Note to my friends list
So, reading my friends list, I'm feeling the need to make a plea for general respect.
When you read a news article, and there's crazy people doing crazy things like crazy people do, and the news media (being our wonderful news media) focuses on one or several subgroups that the crazy people fit into...
Consider how you'd feel if one or more of those subgroups was something you identified with, and think about whether reposting those subgroups in your post about the crazy news story (in the general line of "look, they're this, of course they're doing this shit") is something you really want to do.
Every group of people has the fucking annoying idiots that most of the group thinks "oh, god, why must they share my handle?"
EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
Think about labels that apply to you, think about some of the things people that fit handily into that label do, and then think "would I want everyone else judging me because of those idiots?"
I mean, it's your journal, do whatever the hell you want to do, but even though it's your journal, it affects the people who read it. If it's a group that you really, really, do feel that participation in that (behavior/culture/whatever) is condemnable - then do. But try not to do it accidently, or without thinking about what you're doing. We've all done it, but we could all get along better if we tried to stop.
I'm reminded of Izzard's bit about fucking weirdo transvestites vs. executive transvestites (yes, I know quoting izzard in a serious rant probably looses some sort of something, but hell, it's me):
"And transvestites get lumped into that weirdo grouping.
There was a guy in the Bronx when I was in New York, he was living in a cave, like you do, and he was coming out and shooting at geese, a lot of weird things going on with him. ln his cave, the police found a collection of women's shoes. They said, "He's a transvestite." But he's a weirdo transvestite.
I'm much more in the executive transvestite area. We travel the world, it's more executive.
J Edgar Hoover, what a fuckhead he was. They found out he was a transvestite and they go,
"That explains his weird behavior."
Yeah, fucking weirdo transvestite.
Executive transvestite.
It's a wide community, more wide than you'd think."
And, well...whatever community you're talking about, you have your fucking weirdos, and you have your normal/executive/whatever you want to call them people. Kink/faire/poly/hacker/burner/pagan/queer/trans/childfree/veg*n/homeschooler/religious/fandom/gamer/whatever... If you're not in the group, it's easy to think of them as all being fucking weirdos, but most people in any group will be fairly normal and many of them you won't have any idea they're into whatever they're into.
Similarly, damning with faint praise is worse then shutting the fuck up. See for example, the type of thing that I'm pretty sure most of my friends list would get somewhat annoyed with: "Well, it's really not the best thing for the kids, but I've known someone raised by a couple of lesbians that turned out relatively ok, almost normal, but they have some issues with men."
Insert whatever you identify with.
/bitchyrant
When you read a news article, and there's crazy people doing crazy things like crazy people do, and the news media (being our wonderful news media) focuses on one or several subgroups that the crazy people fit into...
Consider how you'd feel if one or more of those subgroups was something you identified with, and think about whether reposting those subgroups in your post about the crazy news story (in the general line of "look, they're this, of course they're doing this shit") is something you really want to do.
Every group of people has the fucking annoying idiots that most of the group thinks "oh, god, why must they share my handle?"
EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
Think about labels that apply to you, think about some of the things people that fit handily into that label do, and then think "would I want everyone else judging me because of those idiots?"
I mean, it's your journal, do whatever the hell you want to do, but even though it's your journal, it affects the people who read it. If it's a group that you really, really, do feel that participation in that (behavior/culture/whatever) is condemnable - then do. But try not to do it accidently, or without thinking about what you're doing. We've all done it, but we could all get along better if we tried to stop.
I'm reminded of Izzard's bit about fucking weirdo transvestites vs. executive transvestites (yes, I know quoting izzard in a serious rant probably looses some sort of something, but hell, it's me):
"And transvestites get lumped into that weirdo grouping.
There was a guy in the Bronx when I was in New York, he was living in a cave, like you do, and he was coming out and shooting at geese, a lot of weird things going on with him. ln his cave, the police found a collection of women's shoes. They said, "He's a transvestite." But he's a weirdo transvestite.
I'm much more in the executive transvestite area. We travel the world, it's more executive.
J Edgar Hoover, what a fuckhead he was. They found out he was a transvestite and they go,
"That explains his weird behavior."
Yeah, fucking weirdo transvestite.
Executive transvestite.
It's a wide community, more wide than you'd think."
And, well...whatever community you're talking about, you have your fucking weirdos, and you have your normal/executive/whatever you want to call them people. Kink/faire/poly/hacker/burner/pagan/queer/trans/childfree/veg*n/homeschooler/religious/fandom/gamer/whatever... If you're not in the group, it's easy to think of them as all being fucking weirdos, but most people in any group will be fairly normal and many of them you won't have any idea they're into whatever they're into.
Similarly, damning with faint praise is worse then shutting the fuck up. See for example, the type of thing that I'm pretty sure most of my friends list would get somewhat annoyed with: "Well, it's really not the best thing for the kids, but I've known someone raised by a couple of lesbians that turned out relatively ok, almost normal, but they have some issues with men."
Insert whatever you identify with.
/bitchyrant