[liff] The Sorts of April Fool Jokes People Fall For These Days

755 One of the biggest buzzes of the last few weeks was the one where it was rumored out loud that the Vice President, in a speech, had actively advocated for the repeal or suspension of the 22nd amendment...people of all stripes, from amateur journalists to professional journalists and media types forwarded this, then found themselves embarrassed as they looked closely at it, finding itself to be the hoax that it was.

The article purported to be a news article from the New York Times reporting on the VP's speech. The URL, however, was http://www.newyourketimes.com/content/article76649.html (to which we add the emphasis) which, in the superheated world of information, spread like your favorite spreading metaphor.

Going to that URL today, however, gives you this:


...and clicking on the "See why this page was removed" link will initiate a download of a PDF from the real Times telling them, as the Chairman might have said, to "knock it off, or it's ring-a-ding-ding for you bozos".

None of this is a revelation; the smarter people in society have long since realized their mistake here, but I does raise a question that I think should be on everyone's mind who gives a damn about our country and the direction it's headed: What is it about the party in power that people would swallow this one hook, line, and sinker, even the smarter ones, without so much as a question?

How bizarre has American life become that this sort of April Fool's joke would go over so big?

The answer is, of course, left as an excercise for the reader.

Tags: April Fool, New Yourke Times, Hoaxes, 22nd Amendment