Liberals sending out fake powders and fake bombs pretending to be conservatives.

I was reading the Smithson Ian magazine and ran into more liberal propeganda about the holocaust. They faked several fake news diaries supposedly proving there was a holocaust. Of course all the authors are dead and can't prove authorship. Read this issue of the smithsonian to help prove Trumps fake news is true.

I've been watching this thread with amused fatigue.

I will admit that when I read the OP (shortly after it was posted and before anyone had commented) I was surprised. The "theory" that was the subject of the post had begun to circulate within 24 hours of the first incident so it didn't surprise me, nor did the fact that someone in this forum might create a threat to address it. What did surprise me was the post's author.

I won't claim for one second that I thought to myself "McG wrote this? He couldn't possibly believe such a thing!" In fact, while I reluctantly believed throughout the few days the story developed that a "rightwing kook" was behind the threats, the possibility that a "leftwing kook" with grandiose notions of influencing the mid-terms for the Democrats didn't seem unreasonable to me. Regardless of how one might explain them, the facts that none of the bombs ignited, the packaging seemed deliberately designed to scream "I am a rightwing kook and this is a bomb!" and the fevered times in which we live made the leftwing kook theory at least plausible, if not likely.

I can't speak for McG as to whether or not he found the "leftwing kook" theory plausible, but I certainly won't say that I found it impossible to believe that he might, or that he might start a thread to address it, but the manner and content of the OP didn't seem consistent with the style McG uses with serious posts. It didn't immediately occur to me that he was engaged in satire, but I was puzzled and so held off on commenting until the thread developed further.

If I had been aware of the thread that McG was clearly satirizing, I'm confident I would have immediately recognized his post for what it was. Wry satire.

It's often the case and understandably so that satirical posts and sarcastic comments are misinterpreted and especially if the author has a desert dry sense of humor and is skilled in their use. I suppose it's a matter of taste, but I very much appreciate a sharp, dry wit and understand that the use of smiley emoticons and explanatory links dulls it. A person with a sense of humor like this is appealing to a segmented audience:

1) Themselves, of course, Call a post like this a joke, a prank, bait or whatever, crafting an effective one requires cleverness and commitment and is a small work of skill of which the author can be modestly proud. Regardless of the brand of humor employed, all jokesters tell jokes to please themselves. The pleasure comes from the reaction.

2) An expected small group who "get it." Jokes like this one are not intended to fly over the heads of everyone reading or hearing them. The jokester almost always wants at least one person to be in on the joke; to join him or her in appreciating the reaction of the third segment.

3) The usually larger group who don't get it and react just as the jokester hopes they will.


If this thread was your first introduction to McG you can be forgiven for not recognizing the satire. I clearly recall my first encounter with him years ago and I swallowed the bait he threw out; along with the hook. Robert was kind enough to educate me so that I stopped making a fool of myself responding to him as if he was serious. I haven't made that same mistake since and it's telling that certain people consistently do despite having had years of experience with McG and his style.

What it doesn't tell me is that most of these folks are too stupid to get it. If it had been a satirical post centered on a premise of conservatives acting badly, the joke would not only have been recognized nearly instantly, it would have been found quite funny. Conservative objections would have been met with "Oh C'mon, it's a joke!" Some may recall this was the case when the photo of Kathy Griffin holding the severed head of Donald Trump was published, a stunt that certainly can't be called satire, nor, as far I'm concerned, even remotely humorous.

What it does tell me is that a lot of us are incapable of or have difficulty with recognizing and appreciating humor when issues with a political aspect are its subject. Unfortunately, these days, just about everything is being politicized and humor is suffering for it. (Unless of course, you were the Democrat's 2016 presidential candidate in which case a crack about all blacks looking alike, can, as is reasonable, be appreciated as humorous - I wouldn't count on the left's sense of humor holding up for long though. Liberal comedians can never be sure when they might find themselves standing on a stage apologizing, with tear-filled eyes, for their gross insensitivity.)

Unfortunately, it also tells me something about a handful of regular A2K members that is not flattering nor worth going into details about. If you haven't figured it out yet, you never will.

I previously commented that using this style of humor requires skill and commitment. The skill comes into play in hiding the humor, the commitment comes in, in allowing the bait to attract an audience. I can't say whether or not McG thought his post would very quickly be recognized as satire, and I haven't read the one being satirized so I don't know who participated in it, but I think it would have been fair to assume that those who did, should have recognized the similarity of the titles of both. Again, I can't read McG's mind, but I would imagine that he smiled with satisfaction if and when someone who entirely bought the premise of the other thread ventured into this one and called it ridiculous or an outrage.

The reactions to this post, have been pretty predictable.

Initially, the post seems, largely, to have been taken seriously and not recognized as satire. OK, not everyone got it; that's pretty common with satire. Anyone who didn't get it responded predictably and in a rather boring fashion, in keeping with their POV: Mockery, anger, insults, and deflection.

It became amusing (and fatiguing) once the possibility of satire was introduced:

The response of the Usual Suspects can be paraphrased as:



I did laugh when I read one satire-denier explain that McG sure seemed to him to be serious with his OP. Well, duh...

