What is the opposite of "getting the point"?

"Missing the point" isn't the opposite of getting the point... imagine standing on an archery range and you're facing the target, and your arrow hits the ground three feet from the target, or flies over it or hits the target next to it. That's missing the point. What I'm talking about is somehow aiming at the target and managing to knock off your glasses, slice open your cheek, and put an arrow through the windshield of your car which is parked 200 feet behind you. THAT'S the opposite of getting the point, missing so bad that you've somehow gotten the opposite point and then some. If serving you a rare steak when you ordered medium well is missing the point, I'm talking about the waitress bringing you a bowling ball bag full of VCR remote controls.

All of this as preface to the actual topic I'm here to talk about, which is comments people make that are just pretty goddamned backwards. My favorite one is the glib little nonsense about "there are no atheists in foxholes." First off, yes there are. Lots of them. Being in a foxhole turns some people into atheists: there's nothing like being covered in the pulped remains of your friends to disabuse you of the notion of a kind and loving Jeebus. The real thing that the people who say that are missing is in that they think that's some sort of clever dig at atheists, I guess because they feel smug pretending that people turning to imaginary sky daddy in the face of extreme trauma is some sort of argument for their delusion. The reality is that they've just made a really good argument against foxholes, not atheism. I mean, really... if they are depending on PTSD to make you a believer, maybe that's not something worth believing in. More importantly, getting PTSD is fucking horrible, and nobody should go out of their way to get it.

In more recent news, we've had this union-busting attack on the middle class going on at 200% intensity over the last few months. One of the brilliantly stupid points that the rich anti-American talking heads have been regurgitating nonstop is that union workers get paid more than non-union workers, and public employees (maybe) get better pay and benefits than their private sector peers. These points are used as arguments against unions and public employees, and plenty of people are falling for it and getting the exact opposite of the point. When you find out that unions and public employees make good money and get pensions and healthcare benefits, you shouldn't whine about how they shouldn't get things that you don't get. What you should be asking yourself is why you don't have a union getting you all those perks, and why your employer is stiffing you on the benefits. It isn't unfair that some people get good pay and benefits, it is unfair that everyone else doesn't get them as well.

Social Security: well, it is going to cut benefits in 30 years, so the solution is to cut benefits now? A decade of tax cuts has bankrupted America and led to huge unemployment and social disaster, so let's extend tax cuts and create new tax cuts? Deregulation leads to a housing bubble, BP oil spill, foreclosure fraud, poisoned eggs... and the solution is to defund regulatory agencies even more? I can bang my head against the wall, but it just doesn't seem to help.