OMG controversy!
My question for today: why's everything got to be a fucking
"controversy"? It's like people don't even know what the word means
any more. Either that or people are just morons who are credulous
enough to believe anything they hear and thus turn everything into an
actual controversy in their own minds. It may not surprise anyone that I believe it is both of these things
simultaneously. But seriously, even my local NPR station is giving credence to this
bullshit. There's a program called Roundtable which is just like,
local news and commentary and like, a call-in bit, with a daily poll
question for discussion, and today's is basically, What do you think
of the "controversy" about Obama talking to schoolkids. Now granted,
the question is actually "what do you think of the 'controversy'?",
leaving room for the answer "It's not a fucking controversy you
ridiculous asshats" but I doubt anyone will say that. I mean look. I can cock up some ridiculous alternate theory for just
about anything. Just because I can get some group of mouth-breathing
sub-omegaloids to actually believe it doesn't make it a controversy
and I'm sick of it. We already have to deal with this shit in the
science classroom. If I believe that gravity is caused by invisible
wolverines standing on everyone's shoulders holding them down, it's
not suddenly a "gravity controversy" OK? I really don't want to continue believing that people are just getting
more and more credulous, and more and more stupid, and less and less
likely to think critically EVER but the world is making it hard.
Despite outward appearances, I try to be a bit of an optimist about
human nature, at least parts of it. But even something like all this
health care bullshit, the actual things people focus on and make
"controversies" about are the most ridiculous, unimportant parts that
half the time don't even make any sense. We're not even capable of
having a reasonable discussion about anything without getting caught
up in counting the angels on the head of a pin, and biting off the
fingers of those who think there are more or fewer of them. Which is basically why I rarely watch the news any more, and mostly
just sit at home and read and knit and spend my weekends picking
raspberries. It's just not really worth it any more. I spent the last
like 10 years getting apoplectic about the news, and had fun at it,
and hopefully entertained some people, but really a lot more often
lately it's just depressing and makes me angry. All of which serves to
make me a slightly less angry and stroke-prone iconoclast but probably
tends to make me slightly more boring. So it's a fine line. I'm sure I probably can't really get much more boring anyway, so I
really shouldn't worry.
"controversy"? It's like people don't even know what the word means
any more. Either that or people are just morons who are credulous
enough to believe anything they hear and thus turn everything into an
actual controversy in their own minds. It may not surprise anyone that I believe it is both of these things
simultaneously. But seriously, even my local NPR station is giving credence to this
bullshit. There's a program called Roundtable which is just like,
local news and commentary and like, a call-in bit, with a daily poll
question for discussion, and today's is basically, What do you think
of the "controversy" about Obama talking to schoolkids. Now granted,
the question is actually "what do you think of the 'controversy'?",
leaving room for the answer "It's not a fucking controversy you
ridiculous asshats" but I doubt anyone will say that. I mean look. I can cock up some ridiculous alternate theory for just
about anything. Just because I can get some group of mouth-breathing
sub-omegaloids to actually believe it doesn't make it a controversy
and I'm sick of it. We already have to deal with this shit in the
science classroom. If I believe that gravity is caused by invisible
wolverines standing on everyone's shoulders holding them down, it's
not suddenly a "gravity controversy" OK? I really don't want to continue believing that people are just getting
more and more credulous, and more and more stupid, and less and less
likely to think critically EVER but the world is making it hard.
Despite outward appearances, I try to be a bit of an optimist about
human nature, at least parts of it. But even something like all this
health care bullshit, the actual things people focus on and make
"controversies" about are the most ridiculous, unimportant parts that
half the time don't even make any sense. We're not even capable of
having a reasonable discussion about anything without getting caught
up in counting the angels on the head of a pin, and biting off the
fingers of those who think there are more or fewer of them. Which is basically why I rarely watch the news any more, and mostly
just sit at home and read and knit and spend my weekends picking
raspberries. It's just not really worth it any more. I spent the last
like 10 years getting apoplectic about the news, and had fun at it,
and hopefully entertained some people, but really a lot more often
lately it's just depressing and makes me angry. All of which serves to
make me a slightly less angry and stroke-prone iconoclast but probably
tends to make me slightly more boring. So it's a fine line. I'm sure I probably can't really get much more boring anyway, so I
really shouldn't worry.
