In case you missed it over the weekend, the Vice President of the United States seems to think that one of the lessons of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is "Build the Wall."

People interested in honoring King's real legacy wasted no time in correcting the record and slamming Pence:

This is an insult to Dr. King's Legacy. https://t.co/tJ6jTfweIJ
— NAACP (@NAACP) January 20, 2019

“To equate the legacy of one of America’s finest statesmen and champions of civil rights with a vanity project built on racist ideology and hatred is beyond disgraceful,” @RepSpeier https://t.co/fgXJ27Xmkb
— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) January 21, 2019

But this one seems particularly relevant today — a clip of MLK at the Berlin Wall found by our amazing #amjoy intern Arlyn Soto this weekend. Here’s the segment: https://t.co/M7gaMbYE1l
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) January 21, 2019

A major motivation for all sorts of Trump administration actions seems to be a kind of satisfaction that's felt in provoking anger on the left—or, to use language common on the right, a certain glee at being able to "own the libs."

So it can sometimes be a losing game to respond. Then again, sometimes it's worth taking a moment to clarify that what seems beyond absurd is, in fact, beyond absurd.