From Zero to 'Full Retard' in a Few Paragraphs

So, the same apologist I was harping on last post now has a new topic up. It seems that the US Government has 'CONPLAN 8888' out there. This is a plan for how to deal with... A ZOMBIE OUTBREAK!

Yeah, it actually exists. The apologist then goes on to say how this shows we live in an insane world of fear and how terrible this all is. His fan boys then stroke their chins and nod sagely in the comments section at how bad this shows our 'culture of fear' to be.

Now, me being me, I actually did something TOTALLY original: I actually read the linked article, then I went and looked for the report in question. You can read it HERE. It's actually pretty interesting.

Here's the thing: No, they don't actually expect ACTUAL zombies to show up. From the document itself:

"Because the plan was so ridiculous, our students not only enjoyed the lessons; they actually were able to explore the basic concepts of plan and order development (fact, assumptions, specified and implied tasks, references etc) very effectively.

We posted this plan because we feel it is a very enjoyable way to train new planners and boost retention of critical knowledge."

In short, this was an unconventional tool used to teach primary disaster handling skills in a way that boosted retention of those skills.

If you want to take it out of a military context, think of this: Let's say you are trying to teach a class of medics certain principles (rather boring principles) about triage, mass casualties and natural disaster prep. You could stage a training plan based on, say, a large earthquake hitting a major metropolitan area.

OR...

You could draw up a plan of GODZILLA ATTACKING THE CITY!!!

 "Sup?"

The same principles come into play, but you now have a very engaging topic that holds interest and helps retain the learning.

This guy is what happens when you start taking yourself WAY too seriously. It's also what happens when you're too stupid to bother fact checking.