A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift 1729 

Historically a lot of people thought it was completely serious, which is part of why I read it like this. While it was not the first black humour satire, back then that genre was still very uncommon and I heard that it sparked more outrage than the treatment of Ireland's poor. When it was originally Published I wonder how many got to the end "I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold as to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food, at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever." Which basically was a "why don't politicians do something about the babies starving to death."

Ikr! You listening to this for school to?