Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Debate vs Flames

It's come to my attention lately that those who disagree with and comment on a blogs post are subjected to rather nasty comments by other fans of whatever blog this is.

This phenomenon is particularly bad on blog such as Unclutterer, TheSimpleDollar, and GetRichSlowly, which have very loyal fans. There are others, but I can't think of more examples right now. I don't mean to single these sites out in any way, they happen to be three sites I used to read, that I have had to stop reading due to the prevalent ugliness in the comments.

What's happened to our society, when you can't idly speculate about something, or just plain disagree, without having everybody jump down your throat?

When I was a child, my parents had debates every night at dinner. Frequently, one of us would take a side we didn't agree with, just for fun. Everyone, no matter how little, was expected to contribute to the conversation. No opinion or position was ever ridiculed. I thought this was normal until one of my friends just recently mentioned this. She said she was raising her children using my parents as an example.

I'm not sure what I am saying here. I do think that young adults in particular have a problem with dissent. I know I did! The good news is, you will grow out of it. In the meantime, enjoy the difference in opinion, lifestyle, and looks. It is what makes the world magical.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Messages of hate and violence

This past Sunday, at church, a man was gunned down. The messages of Fox News anchors and the extreme Christian right finally bore fruit. A young man who was a little more unbalanced than the rest took those messages to heart. He brought a gun to a church, a sanctuary, and killed a man.

As someone else pointed out, the only difference between those in my country using hate speech and advocating violence, and the Taliban, is eight thousand miles.

Last week, in my city, the city that gave you Rush Limbough, a local rock station's morning DJs advocated violence against anyone who is "trans gender". One of the DJs stated that if his son wore high heels, he would beat the child with the shoe. You can read more on the Huffington Post if you like.

I realize they are just trying to build ratings among the "dumb young white male" segment, and that I'm not exactly in that group. I am, however, in the more lucrative "have a good paying job with money to burn" segment that their advertisers presumably would be more interested in.

So, I am boycotting this station for all time. I wrote an email to the station saying that. Here is what it said:

Rob, Arnie, and Dawn just lost you a listener

Need I say more? Not only are they boring, talk too much, and say generally ignorant things, but as of last week, they are promoting messages of hate and violence. I realize it was intended to be shock/funny, but it just ended up being sickening.

I will be sure to tell stores I frequent that I do not listen to your station. If I find you will be attending a charity event to provide music, I will be sure to make my views known to the organizers. I may be only one listener, but I am a determined one.

Sincerely,

A newly loyal Eagle 96 listener