The Onion is a fake news website which has been around since the 90s whose articles are not meant to be taken seriously.
They are king of fake news because this is their whole schtick. For example, their headline story on Nov. 18 was, “Parents Gently Explain To Son Why Family Dog Had To Be Blown Up With Dynamite.”
This content is meant to be over-the-top and, when it concerns politics or social matters, heavily satirical. However, it seems recently real news is competing with The Onion for how ridiculous it can be.
In an article by Lee Moran for Huffington Post, on Nov. 14 President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences to Sutherland Springs, Texas, regarding the recent mass shooting at a Southern Baptist church. However, the Sutherland Springs shooting happened on Nov. 5, and Trump tweeted the almost exact same condolences to them on the day of the shooting.
However, there was a different mass shooting on Nov. 14 at an elementary school in California, so it appears Trump simply copied his condolences from earlier without changing the location of the shooting. The tweet has since been taken down, but the embarrassment still lingers. We either have too many mass shootings to keep up with, or our president is just going through the motions. In fact, it could be both.
Similarly, Alex Ward of Vox points out the Pentagon actually called for Trump’s resignation on Twitter, sort of.
On Nov. 16, the Pentagon’s Twitter account mistakenly retweeted a call for Trump’s resignation from an account by the name of “PROUD RESISTER.” While the Pentagon has undone the retweet, it cannot undo my amazement that it happened.
For those who do not know, the Paris Climate Accords is an agreement made by every country except Syria and Nicaragua in 2015 to try and fight climate change effects. However, this year, Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement, but Nicaragua and Syria are now members of the agreement.
This means the U.S., an initial author of the agreement, is the only country in the world not agreeing to limit itself to help fight negative climate change, which would be hilarious if it was not depressing.
Moreover, Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore’s run for office has been pushed to a standstill by sexual assault allegations from numerous women, most of which occurred when they were minors. Instead of dropping out of the race, Moore is trudging onward, and the defense of his behavior given by his fellow Alabama Republicans is unreal.
In an article for The New York Times, Jonah Engel Bromwich said Alabama state auditor, Jim Zieglar, claims Mary, a teenager when she became mother of Jesus, and Joseph, an adult and Mary’s husband, is a similar situation to Moore’s. Because of this, Zieglar believes Roy did nothing wrong. On top of the fact the story he is citing is a virgin birth, we do not live in ancient Israel and sexually harassing minors is a heinous crime.
I am not the Alabama state auditor, though, so maybe I am not qualified to say.             
How do you combat living in an Onion article? Do not become accustomed to it. The most dangerous thing one can do in today’s political climate is assume this is normal.
Tweets are all fun and games, and I will be the first to laugh at the Pentagon calling for Trump’s resignation. However, the U.S.’s rejection of the Paris Climate Accords and being its sole detractor is not normal.
A Senate candidate whose supporters defend him from pedophilia claims with the Bible is not normal.
Let us make sure this presidential term does not change what is normal forever.