Pop quiz time!

[missroserose]

This pop quiz is sponsored by the News Media of the United States, the members of which have always understood the profit to be made by exploiting the natural human reactions of righteous indignation and schadenfreude. Remember, kids - if people aren't outraged, it ain't news!


Question 1: You are a high-ranking priest in the Vatican. Footage aired on Italian TV from a hidden camera shows you soliciting sex from another man that you met in a gay chatroom online. International news media latches onto the story like leeches to a swollen thumb. What is your public response?

[a] Deny everything; the faces and voices in the aired footage were disguised, and someone else might've been using your office

[b] Confess that you're gay, and use the publicity to martyr yourself and denounce the Church for its intolerant teachings

[c] Keep your mouth shut and take whatever punishment the Church metes out

[d] SATANIC PLOTS! IT WAS ALL A SATANIC PLOT! I WAS INVESTIGATING UNDERCOVER! I'M AN INNOCENT BYSTANDER WHO WAS ENTRAPPED! THESE MEN ARE PLANNING TO UNDERMINE THE CHURCH BY SEDUCING PRIESTS WITH THE WILES OF SATAN!


Question 2: You are a parent of a young child who has yet to be vaccinated. Despite the fact that such vaccinations have been used for decades with a statistically higher chance of the child dying in a car crash than having an adverse reaction, you read someplace on the Internet that vaccines can cause autism in children. State law requires that your child be vaccinated. What do you do?

[a] Put your trust in the government or the longevity of the vaccination program and have your child vaccinated.

[b] Look up any of the numerous peer-reviewed studies that have found no link whatsoever between vaccinations and autism, and have your child vaccinated

[c] Ask a doctor or other medical authority you trust about the potential side effects of vaccines, and follow their advice

[d] Start reading the numerous websites written by alarmists with nothing but anecdotal evidence to back up their claims, refuse to have your child vaccinated, and put everyone else at risk of an outbreak


I have no words. Honestly.

Comments

[vindaloo-vixen.livejournal.com]

As for the second one, isn't making fake religious claims also kind of rude to those who might have actual faith-based objections? (Which, true, doesn't reduce the risk factor at all.)

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

Certainly an interesting question; I think a lot would depend on the individual member of said religion. It's very definitely dishonest, though if it were about an issue that wasn't about something as important as the public health, I could sympathize. As it is, though, the complete lack of anything resembling a repeatable result makes me think this is just a combination of hysteria on the parts of the parents and fearmongering on the part of the media, combined with a lack of trust in anything our government says or does right now, whether or not it has anything to do with the current administration. (Thanks, Bush!)

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Stenico has since denied he is gay and has claimed he was only pretending in order to gather information about people he believes are involved in a Satanic plot to discredit the church by seducing priests into homosexuality.

The Church needs outside help to discredit itself?