You Can Count to Potato? Awesome. I Can Count to You're-An-Asshole.

Has anybody else seen this horrible meme that says "I Can Count to Potato?"  I hadn't even heard of it until tonight.  An old schoolmate had this posted as her profile picture, and I got right pissed about it, so I Googled to see what the deal is.  Apparently, it's a line from "The Ringer," which is a movie I stomached about ten minutes of before turning the channel.  Some horrible, cruel-hearted, and possibly soulless people have put these words on pictures of mentally retarded people (children, no less!) and posted these pictures to the internet.  How f***ing disgusting.  I don't often swear on my blog, but holy s***.  Who raised those people?!  I know that kids can be mean, but this crap is seemingly being promoted by adults.

The "Ermahgerd" girl is one thing (a meme that makes fun of a girl with head gear; the girl in that meme no longer has head gear and actually seems to think it's funny that she's become a meme), but making fun of people who cannot defend themselves or who may not have the capacity to understand that they're being made fun of is absolutely shameful.  I must say that I am incredibly disappointed in this "friend" who has the Potato profile picture.  Not that anybody really has to answer to me or anything, but I expect more from the people in my life.  Perpetrating jokes that are aimed at humiliating or making fun of people with honest-to-goodness disabilities is not funny.  They are not actually jokes, they are hate speech.  Apparently, Facebook is doing nothing to stop the spread of this vile meme.  I tried to report my friend's photo and it appears that I would have to block her (which I don't want to do) in order to report it.  What rot!

I would be horrified if my child had a disability and somebody made fun of it.  It's bad enough that I have a friend whose husband makes racist comments about Native Americans and black people in front of my son and I.  (Because, you know, it's not like we're either of those things!)  

Below I have included a link to the Know Your Meme page that talks about the Potato Meme.  If you click on it, you will see there is also something called "Ching Chong Potato."  Racism and ableism in one meme?!  F*** me!  You will also see that the girl in the picture has been identified, and neither she nor her family find any humor in this "joke."

Anyway.  I'm off to stew in my growing disdain for the human race.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-can-count-to-potato