Feeling Like An Internet Meme


Probably one of the most pointless and depressing activities one could do in this day and age is read the comments section on Yahoo. Or participate in an Internet forum debate about politics and religion.
Which, to my eternal regret, I did, these past few months. So what did I learn from reading all those caps-locked posts, ad hominems, straw man arguments, and other fallacies that I didn’t even know existed? Absolutely nothing, except that I realized that there is something fundamentally wrong with this country’s educational system.
Yes, random strangers hiding behind stupid user names, your posts are a scathing indictment of how rotten our state of education is. 
Either that, or majority of humans are just naturally idiot scumbags.
Easier to blame education (or the lack of it), I think.
I wish I could take back all those hours reading those posts, and trying to explain to faceless strangers that no, evolution does not say that we evolve from monkeys, and that the existence of modern monkeys does not disprove evolution. And please do not use bible passages to prove that dinosaurs and humans co-existed.
Jesus Christ.
It’s true what they say—“I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”
What’s worse is that they keep throwing these stale arguments as if they've just made an earth-shaking scientific discovery that, in their mind, no rational human being could ignore! They also usually punctuate their posts with a few ha-ha-has, or LOLz, or appended with all kinds of smileys.
Plus, they would hit you with a ton of bible verses as proof--which is like quoting The Uncanny X-Men comics to prove that mutants are being trained by Prof. Charles Xavier.
Whenever I see ha-ha-has in their posts, I always visualize them laughing maniacally and wearing a strait jacket, with two burly men trying to restrain them.  

As to the comments section in Yahoo Philippines, I think I would rather not say anything about that experience. Let’s just say those times were not one of my happy and productive moments. If there is an Internet god, I would’ve humbly asked His forgiveness and sacrificed a goat or two, and wear sackcloth for a year to express my bone-deep remorse for reading those messages, and participating in those forums. 
God—my toes curl in embarrassment whenever I think about it.


I feel dirty. What the hell was I thinking?
Then I read this article from The Onion. 

I know just how he feels.
 

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