7 December 2012
Poe’s Law
– Relates to internet discussions, usually in relation to politics or religion, in which it is difficult to distinguish an extremist view from a parody of an extremist view unless emoticons are used, such as smileys and winks. Named after Nathan Poe.
One example is a Japanese Youtube user named Tamtampamela, who did a satire of extremist Christian beliefs. When an earthquake devastated Japan, she published a video thanking God for the earthquake striking Japan’s atheist population. Many people took her seriously and she received death-threats even after apologising and closing her Youtube account.
There is also the reverse of Poe’s Law, in which a sincere extremist opinion may be mistaken for a parody of that belief.
Of course, the issue of parodies being taken seriously did not start with the internet. For instance, Spanish artist, Salvador Dali once sent a telegram to Romanian dictator Nikolai Ceauşescu stating he should adopt a scepter as part of his regalia. Ceauşescu took his leadership seriously and had the telegram published in a national newspaper. When he found out the telegram was a joke, he had the editor fired.
Today’s aphorism
‘Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!’
– John Belushi
On this day
7 December 1941 – bombing of Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
7 December 1987 – USSR President Mikael Gorbachev arrives in the USA for an arms control summit with US President Ronald Reagan. The summit resulted in the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty (INF) which called for elimination of all cruise and ballistic missiles and launchers in Europe that had a range of 320 to 3,400 miles. This was one of the most significant arms treaties of the Cold War.
7 December 1988 – An earthquake registering 7.2 on the richter scale, completely destroys the Armenian city of Spitak, in the Soviet Union, killing 50,000.
7 December 2001 – the Taliban regime surrenders 61 days after commencement of US-led war in Afghanistan.