The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
I found your satirical article “Occupy Spinoff comes to Miller Park, Bring Beer, Apathy” to be offensive and in poor taste. This sort of liberal slanted satire belongs on a entertainment website such as the Onion, not a student newspaper. It comes off as condescending to anyone with a conservative view and suggests that the writer is both ignorant and intolerant of those who hold them. The stereotypes presented in this article are no better than conservatives calling a woman desiring access to birth control a “slut” or calling Occupy protestors “unwashed hippies.” Regardless of ideology, attacking and demeaning the opposition is a practice that shouldn’t be promoted in The Pointer, even as satire. Opinions should be supported with facts and reasonable arguments, not with mud-slinging and stereotyping of those who see things differently. While this standard may not be commonly held in the political arena or the media at large (again, regardless of bias or party), I believe it is one that we, as educated individuals in a academic setting, should.
William Helmke
Contributor
