So I read this post today, and it really got me irked. Apparently John McCain (rather astutely) observed that illegal immigrants do our nation a great service because they’re actually willing to do many jobs that Americans would refuse to do.

Then, Sensico posts a link to the video, outraged that McCain would essentially call Americans lazy, because McCain states that even if they were offered $50/hr to do so, Americans wouldn’t ever pick lettuce in Yuma during the summer. (If you’ve missed it, as Sensico obviously did, this is hyperbole. Offering $50/hr to pick lettuce would cause the price of Lettuce to hit about $15/head.) Sensico says:

You don’t understand how much I want to yell out MCCAINS AN ELITIST. I can’t believe McCain would basically call Americans lazy and then offers $50…

And then, here’s the priceless bit. TWO PARAGRAPHS LATER:

I for one would never pick lettuce because Im not used to manual labor,

THAT’S THE EXACT POINT JOHN MCCAIN WAS JUST TRYING TO MAKE!!!!! <sigh> How do you even try to reason with this?

edit:
Just to clarify, my point here is not to defend the ways in which Americans take advantage of illegal immigrants in order to maximize their own profits: the Bible is quite clear on this, that it’s absolutely despicable. (Read James 5 among others) My points are that:

1. Many Americans are proud and lazy
2. Many immigrants work very hard and get NO appreciation or respect
3. Some Americans like to ignore both of these facts and yell very loudly about their own “rights”
4. McCain is astute enough to recognize this, and
5. A lot of the most vocal people on the internet don’t understand common literary devices such as hyperbole: I still think that the blogosphere is going to destroy civilization.