I've given some more thought to the pie incident involving the PETA protester yesterday. Now, I supported it yesterday and, I will admit, when I first heard about the incident happening it did put a smile on my face. My only regret at the time was that it was a cream pie and not a seal flipper pie.
However, there is a world of difference between cathartic release and a good idea. And yes, after the outrage from earlier the week with the protester slamming a pie in the fisheries minister's face it was certainly good to get some kind of revenge, even if it means sinking to your opponents level.
Here's the thing, though. I will call PETA many, many nasty things. I think they're assholes, scumbags and liars. I will call them a fairly unethical bunch of people. And if, for some reason, the organization went bankrupt because the gullible stopped giving them money or the US government shut them down for fraud reasons or something along those lines, well, I will be a happy man that day.
However, I will never call them stupid. Because they're not. They're devious shits and it is always a wise thing to remember that when you're going to set out to play ball with them.
So, for example, in a week where they attacked a federal cabinet minister with a pie and a prominent Newfoundland MP calls for them to be investigated for terrorism, do you really think they didn't know what was going to happen when sending a protester to St. John's? Of course they did. The protester even had her speaking points ready for when she was interviewed by the media. She didn't curse, she didn't cry or be upset. Instead, she neatly laughed it off and turned the issue back to the seal hunt.
So what would have been a non-story, a protester in a seal costume representing PETA trying to give the prime minister a hard time, gets a lot more media attention. It's not even a line buried at the back end of a CP wire story. However, now it's splashed across newspapers and websites across Canada and probably went international as well.
PETA will take pies to the face all day long for that kind of free publicity (well, minus the plane ticket to send the woman from Vancouver, which is pretty damn weird, really). They get more attention drawn to the seal hunt and after a week of Newfoundlanders howling for blood and criminal charges about a minister being pied, they resort to the exact same thing when given the chance. Which makes people look a bit like hypocrites
PETA gave them the chance. A seal protester in St. John's is like pour a couple of gallons of blood in the water off the coast of Australia and wondering if sharks are going to turn up.
The guys that planned this stunt in St. John's will probably never have to buy drinks on George Street again. They're going to be heroes. I just don't know if in the long seal war that it was the smartest thing to do. You get down in the dirt with people like PETA and they will win most times. Simply because they're smarter at being lying scumbags than most of us ever will be.
That's not something most of us would be proud of. I'm sure most of us would hope our kids don't grow up to be the best little devious, lying scumbags they can be. However, it is something to consider when you're going to go and pick a fight with them. You sink to their level, they will win, every time.
Last Five
1. Run for your life - The Beatles
2. Monster hospital - Metric*
3. Together - The Raconteurs
4. For the money - The Editors
5. Leather (live) - Tori Amos
2 comments:
I thought the krock infiltration was a better way to go.. Although it probably could have been executed better.. The pie in the face by the mascot was well cathartic but it is lowering yourself to Peta's level which is pretty low!
If we freely call it terrorism when they do it to us than what do we call it when we do it to them? This was a bad call and a poorly judged (re)action.
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