“Farewell, Babylon Bee”

Meghan Schrader

By Meghan Schrader 

I encourage euthanasia opponents to develop a cursory knowledge of disability issues, such as disability rights laws, disability history, semantic trends in the disabled community etc. No one’s perfect, but striving to gain knowledge about disability and learning about what most disabled people consider to be respectful behavior fosters good will between euthanasia opponents in general and the disability rights advocates who are working on that issue. Showing respect for the experiences and needs of disabled people is also integral to linking euthanasia opposition to broader efforts to promote disabled people’s well-being.

A satirical publication that takes an anti-euthanasia position that has blatantly failed in this regard is the Babylon Bee.

Regardless of what I think about the Babylon Bee’s political orientation or its stories in general, I thought the story "Disaster As Canada Switches Suicide Prevention Hotline With Suicide Assistance Hotline” that a friend posted on their Facebook timeline was a brilliant commentary about the absurdity of Canada’s “MAiD” program. This is also not the only Babylon Bee story that I’ve enjoyed over the years.

But, recently the Babylon Bee has begun to feature horribly ableist stories that its editors think are trenchant commentaries on diversity and equity initiatives, like “Secret Service Beefs Up Trump’s Security With Squad of Blind Midgets,” “Meet The LAFD’s First Paraplegic Fireman,” “Powerful: This Broadway Production Called A Little Retarded Girl Up On Stage,” “Mark Cuban Inspires Thousands By Proving Even The Very Retarded Can Become Wealthy,” and “Delta Introduces New Short Plane For Special Needs Pilots.”

These articles use slurs and mockery that have been linked to ableist policies and behavior for decades. (I have discussed my own experiences with this kind of bullying here and here.) Given that the Babylon Bee is a Christian publication, I would have hoped that the editors would understand that such mockery harms disabled people spiritually; it alienates us from the support of our faith communities.

Moreover, the aforementioned stories by the Babylon Bee reinforce prejudiced ideas about disabled people’s suitability for employment and community integration that are creeping into the current harmful disability policies that I discuss in this blog post. Jokes about blind midgets and special needs pilots help create a culture in which unjust restrictions on disabled people’s employment and inclusion are regularized.

I think most people don’t have perfect disability rights literacy, especially if disability issues aren’t a regular part of their lives. In my opinion forgiveness is a good thing that is often forgotten in our bitterly divided political climate, and I think it’s valuable to extend grace for each other’s mistakes, whether they be in regard to ableism or something else. One can strive to educate without making judgments about the person’s character or cutting them off.

But I mentioned these stories to a devout Christian colleague of mine who has been involved in disability rights advocacy for decades. She said that she knew the lead editor of the Babylon Bee and would be having a chat with him about why these stories were harmful. Recently my friend told me that she had had that talk with the lead editor a while ago and he seemed to listen respectfully.

Yet just a few weeks ago the Babylon Bee published yet another joke about short buses.

Given that the lead editor of the Babylon Bee had that chat with my friend yet is determined to continue publishing jokes about short buses, I’ve decided that I will not read anything by the Babylon Bee or Not The Bee ever again. It’s one thing to make a few honest mistakes and another to wilfully do something harmful even after the people being hurt by it patiently ask you to stop.

And the harm of these jokes is fairly obvious. As I’ve mentioned, the Babylon Bee has repeatedly used the word “retarded” to mock people that the editors think are incompetent or foolish. The wilful use of that term is serious.

There are some semantic shifts in the disabled community that, while thoughtful, are not obvious to the average person. Or, the semantic shifts are legitimate responses to a term becoming associated with ableism, but deviations from those shifts do not, in my opinion, typically meet the threshold of wilful mockery. For instance, nowadays the term “special” is frowned on in the disabled community; the consensus is that the term “others” disabled people by communicating that our basic needs are “special.” But, that semantic development is fairly recent. The word “special” is still a common neutral descriptor of key disability programs, like Special Education and The Special Olympics. So in my opinion the impact of that term is ambiguous and it makes sense that people wouldn’t be aware of the disabled community’s objections to it.

The R word is different. “Special” is a disfavored term; the r word is a hate term, even if the people using it aren’t thinking hateful thoughts. The disabled community’s resistance to the term has been obvious for a very long time, so the Babylon Bee’s editors must be fully aware of that resistance. Using such terms and disability stereotypes when disabled people have politely explained why you should not do so constitutes conscious disregard for the perspectives of disabled people and those that love us. The editors and writers at the Babylon Bee are perfectly capable of expressing their political point of view without resorting to bigoted caricatures of people with disabilities, but they wilfully choose not to.

But disabled people don’t exist to help you prove how bravely politically incorrect you are, Babylon Bee. So I’m not reading your stuff anymore.

Author Note:

Here are some articles about disability in Christian communities that I think are relevant to the issues discussed in this blog post:

Humanize Podcast: Interview with Christian Disability Rights Advocate Melissa Ortiz

Joni and Friends:

How Your Church Can Include People with Disabilities

How to Remove Barriers to Accessibility in Your Church

https://joniandfriends.org/for-the-church/what-does-disability-mean/

Joni Eareckson Tada’s essay on ableism: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1maWSEJcRcdvERQpZ9WJ51IIM58kJqEZH/view?usp=drivesdk

Disability and Faith

Interview with disabled Christian author Stephanie Tate: https://disabilityandfaith.org/ableism-in-the-church-part-2/