The Detroit RoboCop statue is a fitting cenotaph for the end of America, a goofy metal monument to everything wrong with the country. Funded by “new economy” Internet nerds and a company which takes its name from the cornball 80s movie, it will festoon the capital of America’s former industrial might. The spectacle is so appallingly meta, it gives me the dry heaves.

The idea got its legs from a mayoral Tweet from Detroit’s mayoral twit, Dave Bing, nixing another Tweeter’s suggestion. From there, a Facebook page and Internet campaign were inevitable. “Omni Consumer Products” got involved. They are an irony-manufacturing company named after the evil corporation in the movie RoboCop. They “make” obscure movie props, though something tells me their factory isn’t located in the United States. Their premier product is Brawndo from the cult movie Idiocracy. Omni managed to come up with 25K in matching funds, an advertising bargain if I ever heard of one. Considering the press coverage they got, it was cheaper and more effective than targeting Google AdWords. I was tempted to buy a can of the “€œthirst mutilator”€ myself. Of course they pay licensing fees to the MPAA hyenas who pollute Western Civilization with their toxic waste. I suppose at least the statue will be made out of metal (reports conflict as to whether it is to be iron or bronze) by an artist who lives in the United States. It is going to be made here, right, guys?