In Which Our Hero is Accused of Spamming
Someone accused me of spamming Twitter because a discussion I started, though I didn't mean to start it, erupted. I take this very seriously, as I associate spamming with meaningless-though sometimes fun-drivel, which I have been guilty of in the past, when this had all the weight of a proper discussion, if in the wrong medium.
It all started this morning while listening to NPR's Morning Edition on an article about fear trumping logic on the health care debate.
I got terribly upset that people were being manipulated away from something that could be beneficial to themselves by people who I feel are almost just being contrary for the sake of being contrary. There could be some nice arguments against health care reform, but they aren't death panels or losing your doctor. And so I made a blog post both here and here. Discussion on that and those points can happen there.
Under the fold lies the transcript, as well as my commentary, on the discussion that followed.
I then posted a link to it on Twitter:
@bobryuu: From the blog: Be afraid that the Conservatives are treating you like a pawn in their contrariness http://bit.ly/cWSNy
I understand that Twitter isn't the place for something so complicated and so I linked to somewhere where the discussion could be had in a perfectly eloquated manner.
Then I lamented that I didn't have a loud enough voice on the internet, and that I wasn't friends with people who cared enough to help spread my word, to make a difference in the world, or at least a sizable small part of it. I did happen to post it about three hours later.
@bobryuu Being a relative unknown on the intarweb is not nice when I have something to say and none of my friends are as political as I.
That might be where I went wrong: condensing something like that into the 140 characters required on Twitter. I'm not complaining about my friends that I have, because I love them dearly, and we have some excellent times. I'm just complaining that I'm the one most politically excitable out of the lot, so that when I say something, it doesn't really travel very far, and I feel that it falls mostly on pretty deaf ears.
After this one particular person asked me about what I had to say and I DM'd him the link to the blog post. It was quite a while before anyone else asked me what I wanted to say. But here follows the beginnings of the discussion:
@i---- @bobryuu I'm reasonably political but also at work.
@bobryuu @i---- Work schmerk. Don't worry about it. I'm just lamenting. Also, sometimes I have brief moments of hubris when I makes something cool
I believe I tried to dissipate a discussion accusing my friends of not being political enough for me here. But of course these things don't seem to be dropped easily:
@p---- @bobryuu in some ways, being in chicago tends to destroy people's faith in the political process.
@i---- @p---- And, in other ways, it can sublimate it!
@bobryuu @p---- @i---- That might be, but these this [sic] is /your/ government and it is /your/ duty to ensure that it's the best it can be
@s---- @bobryuu How do you expect citizens to sniff out all corruption themselves? We have govt resources for that. And those? Corrupt. Impossible.
@s---- WHO WILL POLICE THE POLICE?
A DM also indicates that somehow my friends believe that 'best' equals 'uncorrupted', which I do not assert at all. A corrupted government may be quite beneficial to its populace, if still frustrating, as some of Chicago history can attest. I was talking policy in this discussion, though I didn't specify.
@bobryuu Okay, I'm confused. Where did I talk about corruption? I think I was talking policy all day.
@t----@s---- Coast Guard, of course.
@s---- @bobryuu "This is /your/ govt and it's /your/ duty to make sure it's the best it can be"...?
@s---- @bobryuu Besides, who's opinion of what best is... is best?
@s---- @t---- How are the kids going to get home?!
@bobryuu @s---- I was still talking policy (though candidacy comes into play). In a democracy, I would imagine that an average voice prevails.
Here's possibly where I go wrong, and bring up notions that are too complex to be thoroughly discussed in that medium.
@i---- @bobryuu In a true democracy, yes. But America is hardly a true democracy, we are a democratic republic.
@bobryuu @i---- Yes, that's why it's your duty to elect the proper officials, and to encourage the ones whom you didn't represent you. DUTY!
@i---- @bobryuu I didn't say it wasn't my duty! I only have so much influence, though!
@bobryuu @i---- It's your duty to vote and to serve in juries and to pay taxes. That's all that we ask.
@i---- @bobryuu That seems like the bare minimum, though, doesn't it? And how could I be satisfied giving only the bare minimum?
@s---- @bobryuu And @i---- hasn't been living up to those duties thus far? I can't quite tell what your gripe is other than just wanting to gripe.
I realize quite well at this moment that my friends are upset that I said that they weren't political enough. I don't. That is not my gripe. I was lamenting that amongst the repertoire of friends that I frequently communicate, I lack those politically active enough to help spread that previously mentioned blog post, or to tell me where I went wrong with it. I'm sorry if you felt this way.
