Friday, August 25, 2006
[posted by jaed at 2:35 PM]Scary questions of our times
One of the scariest of those questions - if you spend most of the day reading and writing, at least, and trying to forget about the really scary ones such as "When is Iran going to set off a nuke in Baghdad?" - is "Is this a clever parody, or the real thing?" From the comments thread on a Tapped post on Walmart comes this: gem of sarcasm, or primo blend of craziness and snootiness?
[...]the question -is- "Wal-Mart, yes or no?" Are you going to shop somewhere that sells Racist Processed Sugar-Flakes and Rootin' Tootin' Patriotic Overalls or are you going to patronize the vibrant bodegas and tienditas that have healthful plantains, tasty lentils, and real curry?The thing is, something like "Racist Processed Sugar-Flakes" is beautiful parody, except that there are in fact people who actually think like this (and who have no shame at revealing it in public). Some topics can no longer be lampooned via exaggeration, because no matter how big you make the clown nose, there's someone out there with an even bigger red ball growing out of their face.
That's scary.
