>The "series of tubes" moment was a very strange one to mock, because he was right
I always felt that way as well, but the way he said it was just so mockable. In the end, that's why it went viral: not because he was a dinosaur who didn't understand the Internet, but because he appeared to be a dinosaur who didn't understand the Internet, to people who themselves did not understand it.
Representative Smith can make as many factually incorrect statements as he wants; as long as they appear reasonable to the uninformed public he'll never be called on it in the way Stevens was.
> not because he was a dinosaur who didn't understand
> the Internet
He may have had a good analogy, but I doubt that he understood the Internet. Comments like "my office sent me an Internet on Friday and I didn't get it until today" don't really imply good knowledge of the Internet. More likely the 'series of tubes' analogy was given to him by a staffer or lobbyist and he tried to run with it even though he didn't understand it.
While likely true, that's incidental to my point of perception mattering more than reality. I was unaware of the "sent me an Internet" comment, but I'm hardly surprised. The man was not known for verbal acuity.
I always felt that way as well, but the way he said it was just so mockable. In the end, that's why it went viral: not because he was a dinosaur who didn't understand the Internet, but because he appeared to be a dinosaur who didn't understand the Internet, to people who themselves did not understand it.
Representative Smith can make as many factually incorrect statements as he wants; as long as they appear reasonable to the uninformed public he'll never be called on it in the way Stevens was.