Well, at least you didn't directly call me a name that time. We're making progress!

Oh I totally agree. But hey, when did Jez ever not go the sensationalist route wherever possible? Foreigner born after historical event doesn't recognize image of said event = entire generation of fuck ups, because clickbait! Although I am amazed at the number of people in this comments section who seem to agree with…

I was unaware it was posted on the 3rd since it isn't mention above (and of course the original image is down). But for the record I wasn't trying to excuse it by suggesting all of America was too drunk and firework-happy to post responsibly (which they probably were, but hey so was Canada 3 days earlier because…

Pretty much. I'm assuming that the American staff were observing the holiday and left that foreign kid at the helm...probably won't be doing that again any time soon (or they will, because controversy!)

Well, then I guess you haven't been reading the comments section on this article, because there are several people suggesting just that. But hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you think it's lame and fallacious, that's on you. Also, anecdotally, the only person I know who uses the word "goofball" is my…

Well I, and I'm assuming many others around here who know the history but not the image, wasn't old enough to be reading newspapers or magazines in 1986. As for the anniversary, I can't remember hearing about that either, which is odd because I do follow the news regularly. But I don't live in the US, so maybe it's…

Well thanks, now I too have to text my parents (also boomers) and find out if they recognize it, because science.

Funny enough, my boyfriend is from Mumbai and made up 50% of my control group for non-American recognition of this image (he didn't know it either). I am sure he knows about the Holocaust, though I don't know how much of this comes from school, and how much from general knowledge/Western popular culture e.g. WWII…

Well, at least now AA has learned what happens when you put an intern at the helm and pay them in cheap clothes and sexual assault.

What straw man? I never said this person was good at their job (which I'm guessing they don't have anymore), nor do I work in the HR department at AA and have any influence over who they hire to post dumb crap on social media. I would assume though that they ended up in charge of this because the American staff…

Well I never claimed this person was good at their job. But it's also understandable that they didn't recognize the image outright. Should they have Googled for context before posting? Probably. But this comments section is full of people who recognized the picture immediately and claim everyone else is stupid for not…

Well I wasn't planning on switching from academia to work in AA's social media department anytime soon, but thanks for the unsolicited career advice! You realize the company hired this person for the job, right? Take it up with HR.

I think the only person that said anything about fireworks was Jezebel ("a picture of a firework explosion cloud thing"). The original picture is just captioned "#Smoke #Clouds", and I suspect they might have meant "smoke clouds" (which isn't entirely inaccurate, if the picture is out of context)

Well, in their defense they did lead with #Smoke. And although this comment was originally intended to jokingly agree with you, I just realized it's possible they actually meant "smoke clouds" as one thing (which is a not entirely inaccurate description of the image). So...I guess I'm blaming hashtags?

But would he recognize this image, which has been photoshopped onto a different background and given no more context than "#smoke #clouds"? Because then I'm impressed.

I'm not American and have never seen this image before (although being Canadian, I've at least heard of the disaster). Given that the poster was also not American, it's pretty egocentric to assume the entire world will recognize every image considered iconic to you. Other countries have their own historical disasters…

Well it's good to know that not everyone is playing out the usual America-centric narrative in the comments section today. Makes it hard to tell the jokes from the idiots.

You did catch the international bit, yes? Living as an expat, I've discovered you really can't take for granted what (even incredibly intelligent) people do and do know about events around the globe. As a Canadian, I have heard of the disaster even though I was at the ripe old age of 1 when it occurred. However, I…

Key point here being that *you* are uncomfortable with it. Thank god you aren't actually in this class!!! Personally, the toe wiggling thing freaks me the bleep out, which goes to show just how subjective personal discomfort can be.

I think you overshot trolldom with this one and have officially arrived at psychopathy. Congratulations!