Facebook and Martial Law

So yesterday, Facebook blew up with thousands of stupid people posting a YouTube video involving a fictional Republican U.S. Representative named John Haller giving a speech at the Capitol regarding the installment of a form of martial law. Here's the video:

Now, as if the huge ONION in the bottom right corner wasn't evidence enough that it may not be from a real news source, the substance within the actor's speech is remarkably hilarious, obviously talking about a zombie apocalypse.

But alas, thousands of people began spamming their friends' feeds with this, stating things like, "SEE ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO VOTED DEMOCRAT, Obama IS the devil and is trying to take away your rights!!! YOUR tax dollars hard at work!!!!"

But see, as anyone who has an IQ over 70 knows, The Onion is a hilariously awesome fake-news company, using satire to really do nothing other than try to make people have a laugh. As their newspaper has evolved into a more web-based medium, it's becoming increasingly apparent that people aren't able to key into their satire very easily.

I would blame this on a simple lack of frame of reference for the most part, seeing as that I doubt that anybody who spread that video on Facebook has ever read the news in the first place. And it wouldn't really be a problem, except for this little old thing we have called democracy.

PLEAAAAAAASE, if you thought for a second that this video was anything other than facetious, take a good look at your education standing and attempt to gather information from sources with journalistic integrity before deciding to vote in [any] election.

This is the type of snowballing ignorance and naiveté that makes me scared for directly democratic policy-making decisions. The best analogy I can use to describe arguing with these types of people is this video of a man arguing with an Ibex:

Titanic Alternate Ending

Yeah, I reacted the same way.

When I found out that Titanic had an alternate ending, and that there was video on YouTube of the filmed version, I thought, "Oh, I bet it's a parody where Jack lives or something this should be greeeeat."

I'm using italics to signify immense sarcasm here, in case you can't tell.

But no, this is the completely real alternate ending that (whoever wrote Titanic) had stationed to end the movie (you might as well skip to the three minute mark):

So apparently Rose got all crazy and so did that searching-for-treasure guy. Whatever. It's probably good that Titanic didn't accidentally turn into a thriller like this after watching several hours worth of people dying in a catastrophic disaster.

3oh3 is SATIRE

Why am I the only one who seems to realize the fact that 3oh3 isn't being serious at all.

Granted, their songs are all across the board in terms of pop-charts and the radio, but please, you can't tell me these guys are serious. I have no doubt in my mind that 3oh3 is nothing more than an obscure, counterculture, satirical ploy that's made its way into the mainstream.

Watch this, and tell me if you still think they're serious business:

There's simply no way that these guys (who are awesome by the way - if you don't agree with me that they're awesome after watching that video then shame on you) are serious. And therefore they're awesome.

They're basically living everyone the dream of progressing a counterculture medium to such an extent that it infiltrates the mainstream and actually lands itself on the airwaves. Marilyn Manson did it, now we have 3oh3. (To be honest, I still think Lady Gaga's doing it too.)

Basically, when you're listening to 3oh3, you have to take into mind the irony of the circumstance, or else you're just another tool.