking Christianity is how a single instance of so-called "punching down" has led to gross generalizations like the following:

After being banned from Twitter, the CEO of the Babylon Bee reveals why they punch down at marginalized groups instead of focusing on the powers and principalities.

Babylon Bee is punch-down frat humor, not real satire that punches up.

This is simply the standard perpetual victimhood mindset on the left that treasures and exploits what it sees as disadvantages from being a part of a marginalized group. You can see the insincerity when people like Kyle Rittenhouse become victims of intense injustice and dishonesty in society and they join the jackals in the media in lying about them.

But is the claim by self-proclaimed Christianity Hacker Jeremy Smith that the Babylon Bee never punches up even true? It is pretty simple to disprove this generalization, and requires little effort.

Target	Babylon Bee Link
US President Joe Biden	Keeping His Promise To Rid Country Of Cancer, Biden Steps Down
US President Joe Biden / FBI	Trump Voters Put Biden Signs In Their Yards So That The FBI Will Pass Over Them
World Economic Forum	World Economic Forum Introduces Pumpkin Spice Crickets
Male Gamer with disposable income	Man Spends 800 Hours and $3000 To Beat Free Mobile Game
FBI	FBI Concerned That If MAGA Doesn't Conduct A Terrorist Attack Soon They'll Have To Fake One
World-famous Members of British Royalty	King Charles Replaces Harry & Meghan With Two Corgis In Line Of Succession
Former US President Obama	Obama Releases Memoir About That Time He Got His Portrait Done
Multi-millionaire Jennifer Lawrence	It's Tucker Carlson!' Says Jennifer Lawrence At Every Image In Rorschach Test
Washington Post (major US newspaper)	Lost Journalist Accidentally Wanders Into The Washington Post
US President Joe Biden (& Queen Elizabeth II)	Powerless Figurehead Leader With No Official Responsibilities Still Alive

These have all just been posted over the last several business days, and if it is not "focusing on powers and principalities" I don't know what would consitute it. This took me about 10 minutes to put together, and it demonstrates that almost every target of the Babylon Bee is considered to be a powerful person, entity or social subgroup. You could argue that taking a shot at "male gamers" is punching down, but I include that group because anyone with kids know that this subgroup is supposed to be comprised of some of the most virulently anti-trans people alive. So why would the Bee skewer them if they are such purists in their trans-hatred? Hint: it's because this is just one more canard about the Babylon Bee.

A more honest criticism of the Babylon Bee could be accomplished in this way. Suppose I am offended by this article because it seems to compare Corgis and goats, and I am a big super-fan of corgis. I could link to it, say why I am offended, state why God is mad about it since he made Adam give the animals different names, for example, and then end with a big QED and a "so there".

But it is preferable for them to accuse, assert and generalize. It is very curious to me neither the Daily Stumble article nor the Christianity Hacker site links to the Babylon Bee article in question, and that is most likely by design. You would go there and see a trans-joke surrounded by shots at Pres. Biden, PM Trudeau, WEF, FBI, IRS, Disney, Amazon, etc. — all powerful entities — and the assertion that this satire site only punches down would be clearly disproven. They would have to settle for being able to say "This one thing they did and said? I disagree with it. It is mean and cruel."

But oh, no. This is not SOP on the left anymore. Dave Chappelle makes a trans-joke they want to cancel him. Joe Rogan makes a vaccine remark they want to cancel him. They are big mad when these people won't go away. And they might even be the maddest at the Babylon Bee, I would suggest, and it is because of this.