I Tried Reading the Venango Republic… Here’s Why I’ll Never Do It Again

The exercise of free speech is a privelege Amercans value immensely. So much, that we hold public debates on campuses and fearlessly post our opinions to social media. Just as people have a right to say and believe what they want in this country, each of us also has a right to ignore the opinions of others, especially when what they voice is toxic to our culture. Enters the Venango Republic.

I have no idea who runs this website. The very first article I read this past week concerned some ridiculous story about re-routing the Colorado River to pass through Oil City on its way to Lake Mede. Although this idea is obviously ridiculous, the concept is not the issue. The problem is the jokes surrounding the satire.

Some of the Venango Republic's earliest articles are incredibly bellitling to the region. It took me a while to scroll, but I was able to go back and find jokes suggesting that Venango County is "not as big as New York" and that Oil City "does not have a skyline." I also found jokes suggesting that nobody in the county has "surpassed the third grade." These jokes are incredibly degrading and bad for morale in a county that barely has any.

Another problem with the website is the constant reference to this man named "Mayor Blunders." Supposedly, this character is just a way to troll every bad financial decision the county has ever made. The website states that it is not mocking any specific person. While this might be true, the very concept of an idiotic mayor makes it seems like Oil City doesn't know how to elect industry standard politicians. The very idea that we don't have anyone available who could compete with a representative in Washington D.C. takes things way too far! Just wait until you see the sort of things this "Mayor Blunders" does in the Venango Republic articles. The list includes...

1. Signing orders to call the Allegheny River the Gulf of Venango

2. Placing tarrifs on Pittsburgh and Allegheny County

3. Flooding Rouseville after building a dam to cut off Pittsburghs water supply

4. Increasing the county debt by 30 trillion to a Chinese restaurant in Seneca

5. Taking out 20 dollar loans from Franklin to help Oil City pay it's bills

6. Having a space race with Titusville using cheap rockets from Walmart

7. Making city hall share its building with an outhouse

As you can see, this humor pushes the envelope because it suggests things that obviously don't happen here. If people read these kinds of stories, they might think it's true when it obviously isn't. We can't let the world think this unrealistic stuff is happening. They probably won't, but it still is offensive because it's not true!

One of the most offensive things I saw on this website was an article that discussed things to do in Venango County. This one was probably what truly set things off for me. The article listed several things to do in Venango County such as visiting a random stump, drinking alcohol, smoking weed, and visiting alcoholics anonymous. The worst part was that they cited the historic City of Pithole and mentioned the fact that there are no buildings left. Despite this being true, they did not need to specify that point. Stating that it is "just a field" with a sign describing what used to be there makes it seem like it is just a field with a sign describing what used to be there. Not to mention, there are tons of things to do in Venango County. We have a whole mall with leaky roofs and empty sections where stores used to exist. We also have television in the homes of people who can afford them.

Bottom line, this website is so much worse then TV shows like Southpark which makes sexually innapropriate jokes and attempts to cross the lines of politically correct ideals. The Venango Republic doesn't use foul language or offensive humor. Instead, they exaggerate stuff we automatically know to be false. I know personally it makes me uncomfortable because its so much easier to deny that Venango County is not a metropolis than to joke about the fact that it isn't. It is also extremely uncomfortable to joke about how our community has people on welfare because denying that reality is more likely to help them get out of it. The Venango Republics sarcastic way of addressing local needs may not be attacking anyone personally, but it does make me feel attacked bacause I want to believe this is the biggest thing since sliced baloney. This is exactly why I am curled up in my bathtub passing the time with a binky in my mouth as I write this article.

I would like to extend a personal thank you to the Venango County Shoutout page as well as the Venango Happenings page on Facebook. Instead of doing a post approval filtering process like other local themed pages, they just blocked the guy behind the Venango Republic. I hear he is a reasonable guy who doesn't complain if a page admin thinks an article is too cringe for their page. Nonetheless, respectable guys that are willing to talk things through should be blocked because they might make Venango County find something worth laughing about. Our county doesn't have much humor and we would like to keep it that way.