What Do We Do When Internet Satire News Starts Sounding Believable?


Being an atheist, I particularly enjoy writing about free-thinkers and limits on churches. So, I saw a story with this headline this morning: “Iceland Declares Religion A Public Health Hazard.” I thought it was amazing, and I was excited to write about it. But, then my bubble was burst when I found out that this particular story was satire news.

The article totally looks legit! They have a quote that is supposedly from the country’s prime minister:

“Prime Minister Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson in the spirit of  “protecting the elderly from scams, our children from nightmares, and the general population from chicanery.”

This is a spoof on a real article that reported Utah declaring pornography a public health hazard.

Everybody knows the Onion and know that those headlines are satirical, but there are plenty of others.

I got fooled by another satire news story that I shared a couple of days ago. Even after we added a satire warning, people were still believing it. You have to admit, though, that this sounds like something that Mormons would do. The article said that Utah was trying to limit sales of Vaseline and Kleenex to try and stop masturbation. I hate to perpetuate the stereotypes, but this totally sounds like something that would happen in Utah.

Here is another I’ve been seeing in my newsfeed. It keeps catching my eye as a real story, but it is from the satire site, Newslo. It is about the Ted Cruz look-alike guest from Maury that is breaking the Internet. They said that Cruz was refusing a DNA test to prove that the woman is not his daughter.

This one has also fooled me a few times. I just don’t like Ann Coulter, so I like seeing this one. It is also from Newslo and it says Ann Coulter is getting claims of being transgendered.

Not everyone enjoys the satire:

So, just be careful what you what you read. With the craziness in politics right now, some of these satire headlines start becoming believable.

 

Featured image by Blaise Allenye via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Hi, I'm from Huntsville, AL. I'm a Liberal living in the Bible Belt, which can be quite challenging at times. I'm passionate about many issues including mental health, women's rights, gay rights, and many others. Check out my blog weneedtotalkaboutmentalhealth.com