Problem with technology.
Technology is great, obviously. But now that we can do everything quick and easy, it's freed up more time for us to complain and be offended by every little thing. To be upset about everything from movies to jokes on shows. To blogs... like this one.
We did not used to be offended by everything that we saw. Not every little thing made us write letters. Not every slip up from a celebrity made us lose our minds, forget our kids at the mall and just start screaming. I don't remember people sitting around being offended at every little thing in the past. Why? Because it took a lot of work to get people to hear you. You had to make signs, you had to march, you had to actually call or email people. You couldn't just type some characters into twitter, you had to put in actual work.
"I'm very offended by what they are saying on this news program. But how do I let them know? I could write a letter. But then I have to actually go mail it. I could get a petition signed. That takes a lot of work. I could march in front of the building? Man, I'd need to get so many people together for that. Well, I guess that's it then. I'll call a friend and tell them."
Now with technology, it's much easier to be offended. Or at least, easier for the people who are offended to be heard. But a lot of people understand that not everything on this planet is for them. They don't always scream that the entire world is wrong, that everything is not up to par because they don't like something. If you are offended by things your rents probably paid. People who haven't figured that out yet are not worried to much by questionable jokes in sitcoms.
"What'd they just say about Latino's? Wow, that was... huh, a past due notice. Priority number one has reared it's ugly head once again."
Also, why do people feel they are above being offended? Who are you that you will walk this earth and never ever be offended? Nobody is above that. Everyone gets offended by things they see and hear, or has the ability to at least.
We didn't use to be offended by every thing so quick for one because we weren't directly in front of all media all the time. It wasn't so easy before.
"Did you see what some celebrity said on some show about a topic that doesn't mean anything anyway?"
"No. I was out and not near a TV."
"Okay, well I taped it. Whenever you're done fighting to get done the things it takes us time to do, come over and we'll fire it up."
You used to have to have a newspaper, be home, or be in a bar with a TV on to see something that happened. Now, it's right in your pocket. The second it happens. Another thing bad about that? People will post it as if they are CNN.
"Guys, breaking news! A car just crashed!"
Are you Dan Rather? Peter Mansbridge? Nobody is looking at your page for the news. Your tagline says, 'I'm a guy that likes cats, and tits, and cats with tits.' You are not a credible news source. Also, why the hell did people start deciding that when something is posted it's THEIR job to break it to the world? It's already been broken! That's why YOU know about it! You weren't the reporter, you weren't in that grocery store where a man threw up in a box of Cheerio's and closed the box back up. You basically plagiarized a story. You gotta re-break it? YOU'RE the definitive story breaker?
"Apparently a building just blew up! Saw it on Fox!"
"Let me check Terry's page... Yep, Terry just said a building blew up. It happened for sure."
You can tweet, blog, text a person, comment on something while you're on the bus. You can do ALL of those things before your stop. And are you offended? Of course you are! Because you have a device in your hand that let's you INSTANTLY tell people that you are! About everything! Signs, how a mother disciplined her own goddamn kid, a joke about black people that wouldn't offend black people but you are offended because you THINK they would be, who knows! It's a big world out there, and it's time to be offended by it. And why walk around looking for the good? Keep your feelers up constantly for the wrong. This roller coaster WOULD be fun, if it wasn't called 'Coal Miners'. God, doesn't this park know that coal mining is a very tough job? That one of your uncles was a coal miner and his lungs were full of so much black soot that they had to remove it and when they did it exploded in his face, filling his other lung with black soot? Let that park know the wrong they've done!
That just shows that we all have nothing to talk about but the technology in our hands to say and post it constantly. We have nothing to say, and all the time and technology in the world to say it. Why do I think that we don't have anything to say? Because we don't take any time before the last thing we said and the next to really think about anything. We are just reacting to things and posting them for content. At one point in time, people spoke and had opinions that HAD content. Now, these things are simply for content. Just so that we have things online. So that we let people who really don't care know what we think about things that don't matter.
What I'm not sure on, is where this all leads? Are we all supposed to be pod people who think and feel one specific way? Are we trying to cut out all 'negative' so people don't feel anymore? What is the end game! Where the hell are we going!? Do we all have to think they same? Do we all have to feel the same? Just because you're offended by something doesn't mean that everyone is. And if someone says something that offends you, it doesn't mean that all people that look like that person think the same offensive things! You know? Maybe it's just an isolated incident? Maybe it's just ONE person at that company that feels that way, not the whole company who you think should be lynched and burned at the same time. Maybe it's just A FEW white people that feel a certain way, not the whole goddamn race and everyone in it.
twitter @nathanmacintosh
We did not used to be offended by everything that we saw. Not every little thing made us write letters. Not every slip up from a celebrity made us lose our minds, forget our kids at the mall and just start screaming. I don't remember people sitting around being offended at every little thing in the past. Why? Because it took a lot of work to get people to hear you. You had to make signs, you had to march, you had to actually call or email people. You couldn't just type some characters into twitter, you had to put in actual work.
