Monday, March 14, 2011

Thanking a Thug?

In Internet terminology, a "Poe" is a parody of fundamentalism that can't be distinguished from genuine fundamentalism. Poes are possible because religious extremism is just so freakin'...extreme!

Here's a YouTube video of a young woman thanking her "amazing," "good," "loving" god for the massive earthquake in Japan:



"...Any place that there is an atheist, we've been praying for god to open their eyes and to see that there really is a god, that he does exist, that he loves them, and that he is the god of the Bible, that the Bible is true. And just a few days, not even a few days later, god shook the country of Japan...It's just so amazing to see how god can just answer prayers like this, and I am just so overjoyed and so encouraged. For the rest of this Lentil season, I am gonna be praying even harder..."
Yes, she said "Lentil," not "Lenten." That and her cheery attitude give me hope that this is a Poe, but I just can't be sure. Her YouTube channel features 41 videos that have been uploaded over the last year. If she's faking her fundamentalism, she's spending a lot of time on it. I can't speak to the quality of her efforts, beyond the single "GOD IS SO GOOD!!!" video embedded above, because I can't bring myself to watch any of her other videos. I just ate dinner, after all.

H/T to PZ

Update (3/15/2011): The YouTube video "is no longer available due to a copyright claim by LaughAloneTV," and "TamTamPamela's" YouTube channel "is no longer available because the user closed their account." I can't get to LaughAloneTV's YouTube channel either, but their Facebook page is working, so this does seem to have been a Poe. I'm relieved; in a world where Pat Robertson and his like can exist, anything is possible.

Update 2 (3/15/2011): The original video is still available here, along with a "coming clean" video in which "Pamela" (I'm not sure if that's her real name or not) admits that she's "been making troll videos for a while now."

No comments:

Post a Comment