If I started a group titled, One Hundred Redhead Hungarians for Peace, people would naturally expect the group consisted of at least one hundred Redheaded Hungarians.
When people go to the One Million Moms website, they likely think, WOW! this group consists of One Million Moms.
And they would be wrong. While no one associated with One Million Moms is willing to say exactly how many moms are actually a part of their group, I think we can find another way to determine how many moms are really a part of the One Million Moms group.
It is hard to tell if One Million Moms is a statement of fact or faith. Their about page says:
Our goal is to stop the exploitation of our children, especially by the entertainment media (TV, music, movies, etc.). Mom, OneMillionMoms.com is the most powerful tool you have to stand against the immorality, violence, vulgarity and profanity the entertainment media is throwing at your children. It is time to fight back!
We are searching for one million moms who are willing to join the fight for our children. We want our children to have the best chance possible of living in a moral society.
As a member of a group of one million moms all fighting together, your voice can have a powerful impact. Money is the name of the game for those who exploit, and they are exploiting our children for their financial gain. Just imagine the influence you can have by joining with one million other moms! That represents economic power! When one million moms speak as a unified voice, letting it be known that we will fight with our dollars, YOUR VOICE WILL BE HEARD!
My suspicion is that One Million Moms have nowhere near one million moms supporting them. According to the National Organization of Women website there are approximately 80.5 million moms in America.
This means one out of four Americans are a mom. If One Million Moms really is one million moms this means one out of eighty moms belong to their group. This means that in the overtly conservative Christian rural county I live in, over one thousand moms are part of the One Million Moms group. Not likely…
I think there is a better way to determine the size of the One Million Moms group. According to the Social Bakers website, 50% of Americans have a Facebook account. (156 million) 56% of Facebook users are female. 87 million women are on Facebook. This is a pretty large pool from One Million Moms to draw from.
Surely, One Million Moms would have hundreds of thousands of Moms who have clicked “like” on their page?
Nope, as of today the One Million Moms page has:
49,411 likes, and many of these are men. This means .06% of the women on Facebook have showed their love for the work of One Million Moms by clicking “like.”(would actually be less if we knew how many men clicked “like” on the One Million Moms page)
It is important for us to understand this because those of us who are atheists or who are politically liberal/progressive often think these groups are larger than they really are. Most of these kinds of groups make a louder noise than would be expected from a group their size. They have learned to shout louder than the rest of us.
I think a lot of these special interest groups play on the tribal nature of humans. No matter what side of the fence we are on an issue we usually only seek out perspecrives that prop up our views. Even if one milliom moms cared about their agenda then 1/80th of the population agrees with their agenda. It shows to me that they are fringe extremist group. I think large corporations placate these schmucks to shut them up and pander to groups whose views conflict with one another.
My problem with the one million moms is their agenda. They insist that all companies remain “neutral” on “the homosexual agenda.” What a bizarre position.
Yet, when companies like Chick Fil A are against homosexuality, they cheer them on and get in line to buy processed and fried chicken parts to support them. That’s not remaining neutral.
I think OMM also set their account settings so that one must “Like” the page in order to comment. I know a few people who have Liked it in order to post opposing views.
Your arithmetic seems to be off. It should be 1/80 moms not 1/8. But I agree with you that some Christian marketing experts determined that putting a large number in your organization name would make you seem bigger than you actually are, the same as putting “family” in your name makes people think that you care about actually families and not hate.
Thanks for catching my error. I corrected the post.