Aqua Teen Hunger Farce, pt. 2

I am an absolute junkie for reader comments on newspaper websites. Allowing people to post their thoughts annonymously is the quickest and most effective way to strip away the ego and superego, and get down to some quality id-powered savagery. The Herald‘s coverage of the MIT student who was arrested today at Logan for wearing a circuit board on her sweatshirt, has provoked some of the best comments yet, ranging from “Tattoo“, who demands the perp be locked in a cell surrounded by photos of 9/11 victims, to “Mike,” who goes all jihad and writes, simply, “off with her head.” Something called “Carol” adds that she wouldn’t have minded if the cops had shot the girl to death.

But the irrationality isn’t limited to the Herald’s more excitable readers. The story marks the return of the feared “hoax device.” Like when Boston became the laughingstock of the country during the Aqua Teen Hunger Force scare, we’re again misunderstanding what a hoax actually is.

Details are limited about the MIT student at present, but it is known that she called the offending object “a piece of art,” which, I’d guess she was using to offer a geeky/quirky greeting for whomever she was meeting at the airport. So this business about it being a hoax is nonsense. It’s only a hoax if she pretended it was a bomb, which she did not. It was stupid of her to do it, but let’s not get hysterical. Give her community service and let’s be done with this before we make a mockery of ourselves again.