How they won the war...

Idiots, I mean.
 
This morning, a Facebook pal shared a link pertaining to a UFO over Sao Paolo clip.
The clip itself dates from 2011 and has long been busted as a hoax.
The link which referred to an article which, however, was just published days ago.
The brilliant author of the article claims that the video is mysteriously being taken off the web and has to be shared as much as possible before it disappears.
 
So I did the only reasonable thing I could do and commented that the thing was a hoax and shared a link to justify my claim.
I also specified that the hoax in question dated from 3 years ago and that the clip was in no danger of being taken off the web - if such a thing was even possible.
 
I came back 3 hours later.
No acknowledgement of my comment but 35 morons  people had shared that same link...
 
You can't fight stupid - not with words...
At one point I realized that I spent the majority of my online time face palming.
The same hoaxes seem to come back every 3 months.
 
It's already too late. It's their world. Idiocracy was not a comedy, it was a prophecy.

I heard the aliens are returning soon and bringing ST3 with them.

drewfx1

craigb
I heard the aliens are returning soon and bringing ST3 with them.

Now that's just ridiculous!
 
(you said ST3 and "soon")

Well, "time" is different where they're from...

People. There's just no excuse.
 
Fortunately, I heard that there's a photo of a UFO that's being taken off of the Internet. I posted roughly 35 comments about it under different names so no one would know it was me. There was some blather about a hoax. Whatever. I couldn't be bothered with actually reading it because American Idol was on.
 
The next morning, I went out and drove 5 mph on the expressway in order to help the rain stop Global Warming. You may scoff, but I was driving against the rotation of the Earth and I didn't want to slow down the planet. Your facts can't argue with my science. 
 
Oh, and my neighbor's dog hears Justin Bieber's thoughts. When his ears perk up, we know Justin is thinking something important.

And those people vote....
 
 
I saw a clip where a "reporter" asked some college kids to name just one US Senator..... crickets....... then they were asked how many Senators represent each state........ uhhhhhh????? I especially loved the ones who signed the petition to give the president dictatorial powers to solve poverty.
 
 
And yeah, these people vote.
 
Is it any wonder........?

UbiquitousBubba
I'm guessing you don't want to know how many of them think Harry Potter is the current President.

 
You're probably right on that one.... I don't want to know.

UbiquitousBubba
I'm guessing you don't want to know how many of them think Harry Potter is the current President.

Everybody knows that can't be true. You have to be at least 45 years old to be president!
 
Harry Potter, to set the record straight, is the Secretary of Magic. Appointed by President Jeb Bush. Jeesh. Muggles!

Watch a few episodes of Brain Games.  It's amazing the human race can get ANYTHING accomplished....

RainAnd there's just so much hate... I've recently come to the conclusion that the internet has become the outlet for frustrated people who don't have a life and feel powerless - they go on the web and literally try to destroy others with words.
 
A friend of ours back home was a contestant on The Voice.
 
 
She had a "dual" against a reasonably talented 15 years old who'd won the heart of that part of the audience who is completely tone-deaf and uneducated - people who love "poor little things" and "cuties". For them, emotion = a voice that breaks and inspires pity.
 
Our friend's performance was impeccable and totally classy, and she won, rightly so. There clearly was no competition. But some people didn't see it quite like that...
 
The comments I read about her afterwards were unbelievable cruel - the most disgusting things were said and it went on for days, so much that the issue made the headlines. Those people would visit her official FB page and post comments filled with such hatred - even I who have come to expect the worst from people was completely blown away by so much hate and vileness... At some point, it almost felt as if some people gang up on her because they saw others do it. To call them animals would be an insult to animals. Only humans can be so vile.
 
No one deserves to be treated like that, unless they're guilty of the most vicious crime. And all she did was to win an early round  of a contest and be selected by a judge. That was unbelievable.

If you take a step back and examine from a distance a statement like, "that part of the audience who is completely tone-deaf and uneducated - people who love "poor little things" and "cuties". For them, emotion = a voice that breaks and inspires pity", does one note at least a hint of "cruelty" there?

It's hard to soar with the eagles when you're surrounded by turkeys. 

The only Eagles I can stand:
 

What the internet's done is it's given people a medium to say whatever they want to or about whomever they want, and they no longer have to do it face to face (or even voice to voice). They can even do it under cover of complete anonymity. And since they can't physically see the person the person they're doing it to, that person becomes more or less a cardboard cutout. Basically it's turning people into virtual psychos who are drunk on the power that comes from knowing that you can have a damn good pop at destroying the life of others from the comfort of your own keyboard. 
 
It's not just comments on blogs and forum, business owners are feeling the brunt of this too. When I started my current business about 10 years ago, online business reviews weren't so common: Google didn't have them and Yelp was a twinkle in the eye of its creator. When I had a dispute with a customer, it was more or less done either in person, over the telephone or via email. In other words it was a one-on-one affair. Now, people get into the most trivial of disputes with me (a contested $5 surcharge on their bill for instance) and it's not enough to have a civilized discussion over the phone - no, they're threatening to go online and ruin my reputation. And some of them do it too! They go straight onto Yelp and write fake reviews full of outlandish fabrications and baseless personal insults. I've had to threaten people with legal action. Recently I had a woman who had the most ridiculous beef with the service I provided, and she went straight onto Yelp and posted 3 fake reviews in quick succession under fake names calling me a psycho, don't trust this guy, his company is totally shady etc. I had Yelp remove them because they were so ridiculous, so she started posting more. It got to the point where I had to find out where she worked and call her boss because she was doing it in office hours, no doubt on her work computer. Over the matter of a few dollars, she quite seriously wanted to ruin my livelihood and that of my employees. One bad review online can cost you tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue and cause people to lose their jobs. 
 
But that's nothing when you consider that kids have been bullied to death on Facebook. 

bapu
Sharke, that woman's reviews sound like the Songs Forum.
 
 I keed, I keed.

Why do you think I never post anything there 

It's amazing how many reviews are suspect. I always check Amazon reviewers for past history, and frequently I'll see that the person leaving a suspiciously bad review (or suspiciously good) will either have just one review, or they have a bunch which were all posted on the same day. I think a frightening number of people post fake good reviews for their own business. I have competitors with tons of very obviously fake reviews, quite obviously written by the business owner. A lot of the time they don't even try to change their writing style from one review to the next, and they make the same grammatical errors every time. Cringe!