"I'm very offended by what they are saying on this news program. But how do I let them know? I could write a letter. But then I have to actually go mail it. I could get a petition signed. That takes a lot of work. I could march in front of the building? Man, I'd need to get so many people together for that. Well, I guess that's it then. I'll call a friend and tell them."
Now with technology, it's much easier to be offended. Or at least, easier for the people who are offended to be heard. But a lot of people understand that not everything on this planet is for them. They don't always scream that the entire world is wrong, that everything is not up to par because they don't like something. If you are offended by things your rents probably paid. People who haven't figured that out yet are not worried to much by questionable jokes in sitcoms.
"What'd they just say about Latino's? Wow, that was... huh, a past due notice. Priority number one has reared it's ugly head once again."
Also, why do people feel they are above being offended? Who are you that you will walk this earth and never ever be offended? Nobody is above that. Everyone gets offended by things they see and hear, or has the ability to at least.
We didn't use to be offended by every thing so quick for one because we weren't directly in front of all media all the time. It wasn't so easy before.
"Did you see what some celebrity said on some show about a topic that doesn't mean anything anyway?"
"No. I was out and not near a TV."
"Okay, well I taped it. Whenever you're done fighting to get done the things it takes us time to do, come over and we'll fire it up."
You used to have to have a newspaper, be home, or be in a bar with a TV on to see something that happened. Now, it's right in your pocket. The second it happens. Another thing bad about that? People will post it as if they are CNN.
"Guys, breaking news! A car just crashed!"
Are you Dan Rather? Peter Mansbridge? Nobody is looking at your page for the news. Your tagline says, 'I'm a guy that likes cats, and tits, and cats with tits.' You are not a credible news source. Also, why the hell did people start deciding that when something is posted it's THEIR job to break it to the world? It's already been broken! That's why YOU know about it! You weren't the reporter, you weren't in that grocery store where a man threw up in a box of Cheerio's and closed the box back up. You basically plagiarized a story. You gotta re-break it? YOU'RE the definitive story breaker?
"Apparently a building just blew up! Saw it on Fox!"
"Let me check Terry's page... Yep, Terry just said a building blew up. It happened for sure."
You can tweet, blog, text a person, comment on something while you're on the bus. You can do ALL of those things before your stop. And are you offended? Of course you are! Because you have a device in your hand that let's you INSTANTLY tell people that you are! About everything! Signs, how a mother disciplined her own goddamn kid, a joke about black people that wouldn't offend black people but you are offended because you THINK they would be, who knows! It's a big world out there, and it's time to be offended by it. And why walk around looking for the good? Keep your feelers up constantly for the wrong. This roller coaster WOULD be fun, if it wasn't called 'Coal Miners'. God, doesn't this park know that coal mining is a very tough job? That one of your uncles was a coal miner and his lungs were full of so much black soot that they had to remove it and when they did it exploded in his face, filling his other lung with black soot? Let that park know the wrong they've done!
That just shows that we all have nothing to talk about but the technology in our hands to say and post it constantly. We have nothing to say, and all the time and technology in the world to say it. Why do I think that we don't have anything to say? Because we don't take any time before the last thing we said and the next to really think about anything. We are just reacting to things and posting them for content. At one point in time, people spoke and had opinions that HAD content. Now, these things are simply for content. Just so that we have things online. So that we let people who really don't care know what we think about things that don't matter.
What I'm not sure on, is where this all leads? Are we all supposed to be pod people who think and feel one specific way? Are we trying to cut out all 'negative' so people don't feel anymore? What is the end game! Where the hell are we going!? Do we all have to think they same? Do we all have to feel the same? Just because you're offended by something doesn't mean that everyone is. And if someone says something that offends you, it doesn't mean that all people that look like that person think the same offensive things! You know? Maybe it's just an isolated incident? Maybe it's just ONE person at that company that feels that way, not the whole company who you think should be lynched and burned at the same time. Maybe it's just A FEW white people that feel a certain way, not the whole goddamn race and everyone in it.
twitter @nathanmacintosh
Be the person you're supposed to be.
