As I wandered down the Recent Diaries this morning I noticed two things, one of which actually surprised me.
The spoof diaries were not unexpected. I enjoy writing snark as well, and letting one of those go on April Fools Day is a pleasure not to be missed.
But, to me, a really good AFD prank or joke just sucks you in and spits you out. It makes a deeply stunning revelation that eventually becomes so ridiculous that it must be untrue.
What did surprise me though, as a regular DKOS reader, was exactly how high my "deeply stunning" bar has been set these past few years by the words and antics of our dear friends on the right.
I find myself somewhat, though not entirely, desensitized to right-wing absurdity not only by virtue of it's endless, Niagra-dwarfing volume, but also because of it's breathtaking honesty.
There was a time in my life when Republicans seemed genuinely embarrassed to be heard using racist language, or to be caught a lie, or to be seen on television making fantastic claims that are clearly unsupported by evidence, experience or reason, when the word "fact", having been uttered by someone on the right, would then be followed by language that gave it some recognizable connection to the dictionary definition of the word.
Sadly, that day has passed. Long past.
IMHO, that's because whereas once the right aspired to be taken seriously intellectually, now their seriousness has less range, being merely emotional and political in character. Don't get me wrong, these are still serious people, deadly serious it seems, but, like the proverbial ape picking lice, they are serious about something else entirely.
And so, now, every time I come here, I find some nugget that I would swear, if you presented it to me stripped of context and attribution, was straight out of The Onion.
My favorite in recent days was "BREAKING: Anti-government protesters ask for public defenders."
You just can't make this stuff up. More to the point, you just don't have to make this stuff up.
When an entire political party goes on psychotic break (and I mean no offense to the mentally ill by comparing them to teabaggers, though I suppose such a notion is bound to hurt), every day is April Fools Day.
And now that I think of it, that's a really unfortunate development.