"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own"--Johathan Swift found via the comments thread of the second article mentioned below.

Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, I must state at the outset that this post is not intended to make either a pro-choice or pro-life argument or to state my personal opinion one way or another.

Pete over at March Together for Life, which appears to be a rabidly pro-life blog, is hopping mad. Pete, you see, has just read an editorial online about a woman named Caroline Weber who is discussing her upcoming abortion. Pete reacts by calling her a murderer and saying that he "pray for your forgiveness and for the suffering which you will endure when you realize what you have done."

Only, there is a small problem with the editorial. Here is the link to it; see if you can figure out what the problem is. Most will do so in the first few seconds, but I will give all of you a minute to figure it out, if you need the time. After you do, go here to see Pete's response.

Yes, that's right. Pete has just written an angry missive directed at an opinion piece written in The Onion, one of the most well-known comedic/satire magazines on the web. And since the interweb is a harsh and unforgiving wildeness at times, Pete has received over 166 comments on this post as of this writing, mostly of the "You are a moron" variety. For the length of the 166 comments, people explain over and over again that The Onion is satirical, that Pete is dumb, that Pete should get a clue, ad infinitum.

This by itself would be funny enough, someone reading an article in The Onion and taking it seriously always is, but then poor Pete decided to respond to his critics. Now, if this were me, my first instinct would be to post an apology and say something along the lines of "Hey, sorry. I guess I got so caught up in my beliefs that I failed to notice some obvious parody and got angry about it.", or something like that. But our dear Pete decides not to go this route and instead posts this as a response; an angry continuation of the previous post that rambles far afield from the original subject matter and then concludes with statements which show that he still thinks Caroline Weber and the editorial piece are real. The first response in the comment thread says it all:

Pete, please: listen carefully. "Caroline Weber" does not exist.

The Onion article you attacked is not "her piece." It was written by a comedy writer. Who is not "Caroline Weber," has not just had an abortion, and is more than likely not even a woman.

It is truly stunning that you do not understand this. That you still do not understand this, even after being mocked mercilessly on the previous thread. Even after being told, repeatedly, to get a clue, you're still in dire need of one. Oof.

Everyone who read that article--including plenty of pro-lifers, to judge by the previous comment thread--realized that it was a gag. You were the single person--quite possibly on the planet--who did not.

found via: reddit