Under the headline "A Short Lesson In Irony," an anonymous contributor has posted two items on the Central Minnesota Tea Party blog. (See irony defined here)
In the first, a contrast is offered:
We are told NOT to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics.”
BUT, on the other hand. “We are also encouraged TO judge ALL Gun Owners by the
actions of a few drugged out lunatics.”
How is that supposed to work???
This supposedly clever observation appears to have started circulating last May, appearing on the Gun Owners of America website and elsewhere.
Perhaps the Central Minnesota Tea Party members could realize that just as we ought not judge all gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics (few of the shooters seem "drugged out"), they might consider not judging their Somali neighbors as negatively as they encourage the readers of the blog to do in posts like this one, this one and this one. It certainly might be a place to learn how that's supposed to work.
And the second "irony":
The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 47.5 million people (most recent figures available April 2013).
Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, asks us “Please Do Not Feed the Animals.” Their stated reason for the policy is because “The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves."
Thus ends today’s two lessons in irony.
Sound familiar? Yes, that's the current iteration of the "joke" Representative Mary Franson shared in a discussion of welfare reform in a 2011 constituent update video the Minnesota Republican House Majority caucus communications taped and posted for her in March 2012. At a Tea Party rally in Browerville on July 12, 2012, Franson mentioned the firestorm that followed the Youtube--and promptly drew more criticism.
The group sponsoring that event? Our friends at the Central MinnesotaTea Party.
Franson has moved on from the remark since--but the meme persists in conservative circles online. In Minnesota, the "56 Club "posted the "feeding poor people = feeding wild animals" equation on Facebook in January 2013 under the title "Today's Lesson in Irony."
Bluestem isn't surprised that the Central Minnesota Tea Party recycles this slam on the poor, despite the national ridicule it has received. What's truly inventive (in the worst possible way) is the manner in which the group has fused an insult to the hungry to a flippant passive-aggressive anti-Muslim jest.
Photo: Oh the Irony.
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