January 23, 2008 -
A Second Life resident known for biting political commentary has turned his attention to Republican Mike Huckabee.In a Second Life parody of the former Arkansas governor, JC Christian focused on Huckabee's anti-abortion stand by unveiling the Mike Huckabee Center for the Liberation and Housing of Spermatazoan-Americans. From his "press release":
[JC CHristian] got the idea to name the Center after presidential candidate Mike Huckabee when he heard Huckabee state his support for the Georgia Personhood Amendment and the Human Life Amendment to the United States Constitution.
"I thought if Gov. Huckabee supports granting civil rights to embryo-Americans and to the little 70 cell blastocyst-Americans, then surely he supports the rights of our tiniest citizens, the spermatazoan-Americans..."
The Center is composed of three sections. The first is called "The Liberation Station." It is here where the hard work of liberating Spermatazoan Americans is done. Special materials, including a Sears Catalog and a photo of Rosie Palm, are provided to make the liberation process easier...
As previously reported by GamePolitics, JC Christian has also used Second Life as a platform to lampoon former New York mayor and presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani.
In other politically-oriented Second Life news, Illinois congressional candidate Mark Pera (D) held what may be the first virtual political fundraiser on Monday evening. According to a post on DailyKos , about 15 people showed up and $100 was raised.
That's not especially encouraging for future efforts in Second Life...
Comments
But it isn't unique. Indeed, the idea of "spermatazoan-Americans" isn't a new idea, in parody or otherwise. After googling "spermatazoan", one such example was this (scroll down to the second article):
http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2007_03_18_archive.html
Everyone has their way of confronting others on particular issues. Funny as it may be, it still doesn't address anything in the actual issue.
But, whatever.
Nightwng2000
NW2K software
Who said Second Life has anything to do with anything?
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Definitely childish, but it gave me my giggle for the day. So it can't be all bad. ;)
It doesn't? Cuz I thought that was what satire was all about.
I mean, like you said, it's not even new. Other people have used the idea of spermatazoan-Americans to lampoon the idea of human life beginning before/after/at XYZ, or to take a shot at political proposals to grant citizenship status to the zygote/embryo/fetus at ZYX stage of development. Obviously some people think it says something about the issue.
Satire for the sake of satire is all well and good. But, still, it doesn't really address the seriousness of the issues at the same time. Look at MAVAV. It was taken so seriously, despite its satire, that some actually thought it was legitimate. But it still didn't address the actual real issues.
Nothing wrong with that, mind you. Funny it is. So are comments filled with sarcasm. But how do they, in the end, further the discussion on the issues?
I have nothing against them. Makes for a nice humorous diversion. But that's all. Just a diversion.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
In defense of MAVAV, it was meant to satire the movements against gaming. The fact that people actually thought it was real was the whole reason to do the site. If people knew it was satire from the beginning, it would have lost all meaning.
When people will back up a movement as extreme as MAVAV without checking the facts, then they have failed on an epic level. They proved it too.
Personally I don't like this show of satire. I don't want to get into the whole discussion of abortion so I won't.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Also their can be pro-choice extremists who believe that an abortion should be legal right up until the moment the child is born and that taxpayers money should be used to provide for abortions.
With that said though Huckabee is nuts and should never become president. He's a religious fundamentalist and extremely anti-civil rights and liberties. (Wave goodbye to Free Speech and your constitutional rights.)
At what point can legal "harm" (murder, assault, etc) be attributed to various developmental stages before birth.
Parental Rights not only of the mother, but of the potential father. Not only for fathers who... uh... directly had a hand in the creation of the child, but in regards to sperm donors as well.
The issue of adoption, surrogacy, and other similar situations as it applies to law before the child is born.
It's the same problem with the arguments about titles such as "Pro-Choice" or "Pro-Life". Such titles are usually limited to the issue of abortion. But both are actually far broader, dealing in a great many issues. Some popular, some not so much so. After all, how many people attribute "Pro-Choice" to the voluntary, willingly chosen job of male/female prostitution?
This particular political satire limits it's argument to one specific issue, though when it comes down to it, the arugment of "where does life and Rights begin" covers a great many other issues beyond abortion.
Again, I don't have a problem with it. It's the expression of the creator of the satire. I just feel it doesn't take into account just how many issues they may be missing in their attempt to put out an argument against one specific issue (abortion) where there are actually many others that may be ignored. Not only by the creator, but by those who view it and think that the issue of "where life and Rights begin" really is only limited to abortion.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
you know that link you posted is the same guy as what did the SL thing, right?
As I said, I searched based on the word "spermatozoan". If the word is a creation of one specific individual to try to narrowly link one issue (the defining of "when life and Rights begin) with another issue (abortion) while the first could cover a great many issues, then it's similar to the titles I mentioned before, plus, the attempt to place a misleading label the same as was done to us. Remember "pixelante"? It spoke nothing intelligent regarding the issues, but was supposed to inflame and incite others against those labeled as such, without really stating why or the facts of the issues.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
I suppose I could be accused of using a "misleading label" if my intended audience was, say, children at the preoperative stage of cognitive development. Fortunately for me, I was aiming my masturbatory-themed satire at a more sophisticated crowd*. I'm not sure how Nightwing2000 came across it. I'll try to be more careful in distributing it in the future.
As for 9th Doctor's comment, satire takes an idea to an extreme to make a point. Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution to grant full rights to blastocysts (the collection of 70-100 cells, commonly called an embryo, that is used in stem cell research). I simply extended the protection to another form "potential human life" that is a few hours younger.
*I predict Nightwing 2000 will not detect the irony in that sentence.