It's nice to see how the [f]right wing have decided to pool their collective opinion on the following video.
"Oh no," they say, "he thinks there are 57 States. Does he know how to spell potato? Does he know how many States there are in America?"
I have one question for the [f]right wing.
Ever heard of Google?
Fifty-seven States? Actually, the full phrase is "illegal in 57 States".
As seen in use here.
OOO!! I get to put images, can show trailers from my Valentine's day silent photo-movie (now illegal in 57 states! including nihilist ennui!!). hurray!
The information is so readily available here, posted in 2006...
If I loved this any more, it would be illegal in 57 states. 10/11/2006 06:00:48 PM PDT
...or here on this page...
Rafael Furcal "Force Per Pound Award" - ALEX CAPEHART BLUE BLOOD SMURFS Guns illegal in 57 states.
...or here in the comments from TWO MONTHS AGO...
Sunday, March 09, 2008 12:06 PM
thats illegal in 57 states!!!!
...or shown on this page from TWO YEARS AGO...
Apr 25 2006 4:31 PM
please control yourself!
shugging is illegal in 57 states
...and Google found all these in fractions of a second.
Now, let's be fair to the poor little Freepers. Nobody can be expected to know everything about every facet of internet or pop culture. I certainly don't claim to. But I can sum up what I want to say in five words, and I did so in this video post on DailyKos just over a month ago.
Those five all-important words I used then: This Is The Information Age.
As soon as the video was released, Conservatives could have said to themselves: "hey, 57 States? That's not right. But let me check Google, make sure it's not some kind of joke that the kids all know about. Because Obama said 50, then he hesitated, and then said "seven" so it sounded like 57 and all the kids laughed. What is this 57 States joke?" FIVE SECONDS slaving away in front of a hot search engine, and there it is. It's some sort of saying.
"Maybe if I take it seriously in a this-shows-how-Obama-shouldn't-be-President way," they continue, "people will think I'm a dick."
And it's so easy to search for earlier occasions of something that people think is a gaffe, only to find out that it's actually a well-used phrase, and has been for a few years (it's certainly a joke that the students Obama talked to found funny)...
...so there's no surprise when you find that those eager beavers on the [f]right wing completely failed to do the simplest of Google searches, and none of them seemed to have any friends to ask, and they all did the same thing. Posted the "Oh My God, This Was A Mistake."
There are only two possible logical reasons.
Now, the Fright-Wingers might want to pay attention to this next bit. Because I'm going to redefine how information is handled in any thread I want to be a part of, from this one and into the future. And it's a way of dealing with the lying liars that lie that I think would shut down the smears for good, as long as everyone remembered the five words. This Is The Information Age.
It used to be the case that, if anyone said something that was later shown to be inaccurate, the case could be made that the bad information was given in error. Maybe out of ignorance, maybe through a faulty recollection of events.
But this is the information age.
It's so easy to search for earlier occasions of something that people think is a gaffe, and show it's actually a well-used phrase and an inside joke (a joke that the students he talked to found funny)... well, this is where the change in definition comes in. You see, it's so easy to search for this information, the fact that the phrase "in 57 States" was used before Barack Obama in the last day or two, that I must assume one of two possibilities:
One - that they all deliberately wanted to throw shit, knowing full well that the information they were posting was false. After all, the information was right there at their fingertips.
Two - they are such sheep, they decided to repeat what one individual fright-wing shit-flinger posted, because they have no free mind of their own. They don't even know how to fact-check on a computer. Even though one simple Google search would show every Freeper that salivated over this to be an absolute n00b.
Which is it, [f]right wingers? Are you a deliberate shit-flinger, or one of the mindless automaton? Either way, this is the information age. And this is all it takes to show you how stupid you are?
Wow, they're getting desperate in Dittoland. Barack uses a joke that all the kids understand, and the stuffy elitists in their tuxedos...
...call it a gaffe? When all they had to do was use Google?
Idiots. Absolute idiots.
And I tell you, if anyone in the MSM runs with this after what I've told you of the ease of discovering where this phrase comes from... well, if I were their editors, I'd fire them on the spot for laxness.
EDIT - Faux News actually ran with it seriously!
It's interesting to note too: people are posting the quote on YouTube with the audio HEAVILY suppressed to drown out the laughter he got from this line!
Someone mentioned the "Illegal in 57 States" video that is already on YouTube. Has been since November of last year. Here it that short video, and the comment is clearly used at the end.