Nobody likes satire when they are the ones being satirized, or when their lofty ideas or celebrated spokesmen are being scorched through biting humor.
That's why left-wing grouches from The New York Times to Snopes to progressive "Christian" outlets like Relevant to CNN and beyond get so worked up about the "disinformation" of our friends over at the Babylon Bee.
It's also why many of us on the right still grouse about Tina Fey's "I can see Russia from my house" imitation of Sarah Palin, or why the conservative Federalist Society at Stanford pursued a grievance against a law student's satirical email about them.
Nobody likes seeing their heroes or heroic ideas made into a laughingstock by others who "just don't get how serious this is."
Which brings us to the hilarious antics that unfolded over the weekend when conservative writer Matt Walsh set up a GoFundMe account to raise funds for socialist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's abuela (grandmother).
For those that might have missed it, AOC went back to well of overwrought melodrama again, this time posting photos of her abuela's broken down shack in Puerto Rico, claiming that "Trump-blocked relief" was responsible for the crisis.
Walsh, who called it shameful that AOC lived a luxurious lifestyle while her own grandmother suffered, hilariously decided to launch a GoFundMe account to #HelpAbuela. In less than 12 hours, the campaign had raised $104,153 before GoFundMe shut it down at the request of the Congresswoman's family. Walsh's response was textbook sarcasm:
Do I think that Walsh was motivated by some form of altruism, reaching across the aisle to help the family member of a political rival? Of course not. Let's be honest about what this was: extravagant theatrics being used to expose the extravagant theatrics that define the entire political existence of Ocasio-Cortez, a woman who has demonstrated a penchant for drawing cameras, but not drawing up any meaningful legislation. If you're going to post a picture trying to make people believe that in the four years since Hurricane Maria, no one could fix the leak in your grandma's roof, you completely deserve this kind of public roasting. Use absurdity to expose the absurd.
But satire is most effective when it not only mocks something entirely ripe for the mockery, but when it points to some underlying, inconvenient truth. And this situation has that in spades.
The entire premise of AOC's "point" with her social media post was that government aid has been slow, mismanaged, and subject to manipulative red tape of politicians with ulterior motives. That, of course, is the general line of reasoning for traditional conservative views on all economic and social policy – that the government, no matter how well intentioned its actors may be, is fundamentally slow, characteristically inert, and bunglingly ineffective at helping people.
Citizens, private enterprise, religious altruism, voluntary benevolence, and individual charitable organizations are far better equipped for the kind of relief work lawmakers like AOC want to hand over to government. Unintentionally, no doubt, the socialist congresswoman is making a rock-solid case against her own ideology.
Matt Walsh simply put the finishing touches on it, despite all the defensive "but actually" responses from AOC apologists stinging from her public filleting.
His clever lampooning of the media's favorite lawmaker demonstrated in just 12 hours how much more effectively people can take care of other people – even those they don't know – than government programs could ever hope manage. Ask yourself: When you decide to help those in need, do you write a check to the government housing agency or to a private charity like the Rescue Mission?
Exactly.
Now imagine for a second how many abuelas could be helped if we listened less to the economic philosophy of AOC, which favors heavy taxation of all those generous citizens eager to help fix roof leaks if the government would stop taking and wasting all their disposable income.