Hopefully, McG has learned that in the future he needs to attach a string of Smiley emoticons to posts like this one.

AND



Then there were one or two posters who seem to have been slightly embarrassed by not recognizing it as satire and tried to excuse their lack of perception by insulting McG:



It was nice to see that at least a couple of people had a clear enough view of the current American landscape to acknowledge the possibility that the leftwing kook theory was, at least, possible.

And kudos to Nimh who supported the notion that it was entirely possible that McG had engaged in satire when other liberal minds were fixated on denial and/or condemnation.

It's very good to see that McG is not taking the bait of his harshest critics and explaining or defending his original intent with this thread. It would be a sort of after-the-fact inclusion of a Smiley emoticon and it would be entirely pointless. When you tell someone, with whom you are very familiar, that you were kidding and they don't believe you, you are not going to convince them on the 2nd, 3rd or 100th try, and it has nothing to do with your powers of persuasion. They are, for whatever reason, invested in defaming you and what they actually do or do not believe is immaterial.

Needless to say that McG has nothing to apologize for and if he had I think I would have felt the bedrock under my feet shift before I even saw it.

I predict McG will continue to exhibit his wry sense of humor in this forum, and I for one will appreciate it. I also predict it will most often be met by the same reactions seen here.

Yeah, okay. I'm guilty. And slow. And humorless.

Look, here's the thing. Sometimes I find McG's posts interesting so if I see that he's commented on a thread or started one of his own I often check them out to see what he has to say.

I've never found him all that funny. And many times I've seen serious posts from him that I've found to be illogical or poorly argued. So when I saw the thread, not having known of the other one, it seemed likely that he'd jumped on that particular bandwagon. And, had it turned out to actually be the case that "a Democrat did it" he'd probably be triumphantly claiming bragging rights. I know some other right-wingers on this site sure would.

McG . . . wry sense of humor . . . yeah, right . . .

Fine. I didn't know it was satire base don another thread, nor did I know that McG was wont to do this kind of thing.

I'm certain there are 'liberal kooks' out there who would think that this was a great plan to garner sympathy for the democrats. It's sad enough in itself that I have no doubt about it, given that is the side I tend to identify with.

But given the (in)famous Infowars channel and the things its host 'talked' about, and the charming habit of people on this forum who habitually refer to the democrats as the Demokkkrats - something I have not yet seen happen the other way around -, I have FAR LESS problems believing there are 'conservative kooks' out there seriously trying to blow everything up.

Frankly, I don't care. I find bomb threats nothing to joke about. And I find the immediate gut reaction of all sides to immediately place the blame on the other side offensive.

was ir McG or Finny ho "faked" a heart attack in a post and then claimed it was ll a joke,(After everyone here was wishing him good tidings and "thoughts nd prayers".

Weren't me and doesn't sound like a thing Finn would do. I don't think either of us craves attention that bad.

During World War II, an uncle of mine (now deceased) commanded the troops who liberated Dachau.

Needless to say, I consider Holocaust deniers to be scum. They're no better than members of the KKK or defenders of Stalin. I prefer to avoid them.

ok then it was Finnsy. It DID occur. A number of people who disagreed with him on everything except the quadratic rule were wishing him well and quick recovery. He then, realizing that it was a really dumass thing to have done, tried to make excuses that it was merely a "Joke"


Izzat dog a basenji or a dingo?? neat looker

My little Buddy - Shiba Inu

Definitely Finn. A particularly odd A2k moment.

Ahhhhh, for a moment I thought I dreamt it. Thanks. I recall wishing him well .

forgot about them. Cool dogs. I always knew em as Shiba ken. Spent some time in Kobi where almost everyone had one , mostly for pets or rat control.
Does yours have a job? (like hunting?)

they were friendly dogs (Not at all like the bigass Tosa Inu's)

He is a big time hunter and become so obsessed sometimes it's crazy. I believe he is more cat that dog when compared to other dogs we have had pass through our family.

cool. I love hunter dogs. Used to raise Setters w/ my dad.
Irish, obsessive hunters but dumb. Gordons were my fav.

I just looked up some photos of Shiba inus, and note they must be running game fools. Chesty and really nice size running legs . How is he at listening in the house??

Usual Suspect #1 at it again huh?

I could have won a million bucks if I had found a billionaire foolish enough to bet on your honesty.

are you denying that you opened a thread with having to go to a cardiologist for (I believe) chest pains and a possible heart attack?

He can't be trusted off leash outside. He is trained ok, he will let us know if he is hungry or has to go outside. He will generally be curious if you call him, he'll sit if you pretend to have food. He would love to run for hours but we have no fenced in areas to allow him that freedom. He also isn't very well socialized with other dogs and doesn't particularly care for them.

He broke a 1/4" steel cable lunging at the neighbor car that had 3 little dogs and was on top of the car when it parked trying to get them.

Hasn't been allowed much freedom after that.

Ive had several dogs like that, my one catahoula used to jump on car roofs coming down th lane. He would NOT let people out of their car or truck without me around. It made FedEx deliveries difficult. UPS put us on a "must call at depot" list.

I remember this conversation happening. I don't think it was it's own thread though.

I don't remember any of the specifics, but I do remember this happening.