"Who or what the hell is Balloon Boy?" I found myself asking this question Saturday, as I'd heard the name in passing repeatedly, but had yet to hear a definition. When I looked it up, though, I was rather glad to have missed it. It was about the dumbest thing I'd heard in a good, long while. It seems like every few months, something gets into the water supply and a bunch of people buy into some ridiculous bullshit or another. If it isn't this, it's the body of Bigfoot, or President Obama's birth certificate, or the LHC causing black holes, or that the world will end in 2012. (Protip: It won't, any more than it ends every December 31.) Hell, if some crazies are to be believed, 'something gets into the water supply' is more right then I know:
Dammit, people, how are we supposed to improve our society, make ourselves more politically aware, if we can't even see through crap like this? Every time one of these hoaxes/conspiracy theories comes along, I hold out hope that people will learn a lesson, that they'll develop some basic critical thinking skills. So far, those hopes have been dashed every time. Not only that, the level of media coverage surrounding stuff like this shows that people don't even have any interest in changing. It all paints one very disturbing picture: If our society is to come to an end, it won't be an apocalypse, it won't be an alien invasion, it won't be a home-grown black hole, and it for damn sure won't be vaccinations. It will be stupid people who lack anything resembling basic reasoning. Don't even try telling me there aren't enough of those to go around.
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I just saw the balloon thing last night, a headline, at least. Before, every time I heard the phrase, I thought of the bubble boy and wondered why people were so het up about it.
ReplyDeleteEnd of world..."not with a bang, but with a whimper." Who said that.
I am probably one of those stupid people....almost missed class watching Balloon boy coverage.
ReplyDeleteOkay, yeah, that wasn't really a fair comparison. There was really no way to know at the time. It just served as a decent segue into my point.
ReplyDeleteMan, I'm really upset over that rainbow clip! I think I'll go right now and check to see if mine does that. Of course it is midnight... Very funny blog and sadly pretty damn true.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was watching the news about the balloon boy, as it was going on, I believed it because it is possible that it could have been true. When the balloon landed and the basket was not with the balloon I honestly thought the boy fell out somewhere during the two hour "flight". The story seemed believable. A family that was building sometype of balloon, kids were playing around it, one kid gets in, and the balloon gets dislodged and takes off. As soon as I heard the boy was at home hiding in the attic, I knew it was a hoax. NOt to mention the boy accidently admitted it on TV in multiple interviews. He's a 6 year old boy, he does not have the capacity to keep up with a huge lie like that. I hope the parents get the maximum jail time. Completely uncalled for. I'm not even going to get into the looney rainbow lady. Great post!
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