There comes a time in everyone's life where you start to look around and realize that something is wrong. Is something actually wrong? Maybe, maybe not. But you WILL look around and start to question it. Are you doing what you want to be doing? Are you saying and doing the things you want to say and do? Have you made all of the wrong decisions? Who knows. But one things for sure, you will think about it. You'll start to think as well if you're being yourself. If there's something you are holding back. If you are living the way you want to live. Well, let this happen sooner than later.
Too many people wait a long time to fully start being themselves. Get to fifty, or sixty, and finally start living the way they've always wanted to live. Why not do it earlier? Because earlier, at a younger age, you are around people. "TERRIBLE", "SCARY" people, who will 'judge' you for everything you do and say. Will they actually? Hard to say. Some people WILL for sure. Others? You're probably just making it up out of fear. So, when we're younger, and in school or at jobs with people constantly around us, we put on fronts so as not to be judged. Then, when we're older, and around the least amount of people we've ever been around, we start being ourselves.
"Look at me! I'm eighty. Alone on my porch. And you know what? I ALWAYS thought the Stones were better than the Beatles. There, I said it. You hear me world! The STONES are better than the BEATLES!"
That's also the time when people start wearing what they want to wear. Not EVERYTHING calls for good clothes. You ever see someone at Wal-Mart and think what they're wearing is garbage?
"Woa. Look at that guy. Flip flops and a sleeveless 'Duck Dynasty' t-shirt. Are they crazy?"
Are you? It's Wal-Mart! It's a place where you can buy cookies AND pants. You can get your car fixed AND pick up diapers. THAT'S considered some sort of red carpet affair? No. Some of these people are criminals, sure, but most have reached a place where they don't care what you think of them. What you're wearing in a place like that shouldn't matter. In most places, really. I can't wait until people stop caring what others are wearing at award shows.
"Brad! You look so nice tonight. Who are you wearing?"
"Who I want. Blow me."
".... Well they make a nice suit."
School can be awful place for being yourself. It starts thoughts in us that we believe for way too long. Not only because people will bully you, which yes, can be terrible. More so because, people higher up don't instil enough to young people that THIS STUFF DON'T MATTER. You don't have the best jeans so people make fun of you? Don't matter! You're dating a person that some other loveless piece of garbage doesn't find attractive? Don't matter! That should be a full class in school. 'Don't Matter 101'.
"Hey, kids. Thanks for being here today. You'll notice I'm wearing just a speedo and a hockey helmet. Why? It don't matter. When a kid makes fun of wear you come from? Guess what? One day you'll BOTH be terrified about the prospect of dying. What they say don't matter. Somebody says your girlfriend or boyfriend is ugly? Guess what? One day you'll BOTH be wondering what the point of all this is. It don't matter. Your homework is to tell everyone to shove it."
What's nuts as well, is that when you start being the person you are supposed to be, you start wearing what you want to wear, when you walk the way you want to walk, people start saying you're crazy. When you step outside of the norm, people start saying that you are crazy, that you are going insane, that you are losing your mind.
Either way, be you. We're still having debates about whether or not someone lives in the sky. Wear the god damn hat if it makes you happy.
Twitter @nathanmacintosh
Too many people wait a long time to fully start being themselves. Get to fifty, or sixty, and finally start living the way they've always wanted to live. Why not do it earlier? Because earlier, at a younger age, you are around people. "TERRIBLE", "SCARY" people, who will 'judge' you for everything you do and say. Will they actually? Hard to say. Some people WILL for sure. Others? You're probably just making it up out of fear. So, when we're younger, and in school or at jobs with people constantly around us, we put on fronts so as not to be judged. Then, when we're older, and around the least amount of people we've ever been around, we start being ourselves.
"Look at me! I'm eighty. Alone on my porch. And you know what? I ALWAYS thought the Stones were better than the Beatles. There, I said it. You hear me world! The STONES are better than the BEATLES!"
That's also the time when people start wearing what they want to wear. Not EVERYTHING calls for good clothes. You ever see someone at Wal-Mart and think what they're wearing is garbage?
"Woa. Look at that guy. Flip flops and a sleeveless 'Duck Dynasty' t-shirt. Are they crazy?"
Are you? It's Wal-Mart! It's a place where you can buy cookies AND pants. You can get your car fixed AND pick up diapers. THAT'S considered some sort of red carpet affair? No. Some of these people are criminals, sure, but most have reached a place where they don't care what you think of them. What you're wearing in a place like that shouldn't matter. In most places, really. I can't wait until people stop caring what others are wearing at award shows.
