If you’re not one of those people who spends all of your time on Twitter, first of all, congratulations on spending your time wisely. And second, allow us to explain the concept of The Ratio, using famous loser Lyle Shelton as an example.

A Ratio occurs when someone sends a tweet so stupid — so egregiously false or wrong or just plain dumb — that the number of replies to the tweet far outstrips the number of retweets or likes.

It’s a sign that no one agrees with the tweet enough to retweet it, and no one likes the tweet enough to…uh… like it. They just want the sender to know that what they have put out into the world is so stupid that it must be held to account.

Step Forward, Lyle Shelton

The former head of the Australian Christian Lobby and current Australian Conservatives Senate candidate sent the above tweet this afternoon. It’s so wrong on so many levels.

The tweet linked to a blog post by ACL member Wendy Francis about the supposed evils of legalised sex work as it relates to proposed legislation in the Northern Territory.

Now look, we here at Junkee may not agree with Francis, but she has every right to put her view forward. As does Shelton. But that doesn’t mean you just get to tweet any dumb shit and have it be taken seriously.

“You wouldn’t get approval to mine asbestos so why do State Governments approve of brothels?,” Shelton asked.

It’s hard to know where to start. First, if you get mesothelioma from too much fucking, you’re doing it wrong. You will, however, get mesothelioma from too much exposure to asbestos.

How these two things are related is known only to Lyle.

Second, and this is important: there is a wealth of evidence out there to prove that legalised sex work is much, much safer. Don’t take it from us, take it from respected medical journal The Lancet, the federal government’s Institute of Criminology and the United Nations.

Sex workers who work within a legal framework have higher rates of condom use, are less likely to contract HIV or STIs, and are less likely to be victims of violence.

So, Lyle’s weird conflation of asbestos and legal sex work are absolute nonsense.

Naturally, everyone is roasting Lyle over his extremely dumb tweet.

You wouldn't ride in a car without a seatbelt so why do you build me up (build me up) Buttercup, baby?

— David Alexander (@davidFalexander) July 10, 2018

You wouldn't set yourself on fire so why would you buy a latte? pic.twitter.com/ClELtMW1Q5

— DisneyPrincess 🌈 (@OzGoofyPrincess) July 10, 2018

You wouldn't sit on a volcano so why would you shop for bananas. Did I get the nonsense word game right?

— Sally Not (@MissSally28) July 10, 2018

Lyle, if you're getting mesothelioma from a brothel, there's a good chance you're doing it wrong.

— Whiskey Houston (@RobCoco) July 10, 2018

You wouldn’t sleep on popcorn so why would you eat bird feathers?

— Catherine (@Trillything) July 10, 2018

Most of all, people were just amazed that Lyle is still around at all.

pic.twitter.com/vdCsBj0Rbz

— nick wray (@nickwray) July 10, 2018