As you undoubtedly know, the Babylon Bee is America’s leading satire site. It gently mocks contemporary leftism, something that leftists can’t abide. Humor is, after all, a powerful tool. So the Left–specifically, the Democratic Party–is out to get the Bee. That’s not funny!
Today’s flap is over this Babylon Bee post: “Democrats Call For Flags To Be Flown At Half-Mast To Grieve Death Of Soleimani.”
At a press conference held on Capitol Hill Friday, mourning Democrat leaders called for flags to be flown half-mast to honor the death of Qasem Soleimani.
Flags were spotted flying at half-mast around the country, notably at The Washington Post, The New York Times, and in front of several celebrities’ homes. The celebrities went out and bought an American flag for the first time just to fly it at half-mast for this important time of grief.
“The grieving process is painful but necessary,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar. “As a nation, we need to stop and grieve this great, austere, revered religious scholar. He was one of the good ones.”
In a rare moment of unity with The Squad, Pelosi gave each of the girls a hug, telling them to just “let it all out” in their time of sadness.
Ocasio-Cortez didn’t seem to know what was happening but adjusted her glasses to look smart.
A teary-eyed Barack Obama was also seen solemnly lowering the flag in front of his seaside mansion. “To think, this all could have been prevented with a few pallets of cash.” He sighed and stared off into the distance, a look of pain and regret on his face. “If only Trump had targeted a U.S. citizen with a drone strike instead.”
Later, Democrats clarified they meant we should fly the Iranian flag at half-mast, not the “offensive and problematic” American flag.
Memo to liberals: This is funny. Now, like all good satire, it bites. Because Democratic Party leaders have universally condemned the killing of a terrorist and mass murderer who killed hundreds of Americans, ran Assad’s murderous war in Syria, and most recently organized the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Yet the Washington Post did refer to him as a “revered” leader.
Still, you would have to be a complete moron to read the Bee article and not recognize it as satire.
Which didn’t stop Democrats from panicking over the article’s popularity. This comes from Cindy Otis, who bills herself as a former CIA analyst. That figures:
A post from a satirical website has been shared more than 500k times saying the DNC called for the flag to be at half-mast because of Soleimani. Some family members just called bc their Republican friends on FB are circulating it like it's legit. We have a lot of work to do, all.
— Cindy Otis (Pre-order TRUE OR FALSE now!) (@CindyOtis_) January 5, 2020
It turns out that the Babylon Bee’s article has been shared as much, on social media, as the most popular “news” stories from the New York Times and the Washington Post:
To put this in perspective, this is the same number of engagements the top NY Times and CNN stories on Facebook had over the past week.
A lot of people sharing this "satirical" story on Facebook don't know it is satire. https://t.co/HnDjuqw2si
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) January 5, 2020
Actually, I think the Bee’s numbers are better than the Times’s and the Post’s. But that is a minor point. What, exactly, is the evidence for the claim that “A lot of people sharing this story on Facebook don’t know it is satire”? There is none. People share Babylon Bee posts because they are funny and because, like all good satire, they direct laughter in an appropriate direction–here, at the Democratic Party.
It is conceivable that a few people seriously believed that Barack Obama “lower[ed] the flag in front of his seaside mansion” and said, “To think, this all could have been prevented with a few pallets of cash.” But I’m guessing that number is many orders of magnitude smaller than the number who bought the lie, peddled by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, etc., that Trump campaign officials colluded with Russians in connection with the 2016 election. And the Times, the Post, et al. don’t have the defense that any normal person would understand they were trying to be funny.
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