@bobryuu @i---- But so many people fair to do those three, anything more would be running for office.
Wrong choice of words. That's dead wrong; I don't know now why I said it. Of course @i---- Could do other things, like write blogs and help campaign or do something else.
@bobryuu @s---- My original gripe is how the conservatives use fear to puppet the populace into doing their bidding. I find that disgusting.
@i---- @bobryuu So helping a candidate campaign would not be right of me? I don't see what you are trying to say
@i---- @bobryuu It's not only conservatives that do that, and it seems like you should simply have a gripe with people using emotions to politic
@i---- @bobryuu That was supposed to be the verb politick, but I suspect you know what I meant.
@bobryuu @i---- No, it might not just be conservatives, but they've got it down to an art. & fear is an emotion that can't easily be reasoned away.
@i---- @bobryuu I find positive emotions harder to reason away than negative ones. And if conservatives had it down to an art, they could sway me!
@bobryuu @i---- They deal in positive emotions too. But perhaps the most disgusting thing is that they let known lies live, if it suits their means.
@s---- @bobryuu I grow restless with your random political observations that can't be discussed in 140 chars. How is this a proper discussion?
@i---- @bobryuu I agree with @s----, I feel Twitter may not be the proper setting for this discussion :P
@i---- Observation: Twitter is great for being political, but not for discussing politics... Interesting dynamic.
@bobryuu @s---- @i---- This is totally not the space for it. Nor did I want it to be. I was just responding to things posed to me.
@m---- livejournal is for griping >:-[
@bobryuu @m---- I already did!
Another smooth move… Wrong punctuation completely. And I did link to a blog post, see above.
@m---- @bobryuu then post a link to it and stop spamming twitter.
This is where I get angry. I'll admit to overposting, but not to spamming. But not only does the accusation get me riled; I did post to the discussion I was having, in a more acceptable medium, but the implication is that I didn't. I probably should have linked to it again, but I had linked to it and with any effort someone not too lazy could find it. I did send a DM saying this to @m---- which I think led to this:
@m---- good god i hate the internet
I'm sorry for anything I might have done to make you feel attacked or the like. I am not sorry for using Twitter to clarify ideas, though I do agree that this a better position for it. Also, I am not sorry for not linking to something that I linked.
So here is a place to talk about it.
It all started this morning while listening to NPR's Morning Edition on an article about fear trumping logic on the health care debate.
I got terribly upset that people were being manipulated away from something that could be beneficial to themselves by people who I feel are almost just being contrary for the sake of being contrary. There could be some nice arguments against health care reform, but they aren't death panels or losing your doctor. And so I made a blog post both here and here. Discussion on that and those points can happen there.
Under the fold lies the transcript, as well as my commentary, on the discussion that followed.
I then posted a link to it on Twitter:
@bobryuu: From the blog: Be afraid that the Conservatives are treating you like a pawn in their contrariness http://bit.ly/cWSNy
I understand that Twitter isn't the place for something so complicated and so I linked to somewhere where the discussion could be had in a perfectly eloquated manner.
Then I lamented that I didn't have a loud enough voice on the internet, and that I wasn't friends with people who cared enough to help spread my word, to make a difference in the world, or at least a sizable small part of it. I did happen to post it about three hours later.
@bobryuu Being a relative unknown on the intarweb is not nice when I have something to say and none of my friends are as political as I.
That might be where I went wrong: condensing something like that into the 140 characters required on Twitter. I'm not complaining about my friends that I have, because I love them dearly, and we have some excellent times. I'm just complaining that I'm the one most politically excitable out of the lot, so that when I say something, it doesn't really travel very far, and I feel that it falls mostly on pretty deaf ears.
After this one particular person asked me about what I had to say and I DM'd him the link to the blog post. It was quite a while before anyone else asked me what I wanted to say. But here follows the beginnings of the discussion:
@i---- @bobryuu I'm reasonably political but also at work.
@bobryuu @i---- Work schmerk. Don't worry about it. I'm just lamenting. Also, sometimes I have brief moments of hubris when I makes something cool
I believe I tried to dissipate a discussion accusing my friends of not being political enough for me here. But of course these things don't seem to be dropped easily:
@p---- @bobryuu in some ways, being in chicago tends to destroy people's faith in the political process.
@i---- @p---- And, in other ways, it can sublimate it!
