For the unaware, The Babylon Bee — an online satire publication — was recently suspended on Twitter after mocking Rachel Levine, a transgender woman and current United States assistant secretary for health. The article, entitled “The Babylon Bee’s Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine,” drew the immediate ire of both Twitter administrators and the radical left. Of course, these two groups are not mutually exclusive.
Much to my dismay, the Bee’s staff can only access the account if they agree to delete the tweet, which they have refused to do.
Many woke individuals insist the joke was in some way “insensitive.” I believe many remarked that the column had the capacity to demean Levine’s identity. Others defended the merits of gender transition, and claimed the Bee was “normalizing bigotry.” I, as hard as I tried, could not manage to drown out all this incessant noise.
Twitter’s decision enraged me. Without this account, how was I supposed to get my daily dose of Christian, conservative comedy? In frustration, I decided to tweet out an ultimatum to the staff at Twitter:
“I DEMAND Twitter reinstate The Babylon Bee! Your [sic] in clear violation of their First Amendment rights! If you keep this up, I’ll leave!!!!”
However, this command was issued in vain.
Usually, I depend on the Bee to provide me with welcome distractions from the impending sea of wokeness, and now it is in jeopardy.
Upon hearing Seth Dillon, the CEO of The Babylon Bee, would be speaking at Texas A&M, I was elated. Seeing that transgender individuals confuse me and I — like many Babylon Bee readers — tend to ridicule and demean what I do not understand, this event seemed perfectly suited for myself. Besides, this would be a welcome distraction from the impending criticism received by the Bee.
But, my enthusiasm for this event can be attributed to more than just the speaker sharing my ideology and contempt for wokeness. As a loyal Babylon Bee reader, I was ready to laugh. What new form of the “I identify as an attack helicopter” joke would Dillon be debuting at this speech? What new wacky noun would he use to demean the concept of gender identity?
Or, who could forget the Babylon Bee’s only other joke, “Democrats can’t even admit two plus two equals four?” This clever quip subtly nods to the fact that the left is unable to admit basic facts and often defy logic. For if a liberal cannot distinguish between a man and a woman, surely they would struggle to perform rudimentary tasks such as addition. I could not wait to witness whatever novel incarnation of this witticism Dillon would be showcasing at this event.
To my delight, Dillon did not just meet my comedic expectations — he surpassed them.
Throughout the audience interaction portion of the event, he repeatedly addressed members of the crowd by some iteration of “the man, I think,” or “that’s a woman, I think.” This gag subtly nods to the fact that the left’s definitions of gender are often confusing and nonsensical to those including myself. How new and clever! Believe me when I say with every subsequent usage, the joke only became funnier!
I cannot help but revel in these jokes which — unlike Democrats’ gender theory — are much simpler and easier to comprehend. This form of reductive and mindless comedy beats a liberal lecture any day of the week. In fact, every time anyone tells me they have “preferred pronouns,” I can’t help but laugh instead of listen; it just seems so absurd!
But, the lucky audience members were not only receiving gut-wrenching laughs, but a hearty dose of defiant truth as well.
“You can find experts that say anything, and the experts are so often wrong,” Dillon said. “The most educated person is often the most mis-educated person.”
Of course, all of those experts who went on and on about “gender identity” must be erroneous. After all, if their degree and expertise are meaningless, then my own intuition is king!
But I must confess, when people such as these confront me with graphs, studies and their perversion of science — I can oftentimes feel overwhelmed and without a rebuttal. In fact, sometimes these conversations give rise to doubts of my own beliefs.
It is within the two minutes it takes to read a Bee article that all these uncertainties subside. Seeing positions that I object to displayed in such a reductionist manner enables me to brush aside any of my own confusion. Doing so makes me feel secure and intelligent, and I revel in that sensation.
The name of the game is to set these voices aside, why bother listening when you don’t have to? Put them in a box, call them radicals, deny their expertise and credentials. If all else fails, joke at their expense. Whatever you do, try not to listen and learn. More often than not, these conversations only give life to doubts, confusion and too much thinking — so read some Bee articles and chuckle these discussions away instead.
Caleb Elizondo is an engineering freshman and opinion columnist for The Battalion.
