Irony Alert

I can't tell the difference between sincerety and sarcasm anymore. We spend so much of our time being brash and cynical, that when people put on their serious faces I don't know when to stop laughing.

I think it started when I read McSweeney's tribute to Amanda Davis, and thought it was a witty little satire. Yeah, asshole.

But today was a cavalcade of profound obtusity and galling ignorance.

First from Jezebel's post about Donda West. Look, she was by all accounts a great woman, amazing scholar and devoted mom, but when did not speaking ill of the dead become lauding them in (embarrasingly) extravagent ways? Why, as a society, do we have to canonize the recently deceased? It just rings hollow. How many of these people even knew her name yesterday or could identify her picture?

Then on a forum that I occasionaly read, I ran across this gem in a thread devoted to current events:

The other thing, that I think bothers people is the fact that many immigrants from Mexico in particular refuse to learn English. In some cases they get huffy if you don't speak Spanish. I think it is about more than just race, a lot of it has to do with what many see as lack of assimilation: many Mexican immigrants don't come here to become Americans. At least this is what I read in my local paper practically everyday.
I'm all for people speaking multiple languages, but one should not have to learn another language just to get by in ones own country. And honestly I think we are doing our children our huge disservice - the language of the future is clearly that of the Chinese and that is the language we need to be learning.

Um, I was nodding along "ignorant bigot, ignorant bigot" and then, bam, China's taking over! Now I don't live in along the U.S./ Mexico border in one of these towns where you allegedly can't tell what side of the Rio Grande you're on, but New York has it's share of legal and illegal immigrants. I have never had any expect me to be able to speak their native. Also, I don't think being able to say "comprende, ese?" is exactly being fluent in Spanish. But this is a joke, right? Right!?

Back to Jezebel, later this afternoon in a comment about the Angelina Jolie-penned article being published in The Economist, I read this:

I don't understand the Angelina hatred. I only wish I had the money and time to learn more about all the horrible things going on in the world so that I could help in some way. Good for her for caring and wanting to help. Give her an A for effort at least...

Haha...ha? Can we give the United Nations a C- for aptitude?