While your response to Stephen H. Webb's "How Soccer is Ruining America: A Jeremiad" may point out some of its shortcomings, your interpretation and analysis miss the mark. His sarcasm and offensiveness were intentional in order to create a satirical essay that may only make sense to a certain audience.
To commend your argument, his essay might have been more easily understood and better received if he had chosen a better suited target audience- intellectual colleagues or superiors who would have been more equipped to fully understand his intent. Webb is a highly intellectual professor of both religion and philosophy; he understands the rhetorical strategies and satire that he implements. However, to the average reader, such as yourself, the essay’s satire that is hidden between Webb’s forthright comments is often not perceived.
A scholarly equal would have seen it, however, as a clear satire. An obvious indicator might be the heavily humorous and sarcastic tone he implements throughout the entire jeremiad, but another part of his satire was to point out in a backhanded way that he found his own youthful sports interest in baseball, a sport that is characterized by countless boring hours in an outfield and humiliations at home plate, to be a blessing. While you took this as “one of the worst and largest exaggerations [you’ve] ever heard that does nothing to prove [Webb’s] point against soccer,” you failed to see that this extreme exaggeration was in fact the desired effect. The aim of satire is to exaggerate an existing idea to highlight the flaws in it, and Webb does this at every possible turn.
For example, Webb claims that any sport played with feet "has something very wrong with it”. He supports this claim by making valid, and not necessarily logical, points on how feet are inferior to our hands. Webb, as a professor of religion, incorporates his vast knowledge of the subject: "Did Jesus wash his disciples' hands at the Last Supper? No, hands are Divine". You, however, failed to see the laughably obvious joke here. Webb’s intent was never to actually compare the importance of hands to God, but to use the comparison as a means of satire. Webb is fully aware of the fact that the claim of soccer ruining America because it uses feet is ridiculous, which is the main point of his entire jeremiad; he is attempting to satirize arguments against soccer by making them seem so absurd that he can’t be taken seriously.
And, in case his audience missed such subtle hints throughout the work, there was always the surprise twist at the end: Webb himself is the overworked parent of three soccer-playing children. In a spectacular 180 ͦ turn in both tone and writing style, Webb reveals that “[he and his kids] come home from a soccer game a very happy family.” Why would a man who spent an entire essay bashing soccer, suddenly support the game so heartily? His intentions are crystal clear now- to everyone but you, that is. While you took this as an invitation to criticize his parenting skills, his final statements leave an entirely intentional lasting impression on the reader that ultimately discredits every point he has previously made.
-group members Anna Jones, Kendall Shunk, Marisa Sloan, & Myself