"Brad! You look so nice tonight. Who are you wearing?"
"Who I want. Blow me."
".... Well they make a nice suit."
School can be awful place for being yourself. It starts thoughts in us that we believe for way too long. Not only because people will bully you, which yes, can be terrible. More so because, people higher up don't instil enough to young people that THIS STUFF DON'T MATTER. You don't have the best jeans so people make fun of you? Don't matter! You're dating a person that some other loveless piece of garbage doesn't find attractive? Don't matter! That should be a full class in school. 'Don't Matter 101'.
"Hey, kids. Thanks for being here today. You'll notice I'm wearing just a speedo and a hockey helmet. Why? It don't matter. When a kid makes fun of wear you come from? Guess what? One day you'll BOTH be terrified about the prospect of dying. What they say don't matter. Somebody says your girlfriend or boyfriend is ugly? Guess what? One day you'll BOTH be wondering what the point of all this is. It don't matter. Your homework is to tell everyone to shove it."
What's nuts as well, is that when you start being the person you are supposed to be, you start wearing what you want to wear, when you walk the way you want to walk, people start saying you're crazy. When you step outside of the norm, people start saying that you are crazy, that you are going insane, that you are losing your mind.
"Are you NOT wearing a snap back hat? Wow. What are you nuts? We are ALL doing it. Why would you not do this? Why would you buy a peacoat that's NOT black? Look around you? EVERYONE is wearing a black one. Straighten up!"
Saying someone is 'crazy' is a very simple way of pretending to be cool, and dismissing someone. If you say they're 'crazy', you don't have to find out anything about them, why they do what they do, or what they think. In your mind, they're crazy, so who cares? Not you.
Most things we think are cool are made up anyway. Not in a weird negative way, but most things are fabricated to look cool, to make you look cool, or to make you feel that you should be doing whatever is going on to be cool, be considered cool, or whatever. You think what you're watching on TV has a group of cool, hip, fun people who want to be there? They are probably paid to do so! Dr. Phil's audience gets fifty bucks to sit there. I'm sure some of them want to be there anyway, but fifty bucks! Some women at clubs are paid to be there! You walk into a club, see a guy sitting there with four hot girls, and think, 'that guys awesome.' Those women are being paid! They're being paid so people like you think that place is awesome and you keep going back! You ever go into a place and think it's dead? It's probably because the manager of the club doesn't have the budget to pay the women to show up.
"Okay, we've installed your bar, DJ booth, and bathroom attendant. Now, let's talk money for these hot women that will dance here."
"Money? No, women will just show up, right? The really, really hot ones... right?"
"Stupidly hot women don't just DO anything. Where she goes, people follow. So what's her incentive to be here?"
"... Because this is the place to be?"
"Where SHE is is the place to be. When she's grocery shopping? THAT'S the place to be. Get your shit together, man."
Either way, be you. We're still having debates about whether or not someone lives in the sky. Wear the god damn hat if it makes you happy.
Twitter @nathanmacintosh
Fred Phelps died.
This week, Fred Phelps, the head of the Westboro Baptist church passed away. What is the reaction? Everyone on twitter starts making snarky, gross tweets about how great that is. Such a glorious day when a man who got a family of people to make awful comments and signs about others can get a taste of his own medicine when he passes away. 'God Hates Phelps', 'Fags Killed Fred', or whatever else people want to post. Take that, Fred. Suck it, you old fag hater! Even though I understand people rejoicing in the fact that he's gone, what I don't fully understand is how hating a man who hated others stops or helps hate?
When people who Fred and his family thought were terrible died, they laughed, joked about it on-line and made gross signs to show the world. When a member of their family dies,we have decided to take some of those same tactics and send them their way. Laugh about it, joke on twitter and Facebook. Trying to come up with the snarkiest response we possibly can.
"Oh, Fred Phelps died? Here's a hilarious statement about that!"
Is it that funny? What are you putting into the earth here? Negative comments about a negative commenter? What does that prove?
This is not defending him or the Westboro baptist church, either. Not at all. What they believe and have said and done are really terrible, hateful things. It's interesting to me though that we solely see 'evil' people. There are documented cases of family members from that church breaking out, and starting their lives again. Changing the way that they think, act and live. Everything in that family was taught. They were not born believing what they do. The were systematically built to hate. It's interesting that when we don't like what someone says. we write them off as evil and broken. No way Fred didn't have some of this junk pumped into him as a kid. Interesting that there's no thought on our side to help these people. And we're supposed to be the loving, caring, excepting side. But when you do not think like us, well then your death is hilarious.
