If you thought California’s Proposition 8 was regressive, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Now there is an effort underway to gather signatures for an initiative to ban divorce in California. Quoth one of the initiative’s proponents, John Marcotte:
The secular progressives, gays and MSNBC hosts — but we beat them once with Prop 8 and we’ll beat them again. If people are thinking about getting a divorce, just remember “Hell is eternal, just like your marriage was supposed to be.” Jesus still loves you if you get divorced, just not as much as before.
Wow. Didn’t I just write something about people seeking to re-implement the social and cultural norms of the Bronze Age?
On second thought, this can’t be right. It’s got to be some kind of a perverse joke. This simply has to be an example of Poe’s Law in action, one that suckered in the normally reliable and objective Prof. Howard Friedman.
Still calling black people regressive?
Maybe it's a bad morning for my sense of humor… Are you seriously suggesting that the interview I quoted was a parody, or are you being facetious? I am uncertain enough after review that I posted an Update raising the question.– Howard Friedman
zzi — I said nothing about anyone's race. I said Prop. 8 was regressive, and I stand by that statement.Prof. Friedman — the whole thing seems just a bit too far over-the-top; the hyperbolic comment about the proponent desiring to restore people to their original marriages despite having hatred for one another didn't smell right. Of course, the intellectual resonance of Poe's Law is precisely that it really is difficult to distinguish between a parody of fundamentalist behavior and the real thing, because the real thing is so often ridiculous.
I've now got it, I think. The entire proposal– not just the interview– is a parody on Prop. 8 supporters. It turns out Huffington Post made that clear last month. Wow– usually I'm not this obtuse. Anyway my revised posting at Religion Clause hopefully clears it up. Thanks.
Post deleted as spam. It was very good spam, and I thought it was a real post for a moment, until I checked the link.