Dream Journal #45706
I was reading a forum and discovered a response to one of my posts from my friend James. He had exceeded his usual quotient of snarky malarkey and come out full on abusive with some response about how "some ignorant bog-nigger paddy like you could never have anything worth hearing to say. It's a shame that Hitler didn't start with the Irish because we could do with a lot less of you and yours!" This was followed with some Latin phrase that I had to look up.
The phrase was a legal term that meant, in modern use, that whatever the person speaking had just said would be stricken from the record and could not be held against them. James, being a lawyer, had found some ancient prescient for saying whatever he wished and not having it held against him. Consequently, he was commenting and emailing everyone the most evil abuse possible, then adding that little bit of Latin to legally absolve himself from responsibility.
James' little trend caught on and within hours everyone was flaming everyone else, then adding that little snippet so they could get away with it. The radio then played a song from some rapper, slagging off on someone, followed by that little bit of Latin. An advertisement popped on the television full of ugliness, followed by that little bit of Latin. Politicians accused each other of outright lies, followed by that little bit of Latin. Fox news denounced it as they were already telling outright lies before and didn't see any reason to "join the liberal bandwagon like a bunch of pussies" with a legal disclaimer.
Realizing that the signal to noise ratio had gotten completely out of hand, and that James had, in effect, ruined the internet if not polite society itself, I saw no point in remaining online. I sat down and began to compose my letter of resignation from the internet and the world, stating my intention to be a hermit in a cave...
...and then I woke up.
The phrase was a legal term that meant, in modern use, that whatever the person speaking had just said would be stricken from the record and could not be held against them. James, being a lawyer, had found some ancient prescient for saying whatever he wished and not having it held against him. Consequently, he was commenting and emailing everyone the most evil abuse possible, then adding that little bit of Latin to legally absolve himself from responsibility.
James' little trend caught on and within hours everyone was flaming everyone else, then adding that little snippet so they could get away with it. The radio then played a song from some rapper, slagging off on someone, followed by that little bit of Latin. An advertisement popped on the television full of ugliness, followed by that little bit of Latin. Politicians accused each other of outright lies, followed by that little bit of Latin. Fox news denounced it as they were already telling outright lies before and didn't see any reason to "join the liberal bandwagon like a bunch of pussies" with a legal disclaimer.
Realizing that the signal to noise ratio had gotten completely out of hand, and that James had, in effect, ruined the internet if not polite society itself, I saw no point in remaining online. I sat down and began to compose my letter of resignation from the internet and the world, stating my intention to be a hermit in a cave...
...and then I woke up.