Make it a blog night.

NetFlix, along with some other things, completely destroyed BlockBuster. Took it and threw it in the gutter. We all rejoiced. We all think this is the greatest. BlockBuster treated us bad! It made us pay late fees, and then even when they stopped doing that, they made us buy whatever we had taken from them.  When BlockBuster went under, people came out of everywhere saying how terrible they always thought it was. When it was around? Late fees aside, people didn't have too much bad to say. For me, I think I miss BlockBuster and the movie stores.

One reason is, I like the idea of leaving the house to get something. Leaving our houses for things, most things, was something that was just a given even a few years ago. Movies for sure. Doesn't anyone else miss that? Why lock ourselves in with movies like there's a zombie apocalypse outside.
"Hey, call that restaurant, order some food, and gear up seven hours of television. If I leave my house this weekend..."
"Is something bad happening out there? Murderers? Pilferers?!"
"No, I just don't want to go anywhere."
Soon we'll all just be locked in with products coming to our door. There are services now that will deliver groceries. Groceries! 'Don't you hate buying things that keep you alive? Well, don't! Well, do!.. but WE'LL get them to you!' That will how you'll be able to know if someone is old.
"Back in my day, we had to leave our houses sometimes to get things, and we liked it!"
"Ugh, gross! Grandpa used to go outside. How OLD are you?"

Renting movies at BlockBuster, we watched them as well. No matter how bad they were, we watched them. We had too! It took time to go rent them. Had to drive, walk, crawl. However you got there. But it took time. Had to walk through the store, had to wait in line to rent it. THEN, get home all over again. So, no matter what, you watched what you rented. Now? There's no work involved, so there's no guilt at all with shutting something off. I've shut movies off on NetFlix because I didn't like the font of the credits.
"Italics? This is gonna be bad. Goodbye forever, movie! No more chances for you."
Shut them off for nothing! The directors name is Geoff? Spell it the real way, idiot. I'm out. Having NetFlix is having a license to walk out of movies at any and all times.

BlockBuster didn't just throw movies out of the store without telling you. NetFlix just takes movies down for no reason. No warning at all. One night you start 'Drive', the next night you try to finish it, and bam! NetFlix decided that you don't need to. Why? How? It's Drive! It's a newer movie! Sometimes they let you know they're going to be taking movies down. They put a bunch of horror movies up specifically for halloween. Well, you would think. The movies say 'posted until Oct 26th'. 26th! Do you know when Halloween is, Netflix? Are holidays different in your company?
"I never liked where Christmas was. It's right in the middle of winter! Nope. Around here, July 14th. That's when WE'LL do Christmas."
"But, sir! That's insane! You can't just change a holiday!"
"I can change your job status, from employed to fired!"
"July 14th it is, sir! I can almost hear the chestnuts roasting on an open beach barbeque pit."

Doesn't anyone miss stealing movies? Stealing a movie from a movie store. Actually having a hard copy of a movie and never giving it back?

"This is due back by Tuesday, sir."

"Oh, man. I will NEVER be back here again."

"... Okay, well, Wednesday then."

It was great stealing their movies! Looking at it in your house, it having a BlockBuster sticker on it. The movie, no matter what it was, was better to watch knowing that you weren't supposed to own it.

"Yo, you want to watch 'Sudden Death'?"

"You mean, BlockBuster videos 'Sudden Death'?"

"Hell yeah!" (Spin high five while jumping over a bowl of popcorn)

With BlockBuster I liked that you could find movies. Now you have to know the name of a movie you don't know to find it. You can't just come across everything that NetFlix has. NetFlix doesn't have every movie listed in their menus. The menus don't show all the movies, so if you don't know the name of something, you will not just stumble upon it. Blockbuster was never hiding movies in the back until you could guess their names.
"Do you have a movie starring this guy.. you know the guy... looks like a gremlin? And there's a big car chase in it?'
"Oh, I know what you mean. But until you tell me the name, I tell you nothing."
"But I don't know the name? Can I just walk around looking for it?"
"No. No you can't. It's invisible, until you TELL ME IT'S NAME!"

