Misery loves entertainment
The more I think about it, the more I think that working on finishing my thesis for my MA is a waste of time. Not even worth the paper. I can cite study after study, but people are going to believe whatever is easiest for them, whatever fits neatly into their already formed world view, because I'm not a debater nor am I a manipulator or even an entertainer. I'm just a person who has read a shit ton more than most people. Hey that study I'll cite, talked to a couple thousand people, but doesn't matter because the five people someone talked to today don't think so based on their experience with the five other people they interacted with today or the tv show that entertained them last night.
Naw, people would rather pile insults on a couple of egotistical assholes, than educate themselves about any given issue. It's easier, and even though it's simply a bigger target, it makes us feel adept because we can hit the bullseye. Easier to focus on shit that doesn't matter to our own lives, on someone else's misery. With issues, with everything, misery makes the best entertainment. How to educate people about violence against women? Write "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and present the most graphic violence you can, call it entertainment and people will flock to it. Tell them actual first hand accounts about violence against women in their own community and watch their eyes glaze over in disbelief. They could actually do something in their own community to change the ratio of violence there, but they don't want to hear about it. Better to focus on someone else's misery far away.
Charlie Sheen, is a man with problems that he needs to fucking fix by himself. I don't know him, so I can't say what he needs to do, but how is watching him flail more interesting than thinking about and reconciling uncomfortable truths in our own lives? Guess what? Women are still more likely to live in poverty and be the victims of intimate violence than men.The US is still at war and there are more wounded vets coming home than ever before. And people in the legislature state of WI are attempting to take away the collective bargaining rights of some of the most educated people in their state who teach their kids, but are not emergency services or inhibiting such. I didn't manipulate statistics or do any magic population sampling, these are truths we need to deal with as the United States of America. The us and them shit doesn't cut it, it's 'we'. It always has been 'we', without each other humanity is screwed.
People have all sorts of answers for things that don't effect them or and simple answers for things they don't want to think about. The main answer to the things that do effect us is deliberately throwing out any true information that makes us uncomfortable. Thing is, the uncomfortable truths are the ones we are most likely to be able to do something about in our own lives.
And fuck if I'm not the same way....
Let me just say, in the face of all this, you are far more likely to feel better about what you can do to improve your own life and the people's lives around you if you smile at a stranger today and get a smile back, than dwelling on some famous, but clearly confused, nitwit in the entertainment industry.
-----Amendment -----
This isn't a defense of Charlie Sheen. Based on what I might know about the guy, I don't like him, but I don't consider watching him flail entertainment either. I don't condone public hangings for the same reason. My point is this stuff does nothing to elevate our sense of humanity.
Naw, people would rather pile insults on a couple of egotistical assholes, than educate themselves about any given issue. It's easier, and even though it's simply a bigger target, it makes us feel adept because we can hit the bullseye. Easier to focus on shit that doesn't matter to our own lives, on someone else's misery. With issues, with everything, misery makes the best entertainment. How to educate people about violence against women? Write "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and present the most graphic violence you can, call it entertainment and people will flock to it. Tell them actual first hand accounts about violence against women in their own community and watch their eyes glaze over in disbelief. They could actually do something in their own community to change the ratio of violence there, but they don't want to hear about it. Better to focus on someone else's misery far away.
Charlie Sheen, is a man with problems that he needs to fucking fix by himself. I don't know him, so I can't say what he needs to do, but how is watching him flail more interesting than thinking about and reconciling uncomfortable truths in our own lives? Guess what? Women are still more likely to live in poverty and be the victims of intimate violence than men.The US is still at war and there are more wounded vets coming home than ever before. And people in the legislature state of WI are attempting to take away the collective bargaining rights of some of the most educated people in their state who teach their kids, but are not emergency services or inhibiting such. I didn't manipulate statistics or do any magic population sampling, these are truths we need to deal with as the United States of America. The us and them shit doesn't cut it, it's 'we'. It always has been 'we', without each other humanity is screwed.
People have all sorts of answers for things that don't effect them or and simple answers for things they don't want to think about. The main answer to the things that do effect us is deliberately throwing out any true information that makes us uncomfortable. Thing is, the uncomfortable truths are the ones we are most likely to be able to do something about in our own lives.
And fuck if I'm not the same way....
Let me just say, in the face of all this, you are far more likely to feel better about what you can do to improve your own life and the people's lives around you if you smile at a stranger today and get a smile back, than dwelling on some famous, but clearly confused, nitwit in the entertainment industry.
-----Amendment -----
This isn't a defense of Charlie Sheen. Based on what I might know about the guy, I don't like him, but I don't consider watching him flail entertainment either. I don't condone public hangings for the same reason. My point is this stuff does nothing to elevate our sense of humanity.