A Shortage Of Surprise

The rubes have become extremely well-conditioned.

Somebody took this:

PhotoShopped it into this:

And got this:

Influential conservative blogger Erick Erickson of Red State retweeted a link of the picture that said, “why oh why did Mitt Romney pose for this picture.”

Then there's this:

Now when I say "the rubes", it apparently has to include people like Erickson and at least one guy in the US House Of Representatives - people I would usually associate with propagating this nonsense; who I have always figured for cynical manipulators.  But when it's evident that these leaders of the cult have totally abandoned even small vestiges of healthy skepticism, I have to think we've turned some kinda corner into a very weird place.

I wish I was surprised by this, but I guess I'm not because it seems like a simple progression to the logical extreme.