BlockBuster for sure did some things we didn't like. Late fees pretty much being the worst. But they were open on Christmas, had video games and candy, and were fun to walk through. But, like McDonald's pizza, they are gone forever.

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

Banning Words.

Currently there is a campaign to 'Ban Bossy'. To ban the word bossy from existence because of it's effect on women in the work place. I do not have an aversion to this campaign because I have any problem with women, or feminism, or to people being marginalized. I have an aversion to the banning of words.

What I'm not clear on is why the move is to ban the word. A word hurts you, so we get rid of it? Why not move to have people be stronger? Can't we teach people to be tougher?
"That word hurts."
"Okay. It's gone. What have you learned?"
"... That... bad things... are always going to go away?"
As we al know, bad things will not go away. Bad or negative things are going to be out there and have to be fought all the time. Have to be avoided all the time. They will NOT just go away because you don't like them.
"Give me your money!"
"I ban you! I ban you to hell!"
".... Sure. Give me your money still."

Years ago teachers would tell kids that words don't hurt. Taught kids to not let them bother them. Remember 'Sticks and stones can break my bones but names can never hurt me?" What are we changing that to? "Sticks and stones may break my bones but if you call me a name I'll get a bunch of celebrities together to ban it out of existence forever!"
And 'bossy'? Out of all the things that women can be called. Bitch is a bad one. How about cunt! That ain't banned. You can't really say it, but it's a bad thing to call someone. Have they not tried to ban that because it's SUCH a bad word? That campaign would be weird.
"Hi. I'm Beyonce. And you know, I never liked being called a cunt. All day on twitter. 'You're a dumb cunt!' 'Go dance, cunt!' 'What did you do to the rest of the cunts from Destiny Child, cunt!' It's just too much. So, I would like this word banned. Let's 'Run-t Cunt' out of town."

I understand the meaning behind it. People call women bossy who have positions of power or want them, or are trying to get them. So some women hear that if they are in charge, the will be labeled bossy, and therefore are discouraged. But banning words is scary. And, it's not 'men' who call women bossy. It is 'idiots' who do. Idiots are saying these things. Idiots are the ones that say 'that's gay', idiots are the ones that are racist. Idiots are the ones that tell women to get back in the kitchen. If idiots say something, and we say it should be banned, are we not in some weird way giving power to idiots? We're saying that what they say is so strong, it shouldn't even be admissible in court. If you don't pay attention, take no heed, they have no power.

It is strange that there is a campaign to ban a word, while there could be a campaign with these strong, powerful women about being strong, powerful women. Instead of that, they ban a word.
"I'm Condoleezza Rice. I was called 'bossy' on my journey to where I am. I'm here to say, you will be called that as well, but DO NOT let it bother you. The people who are saying are afraid of you and the power that you have. Teach them that they should be by not paying attention to what they say about you."
Couldn't that be a bit more of what this campaign is? Banning words doesn't help other words from being said. Or different words that have the exact same affect. Teaching people to rise above the words and terms that could be thrown their way.

There is no way that they did not deal with criticism on the way up. Did they want those words banned then? Or those connotations? No. They fought past them. Now that they are on top, they want to tell other people to do it differently? It's strange.
"Ban these words that affected me on my rise."
"But you didn't ban them before?"
"No, you're right. I fought past them. I realized that I was stronger than them and forged ahead. But should other people be as strong as me? No. Because it's hard. Ban the word."

I am called a 'ginger' on a fairly regular basis. Few times a month somebody will say it in some way. I don't like it. Do I want it banned? No. I don't like being called it, but it's still here. People who call me that are not talking to me like a human being. They are talking to a 'ginger' in their eyes. Even though I don't like it, I would not ever want to ban it. You can't ban stupid. It's out there. Look out!

Twitter @nathanmacintosh