It had enough absurdities to qualify as satire while providing what I thought to be a simple demonstration of how a conspiracy theory could be constructed from absolutely nothing.
A few days later, I came across an article that examined the algorithms that guide the questions posed to search engines.
The author had typed in the beginnings of a few open-ended questions into the most commonly accessed search engines.
One query was: "Women are ... ?"
What appeared was a list of responses with those at the top being: "Women are evil because ... " with a long list of answers outlining various combinations of evilness.
This verbal assault on all women astonished the writer, who then tried another question.
"Was Hitler actually a good guy?" This gave some very odd reasons why this could be regarded as possible.
The sheer volume and magnitude of bigotry on display in the answers listed first was astonishing.
If I have understood the mechanism correctly, it seems these results are driven by particular believers pushing their preferred responses to the top of the list by repeatedly asking the related question, linking to the answers they have entered.
With this in mind, I queried: "Are the Klu Klux Klan sponsored by sheet manufacturers?" thinking it would be a fun thing to ask such a completely mad question.
To my surprise, there was my column from last week's Chronicle in second place among a number of references to the Klan.
I was somewhat taken aback, firstly by seeing it appear in such unsavoury company and, secondly, that my satirical piece might be out there in the world and morphing into yet another bonkers conspiracy theory.
It was astonishing to see how quickly my satirical column had done a speedy lap in the fact-free lane of the world's internet system to emerge triumphantly in second place as an acceptable answer to an actual question.
Will it now reside - alongside all the myriad untruths on the internet - as yet one more theory added to the composting heap of existing conspiracies theories? Will people read it and miss the clearly telegraphed satire and think it is true? If so, then satire is in deep trouble.
I must admit that seeing my writing in the very context I was lampooning was alarming.
I wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry or simply give up on the grand and honourable duty to take the mickey out of power, prejudice and bigotry.
But it's a job and someone has to do it. Laughing at the ridiculous posturing of the powerful is one of the few ways we can undermine their sense of entitlement and advocate for a fair and just society.
■Terry Sarten is a writer, musician and member of the satirista - feedback welcome: tgs@inspire.net.nz