@bobryuu @p---- @i---- That might be, but these this [sic] is /your/ government and it is /your/ duty to ensure that it's the best it can be
@s---- @bobryuu How do you expect citizens to sniff out all corruption themselves? We have govt resources for that. And those? Corrupt. Impossible.
@s---- WHO WILL POLICE THE POLICE?
A DM also indicates that somehow my friends believe that 'best' equals 'uncorrupted', which I do not assert at all. A corrupted government may be quite beneficial to its populace, if still frustrating, as some of Chicago history can attest. I was talking policy in this discussion, though I didn't specify.
@bobryuu Okay, I'm confused. Where did I talk about corruption? I think I was talking policy all day.
@t----@s---- Coast Guard, of course.
@s---- @bobryuu "This is /your/ govt and it's /your/ duty to make sure it's the best it can be"...?
@s---- @bobryuu Besides, who's opinion of what best is... is best?
@s---- @t---- How are the kids going to get home?!
@bobryuu @s---- I was still talking policy (though candidacy comes into play). In a democracy, I would imagine that an average voice prevails.
Here's possibly where I go wrong, and bring up notions that are too complex to be thoroughly discussed in that medium.
@i---- @bobryuu In a true democracy, yes. But America is hardly a true democracy, we are a democratic republic.
@bobryuu @i---- Yes, that's why it's your duty to elect the proper officials, and to encourage the ones whom you didn't represent you. DUTY!
@i---- @bobryuu I didn't say it wasn't my duty! I only have so much influence, though!
@bobryuu @i---- It's your duty to vote and to serve in juries and to pay taxes. That's all that we ask.
@i---- @bobryuu That seems like the bare minimum, though, doesn't it? And how could I be satisfied giving only the bare minimum?
@s---- @bobryuu And @i---- hasn't been living up to those duties thus far? I can't quite tell what your gripe is other than just wanting to gripe.
I realize quite well at this moment that my friends are upset that I said that they weren't political enough. I don't. That is not my gripe. I was lamenting that amongst the repertoire of friends that I frequently communicate, I lack those politically active enough to help spread that previously mentioned blog post, or to tell me where I went wrong with it. I'm sorry if you felt this way.
@bobryuu @i---- But so many people fair to do those three, anything more would be running for office.
Wrong choice of words. That's dead wrong; I don't know now why I said it. Of course @i---- Could do other things, like write blogs and help campaign or do something else.
@bobryuu @s---- My original gripe is how the conservatives use fear to puppet the populace into doing their bidding. I find that disgusting.
@i---- @bobryuu So helping a candidate campaign would not be right of me? I don't see what you are trying to say
@i---- @bobryuu It's not only conservatives that do that, and it seems like you should simply have a gripe with people using emotions to politic
@i---- @bobryuu That was supposed to be the verb politick, but I suspect you know what I meant.
@bobryuu @i---- No, it might not just be conservatives, but they've got it down to an art. & fear is an emotion that can't easily be reasoned away.
@i---- @bobryuu I find positive emotions harder to reason away than negative ones. And if conservatives had it down to an art, they could sway me!
@bobryuu @i---- They deal in positive emotions too. But perhaps the most disgusting thing is that they let known lies live, if it suits their means.
@s---- @bobryuu I grow restless with your random political observations that can't be discussed in 140 chars. How is this a proper discussion?
@i---- @bobryuu I agree with @s----, I feel Twitter may not be the proper setting for this discussion :P
@i---- Observation: Twitter is great for being political, but not for discussing politics... Interesting dynamic.
@bobryuu @s---- @i---- This is totally not the space for it. Nor did I want it to be. I was just responding to things posed to me.
@m---- livejournal is for griping >:-[
@bobryuu @m---- I already did!
Another smooth move… Wrong punctuation completely. And I did link to a blog post, see above.
@m---- @bobryuu then post a link to it and stop spamming twitter.
This is where I get angry. I'll admit to overposting, but not to spamming. But not only does the accusation get me riled; I did post to the discussion I was having, in a more acceptable medium, but the implication is that I didn't. I probably should have linked to it again, but I had linked to it and with any effort someone not too lazy could find it. I did send a DM saying this to @m---- which I think led to this:
@m---- good god i hate the internet
I'm sorry for anything I might have done to make you feel attacked or the like. I am not sorry for using Twitter to clarify ideas, though I do agree that this a better position for it. Also, I am not sorry for not linking to something that I linked.
So here is a place to talk about it.