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Our newest entrant is PETA. A regular competitor in the Fail Olympics, the PETA is aiming for gold with this one.
The PETA decided to protest the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York by handing out pamphlets outside... dressed as members of the KKK
I know I thought it was a typo too - but the picture shows the text was right, they really are that dumb: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2009-02-09-peta-westminster-kkk-protest_N.htm
The PETA acknowledges that it's an "uncomfortable comparison." Well, that's one way of saying it. See, I was going to go with "bloody stupid, complete fuckwittery and sets new standards of arseholery" but "uncomfortable" probably scans better with the press. Sadly, the spokesman missed the opportunity to say "the extremist and highly reprehensible actions of some our members do not represent the group as a whole and we deny all association and unreservedlky condemn them." See, that's the sensible thing to do.
Sadly, the PETA and sensible rarely come together and are certainly not on speaking terms.
OK, PETA, here's some free advice. I'm giving it because, damn it, I AGREE with some of your positions. I hate animal cruelty. I hate factory farming. I hate puppy mills and I hate pedigreeing creatures until the genetic anomolies pile up into defects and deformities. But you're making it DAMNED hard to agree. Really. Your protest methods are so extreme, your rhetoric so beyond the pale that it is almost impossible to be insulted by you - it’s just too funny. It’s hard to take someone seriously who compares farming to concentration camps. It’s actually even hard to be properly outraged, because it is a level of whatthefuckery that the brain just can’t take in.
These crazy stunts actually fail in 3 ways.
Fail the first: You are actually crazy enough that people who AGREE with you would actually DENY their agreement for fear of being tarred with the same brush as this level of crazy. I understand passion, I understand anger and I understand the dramatic and even the use of hyperbole. But this? It’s too extreme for anyone to walk alongside you - we’re too busy crossing to the other side of the road and keeping a wary eye on you.
Fail the second: You’re making unnecessary enemies. Every cause needs friends and supporters and every cause will have enemies. The factory farmers, cosmetic animal testers etc will be natural enemies. Fair enough. But by dressing up as the KKK you are making enemies of people who are sympathetic and even supportive. This is fail-level dumbness.
Fail the second: you obscure your message. Sure you do dramatic things to get people’s attention and get your message out there - we had Fathers 4 Justice in the UK who were very good at it. They went from obscure to well known by their stunts - but most of all we knew WHAT their message was. PETA can’t say the same. The message? We’re crazy people. What will people remember about this demonstration? That excessive selective breeding is wrong? That the inbreeding of some pedigrees is such it causes crippling deformities? That some breed’s “standards” are so extreme they actually hurt the dog? No, people will remember “Those crazy people dressed in KKK robes.”
So have a celebratory straight jacket - and work on that crazy thing. It’s not helping
The PETA decided to protest the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York by handing out pamphlets outside... dressed as members of the KKK
I know I thought it was a typo too - but the picture shows the text was right, they really are that dumb: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2009-02-09-peta-westminster-kkk-protest_N.htm
The PETA acknowledges that it's an "uncomfortable comparison." Well, that's one way of saying it. See, I was going to go with "bloody stupid, complete fuckwittery and sets new standards of arseholery" but "uncomfortable" probably scans better with the press. Sadly, the spokesman missed the opportunity to say "the extremist and highly reprehensible actions of some our members do not represent the group as a whole and we deny all association and unreservedlky condemn them." See, that's the sensible thing to do.
Sadly, the PETA and sensible rarely come together and are certainly not on speaking terms.
OK, PETA, here's some free advice. I'm giving it because, damn it, I AGREE with some of your positions. I hate animal cruelty. I hate factory farming. I hate puppy mills and I hate pedigreeing creatures until the genetic anomolies pile up into defects and deformities. But you're making it DAMNED hard to agree. Really. Your protest methods are so extreme, your rhetoric so beyond the pale that it is almost impossible to be insulted by you - it’s just too funny. It’s hard to take someone seriously who compares farming to concentration camps. It’s actually even hard to be properly outraged, because it is a level of whatthefuckery that the brain just can’t take in.
These crazy stunts actually fail in 3 ways.
Fail the first: You are actually crazy enough that people who AGREE with you would actually DENY their agreement for fear of being tarred with the same brush as this level of crazy. I understand passion, I understand anger and I understand the dramatic and even the use of hyperbole. But this? It’s too extreme for anyone to walk alongside you - we’re too busy crossing to the other side of the road and keeping a wary eye on you.
Fail the second: You’re making unnecessary enemies. Every cause needs friends and supporters and every cause will have enemies. The factory farmers, cosmetic animal testers etc will be natural enemies. Fair enough. But by dressing up as the KKK you are making enemies of people who are sympathetic and even supportive. This is fail-level dumbness.
Fail the second: you obscure your message. Sure you do dramatic things to get people’s attention and get your message out there - we had Fathers 4 Justice in the UK who were very good at it. They went from obscure to well known by their stunts - but most of all we knew WHAT their message was. PETA can’t say the same. The message? We’re crazy people. What will people remember about this demonstration? That excessive selective breeding is wrong? That the inbreeding of some pedigrees is such it causes crippling deformities? That some breed’s “standards” are so extreme they actually hurt the dog? No, people will remember “Those crazy people dressed in KKK robes.”
So have a celebratory straight jacket - and work on that crazy thing. It’s not helping