Thursday, June 18, 2009

I'm Sorry. Mr. Overton Won't Be Taking Your Call.

You know, it is often a worthwhile idea to voice an extreme position with the idea of broadening (or shifting) what are considered the boundaries of acceptable debate on a given issue. And then there is PETA.

I am sympathetic to, even moved by, many animal rights concerns. But stunts like this do little but predispose me to dismiss this organization the next ten times I hear them weighing in on more legitimate topics. One might even say I will be swatting them aside.

(h/t: LGM | title: cf.)

2 comments:

TC said...

Surely this was a joke to get a little free publicity for PETA. We don't usually think of an insect as an animal. God sure messed it up when she had Noah put flies and mosquitoes on the ark. Maybe that was a nasty little joke on a day when she was cramping.

bjkeefe said...

Yeah, I'm sure there's a charitable way to interpret PETA's actions, because you do know that every reporter on the planet immediately thought of calling them for a quote after the Obama Killed A Fly video went viral. Still, they could have made their point about non-charismatic non-megafauna also being worth consideration without turning it into self-parody.

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