WINOOSKI – Despite his best efforts, lone internet commenter Steve M. was unable to convince any of the other commenters that the satire post they were discussing was not a real news story. The article was labeled satire, as well as the entire site on which the article was published, but this did not dissuade readers from believing it to be factual. Steve M. appeared as the tenth comment, pointing out the satirical nature of the piece, but received angry trolling in return.
Comments such as “WTF! Is this real?” and “This makes me so angry! How could they actually do this?!” received replies from Steve M., informing them that, no, it was not real.
“It’s satire,” wrote poor Steve M., hoping to involve his fellow citizens in the joke. But it was not to be.
“If this is a joke, which it’s not, then it’s not funny,” responded one angry reader, who seemed unaware that even unfunny jokes are not necessarily factual. “Yah, well three of my frends posted this, so its real jokes on you a**hole,” wrote another internet dweller, after being politely corrected by Steve M.
“I’m not sure what else there is to do,” Steve M. told us after we contacted him for this story. “People get one piece of information in their heads, and then don’t look to see if it’s true or not, and the more you show them that what they thought was actually false, the more they seem to defend it as sacred truth.”
Steve M. says he will not give up trying to correct people online, but may change tactics in the future.
“I actually did find one way that seemed to work. I found a satire post that a lot of conservatives seemed to be commenting on, so I wrote ‘My Trump-loving friends told me this piece was not real, just a joke, but all liberals know that it is real and true. Suck it Trumpers!’ Within minutes all of the conservatives were suddenly defending my imaginary friend, and had convinced each other that the article was satire. It works on liberals too. Just say the opposite of what you want them to believe and put a Trump 2020 hashtag after it, and they will do a 180 so hard it’ll make your screen spin.”
It was a poor judgement call on the part of The Winooski to post this with all the radical idiots out there. It’s not even a tiny bit funny. We have people in Hollywood apologizing to Iran on the behalf of the American people while in Iran people are rejoicing in the streets that this horrid man is dead. We have out of touch protectors at the capital angry because OUR COMMANDER AND CHIEF protected our people. Our embassy which was attacked. And some moron comes up with an idiotic story about apologizing. Seriously how out of touch and stupid is our society becoming.
It’s NOT FUNNY. The back lash you are getting is well deserved for your brand of stupid.
Actually, a little humility, forgiveness, and apology would go a long way in making the world a better place. But thanks for the insults anyway! We forgive you! And we are very sorry you didn’t like our article.
I never realized that the Winooski had so many readers. The Gift Basket article has probably generated more comments than all other Winooski articles combined in this decade, as well as the previous one. Now if we could only get these readers to sign up for support via Patreon.
Yes, but they don’t seem all that supportive, lol!
Perhaps you could take Steve M’s suggestion and do a 180 to write an article that sufficiently pokes fun at Dems and Progs to make your new-found readers think that The Winooski is more Breitbart than Onion.
We do try to make fun of them from time to time but, honestly, they’re scarier when they get mean than the conservatives.
Perhaps you could take Steve M’s suggestion and do a 180 to write an article that sufficiently pokes fun at Dems and Progs to make your new-found readers think that The Winooski is more Breitbart than Onion.
Just a friendly response to Ms. Florence:
“It’s not even a tiny bit funny.” Many people are saying it was a tiny bit funny! My little-bit-funnies are the BEST little-bit-funnies! It was a perfect story! Denying that it was a little bit funny is a HOAX, people!
“OUR COMMANDER AND CHIEF” I think you mean Commander IN Chief.
“Our embassy which was attacked.” Not a sentence!
“It’s NOT FUNNY.” Sorry, again, gotta disagree on that.
“Back lash.” It’s one word. Backlash. Just sayin.
We won’t mention the fact that you misspelled “judgment.” Oops. Sorry. I mentioned it.
As if publishing satire in 2020 wasn’t heroic enough, patiently explaining “it’s a joke” and “it’s satire” over and over is next level. I noticed it on my very first visit to this site. Such patience. I don’t know how you do it.