Political Satire Today, Alternate History Tomorrow

This blog post was originally published March 7, 2017 on my old website. No changes have been made except formatting and spelling and grammatical corrections.

Political Satire Today, Alternate History Tomorrow

Last week, I was scrowling through Twitter, and I stumbled across a Washington Post Article, Thousands of furious Trump fans can’t stop visiting a website that pretends Clinton won.

The article talks about a satirical website, www.hillarybeattrump.org, and people’s opinions regarding that website. The website pretends that Hillary Clinton won the Presidency instead of Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election. Conservatives, have called the website “fake news” and a place for liberals to seek “refuge from reality.” The Washington Post described the website as, “a parody-based parallel universe whose creator intended for it to serve as a trap for Trump supporters online, with a mocking masthead that says: ‘President Hillary Rodham Clinton.’” The creator of the website informed the Washington Post that, “her conservative critics are partially correct: Hillarybeattrump is meant to serve as a refuge from reality for liberals.” Then she went on to say, “mostly, it’s a chance to troll the opposition whose party actually won the presidency.” Though, the reaction of ‘liberal’ media is missing from the article.

I however, do not want to get too much into the actual politics surrounding the website. I want to talk about its purpose. Its reason for being. The creator, may have addressed it when speaking with the Washington Post, but that is only why she created it, not its future purpose for its life. No what it can become.

Today, the website is a political satire site. Today, it is called fake news. Today, it is a liberals dream. Tomorrow, it is what? Tomorrow, it can be more than it is. Tomorrow, it can become something. Tomorrow, it will be alternate history. In fact, today it is alternate news. Today, it is alternate facts. Today, it is an alternate reality.

In the process I use for Alternate History, I look at the ‘What if?’ I use historical knowledge of what happened, what people wanted, to figure out what could have happen. I can use hindsight and my knowledge of similar events that turned out differently, to predict what could have happened it the event had been different.

The website, www.hillarybeattrump.org does this a different way. It does not have hindsight. The website creates articles day by day, as if it is happening concurrently with our time. (If parallel universes are real, what the website is describing is happening in some parallel universe). The website is using the principles of alternate history, to create an alternate reality.

Today, the website is political satire. Today, conservative consider it fake news. Today, it is alternate news and facts. Tomorrow, it will still be political satire. Tomorrow, it will be alternate history. In the future, alternate historians, looking to develop, a “what if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election?,” will be able to look to this sight as inspiration.

My only complaint about www.hillarybeattrump.org, is that it does not clearly acknowledge itself as not reflective of reality. Though, one would have to have been sleeping under a walk for the past 6 months, to not realize that it is not reflective of reality. Or they are super gullible.

My video: https://youtu.be/actTPWfxU-I

Washington Post Article: https://goo.gl/B7FjSy

Website: http://www.hillarybeattrump.org/

Video Version:

 
 

Modern Thoughts: The website is still up and still does not acknowledge on the landing page that it is political satire. My thoughts on Alternate History have also evolved to it being a thought experiment that is used to teach the complexity of history, without intent to use it to create an ideal or dystopian world. Its goal is teaching that the world is complex and how a simple event can have a huge impact on the World.

-Jonathan Berry

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who is the Chosen One? | A Star Wars Theory

This blog post was originally published March 31, 2017 on my old website. No changes have been made except formatting and spelling and grammatical corrections. Who is the Chosen One? In the Star Wars Rebels Episode Twin Suns, Obi-won Kenobi refers to Luke Skywalker as the chosen one. This can be supported by when Ben Kenobi’s Force Ghost says, “That boy is our only hope” to Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back. So is Luke the Chosen One? XL L S ​ ​ According to George Lucas, No, Anakin is the Chosen One. However, since Disney is now in charge of Star Wars this could change, but lets first operate under the assumption that Anakin is the Chosen One. There is plenty of evidence to support this. His High Midi-chlorian count. In the Mortis arc of the Clone Wars he was able to control both the Son and the Daughter. Representations of the Dark Side and the Light Side respectively. He Destroys the Jedi Order After Ben Kenobi’s Force Ghost stated, “That boy is our only hope,” Yoda responded with, “t
Read more

1st 2020 Presidential Debate Response

 The first Presidential debate between President Trump and former Vice President Biden recently concluded. The debate was moderated by Chris Wallace. First off, I caught Trump and Biden exchanging pleasantries right before the debate on stage. But other than that, they were not pleasant with each other. I felt Biden was a bit more cordial, but still very blunt. Also, I felt like Biden held the better position at the end of the debate. In terms of being a debater. However, I felt like Trump made a larger impact on screen due to him being a former reality TV host and knowing how to rally a crowd. I also have to say, I think Hillary Clinton did a better job debating Trump than Biden did. Still I felt Biden held his ground well and preformed better in the debate. He stayed relevant to the topic more often and he did not need to resort to lies to support his arguments. Trump failed to denounce white supremacy and white supremacists groups during the debate and frequently interrupted Biden.
Read more

My Favorite Moment in Star Wars

One of my favorite moments in Star Wars is when Luke removes the Helmet of Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker dies in Return of the Jedi. So The Throne Room scene has ended and the Death Star is about to be destroyed. In the moment of all that tension we first see Imperial Officers and stormtroopers running around and we see Luke dragging Vader across a hanger floor to an Imperial Shuttle. There Vader, or should I be saying Anakin, asks Luke to remove his helmet. But Luke is does not want to, as Anakin would die, but Anakin says that it's already too late for him. Luke then removes the helmet and touching words are exchanged. Anakin passes away whispering to Luke to tell his sister, that he [Luke] was right. For some context, it was a few years from when I was first found out about Star Wars and when I saw my first Star Wars film. That film happened to be Return of the Jedi shortly after Elementary school. Since then, this scene has always stuck with me. The only scenes that could co
Read more