this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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Not The Onion

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Look, I get it. The gargantuan shit-show that is U.S. politics and the American descent into fascism is on everyone's minds. It's certainly on mine.

But the point of this community is to highlight weird news stories that make you go, "By golly, I thought I was reading a headline from The Onion. You know, America's finest news source." A lot of stories being posted lately don't even remotely fit that.

That doesn't mean political stories aren't allowed here, but they must have headlines that would make people pause and wonder if it's a story from The Onion. Straight up regular, non Onion-y headlines don't fit.

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[–] MelonYellow@lemmy.ca 101 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Geez you’re not kidding. All the recent posts are politics with regular sounding headlines. I’m gonna start downvoting headlines that don’t fit.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 17 points 1 day ago

I'll report them all

[–] Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They can also just be removed, surely

[–] kescusay@lemmy.world 39 points 1 day ago

Yes, but if you report them, I find them faster.

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have to say, there have been a few political stories where I've genuinely wondered.

But you're right, it's mostly whingeing.

[–] yggstyle@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago

To be fair some of said stories genuinely could have been onion articles... In what sane world would we deport a 4 year old resident with cancer? How is that an actual headline? The times this year I've had to double check is astonishing.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Fair point. These three aren't great.

collapsed inline media1000074464

Since when was "fighter jet falls off aircraft carrier" satirical? This stuff does happen occasionally. It's just an accident.

Most stuff on here belongs on aboringdystopia

[–] kescusay@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Alex Jones one actually gave me a good "That's pretty Onion-y" hit.

[–] yggstyle@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

Funnily enough that was the one in the list I least reacted to. It's all subjective I'd imagine: It's all nonsense, without question... but they all still technically fit the bill.

[–] yggstyle@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago

I mean the first two I'd give a pass.

It's like "Yeah that bad thing is good, actually" - which is pretty standard fare for an onion article. Not exciting by any stretch but it technically qualifies.

...And the plane is just funny. Not as a taxpayer, per se - but objectively would get someone to do a double take.

The Alex Jones one is definitely something you could see in the onion.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

The reason I posted the middle one is because it sounded a lot like a Onion title. It is crazy to me that a jet can just "fall off" something. Doesn't weight a few tons?

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Tens of tons for a modern fighter, and I think the f-18 is a bigger jet, too.

But, if you've ever seen how much a ship leans over in a hard turn, you can see it happening.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Wouldn't they strap it down? Also wouldn't The ship be big enough to not tip as much?

Forgive me for not having a deep understanding of aircraft carriers

[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 2 points 17 hours ago

They were moving it around with a tug at the time, both the tug and plane went overboard. It's also why only that plane went over.

And a bigger ship will move less in waves, but from the footage I've seen, those carriers will lean something like thirty degrees in a hard turn.

[–] jewbacca117@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Have you seen aircraft carriers? I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

No, I've never seen an aircraft carrier

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

They carry aircraft.

[–] huppakee@lemm.ee 19 points 1 day ago

Thanks, the current government did some weird stuff that might have been an onion-like piece in another administration, and I have upvoted quite some of those surprising events in the beginning, but most recent posts are just 'something that happened in America that doesn't usually happen in a functional democracy' and I think it has become too much to be honest.

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

I found that my communities stayed on track better when I made robust rules and offered alternatives where content would be a better fit.

!dullsters@dullsters.net and !dull_mens_club@lemmy.world

[–] JudahBenHur@lemm.ee 14 points 1 day ago

good on you, minding the community

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Funny, and I just noticed in my YouTube feed: "Satire Isn't Dead, It's Ineffective"

I wonder why.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

I blame '/s'

[–] Nyticus@kbin.melroy.org 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

People just have a very poor sense of organization or proper placement. I feel a lot of the political doom and gloom posts are from those who feel like not "enough" is talked about something, when it apparently already is, so they throw it here.

But for a while now, yeah it's tiresome to try and turn every single thing into another political box.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 7 points 1 day ago

They may also feel it's not talked enough in general, and put it here on Lemmy, where every second post is about that.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip -1 points 19 hours ago

That's social media in a but shell. It explains why you see political on seemly random communities like shower thoughts.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 5 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

By the nature of this community it will be political. The key is not to use this community as a podium to announce your beliefs from. You can have politics without shouting into the void.

Could we better utilize the down vote system? Maybe make a rule that posts with a certain number of down votes to upvotes ratio will be locked.

[–] PacMan@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago

Have you tried Kostman’s you know the “The Penis People?”

https://youtu.be/g7efwJwY4KE