Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?

For the past decade, it's been extremely difficult to distinguish genuine right-wing whackaloonery from over-the-top satire. While Poe's Law applies specifically to creationists, I tend to expand it to encompass the entirety of right-wing cogitation. I usually refer to this expansion of Poe's Law as Ruppert's corollary, after the infamous "is he a real troll or a parody troll?" Gary Ruppert. The latest bit of "so over the top, I have a hard time believing it's true" lunacy is a group calling itself Protect the Polls (nod of the naked noggin to Sadlynaut Thread Bear). "Protect the Polls" is, if not a Juvenalian satire of the darkest hue, the vile son of ALEC and the NRA:


Over the past year Voter Fraud has become an important issue in Florida. Governor Rick Scott has spearheaded the issue by creating new Voter ID laws to curb illegal voting. But the fear remains that it may be too little too late. Florida gun owners are uniting to bring a new law to the table called Protect the Polls. The logic behind Protect the Polls is simple. If you are a legal gun owner in the state of Florida and you suspect someone on Election Day is committing voter fraud you can shoot him or her with your licensed weapon and not be charged with a crime. Precedents have already been set allowing these rights, like the important Stand Your Ground law, and in this case, there is more at stake than just one person’s life; this is for the life of this great country.


There is a video from the group posted on teh Youtuber:





I'm usually pretty good at sussing out satire... I figured that Christwire was a piss-take from the get-go, and even commented there as a crazy right-wing uncle type for a while, but I can't determine whether or not "Protect the Polls" is the real deal. The domain name ends in .com rather than .org, but that's not a definite "tell". They are selling overpriced T-shirts with a bloodthirsty slogan, but this sort of over-the-top bloodlust is not out of place in today's right.

Of course, the post title comes from the song Poehemian Rhapsody:


Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Electoral landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I'm just a wingnut, voting G.O.P.
Because I'm easy come, easy go
Little high, little low
Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me, to me

Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head,
Bastard voted as a Red.
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooo
Didn't mean to make you cry
If Romney doesn't win this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters.


UPDATE: It seems that "Protect the Polls" is, indeed, a hoax. Alternet issued a correction in their article. It's hard to be a snarkster in the post-satire world.