What I mean is that there are basically two sides here. Their side, the Westboro church side, and our side. Our side being any one who doesn't believe in what they do. Which, is a MUCH higher number of people. Their camp probably has one hundred people? Our side likes gay people, wants everyone to get along, and doesn't believe in hate. But, WE are in the right for using their tactics because we have more people on our side? If they had more followers, would what they do be okay?
These people have gone wrong. They have been lead astray in a gross fashion. Isn't there any sympathy for that? If you are born into this life, behind a wall and with people who 'love' you around you telling you that god hates this and that, how would you turn out? You'd be a hero? You'd be able to stand up at ten and go, 'this is not right. You are all saying ridiculous things.' No.
And yes, the leader of this thing has passed away. But someone did this to him. This has been passed down for years. And is the curse broken now? Are the rest of the church going to wake up like pod people?
"Oh, wow. What the hell am I doing? Making a sign that says god hates fags? Why the hell am I doing this!? Last thing I remember was heading to school. I'll go back to that."
It will be nice one day when we can wish or hope for sick people who don't believe in the advancement of humanity can find the error in their ways instead of gloating, making jokes, and celebrating when they die. I just don't understand how hate beats hate. It makes us feel better in the short term, but long term there's got to be a better way. We are all held back when we hold onto anger and resentment for others. Also, it's way to easy to make jokes about people ESPECIALLY when you're saying the same things that they already said back to them.
When people who Fred and his family thought were terrible died, they laughed, joked about it on-line and made gross signs to show the world. When a member of their family dies,we have decided to take some of those same tactics and send them their way. Laugh about it, joke on twitter and Facebook. Trying to come up with the snarkiest response we possibly can.
"Oh, Fred Phelps died? Here's a hilarious statement about that!"
Is it that funny? What are you putting into the earth here? Negative comments about a negative commenter? What does that prove?
This is not defending him or the Westboro baptist church, either. Not at all. What they believe and have said and done are really terrible, hateful things. It's interesting to me though that we solely see 'evil' people. There are documented cases of family members from that church breaking out, and starting their lives again. Changing the way that they think, act and live. Everything in that family was taught. They were not born believing what they do. The were systematically built to hate. It's interesting that when we don't like what someone says. we write them off as evil and broken. No way Fred didn't have some of this junk pumped into him as a kid. Interesting that there's no thought on our side to help these people. And we're supposed to be the loving, caring, excepting side. But when you do not think like us, well then your death is hilarious.
What I mean is that there are basically two sides here. Their side, the Westboro church side, and our side. Our side being any one who doesn't believe in what they do. Which, is a MUCH higher number of people. Their camp probably has one hundred people? Our side likes gay people, wants everyone to get along, and doesn't believe in hate. But, WE are in the right for using their tactics because we have more people on our side? If they had more followers, would what they do be okay?
"God Hates Fags? That's terrible."
"I thought so too, man, until I saw that they have millions of subscribers to their newsletter."
"Woa, millions? Huh. Yeah, god MUST hate fags! So many people believe it!"
Laughing at his death is the exact same thing as him laughing at other peoples deaths. Except that we think we are right for doing it, and he and his family thought they were right for doing it. That is really the only difference. We believe they're wrong, and they really believe that we are.
These people have gone wrong. They have been lead astray in a gross fashion. Isn't there any sympathy for that? If you are born into this life, behind a wall and with people who 'love' you around you telling you that god hates this and that, how would you turn out? You'd be a hero? You'd be able to stand up at ten and go, 'this is not right. You are all saying ridiculous things.' No.
And yes, the leader of this thing has passed away. But someone did this to him. This has been passed down for years. And is the curse broken now? Are the rest of the church going to wake up like pod people?
"Oh, wow. What the hell am I doing? Making a sign that says god hates fags? Why the hell am I doing this!? Last thing I remember was heading to school. I'll go back to that."
It will be nice one day when we can wish or hope for sick people who don't believe in the advancement of humanity can find the error in their ways instead of gloating, making jokes, and celebrating when they die. I just don't understand how hate beats hate. It makes us feel better in the short term, but long term there's got to be a better way. We are all held back when we hold onto anger and resentment for others. Also, it's way to easy to make jokes about people ESPECIALLY when you're saying the same things that they already said back to them.