He Should Have Worn A Name Tag

It seems that one of the things that can whisk me off to sleep is perusing the Fark.com “Politics” tab. You may well be thinking to yourself – “Self? He doesn’t get involved in politics. Heck, he doesn’t even vote! Why is he reading the politics stories each night?”

That’s a good question. I may well answer it before this post is finished.

See, there’s one place where you’re guaranteed to see the crazies – and it’s the world of politics. There’s something I’ve recently heard of called “Poe’s Law” that sums up most political discourse nowadays. It is described thusly:

Poe’s Law points out that it is hard to tell parodies of fundamentalism (or, more generally, any crackpot theory) from the real thing, since they both seem equally insane. Conversely, real fundamentalism can easily be mistaken for a parody of fundamentalism.

So, when you read anything from the fringes of belief, it’s hard to tell if it’s real or someone completely sending it up. This is where the common internet troll is separated from the true masters of wordplay.

Take this comment from a thread discussing Sarah Palin’s inability to remember Joe Biden’s name:

Palin is smarter than (Katie) Couric and didn’t have to suck liberal staff like Couric to get were she is.

Now think to yourself – is this someone trying to wind people up, or is it someone who honestly believes that? Ten years ago, it would be an easy call. Nowadays, with the average level of political debate ranking somewhere below a 5th grade debate club – it’s quite plausible. People are really turning out to be that stupid, and proudly displaying it on protest signs!

…don’t steal from Medicare to support socialized medicine, indeed. Again, are they just that dumb?

I should point out, each side is equally guilty. There have been plenty of soundbites on talk radio full of people saying things like Obama was somehow going to pay all their bills. It’s hard to imagine someone believing that. You don’t want to believe that people believe that, but…it’s not a shock anymore.

So, this is why I spend my evenings scanning online political debate. It’s a fun game, trying to separate the partisan hacks from the teabag loonies from those who feel the Messiah is in office from the people who are actually trying to have a debate.

Will it ever get any better? Are we looking at even more of a circus for the next election cycle? Will people that make protest signs learn how to spell?

I don’t really know…and truth be told, I don’t really care. For presidential politics, it doesn’t matter one bit until the electoral college is done away with, and “we the people” can actually have a “one person, one vote” system.

…and so, I leave you with this nugget of wisdom, found on Fark. I feel that it’s the definitive word on why “Joe Biden” was such a hard name for Sarah Palin to remember:

That’s because he had a weird name like “Joe Biden” and not a RealAmerican name like Trig, Bristol, Talladega, Dristan or F-150.