Last month, a Vermont lawmaker introduced a bill to give his state a Latin motto ("Stella quarta decima fulgeat") in addition to its official one, the suggestion of a middle school student studying the ancient language. Pretty cute, right?

It was, at least, until a local news station asked its viewers what they thought about the proposal, asking on Facebook, "Should Vermont have an official Latin motto?" You can probably guess what happened next:

The bill's sponsor, Republican State Senator Joe Benning, admitted he was surprised by the impressively dumb and loud reaction.

"I anticipated suffering the backroom internal joking from my colleagues in the legislature," Benning told the Vermont Political Observer. "What I did not anticipate was the vitriolic verbal assault from those who don't know the difference between the Classics and illegal immigrants from South America."

Later commenters, it should be noted, entered the thread to parody the responses, but all of these messages appeared to be sincere. That includes this masterpiece of unintentional irony:

[Image via Shutterstock//h/t If You Only News]